Disabled Books

This book should be the basis for all further research in the area of music therapy. I have sincerely never read a better work than this one on music therapy. Excellent theoretical background information and well-explained.

Some of the articles I was able to read quite easily, however, I had difficulty with most of the articles from British/European authors -- their theoretical background, if I'm not mistaken, seems to be in the Freudian/depth psychology area, or at least, schools of psychology with which I am not familiar -- my theoretical knowledge of psychology lies more in the various schools of psychology from the US.

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.

Being a parent, I would never want any intervention that will be used on my son to be foreign to me. I like to be an active and knowledgable participant whenever we are adjusting his curriculum, or behavior plans. I find this book to be an ongoing resource for me and it is reffered to at many team meetings.It is an easy read...and I like the TESTS that follow each chapter .. I have a clearer understanding on how to CREATE and DESIGN an EFFECTIVE behavior plan. This book has fed my confidence level when I am involved in a conversation or meeting about behavior plans on diminishing inappropriate/maladaptive behaviors(unfortunatley for me, the wonderful examples they used in the book did not pertain to my struggles with my son on his verbal /vocal perseverations..so anyone out there..Mr Foxx perhaps(?) consider writing a book on combating one of the MOST challenging beahviors the vocal perseveration..thanks :) ) . Thank you to the author of this book.It is a wonderful read!

Richard Foxx's two volume set, Increasing and Decreasing Behaviors... was one of my first introductions to Applied Behavior Analysis, and I still come back to them often. They are written in an easy to read and understandable style. The author is one of the best there is in this field, and it shows in his writing. He knows his subject matter, and he knows how to teach it. Keep this set for the shelves, you won't outgrow them.

Although Dr. Beisser has been quoted in many books that deal with polio survival, he is firstly and foremostly a psychiatrist. This memoir ignores the human experience of polio to focus on psychiatric analysis of survival. It's a tough slog through the swamp of psycho-speak.

I'll keep it simple.....
I'm a physically challenged man. I had polio as a young man. I've had and still have a very rich full life...
I've learned through my life'experiences that we can all fly without wings... If we dare to fly...............
..... as if you could kill time.. without injuring eternity**
Sincerely,
JC

This book is a sociological overview of the variety of family types found throughout the world. It describes cultures that practice polyandry (exemplified by the Toda of South India), cultures that practice polygamy (exemplified by the Baganda of Uganda), matrilineal cultures (exemplified by the Hopi of Arizona), patriarchal cultures (exemplified by the Chinese), and cultures with minimal families (exemplified by the kibbutz culture of Israel). For each of these cultures, a detailed description is provided that includes information about family organization, kinship orientation and terminology, mate selection, responsibilities and typical practices of family members at different stages of life (birth, infancy, childhood, adolescence, adulthood and old age), family controls, division of the family, and functions of the family. The descriptions are based on published anthropological accounts of the cultures in question, and specific details are cited with endnotes that appear following each chapter. The parallel organization of the first five chapters facilitates easy comparison of each feature across the different cultures.

The second part of the book attempts to explore contemporary (1950s in the 3rd ed) American families by seeking historical roots of family traditions. The authors implicitly assume a Classical Western Civilization source of American family traditions and present a linear history that goes from colonial families to British families, to families of the Roman empire, to early Christian families, and ultimately back to Hebrew families. To me, this part of the book sounds a bit of a stretch, and a closed-minded one at that. I don't think cultural traditions work in such a closed, linear way. I would guess that American families probably have some things in common with other heterogeneous cultures of immigrants, like those found in Israel, Brazil, or New Zealand, in that ties with ancestors and extended family were severed with emigration from the home countries, and may not have been rebuilt by later generations. In addition, certainly Slavic, Spanish and Muslim, and Scandinavian family traditions must all have played some role in creating the culture of the contemporary American family, a role that certainly equaled that contributed by the early Roman or Hebrew cultures. The book closes with a chapter on the American "Negro" family, which highlights some reasons why family traditions in African American families can be so very different from European American (WASP) families.

Overall, I found the book somewhat informative and occasionally even interesting. In places, it seemed that the book focused a bit too much on mating customs and wedding traditions, and didn't delve into the more important questions such as "What is a family in this culture?" or "How do the children view their families in this culture?" In order to facilitate the discussion, the focus is on the ideal family in each culture, such as a family with a patriarch and 3 or 4 generations living under one roof. What doesn't receive enough discussion is what happens when the patriarch passes away, since although this doesn't meet the ideal for family composition in the culture, it certainly happens within every family, and everyone in the culture at some point is going to live in a broken family. How do they manage then? The authors brush these questions aside, providing at most a paragraph or two about divorce for each culture. Despite these shortcomings, for a cross-cultural overview of family traditions that is accessible to the general reader, this book may nevertheless prove adequate.

I used this book as a supplement to my upper division course, The Psychology of Marriage & Family, which I taught for about 7 or so years. I assigned five chapters and encouraged reading the whole book.

There is no other text that I know of like this and it gives a perspective which is extremely valuable for understanding functions and changes in marriage.

There are so many forms to marriage and family historically and culturally that obviously no one book could survey them all. But this one does an excellent job of giving a taste of the complexity, especially concentrating on those antecedent influences on the American (and much of the Canadian) heritage. But it also gives some other examples for contrast, (e.g., the Chinese, etc.), that are not part of the usual heritage.

The book has chapters on the families of the polyandrous Toda; matrilieal Hopi; traditional Chinese; the Kibbutz; ancient Hebrews; ancient and later Romans; early Christians;Anglo-Saxons; Medieval English; colonial American; modern American; contemporary Black; and Mexican-American to name all but three or four chapters.

While written from a socioloigical point of view, anthropologists, psychologists, marriage and family therapists, and many other students of marriage and family will find it a rich treasure. Most chapters are heavily footnoted so there are ready references to other sources.

I still look up things in my copy or reread chapters and it's a shame this book is no lonmger in print. Fortunately, there are a number of cheap used copies available and I sometimes order one or two to give as gifts to friends interested in the area. I'm sorry that I've not posted a review earlier. (If you do a Google on the title, you'll see this text is still being used in several upper division courses in the US and Canada.)

I don't know what earlier editions are like (I think the first edition was published in 1952!) but I suggest anything from the fourth edition (1974; 460 pp.) on will be valuable. As I recall, the edition in which Jill Quadagno joined the original two authors resulted in a somewhat easier reading book; I'm not sure if the book was shortened at all with her addition.

According to research, individuals with Specific Learning Disabilities are the fastest growing population needing rehabilitation services. The techniques and approaches that work with most populations are usually ineffective for these individuals. Wide spread application of the information in this book could change outcomes and turn around the lives of many LD and ADD clients; people who will otherwise flounder throughout their working years.

This textbook is a very good source if you are or plan to work with this population. It provides good insights for someone not too familiar with working with the Learning Disabled. The material is presented in a very straight forward style. The book is divided between the case study approach and this is preceded by a guide to the "definitions", terms and characteristics that apply the clients. Everything that impacts on the employability of this population. Assessment tools are also discussed.

Do you play a musical Instrument but are struggling to learn how to read musical notation? That was the case with my daughter and myself for that matter, (But I don't play an instrument yet) After a year and a half of playing the Harp my daughter couldn't figure out the Theory part. It didn't hit me until I realized that after my helping her for the past 1 1/2 yrs. that I couldn't "get it" either. After searching the Internet for hours and hours I came to the conclusion that we both have Dyslexic Tendencies. This is the only Book that I could find on the subject. If you play an Instrument and you have difficulty learning to read music this Book has a lot of answers.

Here is the Table of Contents:
Chapter 1 - The Manifestations of Dyslexia, its biological bases, and its effects on daily living.
Chapter 2- how dyslexia can affect musicians
Chapter 3- Dyslexia and musical development
Chapter 4 through 19- Personal stories about Dyslexic Musicians
Chapter 20- a multi-sensory approach to the teaching of musical notation.
Chapter 21- Gathering the threads
Appendix I- Recognizing the dyslexic child-notes for parents and teachers.
Appendix II- Checklist of dyslexic symptoms in adults.

I feel the first 4 chapters alone are worth getting the book for. Having someone explain Their Theory on Music and Dyslexia in a nutshell was very enlightening.
In Chapter 20- The Author has developed a method he calls 'Colour Staff' for learning to read Music. Interestingly enough I have developed my own variation of the same idea with using color.

After reading his idea and comparing it to mine, I like mine better. I created a 'Grand Staff' on a Word Processor and using Colored Notes I have been writing Music "In Color" for 6 Months. And guess what, IT WORKED! My daughter can read music now, and no longer has to memorize the songs she learns. I'm considering writing some sort of booklet on My Colored Notes Theory, and possibly a Web Site in the future...I hope this information helps you in your search for finding new ways of Learning to read Music. ....

I was hoping this book would explain methods through which musicians are able to overcome their learning issues. Mainly a group of case studies, this book offers hope and inspiration to those who struggle in understanding and applying music theory and technique. However, the book was short on strategies and specifics in explaining how to "open new doors."

Though it supposedly covers all the issues related to add(medication,legal etc.) this book simply lacks the substance. Try searching with google.com instead.

If you're having trouble in college (undergrad or grad) read/buy this book (despite the cost)! Other books on "childhood" & adult AD/HD just repeat the same basic info & don't deal with the specific challenges postsecondary education poses. This is for those already familiar with the basics of AD/HD & are searching for coping mechanisms, ESPECIALLY those struggling in college (Don't feel ashamed. I'm there too.). Some caring professionals in academia questioned the effectiveness of current methods, guidelines, interventions, etc. on AD/HD students. The preface sums up the format/vision: "a compilation of articles written in response to the unique needs of young adults with AD/HD who are attending college .... Recent research on AD/HD supports the need for recognition and treatment for this segment of the postsecondary population. Educational programming for these students must, therefore, now include medical, psychological, and academic interventions to address all aspects of this complex disorder." This wonderful, holistic, approach recognizes the unique problems of AD/HD. For example, a toaster & a toaster oven (students with disorders) may both burn toast (not succeed) but you don't fix them the exact same way. Finally, someone out there understood this! For example, one article discusses the differences between LD & AD/HD, showing different methods must be used. To further this horrible metaphor - these professionals examined all parts of the "toaster oven" (AD/HD students - carrying out several functions w/ the trun of a knob) & tried to figure out how to service, not just the heat element (impulsivity/attention span), but the power cord, knobs, and electrical outlet (psychological, academic, & medical interventions). They recognize how gender, comorbidites (disorders that coexist w/ AD/HD), legal issues, & others can effect students' success in college. This refreshing approach to looking at the whole student & caring about their wellness & success almost made me cry. I'm fed up with "red-tape" & not knowing what's out there and what will TRULLY HELP me finally finish college (I'm working on 6 yrs now). My hope is renewed & my battle attack revised after reading this. I plan to use this book to help dispell the frustrating struggle of fellow ADDers in college, illustrate the need for new stratagemin AD/HD treatment in college and initiate/facilitate change & growth in student disability programs (starting with UC Davis). I felt like a failure, despite "solutions" offered in books, medications, therapy & (insufficient) accomodations. For example, I perfectly understood, retained & explained all the concepts in calculus, but I bombed ALL my exams. Turn the struggle into something productive. READ THIS, learn the deeper effects AD/HD has & help others (by educating them) help you. We can succeed... here are some of the tools....

It has opened my eyes to more approriate communication goals and objectives for working not only with the student but with the communicaiton partners. Looking forward to putting it to use. Provides reproducible forms as well.

I welcome the background information that supports the SCERTS model. If your child's school is considering, proposing or does follow the SCERTS model it is gratifying to read the "philosophical foundations, core values and guiding principals" from which the model sprung.

There is a lot of information but it is carefully laid out to build a reader's comprehension. Example: It is made clear in the introduction of VOL I that "extreme emotional dysregulation" is what Moms (and Dads) everywhere call a "meltdown". From then on you are comfortable with that term and as an added benefit your knowledge fosters a higher level of communication with the professional staff and in formal documents regarding your child's education.

I will admit to reading the Introduction and skipping over to VOL I Chapter 6 Continuum of Current Intervention Approaches and the SCERTS model. (How SCERTS compares to other educational approaches.) Whatever order you chose I feel confident in recommending that this be read by parents as well as professionals.

From VOL I, Chapter 1, page 1:
"We believe that an effective program for a child with ASD requires the expertise of a team of professionals working in a careful, coordinated manner in partnership with parents and family members."
and
"We have made very effort to make this manual user-friendly and accessible for professionals, paraprofessionals, and parents. However, we also believe the reader must make an investment in understanding the rich theoretical and research foundations of the model to apply it effectively. Although we have infused the manual with helpful examples and creative activities, the strength of the SCERTS Model is in the integration of understanding a child in the context of his or her family and the daily activities and transactional impact of people and learning supports that become critical influences on the child's development in everyday experiences."

This book is very dry. It is uninteresting, but packed full of information. It gives a lot of background before it gets to the point.

As an LD teacher, I have found the materials in this book to be an excellant adjunct in the reading/language arts programs for my students. Many special educational plans include word families and the mastering of vowels, r-controlled vowels, and dipthong sounds when needed for decoding. These materials give guided instruction in these areas with varied practice. My only concern is the size of the print in many areas of the book. It is too small for students with visual processing difficulties and I have needed to enlarge some of the pages. Overall, it is a nice addition to my curriculum library.

As an LD teacher, I have found the materials in this book to be an excellant adjunct in the reading/language arts programs for my students. Many special educational plans include word families and the mastering of vowels, r-controlled vowels, and dipthong sounds when needed for decoding. These materials give guided instruction in these areas with varied practice. My only concern is the size of the print in many areas of the book. It is too small for students with visual processing difficulties and I have needed to enlarge some of the pages. Overall, it is a nice addition to my curriculum library.