Topics for Lectures and Workshops

A list of popular topics for parents and professionals is below. Dr. Klein is also open to speaking on other topics of interest to parents of children with disabilities and/or professionals serving families. To contact Dr. Klein about speaking engagements, send an email to stan@disabilitiesbooks.com or call him at (617) 879-0397.

"Dr. Klein’s calm and pleasant speaking manner put everyone at ease immediately… Dr. Klein answered the parents’ questions honestly and compassionately. He fostered a rich discussion between parents about issues troubling them… Dr. Klein has a special gift reaching out to both parents and professionals. I highly recommend him to speak to any organization."

Leslie Fauquet M.A. C.C.C. SLP
Parent and Professional
Founder – Parentpals.com

"Please accept our sincere thanks for your presentation at our Annual Meeting… Your ratings as a speaker were wonderful—nearly every survey ranked your presentations as "Excellent" and we are pleased to have been able to bring you to Montana…I look forward to the opportunity to work with you again in the future."

Deb Matteucci, Executive Director
Montana Mental Health Association

"Stanley Klein’s workshops are inspirational and designed to relate to family members of individuals with disabilities as well as those working in the field. He speaks on a wide variety of topics and communicates well with audience members. His style is informal and enlightening, and those who have attended his workshops report they are impressed by Stan’s ability to not only challenge their perceptions but also change the way they interact with individuals with disabilities. Parents also report they had previously felt alone with their emotions, and attending Stan’s workshop validated their feelings…"

Laura Gorycki, Director
The Arc of Forsyth County
Winston-Salem, NC

For Parents and/or Professionals

1. Reflections from a Different Journey: What Adults with Disabilities Want All Parents to Know

Most parents of children with disabilities, as well as professionals, lack personal experiences with adults with disabilities. Hearing from successful role models who have lived the disability experience can provide essential information about the possibilities for children with disabilities. For Reflections from a Different Journey: What Adults with Disabilities Want All Parents to Know, successful adults with many different disabilities — cerebral palsy, Down syndrome, autism, learning disabilities, deafness, blindness, mental illness, developmental disabilities, spina bifida, muscular dystrophy, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, congenital amputation, and chronic health conditions — wrote essays about something they wished their own parents had read or been told while they were growing up.

This presentation (lecture or workshop format; one or two hours) challenges parents and professionals to consider the inspiring, yet realistic, messages of these adults:
• Love and accept me as I am.
• Parents are the most important experts.
• Parental expectations.
• Sexuality.
• Education about disability.

Co-editor John Kemp and many essay authors may be also be available as speakers.

2. Parents Can Dream New Dreams

In You Will Dream New Dreams: Inspiring Personal Stories by Parents of Children with Disabilities, the essays by "veteran" parents express several important common themes. This presentation (lecture or workshop format; one or two hours) discusses the themes and how they are relevant to the day-to-day lives of families.

• The wide range of difficult feelings parents experience (especially at the time they receive a child's diagnosis) are a normal part of the human experience.
• While everything can seem hopeless, parents can go on, grow, and find ways to cope.
• Parents are likely to discover inner resources they did not know existed and discover new perspectives for their lives.
• Parents become the experts about their own child. Parents also have adult priorities that need attention. Parents need respite.
• Parents will mourn, but they can heal.
• Parents can be happy again; they can dream new dreams.

Parent essay authors may be available to speak as well.

3. Planning for your child’s future quality of life—and yours as well

As the most important experts in the lives of their children, parents can impact their child’s future quality of life as they cope with the many issues of growing up. Utilizing the wisdom of successful adults with disabilities, we discuss how parents and professionals can emphasize such important lifelong skills such as friendship skills and learning to help others. Parents can also begin to plan for their child and themselves for the child’s adult years.

This presentation can be done in a lecture or workshop format; ideally at least 90 minutes are available.

4. Practical Approaches to Parenting Children with Disabilities

As children with disabilities develop, they and their parents face the same psychosocial development challenges as ordinary children: feeding, toilet training, sleeping, discipline, sibling relationships, friendships, education, and community participation. However, various adaptations may be needed in terms of expectations and interventions. We discuss how parents and professionals can collaborate to develop appropriate and practical adaptations.

By presenting this topic in a workshop format (at least 90 minutes), the discussion can focus on the specific issues relevant to audience members.

5. Town Meeting on Parenting Children with Disabilities.

This format encourages parents to raise questions about the challenges of parenting-discipline, sibling relationships, inclusion, friendships, etc. After creating a list of ten or more issues that are relevant to the lives of audience members, Dr. Klein presents his perspective on each issue.

This format requires at least two hours. A local resource person is needed to connect families in need with local services.

For Professionals

1. The Challenge of Delivering Difficult Diagnostic News.

Dr. Klein has presented on this topic in many health care and educational settings. Presentation can be done as a one hour lecture; however, a three hour workshop is more effective for training.

Dr. Klein’s paper "The Challenge of Communicating with Parents" which appeared in Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics in June, 1993 (Volume 14, No. 3, pp. 184-191) presents a step-by-step approach for presenting difficult diagnostic news in a variety of health and education settings.

Here are some comments on this presentation:

"Your three hour continuing education workshop 'Communicating with Parents of Children with Special Needs' was well attended and well received. Evaluations by participants were highly positive. Your presentation met highest expectations of school professionals who deal regularly with parents in sensitive situations, offering them a much deeper understanding of what parents of children with disabilities experience. Most important, you provided school professionals with a practical step-by-step process for communicating with parents in a supportive, effective manner. Many thanks for your fine presentation."

Bob Lichtenstein, Ph.D., Director
School Psychology Program
Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology, March, 2006

"Your Grand Rounds presentation…'Delivering Bad News to Parents' was excellent. It was certainly on target for our residents and medical students. Our new interns appreciated it, too. I must say that I have never heard the approach to this type of issue formalized. Your handout…will serve as a useful teaching tool for me, and I am sure many others, long after your visit has passed."

Robert L. Rosenfield, M.D., Professor of Pediatrics and Medicine
The University of Chicago, Children's Hospital. August, 1998

"Many thanks for…talking to us about your experience relaying bad news to patients. I have been in practice for almost 36 years and I must say that [your presentation] was one of the best talks that I have heard…"

John B. LaLonde, M.D., Surgery
Grand Forks Clinic, March, 1996

2. Spend tax dollars on children, teachers, and therapists rather than attorneys! The value of improving collaboration and communication with parents.

Education and healthcare professionals sometimes develop prejudices about parents that interfere with everyone’s efforts to meet the day-to-day needs of children with disabilities. Collaboration and communication skills do not develop “naturally.” Professionals can learn how to deliver difficult diagnostic news and improve the IEP process. By learning how to work with mothers and fathers in cooperative rather than adversarial ways, professionals can also make their own lives more rewarding.

This topic can be presented as a two or three hour workshop

3. Improving Written Communication Skills.

A seminar (two hours or more) is designed for educators and health care professionals who have the responsibility of preparing written reports for parents of children with special needs.