Developmental-disabilities Books

This book was okay, but the process really didn't help with our child's depression.

Coping with a depressed teen is difficult for many parents to accept, but not dealing with it can lead to behavioral problems, the need for therapy or hospitalization - even the chilling but all-too-common outcome of suicide. Although they rarely acknowledge it, teens do greatly depend on their parents for support. Studies show that when parents are closely involved during therapy and professional treatment the results improve dramatically. This book supplies valuable information and advice, and outlines a concise, problem-solving plan of action that could make a big difference in kids' lives. The authors begin by explaining the difference between sadness and depression, relating real-life case studies of various types of depression, and including exercises and check lists to help readers make determinations and record progress. They continually stress the importance of family interaction and communication, describing the "family circle" concept and suggesting how to develop healthy patterns. Always stressing that families need to "label" and discuss depression, and that is nothing to be ashamed of, the authors give suggestions for coping with challenges that can occur at school and with friends. They also offer tips on medications and their affects, and how to deal with crises that may arise during treatment. This is an important, helpful book, especially in these fast-paced and confusing times. While debates rage about treatments and the safety of new anti-depressant drugs, this book stands out as a compassionate, valuable resource for parents and kids - some of whom are battling to survive.

This book was heavy on educational and psychological jargon and short on new ideas. Granted that there isn't a large body of knowledge on NLD, but this book doesn't seem to address anything that hasn't been covered by other authors.

A very easy and short book that is packed with tons of information on nonverbal learning disorders. If you have a child with this disability, you will know that not much information is known about this in the educational setting. I highly recommend this book to parents whose children have been recently diagnosed with this disorder. It's very frustrating when the people that can help your child most don't have a clue how to. It's a great book to give to educators in your school. I thank the author one hundred times over. This book was a lifesaver.

After one reads Sternberg and Grigorenko's OUR LABELED CHILDREN, one gets the impression that the hope of future readers is tainted with the muck of politics and scientific research that barely stratches the surface of reading and learning. In the style of Gerald Coles (READING LESSONS), the authors of this book attempt to question increasing trends of labeling children as having learning disabilities by showing how educational practices, sociological pressures, and political and cultural values create a situation where professionals label students with having a sometimes-mythical learning disability.

Where Sternberg and Grigorenko fall short is about halfway through this text. The writing is convincing, and the evidence is plentiful; however, the authors shift in their attempt to reform by depending on scientific "brain" research that tells us less than we can infer from evidence in the classroom. Then, the sales pitch begins. Just when you think the authors are making a case for reformation in the classroom, they hold tight to the phonics-first approach to reading instruction. Compared to Magaret Moustafa's BEYOND TRADITIONAL PHONICS, Sternberg and Grigorenko follow an opposite path, which, in my opinion, does not fully realize the efforts and skills of beginning readers, or what kind of instruction they need.

The beginning of this book sets up some interesting and enlightening arguments against the current system. The authors, then, discredit themsleves in the latter part of the book by using scientific evidence that does not quite reach the standard that the authors, themselves, demand. Be critical when reading this book because there are some great ideas and some not-so-great ideas.

Sternberg has done a good job on different levels in this book. It's very readable and interesting. The only boring part of the book (and unconvincing to me) is the chapter on biological differences among the brains of people who have an LD. There's simply too many kids diagnosed with an LD to fit everyone under one causation.

Sternberg talks about the culture of LD, the politics of being labeled "LD", the dangers of using discrepancy formulas for assessment, and effective pedagogical intervention. This is not an "anti-LD" book; instead Sternberg strikes me like Dr. Diller (author of Running on Ritalin) as a "radical moderate."

The concept that teens have exchanged "Rites of Passage" for "Safe Passage" is on the money in so many ways. I would have liked the book to explore that concept more. As a teen worker the programs highlighted had a rather "institutional" feel to them. I think there are many more creative and innovative ways to approach serving teens. Maybe the next installment should interview the newer (younger) breed of teen worker.

In this comprehensive text, Ms. Dryfoos defines, describes, and details what a "safe passage" means for at-risk children. I found this book inspirational because the reader is given real examples of communities and schools that successfully created safe environments for adolescents. The reader learns that a child needs this healthy environment at the beginning of life until he or she grows into a successful young adult.

As I continued reading, I found the information a bit overwhelming. There are so many programs for youth that work and don't work and resources to support the communities that support the youth. Where does one begin to make a difference in the life of a trouble teen?

The author explains that providing safe-havens for at-risk youth takes individuals, families, schools, and communities. It is a process that not only takes time and patience, but financial support to thrive. Read this book and find out how you can make a difference!

My son was diagnosed with ADHD in kindergarden. He was on medication until after I read this book when he was in third grade. This book has been a godsend. We use the techiques in the book, and he has been on the A/B honor roll for the last 3 years. His self-esteem and self-control has improved greatly. He consistently thinks before he acts. I would recommend this book to anyone with a child with ADHD, and I have recommended it to many of my students' parents

I have read over 15 books on ADD/ADHD and Ritalin and this one stands out. ADD/ADHD is mostly an utterly criminal myth perpetuated by pharmaceutical industries who look at your child as nothing more than an annuity stream, social workers looking for a new revenue stream, the educational system who believes the ideal student is the stoned, silent, lethargic student, and parents who swallow this line hook, line and sinker because they are looking to rationalize why little Johnny is driving them nuts and looking for a simple solution ("just a pill a day and all your problems go away...") and the publishing business (An amazon search on "ADD" turned up 6,500+ hits; You tell me this isn't an industry).

Did you know Ritalin is an amphetamine? Does anyone see the irony in pushing amphetamines to 5 year olds while arresting 15 year olds that take them?

Are you aware there has not been a single, FDA approved study on Ritalin and young children?

Are you aware that there are more diagnoses of ADD/ADHD each year than there are cancer, heart attacks, lung cancer, breast cancer, etc. COMBINED !!!! There is medical consensus on what causes all those things yet there is no consensus on exactly what ADD/ADHD is, no consensus on its cause, no consensus on what area of the brain is impacted, in short, no consensus on anything about ADD/ADHD, which should be the biggest red flag. When there is no facts, but plenty of opinions, you need to ask yourself it its even real in the first place. This book's first few chapters explore the facts and myths around ADD/ADHD. You owe it to your children to educate yourself before you become just another pusher.

Probably less than 5% of children diagnosed as ADD/ADHD warrant medication. The other 95% are pawns in a multi-billion dollar game. This book recommends some simple yet efective - and amphetamine free - parenting strategies that address the behavior patterns that cause children to get labelled ADD/ADHD. You owe it to your children to try these before you become just another drug pusher.

The sheer numbers of diagnoses and the sheer numbers of kids on ADD/ADHD meds scares the bejeezus out of me. It just doesn't make rational sense to me that these 'diseases' could appear out of nowhere in such numbers. Somebody has to stand up and question the road that ADD/ADHD adherents are leading our society down before we turn into a nation of pill-popping fools.
My 5 year old was labeled with ADHD. Nothing any of the professionals said could rationally explain to me how it was that my thoughtful, loving, intelligent but energetic kid could suddenly turn into this horror of a wild being the moment he stepped foot into their classroom that they claimed. It made no sense to me.
I am a good parent. Consistent and clear. Patient. Praising, but using consequences. All those things you should do. But Dr. Stein provided guidelines for another whole level of interaction that I could use with my son that brought results! And no, I did not feel invalidated or insulted as some reviewers did. Dr. Stein isn't saying 'you are a bad parent' -- he's saying, 'there's more you can do, and here's how'.

I highly recommend this book to any parent that is seeking an alternative to medications. Give the parenting guidelines an honest and sincere try and see if you don't get good results.

I read many of the reviews of this book before I made my purchase. In reading this and many other ADHD books, I agree that for a successful life, one must learn to control one's behavior or be eaten alive by society in one way, shape or form.

The strict disciplinary tact outlined by this book has helped tremendously in curbing my 6 year old's impulsive behaviors. The understanding of the use of affirmative and positive reinforcement as well as "boredom" as a consequence has truly helped our son as well as our parental sanity. This book may not be for everybody - but it is a Godsend for our family.

I am what most people would call ADD. I call it being me. I've read at least 20 different books on this subject and other books too that seem to touch on the subject such as "The Difficult Child" and I think (not sure if exact) the "Out of Sync Child". My son threw me for a loop with his personality. I've come to realize that he has a lot of my personality traits and has the mixture of male tendencies on top of that. He has the focusing problems at school and is my more emotional child. I've noticed that as he has gotten older outbursts are less. But I learned a long time ago to be firm with him. I'm just not firm to the degree that I should be. I knew that before I got the book. I had read it before, but forgotten about it. After checking it out again from the library and reading it, I decided to buy it and try it.

I don't condemn anyone who decides to give their child medication. I am just very careful of what is put into the body either mentally or physically.

There are so many different factors involved in why a child acts out. There are food allergies/sensitivities that run in families. Sometimes environmental sensitivities are present. Then you have class size, and the possibility of teacher and student conflicting personalities. Sometimes a learning disability such as dyslexia is present. That's just a few reasons and there are so many more.

I LOVE science but sometimes logic isn't used by scientists.
If something is a THEORY, then it means it is an educated guess. After reading some of the Drug Information Inserts, I discovered that a lot of time (whether for prescription drugs or over the counter ones), the scientists aren't sure how the drug works. They simply state how they BELIEVE it works. Read the wording sometime. You may have to ask for the drug information insert because they don't include them with prescription drugs. Basically it is assumed if the drug creates the effect wanted, then it probably works in the way that their theory suggests. Everyone's body is different and they cannot predict how your specific body will react.

Your sleep, diet, exercise, food, and your thoughts affect your brain chemicals. I know that has been proven.

After observing the side effects of antidepressants and other researched drugs on loved ones, friends, and other people, I just don't have a clear conscience about giving my son a drug for ADD. The drug is one THEORY that I'm not willing to try until I've tried other THEORIES, including the one in this book.

No one is perfect including scientists and doctors. Ultimately, the parent is the one who is responsible for their child. It is a awesome responsibility that overwhelms you at times. You have to take time to get to the root of your child's problems. Then you have to take time to deal with the it. There is never overnight answers or solutions. Also, you have to train kids to be independent and mature, or you and they will live with more regrets than any of you want.

I know that with me, I make my own choices and I have to be responsible for the consequences good or bad. I don't expect my son to be perfect. I just want him to grow up to be the well-rounded responsible adult that he needs to be. I think that with the approach from this book, my children and I will learn better new habits and drop bad old ones.

DiLeo appears to have enjoyed writing this book. I wish I could say the same about reading it. In looking for a source to help in assessing children, I found this book diagnostically and theoretically, garbage

This is an extremely expensive for what you get. The entire book took only an hour to read as most of it is illustration. I found the information to be outdated. Many of the theories have changed in the last 5 years. There is some "food for thought" but seemed mainly like common sense to me. I would check the local library prior to purchase.

Although the book is almost 300 pages, most of it is full-page illustrations and white space. I learned only a little bit, but that was because it took only a few hours to read the book.

I would advise obtaining a copy through your local library or through interlibrary loan, but not spending too much money on buying a copy.

While you're at it, get 0876308337 and 0876300549.

If you view this writing as a catalyst to ponder using your own experiences to interpret, like an experienced counselor would do, and not approach the reading as an end-all resource, you will find correlations and new thoughts devloping a deeper insight into the minds and emotions of children

You would think that helping those with special developmental needs is a no-brainer. Often though, it takes intuition, persistence and a passionate resolve to cut through institutional red tape and push through the social barriers that stand in the way of bringing resources to those in need.

"The Willowbrook Wars" is an extraordinary, historical account of people in the vanguard of reform. It is their story and it is compelling.

Throughout "The Willowbrook Wars," we are reminded that everyone has a right to respect and inclusion in his or her own community. This belief is as important today as it was thirty years ago. Today, costs of care are rising and fiscal resources are being diverted from social healthcare programs, so there is a natural, bureaucratic tendency to do the `cost effective' thing. But `entitlement' is not a dirty word; it's a hard-won right.

"The Willowbrook Wars" shares the struggles and joys of people with
intellectual and developmental disabilities, their families and advocates. For anyone in the field, this is a must-read.

Maybe some people would like to know some of the specifics of Willowbrook? If so, this book might provide some insight into the movement called deinstitutionalization.

This is a horribly cliched and trite book.

Liberal activist do-good trial lawyers save the world. Mentally retarded living in their own feces, chained to the walls. Hell on earth!

Who comes in on the white horse to save the day? Why the class-action liberal trial lawyer of course!

Yeah for the liberal trial lawyers. Yeah for the crusading journalist who exposed this horror. Boo for the mean evil bureaucrats! Boo for the currupt and inept politicans!

This is an endless stories told by many liberals 60's do-gooders themselves. Ahhh, if only the world was like it was back then. If only the courts were so friendly to righting the wrongs as they were then. If only Bush wasn't in office.... Wait, I digress.

And the Rothmans are liberal do-gooders. David sits on the board of George Soros's foundation (does it get any more liberal and biased these days?!?) and once was on the Board of the ACLU. Sheila is one of the travel-loving Human Rights type (human rights activist just another phrase for someone who loves to travel to exotic places and get other people to pick up the tab). She works on projecs with phrases like the "Socially Disadvanted" and worries about "the poor" from her Ivory Tower perch at Columbia.

Look, this is a badly written, highly cliched, highly biased book.

If you want to read something good on a topic like this, at least spend your money on something well writeen:

Simple Justice by Richard Kluger
Buffalo Creek Disaster by Gerald Stern
A Civil Action by Jonathan Harr
Gideon's Trumpet by Anthony Lewis
The Other Side of the River by Alex Kotlowitz
The Lost Children of Wilder by Nina Bernstein

Just read anything but this.

Wish I had seen this book when our daughter was born. This covers every angle of Down Syndrome and has entries at every level from the anecdote to the academic paper. A wealth of bibliographic info for more research. What I liked most was the overwhelmingly positive tone of all the information.

... this is a great book that Ihighly recommend.

I haven't read the book yet, but please tell the editor that DS is *NOT* a disease! It is a disorder. Please correct this mistake in her paragraph! Thank you.

I was actually quite disappointed in this book. I have really liked other books by this author in the past, but this one is more like an etiquette book than anything else, just a list of rules, and that is not what Asperger's kids need. Certainly there are some good points in the book, and Asperger's kids do need more reminders, but the presentation style is not especially effective. The idea of using cards perhaps has some merit, but on the whole I think the similar book by Dr. Jed Baker (The Picture Book of Social Stories, or something like that) does a better job of helping Asperger's kids make sense of social situations.

If you are the sort of person who responds well to a rigourous, structured, self disciplined approach to things then you'll probably like this. Personally, I'm not that sort of person and I got tired just reading it.

The author says "THIS BOOK CAN HELP YOU CHANGE THE COURSE OF YOUR LIFE". What follows is a series of short tips and advice about everyday things and getting practice relating to others. It probably won't change your life.

It's a nice little book though with much that is positive and helpful to say and a very nice section on the science behind defining Aspergers which I found very interesting.

This book is excellent -- gives great tips and tricks on how to write IEP goals, etc. A must-read.

This book gives basic information for those just beginning to deal with schools and IEP's. I found some outright wrong information regarding IDEA and provision of services. (She stated that a school has a right to deny services based on their budget considerations, which is false.) I am disappointed in this book, as I truly found her other book, Incorporating Social Goals in the Classroom: A Guide for Teachers and Parents of Children with High-Functioning Autism and Asperger Syndrome, to be very useful.