Product Description

Smart Kids With Learning Difficulties: Overcoming Obstacles and Realizing Potential is an engaging must-read for any parent, educator, or counselor of smart kids who face learning difficulties. The authors, who have more than 20 years experience working with and advocating for gifted and learning diabled children, provide useful, practical advice for helping smart kids with learning challenges succeed in school.

Topics covered in the book include identifying and recognizing gifted/learning disabled students, what the law says about this population, planning and developing accommodations that empower these students, what works and doesn't work in the classroom, tools and checklists to build supportive learning environments, and the roles and responsibilities of parents, students, and school personnel.

Educational Resource

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #173259 in Books
• Published on: 2006-04-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 195 pages

Review
The authors of Smart Kids With Learning Difficulties: Overcoming Obstacles and Realizing Potential have had more than 20 years experience working with and advocating for gifted children with learning disabilities. In this new text, they present learning and teaching methods that have been applied successfully to both the gifted and talented and the learning-disabled populations. --Gifted Child Today, Vol. 29, No. 4, Fall 2006

About the Author
Rich Weinfeld was instrumental in coordinating the Montgomery County, MD, gifted and learning disabled program and is currently an educational advocate in the Washgington, DC area, serving families with both gifted and special needs children. He is the author of three previous books, including School Success for Kids With Asperger’s Syndrome.

Customer Reviews

A must read for parents of bright students with neurodevelopmental disorders
Rich Weinfeld, Linda Barnes-Robinson, Sue Jeweler, and Betty Roffman Shevitz have written a very comprehensive, clear, and practical handbook for helping bright children with a range of learning and developmental difficulties. Based upon their rich experiences developing nationally-recognized programs for gifted kids with learning disabilities, ADHD, and Aspergers/Autism (and other Pervasive Developmental Disorders), they provide practical and creative recommendations for helping kids with uneven development. Providing many examples and exceptionally useful suggestions for educational strategies, accommodations, and modifications, the authors provide parents, teachers, and mental health professionals with a deep appreciation for the unique needs of gifted children with learning differences.

As a neuropsychologist in private practice, I will continue to recommend this book to my clients. Unlike many books that espouse theoretical positions but are thin on suggestions, Smart Kids with Learning Difficulties offers practical advice and guidance for helping students with a wide range of developmental differences.

Smart Kids With Learning Difficulties: Overcoming Obstacles and Realizing Potential
Finally, we have a practical guide to the effective education of bright but struggling students which can be used by all players on the team: parents, teachers, counselors, administrators, and the students themselves. The earlier giftedness is recognized and learning disabilities are unmasked, diagnosed, and planned for, the less likely it is that these students will be defeated by repeated failure and the burden of emotional baggage that often develops in the wake of crushed self-confidence. Our country cannot afford to waste the brain power and creativity of our "different learners."

This powerful book brims with optimism and genuine affection for gifted kids with learning disabilities. The crux of the message is to discover and engage the student through his/her talents and interests while directly teaching strategies for getting around deficits and using accommodations and assistive technology to build success. The sections in Chapter 3 on adaptations and accommodations and what does and doesn't work are particularly strong. The glossary will help parents and students interpret educational buzzwords like metacognition.

In my work with GT/LD students, both in the public school classroom in Maryland and now in my college advisory business in Oregon, I have seen amazing strides made by kids who have been taught by the principles of this book. I recommend it highly to my clients.

Amazingly Easy To Use Guide for Helping Unique Students
I am a mom with a very bright 3rd grade son who has been diagnosed with a learning difference. So I appreciate all the help I can get navigating my way through the special education/IEP system. What sets this book apart from the many others I have read is the incredible number of practical solutions and suggestions in it. I am using these ideas at home, can pass them onto my son's team of teachers at school, as well as evalute my son's current program. With a supportive tone and charts full of specifics that focus on bringing out the positive from the many challenges a special child may face, this will be a valuable guide that I will treasure and learn from for years to come. This book offers substance, not the fluff I often come across. I highly recommend it.