THE THERAPIST PSYCHOLOGIST BOOK STORE

  Helping Kids Meet Academic Challenges ( fran@grammarandmore.com )

The book is targeted at adolescents and pre-adolescents. It can also be used effectively by younger and older students, however. Dr. Levine makes information accessible to young people by presenting it in small chunks with frequent headings. His style is conversational, and he uses familiar metaphors to explain physiological concepts. Attention, for example, is described in terms of channel selection and filtration.

Levine heartens his readers -- not only by demonstrating a clear understanding of their difficulties but also by providing hope for the success that everyone needs. While he recognizes that people succeed in different areas -- academics, athletics, and art, to name just a few -- he acknowledges that during the school-age years, lack of success in the academic area can have far-reaching
consequences.

After explaining how the brain functions normally to help a person focus attention, use language, and employ memory, Levine discusses various problems that might arise in these areas. He then relates performance in reading, spelling, writing, and math to those disorders. Levine even addresses social skills, recognizing that school has a very strong social component.

Levine celebrates the many strengths that people with learning disorders might have. He encourages them to appreciate and bolster their strengths even as they are attempting to understand and bypass their weaknesses. He empowers students to advocate on their own behalf, and he reassures them that they are likely to be more successful in life after school -- when they are free to work in their preferred area rather than in one assigned to them by someone else.

_Keeping A Head in School_ is most effective if readers with learning disorders have the opportunity to discuss concepts presented with parents, teachers, and/or other adults.

The book can also provide valuable insight for those who interact with people who have learning disorders: siblings, friends, parents, teachers, and others. Understanding the problems will help people to be more compassionate and encouraging.

  Students can learn to manage their own learning disorders 

In this book Dr. Levine models the strategies he advocates that students learn: Lots of diagrams, webs, illustrations, as well as case studies, fill the pages, helping all readers to better grasp his techniques.

Written with humor and "reader-friendly" language, the handbook explains the complexity of learning disorders in terms all readers can understand. Parents, teachers, counselors, as well as students, will better understand learning and how to maximize their potential after reading this book. The reader will recognize his/her own learning disorders and how to overcome them--whether or not diagnosed as a problem learner. A must read for anyone dealing with this condition.