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Your Kid Belongs Here: An Insider's Guide to Parenting Neurodiverse Children
Your Kid Belongs Here is a heartfelt, practical guide to parenting children in a world not designed for them—or their parents. Combining personal stories, research, and helpful strategies, Katie Rose Guest Pryal shares her journey as a neurodivergent mother raising neurodivergent children and offers a powerful narrative of advocacy, empathy, and resilience.
With a focus on building trust, fostering self-advocacy, and embracing neurodiversity, this
● Offers strategies for supporting emotional regulation and managing children's meltdowns, anxiety, and other emotional challenges.
● Guides parents on navigating schools and advocating for their child's rights in educational settings.
● Encourages parents to support and engage with their children's special interests and passions as a pathway to growth and confidence.
● Highlights the importance of parents' self-care and well-being, with practical tips for managing stress and maintaining resilience.
An empowering, empathetic resource for parents, educators, and advocates, this guide invites listeners to reimagine how inclusive and supportive parenting can contribute to a more compassionate world.
With a focus on building trust, fostering self-advocacy, and embracing neurodiversity, this
● Offers strategies for supporting emotional regulation and managing children's meltdowns, anxiety, and other emotional challenges.
● Guides parents on navigating schools and advocating for their child's rights in educational settings.
● Encourages parents to support and engage with their children's special interests and passions as a pathway to growth and confidence.
● Highlights the importance of parents' self-care and well-being, with practical tips for managing stress and maintaining resilience.
An empowering, empathetic resource for parents, educators, and advocates, this guide invites listeners to reimagine how inclusive and supportive parenting can contribute to a more compassionate world.
248 pages, Paperback
Published November 11, 2025
About the author
Katie Rose Guest Pryal
35 books140 followersKatie Rose Guest Pryal, J.D., Ph.D., is a bipolar-autistic author, keynote speaker, neurodiversity-affirming writing coach, and expert in mental health and neurodiversity. Before turning to writing full time, she worked as a university professor with a research focus in disability studies.
She is the author of many books on mental health and neurodiversity, including:
Your Kid Belongs Here: An Insider's Companion to Parenting Neurodiverse Children (Johns Hopkins 2025)
A Light in the Tower: A New Reckoning with Mental Health in Higher Education (Univ. of Kansas Press 2024), winner of the 2024 IPPY Bronze medal in Education
Life of the Mind Interrupted: Essays on Mental Health and Disability in Higher Education (Blue Osprey Books 2017, Blackstone Audio 2022)
Even If You’re Broken: Bodies, Boundaries, and Mental Health (Blue Osprey Books 2019, revised and expanded edition 2023), winner of the IPPY Gold Medal in women's issues.
Her newest nonfiction book is forthcoming from Johns Hopkins University Press, Navigating Neurodiverse Pregnancy.
Her fiction includes the Hollywood Lights series of standalone linked novels:
Entanglement
Chasing Chaos
Fallout Girl
Take Your Charming Somewhere Else, Winner of the IPPY Gold Medal for Romance
Dr. Pryal attended Duke University for her undergraduate studies before earning her master’s degree in creative writing from the Johns Hopkins University Writing Seminars, where she attended on a fellowship. She then earned her law degree from the University of North Carolina School of Law and continued on to a federal clerkship. While practicing law, she earned her doctorate in rhetoric from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, where she attended on a fellowship. After finishing her studies, she began her full-time teaching career at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she remains adjunct faculty.
She writes frequently for national publications, is a columnist for Psychology Today, and was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. For keynote talks, she is represented by BrightSight Speakers.
Dr. Pryal’s first name is Katie Rose; her middle name is Guest; and her last name is Pryal (which rhymes with “trial”). Her pronouns are she/her.
She is the author of many books on mental health and neurodiversity, including:
Your Kid Belongs Here: An Insider's Companion to Parenting Neurodiverse Children (Johns Hopkins 2025)
A Light in the Tower: A New Reckoning with Mental Health in Higher Education (Univ. of Kansas Press 2024), winner of the 2024 IPPY Bronze medal in Education
Life of the Mind Interrupted: Essays on Mental Health and Disability in Higher Education (Blue Osprey Books 2017, Blackstone Audio 2022)
Even If You’re Broken: Bodies, Boundaries, and Mental Health (Blue Osprey Books 2019, revised and expanded edition 2023), winner of the IPPY Gold Medal in women's issues.
Her newest nonfiction book is forthcoming from Johns Hopkins University Press, Navigating Neurodiverse Pregnancy.
Her fiction includes the Hollywood Lights series of standalone linked novels:
Entanglement
Chasing Chaos
Fallout Girl
Take Your Charming Somewhere Else, Winner of the IPPY Gold Medal for Romance
Dr. Pryal attended Duke University for her undergraduate studies before earning her master’s degree in creative writing from the Johns Hopkins University Writing Seminars, where she attended on a fellowship. She then earned her law degree from the University of North Carolina School of Law and continued on to a federal clerkship. While practicing law, she earned her doctorate in rhetoric from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, where she attended on a fellowship. After finishing her studies, she began her full-time teaching career at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she remains adjunct faculty.
She writes frequently for national publications, is a columnist for Psychology Today, and was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. For keynote talks, she is represented by BrightSight Speakers.
Dr. Pryal’s first name is Katie Rose; her middle name is Guest; and her last name is Pryal (which rhymes with “trial”). Her pronouns are she/her.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
March 30, 2026
Simultaneously helpful and anxiety-inducing.
June 1, 2026
Fantastic book. Has loads of scientific data but also personal anecdotes. Easy to read and absorb, especially for someone with ADHD. This book isn't so much a how to as it is a book on how neurodiverse children and families fit into the world. Its a commentary on society and where we fit into it. The author also gives us permission to make our own space, to take up space.
A lot of books about ND children reads like a list of all the ways you can get them to act like NT kids. This book teaches us how to make the world better for our kids. How to advocate, where to get extra information, how to protect them from a world that often seems bent on crushing them. A lot of (if not most) parents of ND children are ND themselves, and it is very hard to navigate the systems that we were forced to be molded by. I really appreicated that the author often spoke about her own struggles to be a voice for her children and how she has become better at it over the years.
The chapter on bullying was especially a chapter I needed to read. I have often struggled with this myself. I was bullied as a ND child, and my children have faced some of the same issues. It is impossible to fit in with NT people, no matter how hard you mask. The author has a lot of great advice about this which was a great help to me.
This book was given to me in exchange for my honest review.
A lot of books about ND children reads like a list of all the ways you can get them to act like NT kids. This book teaches us how to make the world better for our kids. How to advocate, where to get extra information, how to protect them from a world that often seems bent on crushing them. A lot of (if not most) parents of ND children are ND themselves, and it is very hard to navigate the systems that we were forced to be molded by. I really appreicated that the author often spoke about her own struggles to be a voice for her children and how she has become better at it over the years.
The chapter on bullying was especially a chapter I needed to read. I have often struggled with this myself. I was bullied as a ND child, and my children have faced some of the same issues. It is impossible to fit in with NT people, no matter how hard you mask. The author has a lot of great advice about this which was a great help to me.
This book was given to me in exchange for my honest review.
November 11, 2025
Katie Rose Guest Pryal is a fiercely passionate advocate for neurodiverse people. In Your Kid Belongs Here, she brings a rare and powerful combination of expertise, lived experience, and deep empathy to her storytelling.
Katie writes through multiple lenses—expert and advocate, parent and, at one time, a child who had to navigate a world that wasn’t built for her. This layered perspective allows her to speak directly to parents of neurodivergent children while also reaching anyone who’s ever felt unseen or misunderstood.
She has a remarkable knack for breaking down complex ideas in digestible, actionable ways that leave you feeling both understood and empowered—you walk away not only with insight, but with a sense of what to do next.
With clarity, compassion, and courage, Katie challenges us to expand our definitions of normal and to build spaces where every kind of brain can thrive. Your Kid Belongs Here is more than a guide—it’s a manifesto for love, inclusion, and the radical belief that every child deserves to belong.
Katie writes through multiple lenses—expert and advocate, parent and, at one time, a child who had to navigate a world that wasn’t built for her. This layered perspective allows her to speak directly to parents of neurodivergent children while also reaching anyone who’s ever felt unseen or misunderstood.
She has a remarkable knack for breaking down complex ideas in digestible, actionable ways that leave you feeling both understood and empowered—you walk away not only with insight, but with a sense of what to do next.
With clarity, compassion, and courage, Katie challenges us to expand our definitions of normal and to build spaces where every kind of brain can thrive. Your Kid Belongs Here is more than a guide—it’s a manifesto for love, inclusion, and the radical belief that every child deserves to belong.
May 17, 2026
"Your Kid Belongs Here" by Katie Pryal will speak to parents feeling alone in this journey of navigating school and life with neurodivergent kids. As a neurodivergent adult, the book didn't tell me anything I didn't already know from my own lived experiences. "Your Kid Belongs Here" might be best for extended families (grandparents and such) who don't quite get "it" yet. I think those with real life communities of ND adults and peers will not find new information or connection from this book. Thank you to Johns Hopkins University Press and Netgalley for this ARC.
February 2, 2026
Met this author and she is the real deal. Very readable book with lots of good advice
May 28, 2026
-2 stars for being so politically charged.
3 stars for great information on how to support our neurodivergent kids, spouses, and selves.
3 stars for great information on how to support our neurodivergent kids, spouses, and selves.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews