This should come before Part 1 and be personal.
You could use:
It is not easy to understand learning difficulties, especially when you are living with a learning disability, mental health condition, or other challenges yourself. It can be difficult to make yourself heard and seen when other people do not fully understand what you are experiencing.
I am writing this book to share what disability and mental health challenges can mean in everyday life. I want to explain not only the difficulties people may experience, but also their strengths, abilities, achievements, and the support they want and need.
This book has grown from my own lived experience, my work in learning disability and mental health awareness, my advocacy, my teaching, and my writing. It also grows from my blog, Sara Revealed.
My aim is to bring together lived experience, research, education and practical information so that people can understand disability and mental health in a more human way.
This book is about seeing the whole person — not just the diagnosis.
Then:
By Sara Jane Gorman
Part 1 — Foundations: Disability, Learning and Mental Health Awareness
Chapter 1 — Why Disability and Mental Health Awareness Matters
- Why awareness matters
- The importance of being heard and seen
- Lived experience
- Stigma and misunderstanding
- Disability and mental health
- Strengths as well as difficulties
- Why professionals need to listen to people with lived experience
Chapter 2 — What Are Special Needs and Learning Disabilities?
- What does “special needs” mean?
- Learning disability vs. learning difficulty
- Specific learning difficulties
- Developmental conditions
- Neurodevelopmental conditions
- Physical disabilities
- Mental health conditions
- Multiple and co-occurring conditions
- Why two people with the same diagnosis can be very different
Chapter 3 — Understanding Neurodiversity
I would actually add this as a separate chapter.
It gives you somewhere to introduce:
- Autism
- ADHD
- Dyslexia
- Dyspraxia/DCD
- Dyscalculia
- Dysgraphia
- Tourette syndrome
- Other forms of neurological variation
- Strengths and talents
- Different ways of thinking, learning and communicating
- Masking
- Sensory differences
- Executive functioning
- The importance of individual differences
This would provide an excellent bridge into the rest of the book.
Part 2 — Understanding Developmental and Physical Disabilities
This is where the material you've just been working on fits particularly well.
Chapter 4 — What Is Spina Bifida?
Your material could be divided into:
What is spina bifida?
- Neural tube defect
- Occulta
- Meningocele
- Myelomeningocele
How it can affect the body
- Mobility
- Sensation
- Bladder and bowel function
- Hydrocephalus
- Chiari II malformation
Communication and learning
- Processing
- Executive functioning
- Speech and language
- Possible communication differences
Strengths and support
- Mobility equipment
- Occupational therapy
- Physiotherapy
- Speech and language therapy
- Educational support
- Reasonable adjustments
And importantly:
Not everyone with spina bifida will experience the same difficulties.
That sentence should appear throughout your disability chapters.
Chapter 5 — Williams Syndrome
Chapter 6 — SYNGAP1 Disorder
Chapter 7 — Global Developmental Delay
Chapter 8 — Challenging Behaviour
I would be careful with the terminology here.
Rather than presenting challenging behaviour as something that simply belongs to the person, explain that behaviour can be a form of communication and can be influenced by pain, sensory overload, communication difficulties, trauma, environmental factors, unmet needs and many other things.
Chapter 9 — Cerebral Palsy
This is where your extensive neurological material fits.
You could explain:
Brain → nerves → muscles → movement
Then:
- Spasticity
- Dyskinetic CP
- Ataxic CP
- Mobility
- Communication
- Pain
- Contractures
- Occupational therapy
- Physiotherapy
- Assistive technology
- Emotional wellbeing
Chapter 10 — Angelman Syndrome
Chapter 11 — DiGeorge Syndrome
Part 3 — Specific Learning Difficulties
Chapter 12 — Dyslexia
Chapter 13 — Dyspraxia / Developmental Coordination Disorder
Chapter 14 — Dysgraphia
Chapter 15 — Dyscalculia
Chapter 16 — Autism and ADHD: Similarities and Differences
This section could become particularly strong because you can combine:
research + lived experience + practical support.
Part 4 — Physical and Neurological Disabilities
This could be a new section based on the material you've been developing.
Chapter 17 — Understanding Physical Disabilities
Start with the big picture:
| Area affected | Examples |
|---|---|
| Brain | Stroke, brain injury |
| Spinal cord | Spinal cord injury, spina bifida |
| Peripheral nerves | Neuropathy |
| Muscles | Muscular dystrophy |
| Joints | Arthritis |
| Limbs | Amputation |
| Coordination | Cerebellar conditions |
Then explain congenital, acquired and progressive conditions.
Chapter 18 — Muscular Dystrophy
Chapter 19 — Multiple Sclerosis
Chapter 20 — Stroke and Acquired Brain Injury
Chapter 21 — Epilepsy
Chapter 22 — Amputation and Physical Disability
Chapter 23 — Tourette Syndrome
Chapter 24 — Dwarfism and Skeletal Conditions
This allows your book to move beyond learning disabilities and show that disability is broad and diverse.
Part 5 — Mental Health and Emotional Wellbeing
Chapter 25 — What Is Mental Health and Mental Illness?
Chapter 26 — Understanding Emotions
- Anger
- Anxiety
- Fear
- Stress
- Frustration
- Emotional regulation
Chapter 27 — Depression
Chapter 28 — Anxiety Disorders
Chapter 29 — Personality Disorders
You could introduce the clusters before examining individual conditions:
Cluster A
- Paranoid
- Schizoid
- Schizotypal
Cluster B
- Antisocial
- Borderline
- Histrionic
- Narcissistic
Cluster C
- Avoidant
- Dependent
- Obsessive-compulsive personality disorder
Chapter 30 — Schizophrenia and Schizoaffective Disorder
Chapter 31 — Suicide Awareness and Prevention
Part 6 — Supporting People
This is where your advocacy experience becomes particularly important.
Chapter 32 — Mentoring and Coaching
Chapter 33 — Counselling and Therapy
Chapter 34 — Supporting Communication
Chapter 35 — Reasonable Adjustments
Chapter 36 — Tools for Parents and Carers
Chapter 37 — Tools for Teachers and Education Staff
Chapter 38 — Tools for Employers
Chapter 39 — Healthcare and Social Care Support
Chapter 40 — Advocacy and Self-Advocacy
This could become one of the most important chapters in the whole book.
Part 7 — Lived Experience, Strengths and Representation
I think this is something your book can do differently from a standard textbook.
Chapter 41 — Seeing the Person, Not Just the Diagnosis
Chapter 42 — Strengths, Talents and Resilience
Chapter 43 — Famous People and Disability
Your idea of including:
- Actors
- Musicians
- Writers
- Artists
- Scientists
- Leaders
- Thinkers
- People with physical disabilities
- Neurodivergent people
could work very well here.
But I'd frame it carefully:
Having a disability does not automatically give someone a particular talent. People with disabilities are individuals with different strengths, interests and abilities.
That prevents the book from replacing a deficit stereotype with a “superpower” stereotype.
📚 Part 8 — Learning Course
This is another important idea you've developed.
Rather than making the whole book read like a textbook, you could turn the end of each chapter into a mini learning module.
For example:
🧠 Chapter Learning Activity
What have you learned?
Key terms
- Spina bifida
- Neural tube defect
- Hydrocephalus
- Mobility
- Accessibility
Easy Read
Spina bifida affects the spine.
It can affect how someone moves.
It can affect sensation.
Some people need a wheelchair.
Some people can walk.
Everyone is different.
Think about it
- What is spina bifida?
- Why might two people with spina bifida have different needs?
- What support might help?
- What strengths might a person have?
Discussion
Why is it important to understand the person rather than simply their diagnosis?
Reflection
What could you do differently when supporting someone with a disability?
That would make your book useful to students, carers, professionals and people with disabilities themselves.
⭐ A very important feature of your book
I would give every condition approximately the same framework.
For example:
What is it?
Simple definition.
What causes it?
Genetic, neurological, developmental, environmental, acquired, etc.
What can it affect?
Physical, cognitive, communication, emotional, social and everyday functioning.
What might someone experience?
Real-life examples.
What might they find difficult?
Without assuming everyone has the same difficulties.
What are their strengths?
Individual abilities and interests.
What support can help?
Education, healthcare, therapy, equipment, reasonable adjustments, communication support, advocacy.
What does it feel like in everyday life?
This is where your lived-experience perspective can be especially powerful.
Easy Read
Short, accessible explanation.
Key Points
3–6 things to remember.
Quiz
Multiple choice, true/false and short answer.
Reflection
A question encouraging the reader to think about inclusion.
❤️ And I think this should be the central message
Your material keeps returning to an important idea:
A diagnosis describes a condition. It does not describe the whole person.
You could develop that into one of the book's recurring boxes:
💡 Remember
People are not their diagnosis.
A person may have a learning disability, physical disability, neurological condition or mental health condition.
But they are also a person with:
interests • relationships • feelings • strengths • experiences • ambitions • talents • rights
Support the whole person — not just the condition.
That would tie together your sections on spina bifida, cerebral palsy, dyslexia, autism, ADHD, mental health, personality disorders and physical disabilities.
One thing I would change from your current draft
You currently have several different versions of the same introduction and author biography repeated throughout the material.
I wouldn't throw them away. They're useful drafts. But now is the point to choose one definitive version.
I'd separate them into:
- Preface — Why I Wrote This Book
- About the Author — Sara Jane Gorman
- Introduction — Why Disability and Mental Health Awareness Matters
- Chapter 1 — Why This Book Matters
That prevents your personal story from being repeated four or five times while still allowing it to be central to the book.
And your “why this book?” section should remain personal. The more academic explanations can come afterwards.
The heart of the book is essentially:
“I have lived this. I have studied it. I have taught it. I have advocated for it. Now I want to bring lived experience and knowledge together so that other people can understand it.”
That is a much stronger identity for the book than simply being a catalogue of conditions.
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