Concord Special Education Parent Advisory Committee

(Concord SPED PAC)

Welcome to Concord SPED PAC Amazon logo Bookstore

Member's Recommend Books

Selected books of interest, recommended by Special Educational parents.   The Concord SPED PAC will receive 15% of the selling price of each book you buy from our page.  If you buy multiple books, etc. we only receive a referral fee for the book you purchase directly from our pages.  We are a non-profit organization and use the money from the books to help fund this website.  We thank you for your support.

Search:
Keywords:
In Association with Amazon.com

Page Index
 Click on the disablity you are interested in, and it will take you to that place on the page.
Learning Issues Section

No Mind Left Behind: Understanding and Fostering Executive Control new tag

Executive skills in Education

Executive Skills in Children and Adolescents

The Myth of Laziness 
    
A Mind at a Time

Keeping a Head in School

When You Worry About the Child You Love 

Smart Kids With School Problems
Reading Issues Section

Parenting a Struggling Reader

Straight Talk About Reading 

Preventing Reading Difficulties in Young Children

Phonemic Awareness in Young Children

Overcoming Dyslexia
This page includes recommend books on Learning and Reading Issues, click on the topic, to take you to that place on the page.

For books on Advocacy, and  Parenting Difficult & Defiant Children

For books on disabilities, click here

Learning issues

No Mind Left Behind: Understanding and Fostering Executive Control-
                      -The Eight Essential Brain Skills Every Child Needs to Thrive
New tag
by Dr. Adam J. Cox (2007)
Click on cover to order
Exec Func in Ed book cover

Hardcover
288 pages
1st edition
Perigee Trade 0399533591
From Publishers Weekly:
Clinical psychologist Cox's new work is a helpful, if incomplete, guide for anyone who work with children and teenagers, based on what he terms "Factor Ex," "shorthand for the eight pillars of executive control." These eight "thinking skills" are inherently worthy qualities: initiation (the ability to get started on a task), flexibility, attention, organization, planning, working memory (aka short-term memory), self-awareness and emotional regulation (maintaining a sense of "proportion" in one's feelings). Cox devotes a chapter to each skill, explaining clearly what it is, how adults can recognize their child's ability in each and helpful strategies for eliciting improvement. Situation-specific examples are extremely effective, giving readers a concrete sense of each skill's import, and what specifically one can say or do to help develop it. However, Cox's expectations for his charges are extremely high, suggesting that his methods will produce children capable "in multiple environments-on the football field and practicing piano; in the SAT prep course and socializing at the prom"; such a broad spectrum of confidence is a lot to promise, and for many people-let alone children-nearly impossible to achieve. Though he makes occasional nods to the idea of childhood as something other than a prep-for-success regimen, Cox's calls for "wiggle room" could be more insistent and involved; as it is, he leaves the kids little room for self-discovery and simple play.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
  Return to Top
Executive Function in Education: From Theory to Practice
by Lynn Meltzer, plus a whole list of researchers and practitioners from education, neuroscience, and psychology (2007) New tag
Click on cover to order
Exec Func in Ed book cover

Hardcover
320 pages
1st edition
Guilford Press 1593854285
This book brings together leading researchers and practitioners from education, neuroscience, and psychology. It presents a theoretical framework for understanding executive function difficulties together with a range of effective approaches to assessment and instruction. It  describes executive function processes in specific disorders: Learning Disabilites (LD), Language-Based Learning Disabilities (LBLD), Nonverbal Learning Disabilities (NVLD), and Autism spectrum disorders, as well as ways to support all students in developing vital skills for self-directed learning. Specific teaching methods are discussed for reading, writing, and math. Scholarly and authoritative yet highly practical, the book provides guidelines for intervening at the level of the individual child, the classroom, and the entire school.
  Return to Top
Executive Skills in Children and Adolescents: A Practical Guide to Assessment and Intervention
by Peg Dawson and Richard Guare (2004) New tag
Click on cover to order
Executive Function book cover
Paperback 
129 pages 
Guilford Press
1572309288
The concept of executive functioning, by research in neuropsychology, provides new ways of viewing children's strengths and weaknesses.   This book covers in detail and has multiple examples of interventions, including environmental modifications, interventions addressing specific executive skills, coaching, and whole class strategies. These interventions are not only based on solid research support but also have the added advantage of being practical and feasible for teachers and parents to use on a regular basis. There are several examples are provided to aid readers in understanding the the number of assessments and treatments, and many helpful handouts facilitate implementation.    The back of book are checklists for specific guidance for informed professional practices.
  Return to Top
The Myth of Laziness 
by Mel Levine (2002)
Click on cover to order
Myth of Laziness book cover
Paperback 
352 pages 
1st edition 
Simon & Schuster
074321367X
Levine isolates another group of kids--so-called "lazy" children who aren’t working up to their potential in school--and explores the causes of their low performance. Levine scoffs at the perception that any child is lazy, stating that "everybody yearns to be productive." These children, according to Levine, are simply experiencing "output failure" due to different neuro-developmental weaknesses.

Levine produces case studies of seven children and adults who have been labeled lazy and identifies internal sources that are undermining their production. Many of their output issues revolve around difficulties with writing, as is the case with Russell, who is hindered by his low motor skills, or Clint, whose long-term memory lapses prevent him from expressing himself well. Other weaknesses, such as poor oral language ability, mental energy dysfunction, poor idea generation, and organizational problems, plague the individuals in these case studies. Levine talks briefly about external factors that contribute to low output, such as socioeconomic background, family life, and negative role models. In the profile for Scott Murray, Levine even has the humility to admit that he was unable to reach this young man. External influences—-namely, Scott’s privileged upbringing-—were too pervasive in causing his output failure.

The last few chapters are devoted to suggestions for what parents and teachers can do to foster productive output in their children and students and how to detect a problem that is internal rather than environmental. Tips on how to cultivate writing skills, set up an organized home office, and assist with homework are aimed at parents while teachers are encouraged to consider individuality among their students’ learning styles. Finally, the appendices offer two worksheets to help students plan stories and reports. Two additional worksheets help pinpoint whether output problems are the cause of poor schoolwork. This is a valuable book that will give parents some guidance in solving their children’s productivity issues and preparing their children successfully for adulthood. --Cristina Vaamonde
 Return to Top
A Mind at a Time
by Mel Levine (2002)
Click on cover to order
A Mind At A Time
Paperback 
352 pages 
1st edition 
Simon & Schuster
0743202228 
Recognizing each child's intellectual, emotional, and physical strengths--and teaching directly to these strengths--is key to sculpting "a mind at a time," according to Dr. Mel Levine. While this flashing yellow light will not surprise many skilled educators, limited resources often prevent them from shifting their instructional gears. But to teachers and parents whose children face daily humiliation at school, the author bellows, "Try harder!" A professor of pediatrics at the University of North Carolina Medical School, Levine eloquently substantiates his claim that developmental growth deserves the same monitoring as a child's physical growth.

Tales of creative, clumsy, impulsive, nerdy, intuitive, loud-mouthed, and painfully shy kids help Levine define eight specific mind systems (attention, memory, language, spatial ordering, sequential ordering, motor, higher thinking, and social thinking). Levine also incorporates scientific research to show readers how the eight neurodevelopmental systems evolve, interact, and contribute to a child's success in school. Detailed steps describe how mental processes (like problem solving) work for capable kids, and how they can be finessed to serve those who struggle. Clear, practical suggestions for fostering self-monitoring skills and building self-esteem add the most important elements to this essential--yet challenging--program for "raisin' brain." --Liane Thomas

  Return to Top
Keeping a Head in School:  A Student's Book  - About Learning Abilities and Learning Disorders
by Mel Levine (1990)
Click on cover to order
  Keeping A Head in School cover
Paperback 
297 pages 
Educators Publishing Service
0838820697
 
This book is for students (age 9 to 15) about how we learn and the causes of learning problems. Dr. Levine, demystifies learning disorders for students affected by them. It helps students with learning disablities understand their personal strengths and weaknesses.  The information is presented in small chunks with frequent headings. He uses a conversational style, and he uses familiar metaphors to explain concepts.
  Return to Top
When You Worry About the Child You Love : Emotional and Learning Problems in Children
by Edward Hallowell (1997)
Click on cover to order
When you worry about the child you love book cover
Paperback 
288 pages 
Reprint edition 
Fireside 
0684832682 
This book will help you understand why your child is unhappy or underachieving.  It can help you help your child to manage her emotions, and perhaps most important, will help parents do what they can and stop blaming themselves.  It describe research on childhood emotional and learning problems.  Lots of personal stories. 
 Return to Top
Smart Kids With School Problems : Things to Know and Ways to Help
by Priscilla L. Vail, Patricia Vail (1989)
Click on cover to order
Smart kids with school problems book cover
Paperback 
256 pages 
New American 
Library Trade 
0452262429 
A wonderful book on kids both gifted & learning disabled.  This may seem contradictory, but a fairly significant number of people struggle with the double problem of being both gifted and learning disabled.  Priscilla Vail has been there, in all roles, child, adult, parent, teacher, and counsellor. She shares what she learned the hard way in a warm, easy-to-read style with plenty of common sense and compassion.  The book was an enormous help to me at a time when I needed it, not least by reassuring me that our family was not alone in facing these problems. I have recommended it to everyone I know who is involved with such special children in any capacity.

For books on disabilites, click here
 Return to Top

Reading Issues

Parenting a Struggling Reader
by Susan L. Hall, Louisa Cook, Ed.D. Moat (2002)
Click on cover to order
Parenting a Struggling Reader
Paperback 
256 pages 
Broadway Books
0767907760
The first completely comprehensive, practical guide for recognizing, diagnosing, and overcoming any childhood reading difficulty.  According to the National Institute of Health, ten million of our nation’s children (approximately 17 percent) have trouble learning to read. While headlines warn about the nation’s reading crisis, Susan Hall (whose son was diagnosed with dyslexia) and Louisa Moats have become crusaders for action. The result of their years of research and personal experience, Parenting a Struggling Reader provides a revolutionary road map for any parent facing this challenging problem.
Acknowledging that parents often lose valuable years by waiting for their school systems to test for a child’s reading disability, Hall and Moats offer a detailed, realistic program for getting parents actively involved in their children’s reading lives. With a four-step plan for identifying and resolving deficiencies, as well as advice for those whose kids received weak instruction during the crucial early years, this is a landmark publication that promises unprecedented hope for the next generation of Information Age citizens.
  Return to Top
Straight Talk About Reading : How Parents Can Make a Difference During the Early Years
by Susan L. Hall, Louisa, Edd Moats, Louisa Cook Moats, Reid Lyon 
(1989)
Click on cover to order
Straight Talk about reading book cover
Paperback 
224 pages 
Contemporary Books
0809228572 
This book by Hall and Moats is a comprehensive guide for parents about current researched based practices in teaching reading.  Susan Hall has travelled the road as a parent of a child who had difficulty learning to read.  Louis Moats, Ed.D has extensive experience in the field of reading as an educator, researcher, consultant and writer.  The book has been divided into three parts: 1. Background Information - all the information you need to make informed judgements and decisions about your child's reading instruction, whole language vs. phonics. 2. What Parents Can Do To Help Their Child - numerous explicit activities and games to support you child’s progress in reading.  3. When Reading is Difficult - discussion about disabilities vs. poor instruction; learning  disabilities and dyslexia.
  Return to Top 
Preventing Reading Difficulties in Young Children
by Committee on the Prevention of Reading Difficulties in Young Children (1998)
Click on cover to order
Preventing Reading Difficulties in young children book cover
Hardcover
432 pages
Fifth Printing
National Academy
030906418X
While most children learn to read fairly well, there remain many young Americans whose futures are imperilled because they do not read well enough to meet the demands of our competitive, technology-driven society.  This book explores the problem within the context of social, historical, cultural, and biological factors.  Recommendations address the identification of groups of children at risk, effective instruction for the preschool and early grades, effective approaches to dialects and bilingualism, the importance of these findings for the professional development of teachers, and gaps that remain in our understanding of how children learn to read.  Implications for parents, teachers, schools, communities, the media, and government at all levels are discussed.   The book examines the epidemiology of reading problems and introduces the concepts used by experts in the field.  In a clear and readable narrative, word identification, comprehension, and other processes in normal reading development are discussed.  This book examines factors that put children at risk of poor reading.  It explores in detail how literacy can be fostered from birth through kindergarten and the primary grades, including evaluation of philosophies, systems, and materials commonly used to teach reading. 
  Return to Top 
Phonemic Awareness in Young Children : A Classroom Curriculum 
by Marilyn Jager Adams, Barbara R., Ph.D. Foorman, ingv Lundberg, Angvar Lundberg, Ingvar Lundberg, Terri Beeler (1979)
Click on cover to order
Phonemic Awarness in Young child book cover
Paperback 
144 pages 
Spiral edition 
Paul H Brookes Pub 
1557663211 
Brimming with fun, adaptable activities and games, this supplemental language and reading curriculum complements any pre reading program.  Preschool, kindergarten, and first grade teachers and parents can use these engaging activities.  Enhance any pre literacy program in just 15 minutes a day.  Building on simple listening games and gradually moving on to more advanced sound manipulation exercises like rhyming, alliteration, segmentation, substation and deletion . 
  Return to Top
Overcoming Dyslexia: A New and Complete Science-Based Program for Overcoming Reading Problems at Any Level
by Sally Shaywitz (2003) 
Click on cover
to order 
Overcoming Dyslexia book cover
Paperback
432 pages
1st edition 
Knopf 
Sally Shaywitz, M.D., is a neuroscientist, a professor of pediatrics at Yale, and co-director of the Yale Center for the Study of Learning and Attention.  She is one of the world’s leading experts on reading and dyslexia, the most comprehensive, up-to-date, and practical book yet to help us understand, identify, and overcome the reading problems that plague American children today. For the one in every five children who has dyslexia and the millions of others who struggle to read at their own grade levels—and for their parents, teachers, and tutors—this book can make a difference.
Drawing on recent scientific breakthroughs—many of them in her own laboratory - Dr. Shaywitz demystifies the subject of reading difficulties and explains how a child can be helped to become a good reader. She discusses early diagnosis in young children as well as the diagnosing of older children, young adults, and adults. Dr. Shaywitz explains why some bright adults can read only very slowly, and what they can do about it. Her book makes clear how the latest research, including new brain imaging studies, is uncovering the mechanisms underlying dyslexia and has led to effective treatments for each age group.
Dr. Shaywitz instructs parents in what they can do year-by-year, grade-by-grade, step-by-step for a dyslexic child. She lays out a home program for enhanced reading; guides parents in choosing the best school for their child and in working with teachers; and suggests ways of raising and preserving the child’s self-esteem. She provides exercises, teaching aids, information on computer programs, and many other invaluable resources.
In addition, her book corrects such popular (and harmful) myths as the belief that dyslexia is primarily a male problem, that children with dyslexia see words backward, that dyslexia is linked to intelligence. She shows us how, although dyslexia cannot be outgrown, its effects can, with careful planning and hard work, be overcome.
Dr. Shaywitz lifts the barrier of ignorance surrounding dyslexia and replaces it with the comfort of knowledge. Here is a trusted source to which you can turn for information, advice, guidance, and explanation. In sum, here is cutting-edge research translated into an easy-to-follow plan of action offering help—and hope—to all who have reading problems, and their families. 

If you think you'd like to read more about this book or purchase a book, click on the cover of the book this will take you right to Amazon's book description for that book.  You won't be committed to your purchases until you enter your credit card information.

For list of reading programs, see our webpage

Back to the Top

For books on disabilities, click here

Divider

Return to homepage

send an email
One of our original webpages, created April 29, 2004, by Melody Orfei
Webpage last modified on January 15, 2009 - V13, by Melody Orfei
o.mel@verizon.net