A Mind at a Time: America's Top Learning Expert Shows How Every Child Can Succeed by Mel Levine Summary and Reviews
|
List Price: Our Price: $3.36 You Save: $12.64 (79%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $0.01 (click here) Category: Book See more book details and other editions |
|---|
Book Reviews of A Mind at a Time: America's Top Learning Expert Shows How Every Child Can Succeed
Book Review: A page at a time
Summary: 3 Stars
I bought this book because I saw Dr. Mel Levine speak at a conference recently. He is an excellent speaker with really intriguing theories; many of which he details in the book "A Mind at a Time."
While Dr. Levine is an enthusiastic and dynamic speaker with riveting anecdotes about his patients, his writing tends to be a little drier than his "in person" delivery. When he is telling these anecdotes and others in the book, it is gripping. The reader feels like they know the exact kid he is talking about, but a lot of the rest of the book is rather dry in its delivery.
I love the message Dr. Levine has about each of us having learning differences and that learning to approach them and strategize a "work around" is the real solution, not labeling and medicating.
I still plan on using this book for a study group in my school. I am hoping that as a group, we can cheer each other through the tougher sections. After the first 100 pages, I had to slot a day and time when I would read this book so that I didn't just put it down and never pick it up again.
If you ever get the opportunity to hear Dr. Levine speak, jump at it.
Book Review: An eye-opener and food for thought
Summary: 5 Stars
I first picked up this book because I believe that every child is an individual and has individual needs. When I started reading the book I finally found someone else who believes that too. Levine carefully looks at each "learning disability" and breaks it down into various components. Upon reading, I began to see many of my own RSP students more clearly. Susie doesn't just have ADD,she has problems with auditory distrators. For those naysayers, perhaps Levine is ahead of his time, perhaps he has seen somethings others haven't yet (remember, there was a time when folks that blood-letting was appropriate). For me and several of my professional friends, this book is an inspiration to look more deeply at each student and it gives us the tools to do so. It is heavy reading, I will admit. I actually took the content and created a graphic reading guide to go with it for my staff because you can get lost in it if you are not a careful reader. This is not casual bedtime reading.Book Review: Brilliantly Simple
Summary: 5 Stars
Dr. Levine teaches that it is more helpful to understand HOW a child behaves and not WHY a child behaves in the way he does. What a brililantly simple idea - a paradigm shift. If you think in this way, then you can go to work immediately on finding the solutions that fit your child. After reading "A Mind at a Time", I saw my son's behavior in terms of HOW and was able to start to address it. (For years my wife and I had been discouraged and tried absolutely everything with little effect.)
Recently I came upon "Behavior Coaching" by Dr. Scott Hall who seems to be of the same school of thought with Dr. Levine. "Behavior Coaching" takes the theory of "A Mind at a Time" and directly employs it in a step-by-step action plan for improving your child's behavior. Great companions, "A Mind at a Time" and "Behavior Coaching", get them both to help you hone your parenting skills.
Book Review: Celebrating Differences!
Summary: 5 Stars
As a therapist working with adolescents in a psychiatric assessment and treatment center, and as a Fetal Alcohol Consultant in private practice working with families whose children have brain differences, I found this book to be a significant resource in offering another form of "help and hope" to families.I believe a key to working with children whose brains work differently is to understand that very thing. These children, and all children for that matter, have ways of learning and applying what they've learned that are specific to them only.
Dr. Mel Levine has shared his knowledge in the book, A Mind At A Time, which describes the "tool box" that children use in their learning. There are 8 neurodevelopmental systems that function as tools, and children may have strengths in particular systems. These include: Attention Control System, Memory System, Language System, Spatial Ordering System, Sequential Ordering System, Motor System, Higher Thinking System, and Social Thinking System. The trick is to know which system works best for these children!
This book was brought to my attention by a concerned and desperate parent who discovered it on his quest to help his son...a son struggling to survive in a traditional academic setting with an untraditional style of learning...who was sinking into the trap of being labeled "bad" and a "behavioral problem." This loving father is now working to put Levine's recommendations into action in order to help his son succeed.
Adult understanding, environmental modifications, and developing foundations that build on strengths are keys to working with these special needs children. Dr. Levine's book is a great resource for parents and teachers as they put these keys into place.
Connie Sirnio, MSW
http://www.members.aol.com/csirnio/celebrate
Book Review: Children as Learning Individuals
Summary: 4 Stars
Mel Levine puts understanding before action. His goal is to show us the building blocks of children's minds and how learning can be challenging when one or two bricks are out of place. The approach we take to teach each child depends on which bricks these are. We can use this understanding to help children as they are, rather than focusing on a single, idealized model of the learning child.
Early in the book, the author describes eight learning systems we use to deal with the world around us. Each system behaves differently, operates somewhat independently, and has a different neurological basis in the brain. In successive chapters, we review learning systems for attention control, memory, language, spatial ordering, sequential ordering, motor control, higher thinking, and social reasoning. We learn how each system works, cooperates with other systems, and how it typically develops as children mature. The author also highlights common developmental problems and how both children and the adults around them can meet these challenges. Each chapter closes with a "Practical Considerations" section that describes how the learning system affects a child's behavior in everyday situations.
The book's last four chapters explore the broader implications of these eight learning systems. We learn how to recognize specific learning difficulties and bring the right resources--special services, coaching, medication, etc.--to bear based on an individual child's learning profile. Levine also advises parents how to understand their child's profile and balance remediation of weaknesses with encouragement of talents, interests and strengths. He closes with suggestions about the proper role of teachers and schools given the "neurodevelopmental diversity" of their student population.
I recommend this book for teachers and parents who want to understand individual differences and how these differences affect learning. Readers may also benefit from the author's The Myth of Laziness or his more recent Ready or Not, Here Life Comes.