Overcoming Dyslexia: A New and Complete Science-Based Program for Reading Problems at Any Level Author: Sally Shaywitz | Language: English | ISBN:
B000S1LEMY | Format: PDF
Overcoming Dyslexia: A New and Complete Science-Based Program for Reading Problems at Any Level Description
FOR EVERYONE WHO STRUGGLES TO READ!
Clear, practical, science-based information and advice for successful results
One in five American children has trouble reading. But they are not stupid or lazy. In
Overcoming Dyslexia, Dr. Sally Shaywitz, codirector of the Yale Center for the Study of Learning and Attention and a leader in the new research into how the brain works, offers the latest information about reading problems and proven, practical techniques that, along with hard work and the right help, can enable anyone to overcome them. Here are the tools that parents and teachers need to help the dyslexic child, age by age, grade by grade, step by step.
--What dyslexia is and why some intelligent, gifted people read slowly and painfully
--How to identify dyslexia in preschoolers, schoolchildren, young adults, and adults
--How to find the best school and how to work productively with your child’s teacher
--Exercises to help children use the parts of the brain that control reading
--A 20-minute nightly home program to enhance reading
--The 150 most common problem words–a list that can give your child a head start
--Ways to raise and preserve a child’s self-esteem aqnd reveal his strengths
--Stories of successful men and women who are dyslexic
From the Trade Paperback edition.- File Size: 2330 KB
- Print Length: 414 pages
- Publisher: Vintage; 1 edition (December 24, 2008)
- Sold by: Random House LLC
- Language: English
- ASIN: B000S1LEMY
- Text-to-Speech: Not enabled
X-Ray:
- Lending: Not Enabled
- Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #32,006 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
- #1
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in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Education & Reference > Schools & Teaching > Special Education > Communicative Disorders
- #1
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Education & Reference > Schools & Teaching > Special Education > Learning Disabled - #2
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Education & Reference > Words, Language & Grammar > Reading Skills - #2
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Education & Reference > Schools & Teaching > Special Education > Communicative Disorders
This would be a wonderful book - worth 5 stars - were it not for the title. This book is not about "Overcoming Dyslexia" so much as it is about "Coping with Dyslexia". There is no "New" Program for Reading Problems but rather a detailed description of a strong phonics and language-based curriculum that has been around for years -- and is geared to the needs of ordinary students, not dyslexics.
This book does give a good overview of the process of learning to read in ordinary children, as well an explanation of some of the differences in the way dyslexic children learn and read, and an excellent overview of good curriculum materials available and in use in many schools today. It also give a wonderful and very readable summary of Dr. Shaywitz's own research into reading and dyslexia -- but Shaywitz's theories are not universally accepted, and the book does not analyze or compare the research done by the dozens of other prominant researchers in the field of dyslexia.
As another review noted, the book also suffers from a sort of split personality -- in the first section it outlines the many aspects of the dyslexic learning style that are different from typical children, and then the section on reading instruction recommends many of the very same techniques that the first part said were inappropriate for dyslexics. For example, in one part the author points out the difficulty of rote learning for dyslexics; in the next part she recommends using flash cards for drill and memorization of common sight words.
This book contains large amounts of interesting and important information about dyslexia, much of which is not readily available elsewhere. It will be of interest to dyslexics, the friends and family of dyslexics, teachers, education administrators, and indeed to anyone who wonders about how people learn and how people think.
One particularly attractive feature of the book is that it covers many areas of concern: not just the science of dyslexia, but also the techniques of testing for dyslexia and teaching to dyslexics, the social and personal implications of dyslexia, policy and administrative implications of dyslexia, effective advocacy for a dyslexic child, misconceptions about dyslexia, and so forth. A special treat is the epilogue, which provides the life stories of seven dyslexics who have been extraordinarily successful as authors, physicians, businesspersons, or politicians. I particularly note that many of these successful people regard dyslexia not as a burden to overcome, but as a gift that forces them to think where others rely on rote memorization.
I bought this book because my son is dyslexic. After reading it, I am also nearly convinced that I am dyslexic. (Before you read too much into genetics, let me tell you that my son is adopted.) Other apparent dyslexics I know are my father (a self-made multimillionaire who has difficulty spelling words of four or five letters) and my Ph.D. thesis advisor (a highly creative theoretical physicist, winner of the Wolf Prize and the Boltzmann Metal, who told me not to fret overly about my poor spelling, because "the ability to spell anticorrelates with intelligence").
The book does not deserve five stars, however, because it is seriously schizophrenic.
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