Leo the Late Bloomer

Until the 1960s a learning disability was a hidden handicap wearing many guises and treated ineffectively. Today, shows the author, founder of the unique Lab School in Washington, D.C., and herself the parent of a learning-disabled child, there is growing evidence that such difficulties can be either overcome or modified by teaching strategies that address the student’s specific strengths. The stories of adults—some of them celebrities like Cher, who suffered from undiagnosed dyslexia—who coped with learning problems throughout their school days illustrate the depths of the disability said to afflict more than 25 million Americans. Distilling her experiences with learning-disabled students, their parents and teachers, Smith demonstrates that a variety of approaches to learning can yield later career success, thus offering hope to children and adults so burdened.

“Difficult.” “Picky.” “Oversensitive.” “Clumsy.” “Unpredictable.” “Inattentive.”

Children who have been labeled with words like these may actually be suffering from Sensory Integration Disorder — a very common, but frequently misdiagnosed, condition that can manifest itself in excessively high or low activity levels, problems with motor coordination, oversensitivity or undersensitivity to sensations and movements, and other symptoms. This guide, written by an expert in the field, explains how SI Dysfunction can be confused with ADD, learning disabilities, and other problems, tells how parents can recognize the problem — and offers a drug-free treatment approach for children who need help.

Created in consultation with a language expert, this book is part of an engaging new phonics-based series, especially written to help your child learn to read. Not only is the story great fun, it also takes into account recent research on the most effective ways of teaching reading. Stephen Cartwright’s delightful illustrations complement the text and are designed to stimulate further interest.

This is a unique handbook that teaches parents how to work with schools to achieve optimal learning situations and accommodations for their child’s needs. From IEPs and 504 Plans, to IDEA and NCLB, navigating today’s school system can be difficult for even the most up-to-date, education savvy parent. Special needs advocates Rich Weinfeld and Michelle Davis provide parents and professional advocates with concise, easy-to-understand definitions and descriptions of legal terms and school regulations, along with checklists, tips, questionnaires, and other tools.

Parents, educators and general-interest readers will relish a fine book which surveys how language develops in kids. Why isn’t language developing for so many? This explores links between reading, writing, listening and speaking, revealing how these are learned and what happens in the process breaks down at various stages.

It is a parent’s deepest heartache: watching a child struggle in life, desperate to help. When Katherine Cunningham’s daughter Tricia (“Tiger”) is diagnosed with dyslexia, roadblocks appear at every turn, and the entire family is forced to create its own solutions.