Book report

It's been a while since I've read any how-to special-needs parenting books, and it's been a nice break reading regular old nonfiction instead of nonfiction I'd have to follow through on. But the break's over — I went book-browsing today in a Barnes and Noble that has a particularly well laid-out parenting special needs section, and came away with two books on ADHD: Born to Be Wild: Freeing the Spirit of the Hyperactive Child by Kristi Meisenbach Boylan, and Attention Deficit Disorder: A Different Perception by Thom Hartmann. Both seem to argue for an appreciation of ADHD as a set of different abilities instead of a disability to be fixed, and that's something I'm in the mood to read right now. I've been trying to convince my son's Child Study Team that his behavior would be much more manageable and his learning much improved if a more creative approach could be taken to classwork. This isn't a kid who will ever work at a desk job or take on work that requires calm, quiet and control, so why focus so much effort on getting him to sit still and shut up? He's got some very clear strengths; he's curious, creative, questioning, focused when he's interested and a hands-on kind of guy. Why not work with those traits instead of against them? Maybe these books will give me some ammo for that upcoming battle, or at least give me a little more courage in my convictions.