Books for Parents

Addressing the task of disciplining children ages 2 through 12 without arguing, yelling, or spanking, this audio program offers easy-to-follow steps to immediately manage troublesome behavior with reason, patience, and compassion. Parents and teachers learn how to encourage and respect childrens growing independence with 10 strategies for building self-esteem. Also discussed are the three most important qualities for parents or teachers to exhibit in order to foster competence in kids. Tips are included on how to prevent homework arguments, make mealtimes more enjoyable, conduct effective family meetings, and encourage children to start doing their household chores. An award-winning program discusses the importance of establishing and maintaining a home or classroom with fair and consistent discipline, this revised edition includes suggestions on how to avoid over-parenting, build childrens social skills, and apply the program within mental health agencies and classrooms.

Dr. Barkley has synthesized the work of the leading researchers in the field of ADHD and drawn on his vast professional and clinical experience to set forth a new model of the disorder which will benefit laypeople, parents, educators, scientists and medical practitioners. The book is well-organized, well-written and contains such a wealth of information that it is a veritable bible of ADHD. No parent, educator or clinician or adult ADHD sufferer should be without this book. It sheds new light on the disorder and explains many unanswered questions. We are greatly indebted to Dr. Barkley for his ongoing and dedicated work in the field. I highly recommend this book.

ADHD accounts for 30 to 40 percent of all referrals made to child guidance clinics, yet is one of the most controversial and difficult disorders to define. How is ADHD different in children and adults? What is the likelihood of recovery? Which treatment strategies are most effective? Get answers to these questions in minutes. Plus, review: ADHD symptoms at each developmental phase infancy to adulthood Genetic and neurological factors Observation assessment guidelines for children, adolescents, and adults Severity rating guidelines 6 psychotherapies most often used to treat ADHD Stimulant medications side-effect management, compliance issues, and contraindications Non-stimulant medication effectiveness Clinician FAQs about ADHD medications.

Written for parents and educators – especially those who live and work with gifted/high-ability children – the authors describe ways to develop children's natural abilities.

Introducing the "mystery" and "mastery" models of gifted education, they invite controversy by challenging several commonly held assumptions. They then present practical strategies to help parents and educators identify and nurture the abilities of children with high ability.

This book answers the charges that special programs for gifted children are elitist. The authors demonstrate that it is simply appropriate to provide educational experiences that each child needs at a particular time.

Features include:

"Mystery" and "Mastery" models Identification procedures
Learning issues
Programming options
Social and behavioral concerns
Teacher development processes
Gifted education trends
Parenting strategies

By: Margueritte Malone CCC-SLP (Leesburg, Va United States) – See all my reviews
As a parent, grandparent, and speech-language pathologist, I highly recommend this book on language and early literacy development. Mastrson and Apel have written an easy to read, fact filled book that will help parents and early childhood teachers understand the mystery of the greatest gift we have, in language and communication. The book gives excellent advice for parents and helps them understand how important early language development is to preventing reading failure. This is one of the best gifts for "parents-to-be" or new parents. I will use it in working with parents of pre-schoolers who have language delay and also share it with family members as well.

In social situations, certain children are more likely than others to be subject to emotional and physical harm by more aggressive children. Shyness, social anxiety, or a tendency to be withdrawn may underlie this socially vulnerability, as may awkwardness in social situations or an inclination to be impulsive or explosive. If your child struggles with any of these problems, there is much you can do to help him or her develop more effective social skills and learn to fit in better with peers.

In this book, the husband and wife team of Eisen and Engler provide you with a clinically proven set of coping tools and social-skill strategies you can tailor to your child's unique social and emotional needs. Use them to promote confidence, independence, and social ease in your child, whether in the classroom, on the playground, or at play in his or her peer group. As you help your child mange his or her emotions, you'll lay the groundwork for a more harmonious family life, better school adjustment, and ultimately, social success.

Eisen and Engler … speak from science and experience. Their case-study approach provides an exceptional framework to assist parents in seeing the world through the eyes of their struggling children and providing much needed guidance and support. I will recommend this book without reservation to all of the families I work with.
–Sam Goldstein, Ph.D., coauthor of Raising a Self-Disciplined Child

The book is filled with practical, easy-to-understand strategies that parents can use to help their socially vulnerable children fit in better with their peers. If your child is shy, withdrawn, impulsive, easily frustrated, or difficult to get along with, you should read this book!
–Martin M. Antony, Ph.D., ABPP, author of The Shyness and Social Anxiety Workbook

This book offers a model of classroom discourse analysis that uses systemic functional linguistic theory and associated genre theory to develop a view of classroom episodes as "curriculum genres", some of which operate in turn as part of larger unities of work called "curriculum macrogenres". Drawing on Bernstein's work, Christie argues that two registers operate in pedagogic discourse: a regulative register, to do with the goals and directions of the discourse; and an instructional register, to do with the particular "content" or knowledge at issue. Each can be shown to be realized in distinctive clusters of choices in the grammar. The operation of the regulative register determines the initiation, pacing, sequencing and evaluation of the overall pedagogic activity. It serves to draw various fields of experience and knowledge from beyond the school (the instructional register) and to "relocate" them for the purposes of teaching and learning. The book explores the model and demonstrates the methodology of school discourse analysis in considerable detail. The methodology is set out, explained and exemplified in selections of classroom texts, both spoken and written, and over a range of subject areas, that cover the years of schooling from the preparatory or kindergarten class to the secondary school. Overall, schools emerge as major sites of symbolic control in a culture.

Educational Leadership A fascinating exploration of today's much-deplored decline in school achievement….[Healy] clearly conveys the relationship between language, learning, and brain development, then explains why television viewing and present-day lifestyles sabotage language acquisition, thinking, and personal success. — Review

Louise Bates AmesGesell Institute of Human DevelopmentProvocative, scholarly, and timely. Society may actually be changing our children's brains for the worse.

Priscilla Vailauthor of Smart Kids with School ProblemsEndangered Minds is a masterly blend of scientific knowledge, educational expertise, psychological insight, and common sense….Jane Healy sounds warnings we should all heed, and offers priorities and strategies compatible with the nature of childhood and the flowering of intellect.

Educational Leadership fascinating exploration of today's much-deplored decline in school achievement….[Healy] clearly conveys the relationship between language, learning, and brain development, then explains why television viewing and present-day lifestyles sabotage language acquisition, thinking, and personal success.

Homework can be one of the most frustrating of all problem areas for children and parents. In this helpful guide, Rosemond warns against parental interference and demonstrates ways to help children learn to work on their own and to take responsibility for getting the work done themselves.

This important book is a welcome addition to the growing (and long overdue) debate about how much of a good thing it is to mix computers and children.

Healy is a professional educator of wide experience, and a recovering techno-fundamentalist. She is scrupulously fair about the evidence presented in various studies on the ways computers help or hinder learning, and quick to offer positive anecdotes where there are positive ones to be had. (She freely notes, for example, what a miracle computers have been for some handicapped children.) But her conclusions about the routine use of computer technology in the classroom are overwhelmingly–and persuasively–negative.

A major theme of Failure to Connect is the federal government's culpable idiocy (not her term, but she implies as much) in jumping uncritically, to the tune of $4 billion a year, on the "computer in every classroom" bandwagon. As she shows, there is scant evidence that computers teach basic skills any better than traditional methods, or that children who don't have computers are somehow "left behind." Conversely, there is abundant evidence that an uncritical infatuation with computers as an educational panacea is replacing skill building and learning with formless play while forcing art and music lessons, and in some cases math textbooks, off many school budgets.

Healy writes lucidly, neatly balancing her discussion of the issues with practical, undogmatic advice for parents and educators. A sober and sobering read about a crucial issue. –Richard Farr –This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Greenspan outlines the six stages of emotional growth in early childhood and explores the ways in which they are communicated, emphasizing parental interaction as the key to a child's healthy, emotional maturation.

This book provides a collection of practical, easy-to-follow tips and activities to help kids with various types of fears, anxieties and phobias. The first section of the book includes insights, hints and suggestions for helping professionals and parents who are working to help kids learn to cope with their anxiety and stress. The second section is for kids themselves. It includes stories, activities and suggestions that can help kids face such fears as:

- Sleeping alone
- Monsters
- School Phobias
- Bullies
- The Dark
- Test Anxiety
- Germs/Sickness
- Terrorism
- Separating from Trusted Adults
- Being Overwhelmed (too much to do)

Tip Frank is a Licensed Professional Counselor working as a school counselor and also in private practice. He is also a much sought after motivational speaker. His practice specializes in play therapy for children and adolescents. Tip has been collecting ideas and special activities throughout his career on motivating young people and working effectively with ODD/ADD and other high-risk children and adolescents. Tip has written 6 nationally recognized books.

Renowned and respected family psychologist John Rosemond blames child-centered parenting books from recent decades for creating a generation of dependent, often defiant children. He sets the record straight in The New Six-Point Plan for Raising Happy, Healthy Children, an updated version of his highly successful book published more than fifteen years ago.

Booms in technology and mass media have created significant changes in society in the last two decades. The text in this revised book has been thoroughly updated to reflect today's society, yet the foundation of Rosemond's timeless and effective approach remains constant. He encourages families to return to tried-and-true, fundamental parenting truths that people did naturally before the "new science of parenting":

Parents aren't their children's friends; they are their leaders. Parents are at the center of a family¿not kids. Your marriage must come before your children.Each chapter includes easy-to-relate-to questions from parents, which Rosemond answers with both common sense and a sense of humor. For families feeling overwhelmed by competing advice about parenting, this book will ground them with logical, proven approaches to the most significant challenges parents face today. From issues such as self-esteem and discipline to television and chores, this straightforward guidance will facilitate a return to parent-centered families where children are raised into responsible adults.

John Rosemond is a family psychologist, author of ten parenting best-sellers, and a syndicated columnist appearing weekly in more than 200 American newspapers. He is the executive director of the Center for Affirmative Parenting in Gastonia, N.C. His credentials include a 37-year marriage, two happily married children, and six well-behaved grandchildren.

A child psychologist emphasizes the importance of understanding–understanding a parent's task and a child's breakthrough–during a difficult time in childhood development. By the author of Parent Power! Original.

About the Author
John Rosemond is a family psychologist who has both directed mental health programs and been in full-time private practice working with families and children. Since 1990, he has devoted his time to speaking and writing. John's weekly syndicated parenting column now appears in some 250 newspapers. Along the way, he's also managed to write eleven bestselling books on parenting and the family. As if that wasn't enough, he is one of the busiest and most popular speakers in his field, giving over 200 talks a year to parent and professional groups nationwide. He and his wife of 39 years, Willie, have two grown children and six well-behaved grandchildren.

Mindset is "an established set of attitudes held by someone," says the Oxford American Dictionary. It turns out, however, that a set of attitudes needn't be so set, according to Dweck, professor of psychology at Stanford. Dweck proposes that everyone has either a fixed mindset or a growth mindset. A fixed mindset is one in which you view your talents and abilities as… well, fixed. In other words, you are who you are, your intelligence and talents are fixed, and your fate is to go through life avoiding challenge and failure. A growth mindset, on the other hand, is one in which you see yourself as fluid, a work in progress. Your fate is one of growth and opportunity. Which mindset do you possess? Dweck provides a checklist to assess yourself and shows how a particular mindset can affect all areas of your life, from business to sports and love. The good news, says Dweck, is that mindsets are not set: at any time, you can learn to use a growth mindset to achieve success and happiness. This is a serious, practical book. Dweck's overall assertion that rigid thinking benefits no one, least of all yourself, and that a change of mind is always possible, is welcome. (On sale Feb. 28)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Yale neuroscientist Shaywitz demystifies the roots of dyslexia (a neurologically based reading difficulty affecting one in five children) and offers parents and educators hope that children with reading problems can be helped. Shaywitz delves deeply into how dyslexia occurs, explaining that magnetic resonance imaging has helped scientists trace the disability to a weakness in the language system at the phonological level. According to Shaywitz, science now has clear evidence that the brain of the dyslexic reader is activated in a different area than that of the nonimpaired reader. Interestingly, the dyslexic reader may be strong in reasoning, problem solving and critical thinking, but invariably lacks phonemic awareness-the ability to break words apart into distinct sounds-which is critical in order to crack the reading code. The good news, Shaywitz claims, is that with the use of effective training programs, the brain can be rewired and dyslexic children can learn to read. She walks parents through ways to help children develop phonemic awareness, become fluent readers, and exercise the area of the brain essential for reading success. Early diagnosis and effective treatment, the author claims, are of utmost importance, although even older readers can learn to read skillfully with proper intervention. Shaywitz's groundbreaking work builds an important bridge from the laboratory to the home and classroom.

John Rosemond is the dean of traditional, non-psychological parenting. Now, the author of nine best-selling books on raising children has combined his two most successful volumes into a single revised and updated edition for new parents – and those who need new ideas. John Rosemond's New Parent Power!, presents the renowned family psychologist's complete philosophy and methodology from the original Parent Power! supported by the details of his Six-Point Plan For Raising Happy, Healthy Children. As always, Rosemond delivers with a highly readable and refreshing tone, urging parents to listen to their hearts and their gut.

This book gives parents an insiders look at how the selection process for special programs really works. It answers questions such as how schools identify gifted students and who gets tested and why. It also discusses the question of whether gifted classes are right for your child. It reveals what the signs of giftedness are and why every parent should recognize the signs of this as well as learning disabilities. This book presents the common discussion of what an IQ score means and if there is a down side to having a high IQ, and if there are special programs available for bright kids with learning disabilities. This book is a must for all parents and grandparents.

From the Publisher
Parents' Guide to IQ Testing and Gifted Education is the only book written specifically for parents who need to understand gifted testing and gifted programming so that they can make informed decisions for their children.

If your child is being tested for a gifted program, or if you're just trying to understand what gifted education is all about, you need information. In fact, when it comes to making educational placement decisions for your child you should know as much as teachers, principals, school psychologists, or anyone else.

This book gives those with little or no background in IQ testing and gifted education a close look at how the system of screening, testing, and programming really works. This is where you'll find the direct answers and specific advice you need to make the right decisions for your child.

In this book you'll find straight forward answers to the questions parents ask most…

• Who gets tested and why?
• Are gifted programs right for my child?
• What are the potential drawbacks to a gifted placement?
• What are the signs of giftedness and why should I know?
• What do IQ tests measure?
• What do IQ scores mean?
• How do learning problems like ADHD affect IQ scores?
• Are IQ scores always accurate?
• What score is needed for placement in a gifted program?
• Do all districts use these same cut-off scores?
• Are there circumstances where a child should be tested before starting school?
• Why is my high-achieving child not being considered for the gifted program?
• If my child is tested again in a year or two, is the score likely to be the same?
• I don't think the score is accurate. Should I get a second opinion?
• How much will it cost to get a private assessment?
• Who is qualified to administer IQ tests and how do I find them?
• What kind of IQ test should I ask for?
• Is there a downside to having a high IQ?
• Why do some kids with high IQ's seem to have social problems?
• What does "optimal IQ" mean?
• What special programs are available for bright kids with learning problems?

…And much more

Some bright or gifted kids can reach their full potential in a regular school program – but some need a different kind of learning experience to blossom.

Schools recognize this. So do parents, researchers, and specialists who advocate for this sometimes overlooked group.

If you think you have one of these kids, you need to get informed so that you can find the support your child needs.

Raising Lifelong Learners: A Parent's Guide is a vital book for parents. Beginning with talk as the foundation of literacy, and emphasizing the importance of listening to and speaking with children, Lucy Calkins, longtime education specialist, then moves into the stages of reading and writing: how to recognize an emergent reader, how to foster a young author, and how to encourage a love of books and reading through your own interest and modeling. Additional chapters deal with math, science, and social studies.

Calkin's text is accompanied by extensive appendices by Lydia Bellino, focusing on the role of schools in a child's literacy, including how to pick a preschool or kindergarten, testing and assessment issues, and working together with your child's teachers. Raising Lifelong Learners illuminates the process by which parents can celebrate and support children's skills as readers, writers, and lifelong learners in all fields. –This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Today's parents are increasingly concerned about the reading and spelling skills taught in schools and are taking charge of their children's education. Full of ideas and suggestions­­–from innovative preschool exercises to techniques that older children can use to increase reading speed and comprehension–­­Straight Talk About Reading will instantly help any parent lay a solid foundation for their child's formative educational years.

A step-by-step approach to handling teenagers, this guide helps parents end the hassles and improve their parent-teenager relationship. Parents learn how to communicate with teenagers, how to manage teenage risk-taking, how to "let go" in certain situations, and when to seek professional attention. Concise and encouraging, this resource walks parents through the ups-and-downs of parenting teenagers as their kids push towards independence.

Most children fall into five basic personality types that stem from inborn physical characteristics: the sensitive child, the self-absorbed child, the defiant child, the inattentive child, and the active/aggressive child. Stanley Greenspan, M.D., is the first to show parents how to match their parenting to the challenges of their particular child. He identifies and vividly describes these five universal temperaments and then, with great empathy, shows parents how each of these children actually experiences the world and how to use daily childrearing to enhance an individual child's strengths and talents.

Covering all kinds of disabilities–including cerebral palsy, autism, retardation, ADD, and language problems–this comprehensive guide offers parents specific ways of helping all special needs children reach their full intellectual and emotional potential.

Nature or nurture. One of the most intense debates in understanding the development of the human mind is whether cognitive ability is based in genetics or developed through learning experiences. While biology clearly plays a part, recent neuroscience research shows that the interactions experienced during infancy and childhood can actually change the physical structure and wiring of the brain.

Does this mean many children with developmental and learning disorders–such as autism, PDD, language and speech problems, ADD, Down syndrome and others–can make greater progress than previously thought? The pioneering work of Stanley Greenspan and Serena Wieder strongly supports this prospect.

The newly revised and updated fifth edition of The Read-Aloud Handbook by Jim Trelease uses his trademark Q&A format to address such issues as television, library funding and the Harry Potter phenomenon. A "Treasury of Read-Alouds" in the back of the book suggests starting points for parents.