Product Description
This uniquely integrative book brings together leading researchers and practitioners from education, neuroscience, and psychology. It presents a theoretical framework for understanding executive function difficulties together with a range of effective approaches to assessment and instruction. Coverage includes executive function processes in specific disorders--language-based learning disabilities, nonverbal learning disabilities, and autism spectrum disorders--as well as ways to support all students in developing vital skills for self-directed learning. Specific teaching methods are discussed for reading, writing, and math. Scholarly and authoritative yet highly practical, the book provides guidelines for intervening at the level of the individual child, the classroom, and the entire school.
Product Details
- Amazon Sales Rank: #84847 in Books
- Published on: 2007-01-10
- Original language:
English
- Number of items: 1
- Binding: Hardcover
- 320 pages
Features
Editorial Reviews
Review
"From an impressive list of contributing authors, this book goes well beyond the traditional 'frontal lobe metaphor' in describing the executive function construct, challenging its conceptualization as a static, unitary skill. In doing so, the contributors consider the unique roles of brain development, personal experience, and the changing demands and supports in the classroom setting. Not only do Meltzer and colleagues explain the role of executive dysfunction in the classroom, they provide explicit strategies for intervention, with clear teaching examples. Hence, this volume will be a welcome resource for educators, psychologists, and other practitioners."--E. Mark Mahone, PhD, Kennedy Krieger Institute, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
"Meltzer has put together a much-needed text addressing the skills involved in high-order thinking. This is a timely volume that speaks to the array of issues in executive processing. The book assembles an excellent cross-section of researchers and clinicians with expertise in both theoretical issues and classroom instruction. This text succeeds in its quest to bridge the gap between research and educational practice."--H. Lee Swanson, PhD, Graduate School of Education, University of California, Riverside
"Finally, a book that clearly describes the significant role that executive function plays in learning! More importantly, this book presents very practical suggestions for effectively teaching students to use their executive functions. The contributing authors are among the leading experts in the field. This book provides a level of specificity on how to improve executive function through the teaching process that is not available in any other source."--Donald D. Deshler, PhD, Center for Research on Learning, University of Kansas
"This timely and much-needed book focuses on executive function (EF) from an educational perspective. While acknowledging that aspects of EF remain poorly understood, the book succeeds in offering practical guidelines and clear examples of how to teach and promote students' use of EF across the curriculum. Clearly, instruction in EF is essential for some students with special educational needs, but emphasis is also given to how EF instruction will benefit all students within inclusive classrooms. This volume will be an excellent addition to the libraries of teachers and psychologists. It will serve as an invaluable resource for discussion in graduate courses in education, educational psychology, clinical psychology, educational neuroscience, and developmental psychopathology."--Rosemary Tannock, PhD, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education and Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto; Program in Neuroscience and Mental Health, Hospital for Sick Children
"Would make an excellent supplemental reading for courses in educational psychology or special education....Practicing educators would benefit from the prescribed supports for executive functions in the classroom and would increase the learning for all students."--APA PsycCritiques
"This text should help to narrow the gap between research and practice so that methods of identifying and teaching those students with executive function difficulties can be improved....Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and graduate students."--Choice
"Meltzer's book is an excellent resource for educators, psychologists, and researchers interested in expanding their knowledge of executive functioning processes and disorders....This book has the potential to fill an information gap for its intended reading audience."--Canadian Journal of Education
About the Author
Lynn Meltzer, PhD, is cofounder and codirector of the Institutes for Learning and Development (ILD and ResearchILD) in Lexington, Massachusetts. She holds appointments as an Associate in Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and as an Adjunct Associate Professor in the Tufts University Department of Child Development. For the past 4 years, she has been President of the International Academy for Research in Learning Disabilities. In her 25 years of clinical work with children, adolescents, and adults, Dr. Meltzer has emphasized the critical importance of the theory-to-practice cycle of knowledge. Her extensive publications and professional presentations include articles, chapters, and books on the assessment and treatment of learning difficulties, with an emphasis on the importance of metacognition, strategy use, cognitive flexibility, self-concept, and resilience. Dr. Meltzer is the founder and chair of the national Learning Differences Conference, now in its 22nd year at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
Customer Reviews
Useful for your educating school personnel 
This is an excellent, informative book on executive function, which is often a lot of the problem with students further on the spectrum and who are mainstreamed in school. It explains things I haven't really understood previously about executive function problems that my son deals with -- why he doesn't get started on a project, why he doesn't continue through a project and finish it to the end. Various authors contributed to this book, and so you get a psychological, physical, and educational perspective that is necessary for understanding the situation, and some very good tools to help. Also of benefit is a full explanation of the battery of tests that are used to figure out if a student has executive function problems.
I took the book with me to our son's IEP this year, and used it quite a bit to help our son's teachers understand what might be issues in the coming year.
Thinking Process Clarified
As a psychologist with 30 years experience, I have been focusing on issues of attention, memory and cognition, as it relates to self esteeme, performance, and the development of emotional difficulties. The text is more focused on school which is where we developed and where we met our most difficult challenges in performance. It is exciting to see that educators are doing more to help children who are between the special education criterion and the kids who don't have difficulty. It is also important to understand the process of learning so we can better teach to the student rather than the student learning how we teach! This book can help open the educators doors to higher learning.
Great Resource for Parents and Practitioners
As a child psychologist who works primarily with foster and adopted children, I use this book quite frequently as a resource. I also recommend it to parents who have children with learning disorders, cognitive problems, or just a tough time being in school.
It's an edited book, so one advantage is that the reader gets various perspectives on helping children with executive delays and challenges. The first part of the book is more clinical, however, which means most parents will derive the greatest benefit from the last 6 chapters.
Collectively, the authors do a nice job of helping the reader to understand what the child's experience is like. This helps broaden empathy on the part of teachers and parents alike, as too often, everyone spends too much time being mad at or frustrated with the child.
I hope the book is selling well, as it is a good resource; in fact, it is one of the better books I've come across in this classification. I'd like to see it as required reading for special education teachers and in classes for parents of special needs kids.
