Learning Disabilities A to Z

How and when does a child begin to make sense of the world? Why does a lively preschool child so often become a semiliterate and defeated school failure?

Developmental psychologist Margaret Donaldson shows that much of the intellectual framework on which we base our teaching is misleading. We both underestimate the astonishing rational powers of young children and ignore the major stumbling block that children face when starting school.

Given a setting and a language that makes sense to them in human terms, very young children can perform tasks often thought to be beyond them. The preschool child learns everything in a human situation. Only in school is he asked to acquire skills―reading, writing, arithmetic―isolated from a real-life context. This transition is difficult.

The author suggests a range of strategies that parents and schools can adopt to help children. She argues that reading is even more important than we have thought it to be, since learning to read can actually speed children through the crucial transition.

Organized according to the sequence mental health professionals follow when conducting an assessment, Groth-Marnat’s Handbook of Psychological Assessment, Sixth Edition covers principles of assessment, evaluation, referral, treatment planning, and report writing. Written in a practical, skills-based manner, the Sixth Edition provides guidance on the most efficient methods for selecting and administering tests, interpreting assessment data, how to integrate test scores and develop treatment plans as well as instruction on ways to write effective, client-oriented psychological reports.

This text provides through coverage of the most commonly used assessment instruments including the Wechsler Intelligence Scales, Wechsler Memory Scales, Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory, Personality Assessment Inventory, Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory, NEO Personality, Rorschach, Thematic Apperception Test, and brief assessment instruments for treatment planning, monitoring, and outcome assessment.

In Ready to Learn, Stan Goldberg draws on thirty years of clinical experience (and personal experience as the father of two kids with learning differences) to provide an easy-to-use guide to helping children overcome any problems and improve their learning skills.

The third edition of this classic resource is a comprehensive source of information, strategies, and activities for working with learning disabled students. The book offers special educators, classroom teachers, and parents a wealth of new and proven suggestions and ready-to-use materials for helping LD students of all ages learn and perform at their fullest potential.

A chance encounter with an unfortunate bird provides the springboard for Harry Sylvester’s marvelous reflections on confronting and conquering his learning disabilities. Legacy of the Blue Heron: Living with Learning Disabilities is a moving personal account of coping with learning disabilities by an individual with severe dyslexia who became an engineer, businessman, boat-builder, and president of the Learning Disabilities Association of America. This entertaining storyteller’s experiences lead to wise, common-sense advice for solving many problems faced by students, parents, and educators.

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.