Heidi Mavir writes with a heartwarming combination of joy, humour, rawness, vulnerability and endless empathy. I thoroughly enjoyed reading her perspective as a ND parent of a ND child. Two years into Speech, Occupational Therapy, behavior therapy, and public preschool she made remarkable progress. It's okay to say actually that's not good enough and what should be at the heart of decisions made is the child. The best interests of the child and actually what the child wants. Consent. The child has a right to consent. We as parents have a right to be heard. Heidi Mavir is a late-identified, Neurodiverent adult. She is a public speaker, advocate, author, podcaster, and parent to an Autistic/ADHD teenager. She is a also chronic oversharer and a bit of a badass.

Your Child Is Not Broken by Heidi Mavir - Coles Books Your Child Is Not Broken by Heidi Mavir - Coles Books

We know that a large portion of those in our U.S. prison system are there because they were deemed unworthy and broken because of their skin color. There is also a large group of individuals who are in this “school-to-prison-pipeline” because they were labeled as stupid or non-intelligent because of learning disabilities. Others are there because their extremely high intelligence was not seen or recognized as such. They didn’t fit the school’s pictures of a good student, so these highly intelligent students who were bored in school, were deemed defective. Your child is a beautiful individual. They are unique. They hold so much potential. Yes, they learn and think about life differently than the majority. That is ok. That is normal. That is even a unique gift, this skill of seeing and experiencing the world differently. If we view our children as broken and messed up, chances are high that they too will believe this lie about themselves. And it will crush them. It will crush their souls, and the world will miss out on knowing this individual who has so much potential and so many unique gifts.She is supposed to sit, listen, be quiet, be still, and wait her turn to talk in a room filled with twenty other kids where play and natural socialization are limited. And while most of the kids have conformed to this environment, kids with big personalities are supposed to turn themselves off like a light switch. I am currently that parent and do you know what. This book has validated and helped me see it's okay to be that parent. Even if I do question myself many times a day. She is having meltdowns and crying, she is falling asleep and taking frequent breaks from her classroom. I’m getting constant phone calls and communication from the school and it is puzzling because my child has a disability and an Individualized Education Plan. She is supposed to have what she needs to be successful and she isn’t. This book interested me from the moment I saw it. Working in early years childhood education and being a parent to two wonderful teenagers I have experienced and read quite a bit about the neurodivergent child. However this is very different to what I have come across before. Heidi is open and frank about her struggles with parenting a child with autism and ADHD, while discovering that she is also neurodiverse.

Your Child Is Not Broken: Parent Your Neurodivergent Child Your Child Is Not Broken: Parent Your Neurodivergent Child

As the mother of a ND child awaiting assessment, I’m spending a lot of my free time reading as much as I can about both ASD and ADHD (my daughter shows signs of both), and seeking advice and words of wisdom from parents of fellow ND children who uphold similar gentle parenting values to my own.Despite trying to get her the best treatments, preschool education, and nourished her talents — it all doesn’t matter because she can’t fit into their box. Neutral point - there was a lot here that I personally have already read and thought about. Perhaps if you are newer to reading/learning/thinking about autism then you will get more from it than I did - clearly a lot of people love it. As a parent of a ND child, I could relate to a lot of this book. I liked Mavir's writing style - I could almost hear her voice right next to me, like chatting to a friend. To be honest, I don't generally read many books on the subject of neurodiversity because, well, I'm living it everyday anyway, I don't really feel the need to, and sometimes we all need some escapism instead. However I made an exception for this book and I'm glad I did. It's well worth reading and reminded me that I'm not alone in this ND parenting journey.

YOUR CHILD IS NOT BROKEN: Parent Your Neurodivergent Child Without YOUR CHILD IS NOT BROKEN: Parent Your Neurodivergent Child

thank you for reminding me how brilliant he is and how it’s the rest of the world that poses the problem, when i really needed that reminder the most 🫶🏻✨ This would have been so beneficial at the start of the journey likewise where we are now with diagnosis and out of school waiting for specialist school place to become available this has been helpful. Sometimes, it can feel like these things are true because your child doesn’t read or calculate or function like most children you know. It can feel like that when others are pointing out the ways your child is not fitting in or the ways your child is failing at school. In 2018 Heidi's son, Theo, experienced a mental health crisis, brought on by the struggles he faced in mainstream education as an undiagnosed Autistic student. Suddenly Heidi found herself up the proverbial creek without any paddles. With Theo too unwell to attend school - or even leave the house, Heidi committed herself to finding out everything she could about neurodivergence; education, health and social care plans; and what it means to advocate for your disabled child in crisis. We had a lot to catch up on. And that is what I thought was going to happen — that catching up would fix the problem.When we first realized that something was wrong with our child, I immediately became hyper-focused on getting her the best treatment.

Your Child Is Not Broken by Heidi Mavir - Audiobook - Audible Your Child Is Not Broken by Heidi Mavir - Audiobook - Audible

Parents of Autistic and neurodivergent kids will relate so hard to her experiences and will feel less alone after reading this. You may cry, you will laugh, and you will learn. This needs to be read by parents of both neurodivergent and parents of neurotypical children. It needs to be read by teachers, early year workers and all the professionals that work with families who should have the children's best interests at the heart of decisions.Although this is a very serious and hard topic to write about and I’m sure every parent goes through those pull your hair out times in life to a certain degree, but Heidi puts the humour into those moments as well as being honest about her struggles. It’s an eye opener to see a different perspective on those well meaning lay persons and professionals that are doing their best to help, but it more often than not ends up being more detrimental. I know it sounds callous but I found these written encounters the funniest. Your Child Is Not Broken" is THE book for parents who need permission to do things differently. Heidi Mavir almost died working out why that was necessary.