Interview With Elaine Halligan, Author of “My Child’s Different”!

Being a parent is one of, if not, the hardest job one can have. Parenting expert of more than a decade, Elaine Halligan, had it even harder as the mother of a “different” kid. The director of The Parenting Practice shares her compelling journey of raising her son Sam and the difficulties they faced in her book My Child’s Different: The Lessons Learned from One Family’s Struggle to Unlock Their Son’s Potential. By age seven, Sam, had been expelled from three schools. In addition to acquiring a bad rep, Sam was diagnosed with various conditions.

Through it all, no matter how trying these times were, Halligan and her family were resilient. Halligan went from getting backlash from other parents to getting praise from them for opening up about her experience.

“This book seems to be helping a lot of parents,” Halligan said. “And people are writing to say, ‘just thank you for having the courage to write your story.”

The author also confessed to being very nervous about publishing My Child’s Different. As for Sam, Halligan waited until he turned twenty-one to write her book and made sure he was comfortable with her revealing their journey. “The message that’s coming through from people is just ‘thank you for giving us hope and optimism. So yeah, I think it was worth doing.” Listen to the interview to learn more about Halligan and her family, Halligan’s insight on parenting, her advice for how to raise a child’s self-esteem, Sam’s thoughts on My Child’s Different, and more. For more information, visit The Parent Practice.