Quirky Catholic Kids: Navigating Neurodivergence with Faith and Joy

Quirky kids are more: more intense, more active, more emotive, and more sensitive — as much a parent’s or educator’s greatest challenge as they are their greatest joy. In Quirky Catholic Kids, Ginny Kochis explores the complex journey of parenting and educating “outside-the-box,” neurodivergent children — that is, those whose brains receive, process, and express information in unconventional ways — sharing her authentic, often vulnerable, experience as a parent and educator alongside faith-filled strategies designed to help families thrive.

Drawing from scientific research, psychology, and her own personal faith journey, Kochis shows you how to turn hurdles into stepping stones of hope. You’ll learn effective approaches for processing the challenges, fears, and frustrations common in neurodivergent family life, affording you and your children powerful techniques for gaining trust and perseverance in the valleys. You’ll also discover:

• Methods for channeling child behaviors, such as hyperfocusing, to make them fruitful
• Step-by-step advice on how to respond to meltdowns and help children regulate their emotions
• How to develop social skills through games, role-playing, and stories
• Tips on fostering executive functioning skills and navigating difficulties with eating and sleeping
• Five ways to evaluate whether inappropriate behavior is a matter of discipline or development
• Ways to strike a balance with your child’s daily use of screen time
• Guides for effective faith formation and parent-child interactions

Through the words of Scripture and intercessory prayers of the saints, you will also learn how to combat negative self-talk, grow in temperance yourself, and share these tools with others. Kochis includes several quirky saint examples, such as Carlo Acutis, Dymphna, Joseph of Cupertino, Ignatius of Loyola, Christina the Astonishing, and Servant of God Leonie Martin. A special appendix highlights the talents and struggles of one hundred saints to help you prayerfully discern your child’s patron.  This invaluable resource also includes best practices for helping your family grow in faith, especially during times when your child is struggling.

Quirky Catholic Kids will help you find peace of heart, an anchor in the storm, and the tools you need to support your unique, unrepeatable children. You will see how, by accepting and celebrating God’s loving plan for your neurodivergent family, you and your children won’t just survive — you’ll bloom.

8.5 x 5.5 x .625 inches. Paperback. 208 pages.