HIGHLAND PARK, IL - - Members of the International Rett Syndrome Association (IRSA) who recently joined actress Julia Roberts when she appealed to Congress for more funding of Rett Syndrome research have invited nationally recognized special parenting expert Judith Loseff Lavin to deliver the keynote address at their 18th Annual Conference in Chicago next Sunday.

Rett Syndrome, a debilitating and incurable neurological disorder, is often misdiagnosed as Autism or Cerebral Palsy. Found predominantly in females, the genetic disorder randomly afflicts seemingly normal little girls between the ages of six months to 18 months and affects more than 200,000 girls and women worldwide.

Lavin, author of the widely acclaimed book, Special Kids Need Special Parents (www.parentingchallenges.com), has appeared on NBC-TV's Today show, the CBS Radio Networks and PBS-TV. She will speak from 9-10.a.m., Sunday, May 26 at IRSA’s Annual Conference, entitled Empowerment ’02, in the Westin Michigan Avenue hotel, 909 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago. In addition, on Monday, May 27, she will address the 7th National Conference of The Hydrocephalus Association from 9:15-10:30 a.m. in the Sheraton Chicago Hotel & Towers, 301 E. North Water St., Chicago.

During the past year, the local resident, former writer for the Chicago Sun-Times and mother of a daughter with special challenges, has addressed thousands of parents, educators and healthcare professionals about the daunting challenges of raising children with special needs. She offers strategies and insights for managing the roller coaster ride of emotions as well as the practical challenges faced by some 40,000,000 American parents (nearly one in three American families) who have children with special needs. In addition, she helps special parents find meaning in the daily problems and frustrations that go hand-in-hand with these challenges.

Special parenting of children with physical, emotional or mental challenges of any kind requires an extraordinary amount of attention, discipline, love and understanding, according to Lavin. If these parents receive extra support and guidance at each step along their parenting journey, they can triumph, she adds.

Lavin’s 307-page resource guide, which may be the only one of its kind, will soon go into its fourth printing since it was published a year ago. In the book, she offers insights, support and advice on a wide variety of topics. These include:

• Coping with chronic pain, frequent hospitalizations and stress;
  
• Strengthening a marriage (government studies report a divorce rate
  of more than 75 percent in special families);
  
• Finding the right therapist;
  
• Parenting healthy siblings;
  
• Understanding the reactions and behavior of grandparents
  (www.parentingchallenges.com, click on Rett Syndrome and
  Other Disorders Affect Grandparents, Too);
  
• Dealing with teasing; and
  
• Recognizing and seeking treatment for a child’s depression.
  

She gleaned these tips and wisdom from her own experience and from hundreds of interviews with parents and family members, physicians, educators, attorneys and therapists. Numerous celebrities who have triumphed over their own disabilities, prominent experts and authors are quoted in her book.

Following are some reviews of Lavin’s book:

• Publishers Weekly - - Lavin’s book combines compassion and considerable first-hand research.
  
• Rabbi Harold Kushner, author of When Bad Things Happen to Good People - - a wise and helpful book.
  
• Timothy P. Shriver, Ph.D., president and CEO of Special Olympics, Inc. - - a touching, spiritual and very personal account…. a helpful 'how-to' guide for parents on a broad array of topics.
  
• Dr. Charles Berde, director of Pain Treatment Services at Children’s Hospital of Boston and a Harvard Medical School professor - - a valuable compass and road map for families of children with special needs….
  
• Actor Stacy Keach, who had cleft lip and palate and serves as honorary chairman of the American Cleft Palate Foundation - - Judy Lavin shows all of us the way to hope and happiness….this book will be a positive guiding influence for special kids and parents for many generations to come.
  
• Parenting expert Adele Faber, who co-authored How to Talk so Kids Will Listen and Listen so Kids Will Talk-- Parents will be grateful for this honest, compassionate guide…(A) wealth of useful information.
  
• Marshall Duke, Ph.D. and Steven Nowicki, Jr., Ph.D. , Emory University Candler Professors of Psychology who wrote, Helping the Child Who Doesn’t Fit In - - …an excellent resource book that should be required in the homes of parents who have children with special needs and in the offices of professionals who work with them.
  
• Francis Cardinal George, Archdiocese of Chicago - - Parents of special children will be grateful for this book. It will help them with the day-to-day joys and challenges they face. It offers them hope and shares with them wisdom gained from personal experience and a love nurtured through great generosity.
  

For further information about booking Lavin for your organization, visit her website at: www.parentingchallenges.com.

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