Category Archives: New Release Announcements

Author Tania Tirraoro has created a non-fiction book, near to my heart. My son is a special needs kiddo and when we start our adventure as parents of special needs, we are often weeding through a sea of information without much direction. The process is trial and error all the time and it’s often a struggle to face it. The assistance programs don’t always make it easy for us either. Tania has taken the time to pull together her knowledge into a fabulous book that will help parents wander through the process.

From Tania:

When you’re publishing any book, it is a nerve-wracking process. Will it be well-received? Will anyone notice it? Will it sell well? are all questions you ask yourself.

When you have written a non-fiction book, aimed at helping people, the worry is double. Have I got all my facts right? Is there enough information to be truly useful? Will anyone be interested? are all questions to add to the usual worries.

My new book, published first in eformat, to be followed a paperback in a few weeks is aimed at helping parents, specifically parents in the UK, with getting the right SEN help for their children. Even though the system is the UK one, if you have to compile a case arguing for your special needs child’s requirements, it contains useful advice wherever you are based.

The book has been developed from my website, http://www.specialneedsjungle.co.uk  , which I started in 2008 after I successfully negotiated a legally-binding ‘statement’ of special educational needs for my younger son. This means that the local education authority is compelled to ensure that my son receives the level of care described within the statement.

Of course, to make sure that the correct provision is prescribed, you have to make sure that all your child’s special needs have been assessed and understood. This is a huge job for a parents and many hand the job over to expensive SEN lawyers from the start.

We couldn’t afford to do that and, with my background as a journalist, I was fairly confident I could manage most of the process myself. It involved making sure I had gathered together all my son’s IEPs, reports, doctors’ letters and assessments and then writing a long document including references to all the material I had gathered together.

I realised that there must be many parents out there who needed help with the process and so the website was born. It even came in handy for me when I was going through the same process with my older son.

Then one morning, I sat up in bed and knew I had to write a book with more details for parents than what was on the blog and within a month, it was complete. It takes you through the whole process and has input from expert SEN Advocate, Julie Maynard who describes the lows and lower stills of going to an SEN Tribunal when the local authority won’t give your child what you know they need.

I’m very proud of this book and hope it will help many parents get started with the process. You can find it on Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.com  & Smashwords.com