Married with Special-Needs Children: A Couples' Guide to Keeping Connected

At last, a guide that speaks to parents of kids with special needs about how to work on marital issues while juggling the demands of raising a child with a developmental disability, serious medical condition, or mental illness. The authors draw on their combined professional experience in marital counseling and parent training, as well as the experience and advice of hundreds of parents of children with special needs. The book looks at the ways in which a child with special needs can make it more difficult for a marriage to thrive and how a child's intensive needs can change the structure of a marriage. The authors examine many of the underlying stresses and common pitfalls ?a couple's differing coping mechanisms and expectations of a child, communication breakdowns and difficulties resolving conflicts, for example.