All posts tagged: parenting

Ashley Audrian on her debut, THE PUSH–now in paperback–about motherhood, family history, genetics, and more

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By Leslie Lindsay  Deliciously dark and juicy psychological drama–a DEBUT–you’ll be talking about long after you turn the last page, the issues and concerns surrounding motherhood, family history, genetics, and more.  NOW IN PAPERBACK! ~WRITERS INTERVIEWING WRITERS~ ALWAYS WITH A BOOK Leslie Lindsay and Ashely Audrain in Conversation NOW IN PAPERBACK! THE PUSH (now in paperback from Pamela Dorman Books/PRH January 4, 2022) is one of those buzzy–OMG–books you’ll devour in one sitting. Is it a conversation-started? You bet. Will have it have you puzzling out your own maternal history–going back generations? Yes, that too. Here, we meet Blythe Connor, a woman whose experience of motherhood is not at all what she imagine. Blythe is determined to be the warm, caring, generous mother she herself never had. Still, she can’t let go of the disturbing, nagging thought that her daughter, Violet is not like other children. Is something ‘off?’ She’s distant, defiant, stubborn, antisocial, angry. Is she dangerous? Is Blythe just exhausted? Is it because Blythe doesn’t have much of a mother figure and her …

THE GRUMPY FRUMPY CROISSANT helps with kids anger management, plus a baking activity, how it might help with apraxia, more

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By Leslie Lindsay  A sip of milk and ten deep breaths: anger management for kids to help calm angry minds and soften misunderstandings. ~Apraxia Monday|Always with a Book~ Spotlight: Children‘s Literature & Emotions Croissant isn’t happy and he’s taking it out on the rest of the breakfast plate! Toast, Scone, and Milk think he’s being mean, but Croissant feels they’re being mean to him! So take a sip of milk, ten deep breaths, and everyone and calm down and be more open.  THE GRUMPY FRUMPY CROISSANT by Mona K. and illustrated by Korey Scott, is a delightful and quirky children’s book with bold, colorful, hand-drawn illustrations easy for any child to grasp. Here, kids learn that simple communication is often the best way to solve problems.  The book even contains a delicious recipe that parents and caregivers can make with their kids, plus full-page coloring activities featuring characters from the book.  Why it might be helpful for kids with apraxia:  It’s frustrating for kids to have ideas they want to communicate, but can’t. They may …

Toe-tappin’ Hip-Hoppin’ Llama Glamarama is all about marching to the beat of your own drummer, celebrating differences, feeling left-out, PRIDE and more

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By Leslie Lindsay  A bright and colorful rhyming story with a powerful message about celebrating differences, LLAMA GLAMARAMA is the perfect Pride picture book for everyone. ~Books on MondaY|Always with a Book~ Spotlight: Children‘s Literature Meet a dazzlin’ dancin’ llama who learns to march to the beat of his own drum by strutting his stuff with Pride (and a funky feather boa)! Larry the llama loves to move and groove! But will his friends all disapprove? Larry lives a slow and quiet life at the barn with all the other llamas, just the way they like it. But at night when everyone has gone to bed, Larry loves to dress up in bright costumes and DANCE! He has to hide this from the others, for fear that they won’t approve of his raucous ways. One day, he stumbles upon the Llama Glamarama, a carnival full of music, laughter, and yes – dancing! Will this vibrant celebration give Larry the pride he needs to bring his dance back home? Kirkus calls LLAMA GLAMARAMA (Scholastic/Orchard Books, June 1, 2021) …

Apraxia Monday but on a Talking Tuesday: Leslie Lindsay, Author of Speaking of Apraxia, Narrates Audiobook

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By Leslie Lindsay You guys! May has been a huge month for me. I am so grateful, honored, and humbled to have had the opportunity to record the audio version of Speaking of Apraxia: A Parents’ Guide to Childhood Apraxia of Speech. A Timeline of SPEAKING OF APRAXIA: When my first-born wasn’t speaking like other children her age, I worried. When her pediatrician said, “I think she might need an assessment from a speech-language pathologist (SLP), I gulped. Really?! Not my kid. Just shy of her third birthday, she was diagnosed with moderate-severe Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS). What is CAS? Quick definition: a neurologically-based motor speech disorder in which kids know what they want to say, but have have difficulty organizing the movements needed for speech. It is not something kids outgrow, but requires frequent, intense speech language therapy, often for many years. I wanted a book. Few were available, with the exception of some graduate-level textbooks, a chapter here and there, a mention in parenting or child development book. I wanted a book …

Kelly Simmons on her newest domestic thriller, NOT MY BOY, how parenting boys is different than parenting girls, her three most-recommended books, procrastination, more

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By Leslie Lindsay  ~WRITER’S INTERVIEWING WRITERS|ALWAYS WITH A BOOK~ April Spotlight: Siblings A missing child, a mother-son new to a neighborhood, multiple suspects, an entangled family, and more in NOT MY BOY. I loved Kelly Simmons’s ONE MORE DAY and when I learned she had a new one out, I knew I needed to get my hands on it. NOT MY BOY (Sourcebooks Landmark, January 2021) is a bit of family drama meets domestic suspense with touches of Lisa Unger’s IN THE BLOOD meets Gilly Macmillian’s TO TELL YOU THE TRUTH. Hannah Sawyer is a writer–she’s working on various things, but mostly ghost-writing a woman’s memoir–but she’s also a divorced mother of a young boy, Miles. They have recently moved into a cozy carriage house on the property of a larger, more established home in a neighborhood where Hannah’s sister, Hillary, and her husband and daughter live. It’s within just days (maybe even hours) that a little girl goes missing. Suddenly, everyone in the neighborhood is captivated by this case. Secrets abound in NOT MY BOY, in which everyone becomes a …

Apraxia MondaY: Keeping kids engaged with speech-language therapy after the therapy session through reading, I-Spy, Scrabble, more, plus tips on apraxia, teletherapy, more.

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By Leslie Lindsay  Speech-language therapy doesn’t stop at the speech clinic. Here are some ways you can enhance & support what your child is working on at home.  ~APRAXIA MONDAY|ALWAYS WITH A BOOK~ Spotlight: BETTER SPEECH.COM EXTENDING SPEECH WORK IN EVERYDAY PLAY & GAMES I’m so delighted to welcome this guest piece from the folks at Better Speech, an online portal for speech-language teletherapy, recognized by American Speech-Hearing Association (ASHA). As most you know, I am a big proponent of making speech fun while working it into everyday routines. There is so much that can be expressed and taught in your own home, out-and-about town, and even in nature. That said, we’re all spending much more time at home–not just because of the pandemic, but because it’s winter and the middle of the school year. Here are some great tips and ideas of things you can do right at home, probably with items you already have.  5 Ways to Support Your Child’s Speech Therapy at Home When your child is working with a licensed speech therapist, speech …

APRAXIA MONDAY series 1/4: does my child have apraxia of speech (CAS)? plus, leslie lindsay reads from speaking of apraxia, hints & Tips for selecting an SLP, more

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By Leslie Lindsay  Author of SPEAKING OF APRAXIA reads from the first few pages of of the book, discusses how to find a speech-language pathologist (SLP).  ~APRAXA MONDAY|ALWAYS WITH A BOOK~ Spotlight: Does my child have apraxia of speech (CAS) 1/4?  Years ago, as a new mom, I was so, so eager to hear those first, tender words from my first child. When they didn’t come, I worried. But then I thought, “kids develop at different rates, it’s no big deal.” When others–my mom-friends, the neighbors, the pediatrician–raised an eyebrow, I was even more worried. After all, Kate could hear and seemed to understand everything we said. So what was the problem?  Here, I read a bit from the first few pages of SPEAKING OF APRAXIA (Woodbine House, 2020), which might help put things in perspective.    #1 Amazon bestseller in communication disorders/special education “So impressed with this awesome work! Every chapter was SO easy to get through and jam-packed with gold nuggets for parents and caregivers!” Your next step, if you’re truly concerned about …

Fun & FAB YOuTUBE DAD, WARREN NASH TALKS ABOUT HIS LEGO PASSION, CREATING WITH KIDS, PROBLEM-SOLVING & CRITCAL THINKING, plus, parent-child bonding in his new book, LEGO DAD

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By Leslie Lindsay  A fabulous resource for anyone–not just dads–who love LEGOs, the little people in their life, and time together inventing and being creative. ~APRAXIA MONDAY|ALWAYS WITH A BOOK~ Child’s Play + Book  It’s time to break out the bricks–the LEGO bricks, that is! LEGO WITH DAD: Creatively Awesome Brick Projectsfor Parents and Kids to Build Together by Warren Nash (October 2020, Rocky Nook) is a gorgeous, glossy, all-color guide to creating with LEGOs. It’s jam-packed with fabulous fun ideas, hints, tips, and ideas that will have you digging up all of those misplaced LEGOs you have around the house. Seriously, some cool stuff. Nash says you don’t need to run out and purchase sets and build them exactly as the directions say–you can create your own fun designs with just a few basic pieces you may already have at home. For years, LEGO has been an endless source of imagination and joy for kids of all ages–and for many of us, that goes back our own childhood, too. LEGO WITH DAD is a …

Lisa Selin Davis talks about her new book, TOMBOY, what it means to defy borders and boundaries, how parents may have participated in the blue/pink divide and so much more in this insightful and daring new book

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By Leslie Lindsay  A thorough and engrossing sociological, historical, and psychological examination and the antiquated term ‘tomboy,’ an imagined future for children who defy categories, and so much more. ~BookS on MondaY|Always with a Book~ TOMBOY: The Surprising History and Future of Girls Who Dare to Be Different (Hachette Books, August 11 2020) first came to my attention this past spring and I knew I had read it. As a ‘soccer mom,’ I often hear this on the pitch, “Oh, she’s just a Tomboy” or something of similar ilk. I started thinking about why we use this term and if there really was such a thing. And then I read Lisa Selin Davis’s insightful and daring new book and felt we were cut from the same cloth. Here’s thing: I don’t really think ‘Tomboys’ exist. People do. And we need to stop with the labels and marketing that supports (or doesn’t support) this divide. Davis takes us deep into the history of the term ‘tomboy’ and provides stunning examples of how advertising and marketing have played to the stereotypes of gender, gender …

Janine Urbaniak Reid talks about her medical mother-son memoir, THE OPPOSITE OF CERTAINTY, how love & goodness show up at the right time, her fascination with what’s left when everything has been stripped from us, faith, more

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By Leslie Lindsay  Life is turned upside-down in this self-proclaimed perfectionist mother’s memoir about her son’s brain tumor.  ~WEDNESDAYS WITH WRITERS|ALWAYS WITH A BOOK~ What happens when life is turned upside-down due to a challenging, mysterious illness of one’s child?  That’s what happens in Janine Urbaniak Reed’s astonishing memoir, THE OPPOSITE OF CERTAINTY (May 12: Thomas Nelson). Janine just wanted everything to be perfect. She thought if she did everything ‘right,’ they would be fine, everyone would be happy and no one would experience the pain she felt growing up. Married with three children, a husband who travels for work, she took time out to raise her children…and then, her son, Mason, experienced strange tremors and other symptoms. What was wrong and why were some doctors discounting it? Infusing faith with medicine, Janine takes readers—and herself—on a somewhat reluctant journey. THE OPPOSITE OF CERTAINTY is most definitely a memoir for our times, as the world faces so many uncertainties, as we all must fortify ourselves against the potential of chaos and fissures at our feet. …