Smart but Scattered: The Revolutionary "Executive Skills" Approach to Helping Kids Reach Their Potential Author: Peg Dawson | Language: English | ISBN:
B005D7D57K | Format: PDF
Smart but Scattered: The Revolutionary "Executive Skills" Approach to Helping Kids Reach Their Potential Description
There's nothing more frustrating than watching your bright, talented son or daughter struggle with everyday tasks like finishing homework, putting away toys, or following instructions at school. Your "smart but scattered" 4- to 13-year-old might also have trouble coping with disappointment or managing anger. Drs. Peg Dawson and Richard Guare have great news: there's a lot you can do to help. The latest research in child development shows that many kids who have the brain and heart to succeed lack or lag behind in crucial "executive skills"--the fundamental habits of mind required for getting organized, staying focused, and controlling impulses and emotions. Learn easy-to-follow steps to identify your child's strengths and weaknesses, use activities and techniques proven to boost specific skills, and problem-solve daily routines. Helpful worksheets and forms can be downloaded and printed in a convenient 8 1/2" x 11" size. Small changes can add up to big improvements--this empowering book shows how.
- File Size: 1105 KB
- Print Length: 321 pages
- Page Numbers Source ISBN: 1593854455
- Publisher: The Guilford Press; 1st edition (November 30, 2011)
- Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
- Language: English
- ASIN: B005D7D57K
- Text-to-Speech: Enabled
X-Ray:
- Lending: Not Enabled
- Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #10,380 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
- #1
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Education & Reference > Schools & Teaching > Special Education - #1
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Nonfiction > Parenting & Relationships > Special Needs > Hyperactivity - #2
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Nonfiction > Politics & Social Sciences > Social Sciences > Social Work
- #1
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Education & Reference > Schools & Teaching > Special Education - #1
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Nonfiction > Parenting & Relationships > Special Needs > Hyperactivity - #2
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Nonfiction > Politics & Social Sciences > Social Sciences > Social Work
Another parent here. I have three highly gifted kids who nevertheless seem unable to accomplish simple tasks. A friend recommended this book, and it's forcing me to endure a complete paradigm shift, not only about my expectations for them, but of my own weaknesses in this area. Sure, I've had trouble staying organized, I start tasks only to leave them half-completed, and I feel like I have far more potential than I produce. But until I took the inventory for parents in this book, I didn't realize how truly weak my own executive skills are all around (unless I'm inspired, and then I'm a machine! ... just like my daughter). My husband took the quiz and -- not surprisingly -- his EF (executive function) skills are nearly off the charts on the other end. He laughed a little as he said he wondered how honest I was going to be, but he agreed with my self-assessment. Suddenly, I understand why a disastrous house sends me into tears, but he can get to work and make it spotless in a couple hours. But this book also showed me that it's not an inherent personality failure on my part -- it's that I never learned these skills properly! After just a weekend of talking about some issues together, my daughter (8) and I have created strategies to help us with our organizational skills. I'm also staying more patient with my 5-yr-old son, who is pretty much a 1 on emotional control (but quite good with organization).
This book isn't an instant silver bullet solution, but it provides new ways of thinking and conceptualizing about your children's (and your own) strengths and weaknesses.
As a Developmental/Behavioral Pediatrician, I have been recommending this book to the families that I see in my clinic with children that struggle with many different aspects of "learning" from "ADHD", to brain injury, to many other developmental disabilities. It gives the parents a functional framework to begin understanding the concepts of Executive Functioning within the Frontal Lobe System that are so developmentally important in day to day functioning. Having a good basic profile of understanding of their child's functioning can then help them to begin developing the accommodations within the home system, and then begin the educational process of the teachers in the classroom (imagine that!-teaching the teachers these concepts) to help them develop accommodations that can become MUCH MORE SPECIFICALLY FOCUSED FOR THE 504's. So many of the accommodations are very generalized ones that are often created from more broad "labels" applied to children. What does "ADHD" truly mean anyway for example? You have to understand what the very specific underlying impairments are to create very specific accommodations to be most effective. This book focuses very well on teaching parents about Executive Functioning and giving them some great basic strategies to look at and work with. Language therapists that do neurocognitive therapy can then provide additional strategies for the more severe children where needed. Parents then are also much more effective in follow through because they know what is being focused on in therapy. This book doesn't cover learning disabilites that often accompany the scope of general learning problems, and it's not meant to. Many schools and even psychologists will focus only on searching for "learning disabilities" in their evaluations.
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