It’s time to explore the MANY books out there…or almost out there…that you should be checking out this fall and winter.
So grab one of these as a gift for the teacher, counselor or parent in your life…or for yourself, and curl up with these great trauma-informed, resilience-building reads.
Available Now:
Your FBA is a Fantasy: A Guidebook to Creating Truly Trauma-Informed, Neuro-Affirming Functional Behavior Assessments & Behavior Support Plans – Doris & Rick Bowman. This long-awaited book from two well-versed trauma-sensitive educators is a MUST for special educators and those seeking a trauma-informed lens to special education. But it’s so much more. This book is packed full of neuroscience nuggets and wise strategies for helping all parents and educators address challenging behaviors. As we know from working with the Bowmans on our Teacher Troubleshooting sessions, they generously share resources and tools…and this book is no exception! Regulated & Relational Podcast Episode 105 features an interview with the Bowmans about this book and will air on October 7.
Rebuilding Students’ Learning Power: Teaching for Instructional Equity and Cognitive Justice – Zaretta Hammond. A natural follow on to her bestselling book, Culturally Responsive Teaching and The Brain: Promoting Authentic Engagement and Rigor for Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students, Ms. Hammond builds on her Ready for Rigor ™ framework with a practical roadmap grounded in the science of learning. Shining a spotlight on the pedagogy of compliance, she presents both the problem and the pathway to move toward a pedagogy of possibility. Educators will find both practical ideas and inspiration for transforming their schools here.
Embracing Hope: Innovative Strategies to Empower Parents Raising Neurodiverse Teens – Carl Young & Joel Sheagren. Frankly, this book blew me away! Two dads of young adults with FASD have written a resource that all parents of children with neurodiversity…including trauma…have wished for. Highly researched and connected in every chapter to the neuroscience, this is an amazing reference book, but also one you’ll want to read cover to cover. And one that will leave you, as the title implies…HOPEFUL. Be sure to listen to Regulated & Relational Podcast Episode 103 which aired September 16, to meet these two authors.
B is for Brain: Get Ready for School with Riley the Brave – Jessica Sinarski. If you’d haven’t met Riley the Brave, it’s time. In this latest Riley book, Ms. Sinarski uses the alphabet to explore the emotions and challenges that starting school often presents. This is an excellent book for 3-5 year olds and the adults who are devoted to nurturing them. There’s also a Resource Pack available with visuals, activities and tips for how to use the brain language presented in the book.
Coming Soon – and you can Pre-order:
The Biology of Trauma: How the Body Holds Fear, Pain, and Overwhelm and How to Heal It – Dr. Aimie Apigian’s new book focuses on the impact trauma has on our physical health and our ability to maintain healthy behaviors and relationships. This is a great book for encouraging those on their own healing journey as Dr. Aimie shares her own path to healing and her understanding of trauma’s impact on our nervous systems, metabolism and DNA. This book is currently on pre-order with some incredible bonuses now available. Order prior to the Sept 23 release date and follow the instructions on the Pre-Order Site.
Parents have Feelings Too: A Guide to Navigating Your Emotions so Your Family Can Thrive. Hilary Jacobs Hendel & Juli Fraga This book is an incredible guide to using the Change Triangle to map emotions and gain self-awareness. And this self-awareness will help you to become more authentic open-hearted parents. The book’s format is amazing, guiding you to actual practices of the concepts and “Self-Aware Stretches” for meaningful reflection. Parents are frequently told that “doing our own work” will help our children…but this book tells us HOW to do this work in a way that helps us and ultimately our family to thrive. We had such a great time exploring this book with Hilary and Juli in Episode 104 of Regulated & Relational Podcast, which airs on September 23, which is also the book’s publish date! This book is currently on preorder here.
30 Minute Groups: Navigating Family Dynamics – Ginger Healy & Ashley Wright. Experienced school social worker and school counselor team up to give you this resource designed to use with small groups of students who are navigating a variety of family challenges including diverse, kinship care, foster care and parental incarceration. This workbook is full of affirming and empowering ideas and will be released on September 25. It can be preordered now.
Raising Kids & Teens with FASD: Advice & Strategies to Help Your Family Thrive – Barb Clark. This is a must-have book for every parent, teacher or child supporter who work with children who have fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD). Barb Clark is an amazing parent and coach who supports parents of children with FASD. This book is filled with her decades of practical wisdom as well as glimpses of her own journey and her family’s journey. Her passion for supporting families shines through in this book, and we got to discuss all this with Barb on our podcast, Regulated & Relational, Episode 102, which aired on September 9. You can preorder this book now. It will be published on October 21.
