Disabled Books

Gritty, tough and rough. It may take a while to get in the saddle, but once you're there, you don't give up until you have taken the entire ride with these unforgettable characters. Not everyone will appreciate the reality expressed --- the corruption of the young country is revealed in a stark portrayal. But, it's a fine read, and the images don't fade fast from your memory. It reminds us of the struggle to be born...and to morph into something finer. We are left waiting for the next chapter.

Surprising that there's not a review of this book, which was, only a few weeks ago, featured on the cover of the Times Book Review. Deservedly so, in my opinion. Mr. Bolger, of whom I wasn't familiar, can write as well as John Banville, though with less flamboyance. This novel, also published by the University of Texas press, is a gritty look at life in Ireland as seen through the eyes of a young man. A glimpse of the end is shown on the first page; flashbacks are skillfully woven throughout. Hano, we eventually learn, is abused by an older man. He later loses his best friend. A thriller of sorts, since murder is involved. Darkly sad most of the time, but also intensely vivid in its descriptions of people and places, the part of Ireland tourist rarely see. Well worth reading.

The story is set in Dublin during its dark days in the 1980's (high unemployment, high crime, mass exodus, etc). There are three main characters in the story: Francis Hanrahan ("Hano" or "Francy"), Seamus ("Shay") and Cait ("Katie"). Hano, 19 years old, is befriended by Shay at his first job. Shay is 21 - he is fearless, confident and popular - he shows Hano the way about the office and town. Hano looks up to Shay as he would an older brother and best friend. Katie, 16, a troubled teenager who lost her parents - and is a drug addict - also comes under Shay's spell and is a key player in the story line.

I wish someone had explained to me upfront that the story is told from 3 different vantage points:

1) Hano and Katie on the Run: Shay is dead. Hano and Katie are on the run from the authorities (and the mob?) through Ireland after Hano commits a serious crime. Story is told in the third person.

2) Shay's ghost speaking to Katie (this is all in italics)

3) Hano speaks of his life and his relationship with his family, Shay and Katie.

The story starts in the middle and zig zags backward and forward (without much notice) between the three story lines. The third track (Hano speaking of his life) is by far the most engaging. I found the other story lines in track 1 and 2 to bring environmental context to the plot but add murkiness and confusion. (Track 3 was that good and outweighed rather sluggish Tracks 1 and 2.)

You are "treated" to a visually depicted dark side of humanity in this novel - including but not limited to: heavy drinking, bare knuckled fist fights for sport with unwilling participants, drug fueled parties, human degradation, poverty, physical and sexual violence, corruption by police and politicians, and the fruits of high employment - all painting a picture of desperation/suffocation and frightening hopelessness.

Yet, while everyone is looking to flee Dublin, they can't seem to leave it behind -- as the promised land in Europe and/or America leaves them feeling empty and yearning for the homeland (and what "it was" as opposed to "what it has become"). As Bolger writes: "Home was not the place where you were born but the place you created for yourself, where you did not need to explain, where you finally became what you were."

This book will likely not appeal to the casual reader looking for a light and breezy page turner - this is another book assigned to you by your college professor in your "Advanced Literature" class......deep, introspective, beautifully written and reflecting the environment of the times.

My ratings scheme with 10 being high grade:

Page Turner: 6.5 (Dense, thick, dark and gloomy)
Memorable: 10
Character Development: 8
Live the Story: 9
Flow / Easy to Follow: 4

Bolger writes well. Sometimes he writes too well. Take the very first paragraph of the book and you'll come across not one but two strong, beautiful metaphors. Only they demand to be read twice, so you read them twice, then wonder at their proximity and then worry that things are going to be moving rather slowly. On the whole, they don't. Part of the book is about a couple on the run from an unnamed crime, part a poetic confession from beyond the grave and part an account of how it all came about. Of the three separate tales, only the latter is truly riveting. The description of Hano and Shay's friendship is spot-on, revelling in its aimlessness, energy and displacement. Dublin comes alive and seems at odds with the other parts of Ireland that Bolger displays. It's Ireland on the move, only its inhabitants haven't figured out where yet. The Old Ireland, the green sod, is gone. The Celtic Tiger hasn't yet arrived and that's what makes this novel, written in 1990, amazingly prescient. Its only weakness comes from the dialogue placed in the mouth of sixteen year old Katie, who never rises above being a two dimensional mouthpiece for the author. She stops in the middle of her escape, again and again, to deliver thoughtful, wordy descriptions of her place, or lack thereof, in the world. There's much to be impressed with and 'THe Journey Home' is worth the read, but this is a book with a distracting streak of purple prose and a single character bent on undermining the solidity of those who share the page.

For any parent or professional seeking a book which will lead to guidance for specialized medical care, I do not recommend this book. The first chapters are very general and could apply to any child, with autism or not. Many of the medical suggestions are common sense parenting. In the chapter on "Safety" and in several others, it seems to be assumed that the autistic child is mobile. No mention is made of helmets or special equipment.

The mentions of referrals to specialists such as genetics, and opthamology do not give any concrete guidance as to what specific tests or outcomes are to be expected or conducted and I saw no mention that a Pediatric opthamologist might be preferred over a general one. I want to know what an opthamologist should be doing...what parts of the eyes or neural processing of sight can be tested and how and what will it mean. I want to know what gene sequences should be tested for assurance that the problem is autism and not genetic.

I found the section on neuropsychological/educational/developmental testing informative, but we are not at that stage yet.

What I did find especially distressing in a text/reader was litle mention of the importance of accepting and expecting delayed response times to stimuli. Current research in education suggests allowing a 5 second interval between command or stimuli and response because of delayed neural processing by autistic and PDD students. I have adapted my expectations with my nephew and find that he is actually responding just not a normal speed.

I found the question answer format of chapter review insulting. Summaries would have been better. Finally, even though the authors are from the U.S. much of the book reads as though it is for a British audience. The use of "she" to refer to the autistic child is perplexing as males are more likely to be affected than females.

I expected more due to the five star ratings, but was sorry for the purchase.

This book provides a great deal of practical information for the parent of a child with autism. Routine health care visits and dental appointments and such can be incredibly stressful for children with autism and their parents, and the book provides practical advice on these issues. Another helpful chapter was that on using medication or other kinds of non medical treatments that you can find on the internet. There's so much information out there that it helps to have two authoritative voices helping one to sort these things through.

I am a physician and have looked for years for a book that would talk about medical care for children with autism and have now found it. This book is going to be a great resource for parents and teachers; it offers some good information to health care providers as well. It is balanced. Offers good coverage of a range of issues. The section on insurance is great - I don't know why the authors didn't put it early on in the book (they put it as an appendix)! The chapter on alternative treatments is very well done. Many great tips for managing office visits, the ER, hospitals, etc. Great reading list -Worth every penny!

Fred Volkmar is a leading medical authority on autism and director of the Developmental Disabilities Clinic and Research Program at the Yale University Child Study Center. Lisa Wiesner is a pediatrician with a special focus on pediatric autism. Dr. Volkmar and Dr. Wiesner draw upon their considerable expertise and experience in Healthcare For Children On The Autism Spectrum: A Guide To Medical, Nutritional, And Behavior Issues to provide up to date and fully accessible information for parents and care-takers on children with autism ranging from birth through adolescence. The subject areas comprehensively range from growth and nutrition, seizures, dental care, sensory issues, adolescent issues, developmental deterioration, and ASD diagnosis, to sleep, complementary and alternative treatments, safety issues, medications and behavior, doctor and hospital visits, raising a healthy child, and providing parents with an overview of autism and related conditions. Healthcare For Children On The Autism Spectrum is vitally important and urgently recommended reading for any parent or caretaker charged with the responsibilities arising from children with any degree of autistic behavior.

I am a committed Amazon shopper, this is, however, the first review I have submitted. I have only read a few pages of this book via the Amazon reader. I was searching for resources to help me help my 8 year old learning disabled son and his teacher. On page 202 the authors virtually dismiss my son's problems based on research from 1966 (the year I was born) stating that a bit of firmness would correct his ADHD / Dysgraphic behavior.

As a veteran high school teacher I agree that kind, firmness is vital in the classroom, but much more is needed to stop kids who process information differently from dropping out of school. We need to help them learn not just firmly (if "kindly") insist that they comply with a system that is frequently just wasting their time.

This book should be a requirement for every teachers ed program. It talks to evry discipline problem that may be encountered, from the ordinary to the severe. It is more applicable to the elementary level than to the secondary level. As a school counselor, I gave it to my daughter as she began her teaching career.

Dr. Dreikurs provides insightful and necessary information for teachers and parents today. It was enlightening to learn the 4 Adlerian Goals of Misbehavior (Need for: Attention, Power, Revenge, Discouragement) that children exhibit and how to deal with those behaviors to help children in a respectful and successful manner. There are many ideas such as the approach to discuss behaviors as a group in the classroom that lead children to understand their own behaviors as well as their friends' and how to help each other. Of great interest is also the approach of family meetings, and the examples, role play and dialogues are fantastic scenarios that help us learn HOW to follow the advice provided in the book. I was saddened to learn how I may have caused the competitive behavior of my own child, though happy to learn how to reverse what has been done. Understanding why our generation is transitioning in the way we parent as opposed to our parents and grandparents is provided...we are moving from autocratic to democratic methods. And after reading the chapter regarding this transition, it is logical why we have a struggle. Many of us are looking for help to move towards a more child-friendly approach, which is EXACTLY what "Maintaing Sanity in the Classroom" provides. All children would be much better off if all teachers had extensive training in the areas addressed by this excellent book.

I usually do not write reviews, but I had to say that I disagree with the previous reviewer's belief that this book was more applicable to elementary-school teachers. I am a middle school and high school teacher and believe that the techniques used in this book are just as helpful for upper-level teachers. There are even two chapters on particular concerns with adolescents. Those teachers who use the Responsive Classroom system of discipline will find that this book provides additional techniques to counsel children and aid them to become responsible citizens.

I found this book has useful ideas that are not difficult to implement. It provides lists and suggestions for addressing issues that many arise in the classroom. It is easy to forget that many ASD children need to be directly taught things that the average child would intuit. I think this would be particularly helpful when an ASD child is placed in an inclusion setting so the teacher could prepare for the child's needs. With any child you have to look at his or her unique needs, but this book has some very useful concrete suggestions on how to help an ASD child succeed.

I love this resourse it had a lot of great ideas. My suggestion would be to read it before you give it to you educators and pick and choose what you think might work for you child. They were a lot of ideas using many different tackics and some will work better for some children then others. I did love the ideas and suggestions.

This book is a great starting point and a good strategy reminder for any teacher, but especially for teachers that don't not have any experience teaching students with Asperger syndrome or High-Functioning autism. (Although it could be applied to any student in many different settings and at any age!). The content of the book in divided in 10 useful simple strategies. Each strategy is presented with an example and the reasons why it is important to use it. I would also recommended it to parents that need to give an orientation to the teachers of their sons or daughters.

This is a very user friendly book for busy teachers and other school staff who advocate for children with Asperger Syndrome and related disabilities of all ages. The book outlines ten areas that must be addressed and provides excellent information and strategies for each area. This book could be used to guide training for school staff working with students with AS/HFA.

As a yoga teacher for Seniors, I found this book very helpful since many of my students are only able to do exercises in a chair. I had used many of the exercises already and my students love them. I think its very important to add resistance training to every exercise program, especially our seniors. I purchased flexbands and my seniors love using them. This is a great reference book for anyone who teaches exercises for rehab or seniors.

As a wheelchair user, I use my muscles differently than the able bodied person so an exercise book geared for the able bodied is usually not useful to me. I found this book to be very helpful, with the use of theraband exercise aids (those long, stretchy neon colored things you've all seen) I can work out specific muscle groups and areas of my body as I need. A large number of the exercises can be done in a seated position. The line drawings are clear and very helpful. This would be a good book for anyone, able bodied or not who wants to ease into fitness following an injury, surgery, or just years of couch potato life. The spiral binding made it easy to keep the book open in front of my while doing the stretches. This is a very practical consideration usually overlooked by writers of exercise manuals.

A friend, from eBay no less, first told me about Bob Andersen and his books on stretching and exercise. Since that time I have acquired four of his texts and a video. Why? Because his well written books and the superb video have given me my active life back to me. I would not consider starting my day without doing a 30 minute regimen of stretching exercises that he refers to as the essential daily stretches. I'm 61 and lead a moderately active life. But a couple of years ago I noticed I was having more pains in my feet, joints and back than normal. My range of motion was decreasing and before I knew it, normal motion of bending and stooping or getting in and out of a car was becoming difficult for me. Along came the friend's recommendation on Bob Andersen and I was very skeptical. Before the week was out, the pains were gone. I was no longer limping as I walked from my car to my job, I could go up and downstairs as I had always done, not one step for two feet at a time. The rotation in my lower back and torso has been greatly extended so that I'm looking forward to playing golf once more. His advice is very simple, concise and easy to understand. He has made my life much more enjoyable and I'm grateful for these books and the video. I can't recommend him enough for anyone of any age who wants to stay fit or is interested in stretching and its benefits which are many.

This very small spiral bound book lies flat while you are trying to use it. The illustrations are clear and the instructions for the various stretches are clear as well. The exercises look accessible to anyone who can sit up in a chair, but as with any exercise book you need to be careful.

Timely delivery, as described. Book is packed with a ton of information, very useful in my graduate class. Not the easiest read but very accurate.

I don't think that anyone will buy this book unless they have to. It has good up-to-date info on special education and how to do great things for these students, but I don't think many of the authors have worked in a real school in the last couple of years.

Teaching Students with Severe Disabilities is almost the best introduction a student can have to this field of education.

Drs Westling and Fox outline in each chapter another area you will encounter in educating students with severe disabilities.

Unlike some textbooks this book is not overly weighted with jargon,or written to a level that requires expert knowledge of the field to decipher it.Yet it can stand by itself as an introduction to your student population.

Until you actually student teach, such as I have, this will be your best source for understanding your students and their needs.

As books intended to be textbooks go, this book by Westling and Fox covers the material without subjecting the reader to terminology which it does not explain.

It is broken up into well organized chapters, and reads well (meaning even a working professional can cover a chapter at a time without the book making them tired). It is not written in technical venacular, but in common sense terms most people interested in the subject can understand.

Unlike other books written in the field of special education it does not presume experience working with the children in question nor insult your intelligence if you are.

Most students should read this book before attempting any real fieldwork in the area of students with severe disabilities ( instead of as a textbook for a final class before student teaching as was my situation). It will give you a clearer view of the types of students you will be working with, and some of the ways to deal with them.

For the lay person, this is an interesting view point to read and perhaps get a sense of the frustration that is felt by my people with learning disabilities. However, as some who is dyslexic and also a teacher, there are significant things missing from McCabe's perspective. While I certainly understand his anger at educational "experts" he seems to operate under the assumption that he is the only one who has ever experienced his circumstances or has ever thought of the things he's promoting, which is an incorrect portrayl of the history of LD education. I was entertained at times, offended at others. Overall, there are more relavent books out there.

Read the 12 sample pages at Amazon.com. A distinguished educator speaks of his own dyslexia and his gratitude for a loving family, high expectations, and no official disability label. The author was in elementary and high school before they had the label of dyslexic. There were plenty of kids who needed help and got help. Therapy was just active play. Early educational intervention was just playing school. Teachers taught learning (memory) strategies to all students in k-12. He offers many practical ideas for improving literacy.

Don McCabe writes a compelling autobiography to illustrate what it is like to grow up dyslexic. He was born in 1932 and this was well before "dyslexia" was a term, let alone a diagnosis. He was just treated as a boy who couldn't sit still. He credits his older sister and wonderful teachers who worked intensively with him to help him learn to read and eventually to become a respected scholar. McCabe has dedicated the last thirty years to working on literacy. This book is a quick, fun read that shows a good dose of humor helps in discussing serious topics such as dyslexia. If you or someone you love has been diagnosed as dyslexic, don't wring your hands in despair - buy this book and learn from someone who knows first hand about what it means to be a dyslexic.

Not only is this book a description of Don McCabe's early years, he also has some fascinating information about the "word families" approach to spelling and reading, made new through his own well-developed sequential spelling strategies!
I can see that the mastery of the language is in learning the patterns of spelling. The sequencing of the words is based on research and the building of English words from the root word to an expanded form.
I really liked the fact that students correct their own papers. Immediate feedback is empowering. A student's confidence is much more significant when they can spell words that they have never seen before without studying!
I am anxious to find out more about his website [...] and check out his text books utilizing the sequential spelling techniques.

THIS BOOK IS A MUST READ FOR KIDS,KIDS AT AT HEART,PARENTS TEACHERS,EDUCATORS(ETC) IT'S ESPECIALLY A GIFT TO THOSE LD/ADD/ADHD/DYSLEXIC INDIVIDUALS WHO ENJOY 12STEP (IE ACOA) BOOKS!! THE DRAWINGS ARE TERRIFIC,THE STORIES TOUCHING,TEAR PROVOKING AND ARE FUNNY & EMOTION FILLED!! I WOULD BE DELIGHTED TO SPEAK TO ANYONE WITH QUESTIONS AND/OR COMMENTS AS I HAVE BEEN DR L'S VERY SUCCESSFUL ADULT PATIENT SINCE 9/84-PRESENT(AND AM VERY SIMILAR TO THE "ANNA" CHARACTER IN THE BOOK!)THE BOOK ALSO IS WONDERFUL AS IS ITS SEQUEL,TURNING AROUND THE UPSIDE DOWN KIDS, IN THAT IT ALSO INCLUDES PRAISE FOR THE IRLEN COLORED TINTED FILTER EYEGLASSES IN ADDITION TO THE INNER EAR MEDICATIONS. MARSHA LAMPERT MBA ,WANTAGH NY

This book made a tremendous break through in my son's ability to see his dyslexia as a medical problem. He always thought of himself dumb and stupid. His eyes filled with tears as he read about himself through the football players words. He identfied so well with the dyslexic character that since we read the book, he has never once referred to himself as dumb or stupid again. This book has given my son so much more than I could ever tell him. Every dyslexic child should read this book and hopefully they to will gain what a parent can't tell a child.

I purchased this book to help my 7 year old son understand his dyslexia. Although the book was written in a way that children would readily understand the text, I disagree that it is for children between the ages of 4 - 8. I believe children between the ages of 9 - 13 would benefit most from it. Finally, if the child relates to one of the kids described in the book, I believe that it would be frustrating to not find any helpful strategies at the end. Maybe they are in the next book?

I have three children with dyslexia and finding a book that helps them understand their problem without the scientific jargon is hard. This is an enjoyable read and helped me understand what the kids are going through. It also shows that an understanding teacher with a heart of gold can truly make a difference to their lives. More teachers should be taking the time to read books like these and they should be more understanding of the "New" children entering their classrooms.

Congratulations Dr Levinson for a wonderful book it helped me and my children and I recommend this book to all parents that have dyslexic children.

My aunt gave me this book to read and it is amazing! I knew some of the facts (like that FDR suffered from polio and Helen Keller was blind and deaf) but this book had more than just the regular facts. It had more of the STORIES about who these people were and how they got past their problems.

Bruce Jenner and Jim Stovall - Both of these men overcame disabilities to achieve great things. Things most people wouldn¹t have attempted and things others would have never assumed they would achieve. While I do not have a disability, this book has motivated me that no matter what goals I set for myself, with hard work and determination I can achieve great things too.

I found Amazing Achievers to be a book everyone should read. When I started reading it, I couldn¹t put it down. I read the entire book the night I received it. I enjoyed reading about the characters in the book and how they overcame their disabilities.

This book is helpful if you are working with special education students. It is a book that will help you (and other team members) decide what is most important for a student who is transitioning into adulthood. It will help show/guide you to to areas of concern. It is an assessment, not standardized testing. It is open to interputation.

As a special education advocate, it was helpful in determining what areas of need had to be addressed within transition.

It is not standardized testing that will hold up to a special education hearing as it is subjective.

It did provide good insight into what the student wanted and needed.

I will use this tool again for other students who are transitioning from school to adulthood.

The COACH was a great help in putting together my daughter's IEP. By following the quidelines you are able to organize and decide what is most important to your child and you when planning the IEP. COACH. also, is a big proponent of inclusion which is what parents of special needs children are wanting. Using its format you can plan a very workable education plan and the child can be educated in a regular classroom the majority of the time. We have been doing IEP's for years but using COACH made this years IEP much easier.

As a parent of a 3 year old with Down syndrome, I found this book extremely helpful as Andrew moves toward inclusion in a private school. It is helpful for parents to become aware of inclusion issues and processes for their children's sake. This book provides a helpful understanding of inclusion and is readable for non-educators as well as professional teaching staff. COACH encourages teamwork of family and educators to best create appropriate, meaningful and beneficial IEP plans. I gave my copy to the principal of my son's school and she immediately asked me for the publisher's catalog so she could order a copy and implement COACH processes with other families affected by disabilities as well.