Parenting a Child with a Learning Disability Cheryl Gerson Tuttle and Penny Paquette

. Parenting A Child With A Learning Disability by Cheryl Tuttle and Penny Paquette could really be subtitled "a practical guide to living with and raising a child with learning disabilities." It is indeed an empathetic and practical guide as its true subtitle promises. The focus of the book is on intervention at home. It is chockful of suggestions for daily living. The scope of this book is broad, as it addresses a number of types of learning disabilities and their impacts on the child and family. It includes short chapters on disabilities in math, reading, attention (ADD/ADHD), language, speech, and even fine motor (writing). Parenting A Child With A Learning Disability provides an overview of each type of learning difficulty with descriptions, issues and practical suggestions for each. With refreshing candor but without rancor, the authors admit that interaction with the school can sometimes be intimidating or adverserial and give suggestions on how to work as a team. The concluding chapters includes a paragraph on each type of evaluation test and concludes with the law, resources and a glossary. Quotes from the book: "Parents of children with leaning disabilities are tired. In addition to the normal stresses of family life, they are continually working on their child's behalf. They mediate, advocate, intervene, referee, plan, negotiate, and adapt until they are exhausted. In the meantime, they provide emotional support for their learning disabled child, while trying to balance the attention given that child with the attention given the other members of the family. No wonder they are worn out." ----- "To help your child improve his writing skills, encourage him to work to strengthen his large and small muscles. Activities that emphasize overall body strength and sensory awareness, like walking, running, skipping, hopping, jumping, stretching, bending, dancing, crawling, and swimming, can improve your child's overall motor coordination. Hopscotch is a good game to use for many of these movements. Jump rope and Simon Says are also good. "To develop hand strength, involve your child in play activities that use Play-Doh or Silly Putty. Activities that can strengthen hand muscles include opening clothespins, punching holes in paper with a hand-held hole punch, squeezing the trigger on a a water pistol, stringing pop beads, squeezing bulb-shaped bicycle horns, operating wind-up toys and using tweezers to move pieces of rice into patterns. "Eye-hand coordination can be developed by stringing beads or buttons, or by working with puzzles, peg boards, Legos, stickers, and building blocks. Etch-A-Sketch is a commercial toy drawing screen that requires fine motor skills. Rediscover the fun in a game of marbles or pick-up sticks." Parenting A Child with a Learning Disability. Cheryl Gerson Tuttle, Penny Paquette. 1995. Doubleday Books; ISBN: 0385475829. Order from Amazon $8.80 || How your purchase can help

Home || Learning Disability Books || Disabilities

Review Copyright 1999

Book Review Parenting A Child with a Learning Disability.
Http://www.comeunity.com/disability/learning_disability/parenting.html