Recommended Books
The following are recommended books for parents and educators on learning disabilities, ADHD, and other issues. This list is by no means exhaustive, but is intended to provide you with a starting point for increasing your knowledge. The links are to Amazon.com where you can find more information about each book.
This list is organized alphabetically by title. You can also see this list organized by subject.
Levinson's use of patient testimonials and case studies to describe his breakthroughs in the treatment of dyslexia makes for a medical text that reads like a novel. He traces both his research on the connection between dyslexia and the inner ear and cerebellum and also the scientific community's skepticism regarding his claims. Formerly a professor at New York University Medical School and currently director of the Medical Dyslexic Treatment Center, Levinson acknowledges criticism and errors and, overall, offers a balanced view of his methods. In the process, he reveals the unfortunate increase in the politics of scientific research. Levinson's book is recommended as a source for the most current research, an account of the patients' plight, and an expose of the scientific debate.
Davis, on the other hand, emphasizes child development, psychology, and education rather than medical treatment. As a dyslexic individual and a teacher, he offers a unique perspective on the subject of learning disabilities. Through his own real-life experiences he shares what everyone needs to know about dyslexia, what the dyslexic student encounters in a typical school, and what is needed to teach such students effectively. To support his conclusion that dyslexics have special talents of perception, imagination, and intuition, Davis cites talented and brilliant figures from Einstein and Leonardo da Vinci to Churchill and Walt Disney.
— Library Journal
This book is about people, about the challenges and rewards, living with dyslexia. The author's goal is to give the reader encouragement, and to de-emphasize the negativity that comes with a learning difference. The 142 interviews are packed with practical coping strategies that will help you get through your journey with dyslexia.
Every parent eagerly awaits the day his or her child will speak for the first time. For millions of mothers and fathers, however, anticipation turns to anxiety when those initial, all-important words are a long time coming. Many worried parents are reassured that their child is "just a late talker," but unfortunately, that is not always the case.
Public libraries will want to purchase this book for their education and parenting collections. It is a brief, upbeat, always realistic look at what learning disabilities are and what problems LD children and parents face at home and at school.
—Library Journal
The LD Teacher's IDEA Companion Grades 6-12 is designed to help you translate the impact of IDEA into how you work with the students, their parents, regular educators, and the general curriculum itself. This book provides materials that correspond to the major IEP changes resulting from the reauthorization of IDEA.
The LD Teacher's IDEA Companion (K-5) has page after page of goals and strategies to help your students succeed in the general curriculum. You'll have recent content standards, benchmarks, and instructional modifications in four core academic areas: language arts, math, social studies, science.
This updated comprehensive guide addresses revisions to federal and state discrimination laws, includes educational options that are available to students with learning disabilities, and describes the pros and cons of various therapies.
Motivation is the key to learning. But very few parents and teachers have an effective arsenal of techniques at their disposal. Enter educator and acclaimed author Rick Lavoie, who arms all those who deal with children with proven, effective tools and strategies they can use to encourage any child to learn and achieve success.
This book tells the stories of eight people who never stopped trying. From humiliation in school and the anxiety of coping with everyday life unable to read street signs and menus, to shopping, driving, and working, these people lived in a world of dashed hopes and dreams — regardless of outward appearances — until they discovered their learning disability and unlocked their true gifts. Anyone who has ever endured a failure in school will appreciate the heartache of people who knew nothing but failure, yet held great potential.
Called "retarded," "lazy," "immature," "delinquent," and more, they managed to get by, all the while thinking that deep down they were worthless people—that everything anyone ever said about them was true. Except, as they would discover later in life, it wasn't. Proceeds from the sale of The Pretenders will be used to further the work of the H.E.L.P. Program.
An informal and entertaining yet authoritative look at the science of babies minds. The three research psychologists, all of whom are parents, and two of whom, Meltzoff and Kuhl, are married to each other, write about child development as though they were speaking directly to parents they know. As their title indicates, the authors find parallels between babies and scientists: both, they say, formulate theories, make and test predictions, seek explanations, do experiments, and revise what they know based on new evidence. They show specifically how babies learn about people and objects, and how they acquire language.
Proceeds from the sale of books purchased from our recommended books section can help support LD OnLine.
