Smart but Scattered: The Revolutionary "Executive Skills" Approach to Helping Kids Reach Their Potential Author: Visit Amazon's Peg Dawson Page | Language: English | ISBN:
1593854455 | Format: PDF
Smart but Scattered: The Revolutionary "Executive Skills" Approach to Helping Kids Reach Their Potential Description
Review
"The best parent resource on executive skills that I have seen. As a parent of three children, one of whom has learning disabilities, and as a special education associate who works in the classroom, I highly recommend this book. It shows there is hope for children who are struggling, and offers practical, detailed advice."--L. Libbey, parent, Hampton, NH
"Filled with real-world examples and solutions, this easy-to-read book is the first comprehensive guide to the management of children's executive skills. It gets to the heart of the matter, offering both parents and teachers accessible and highly efficient means to cope with a gamut of obstacles faced by children of all ages and abilities."--Kristina Mecelicaite, MEd, special education coordinator, North Central Charter Essential School, Fitchburg, MA
"Do you feel stymied by your child's failure to live up to his or her potential? Have you run out of ideas about how to handle the situation? Look no further--this fascinating and readable book is packed full of useful ideas that will help you understand what the problem is and how you can help. It presents practical and proven techniques based on rigorous scientific research."--Peter Farrell, PhD, University of Manchester, UK; past president, International School Psychology Association
"If you've ever wondered why your child struggles academically or behaviorally--despite having the 'right stuff' to succeed--this book is essential reading. Drs. Dawson and Guare explain the importance of executive skills and provide science-based strategies that empower you to start helping your child today."--Sam Goldstein, PhD, coauthor of Raising Resilient Children
"Drs. Dawson and Guare translate cutting-edge research into meaningful, practical, well-organized, and easy-to-implement strategies that parents can use to enhance a child's natural executive abilities. This brilliant book is by far the best on the topic that I have read to date."--Russell A. Barkley, PhD, ABPP, author of Taking Charge of ADHD
"Groundbreaking....Compassionate and parent friendly....Dawson and Guare's personal anecdotes lend immediacy....Smart but Scattered is comprehensive, accessible, and hopeful....Dawson and Guare's work should be considered essential."--Library Journal
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Library Journal 2009-01-04)
"Fun to read....This book is quite interactive....Questionnaires are provided both for children (of various ages) as well as parents, so that they can both see their strengths and weaknesses....Techniques to teach executive skills are shown in a step-wise manner, and planning sheets are available throughout the text....Another strength of this book is its focus on the emotional aspect of executive functioning, and providing strategies to bolster the emotional skill set of children....Strongly recommended for any parent who wishes to help their children maximize their potential, even if they do not have identified academic or behavioral struggles."--Journal of the Canadian Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
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Journal of the Canadian Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry 2013-02-01)
"The authors provide a satisfying framework for creating environmental supports in areas needed and supplying the hands-on direction necessary for children to function well and build confidence. While Susan Ericksen's distinct and assertive enunciation promotes respect for these ideas, her warmth also makes them sound inviting."--AudioFile
(
AudioFile 2012-12-01)
About the Author
Peg Dawson, EdD, works as a clinical school psychologist at the Center for Learning and Attention Disorders in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, where Richard Guare, PhD, is Director. With over 30 years of clinical experience, Drs. Guare and Dawson are coauthors of the bestselling Smart but Scattered Teens.
- Paperback: 314 pages
- Publisher: Guilford Press; 1st edition (January 2, 2009)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1593854455
- ISBN-13: 978-1593854454
- Product Dimensions: 10 x 7.1 x 0.9 inches
- Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
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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