The Complete Guide to Asperger's Syndrome


Tony Attwood - 2006
    Now including a new introduction explaining the impact of DSM-5 on the diagnosis and approach to AS, it brings together a wealth of information on all aspects of the syndrome for children through to adults.Drawing on case studies and personal accounts from Attwood's extensive clinical experience, and from his correspondence with individuals with AS, this book is both authoritative and extremely accessible. Chapters examine:* causes and indications of the syndrome* the diagnosis and its effect on the individual* theory of mind * the perception of emotions in self and others* social interaction, including friendships* long-term relationships* teasing, bullying and mental health issues* the effect of AS on language and cognitive abilities, sensory sensitivity, movement and co-ordination skills* career development.There is also an invaluable frequently asked questions chapter and a section listing useful resources for anyone wishing to find further information on a particular aspect of AS, as well as literature and educational tools.Essential reading for families and individuals affected by AS as well as teachers, professionals and employers coming in contact with people with AS, this book should be on the bookshelf of anyone who needs to know or is interested in this complex condition.'I usually say to the child, "Congratulations, you have Asperger's syndrome", and explain that this means he or she is not mad, bad or defective, but has a different way of thinking.' - from The Complete Guide to Asperger's Syndrome.

Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning


Peter C. Brown - 2014
    Good teaching, we believe, should be creatively tailored to the different learning styles of students and should use strategies that make learning easier. Make It Stick turns fashionable ideas like these on their head. Drawing on recent discoveries in cognitive psychology and other disciplines, the authors offer concrete techniques for becoming more productive learners.Memory plays a central role in our ability to carry out complex cognitive tasks, such as applying knowledge to problems never before encountered and drawing inferences from facts already known. New insights into how memory is encoded, consolidated, and later retrieved have led to a better understanding of how we learn. Grappling with the impediments that make learning challenging leads both to more complex mastery and better retention of what was learned.Many common study habits and practice routines turn out to be counterproductive. Underlining and highlighting, rereading, cramming, and single-minded repetition of new skills create the illusion of mastery, but gains fade quickly. More complex and durable learning come from self-testing, introducing certain difficulties in practice, waiting to re-study new material until a little forgetting has set in, and interleaving the practice of one skill or topic with another. Speaking most urgently to students, teachers, trainers, and athletes, Make It Stick will appeal to all those interested in the challenge of lifelong learning and self-improvement.

Introducing Public Administration


Jay M. Shafritz - 1996
    This approach will captivate students and encourage them to think critically about the nature of public administration today. Introducing Public Administration provides students with a solid, conceptual foundation in public administration, and contains the latest information on important trends in the discipline. To further engage students and deepen interest in its narrative, the text uses unique chapter-opening vignettes called Keynotes, chapter ending case studies, and a series of boxes throughout that offer real-life excerpts and alternative theories.

Pictures of the Mind: What the New Neuroscience Tells Us about Who We Are


Miriam Boleyn-Fitzgerald - 2009
    No new cells. No major changes. If you grew up depressed, angry, sad, aggressive, or nasty, you'd be that way for life. And, as you grew older, there'd be nowhere to go but down, as disease, age, or injury wiped out precious, irreplaceable brain cells. But over the past five, ten, twenty years, all that's changed. Using fMRI and PET scanning technology, neuroscientists can now look deep inside the human brain and they've discovered that it's amazingly flexible, resilient, and plastic. Pictures of the Mind: What the New Neuroscience Tells Us About Who We Are shows you what they've discovered and what it means to all of us. Through author Miriam Boleyn-Fitzgerald's masterfully written narrative and use stunning imagery, you'll watch human brains healing, growing, and adapting to challenges. You'll gain powerful new insights into the interplay between environment and genetics, begin understanding how people can influence their own intellectual abilities and emotional makeup, and understand the latest stunning discoveries about coma and "locked-in" syndrome. You'll learn about the tantalizing discoveries that may lead to cures for traumatic brain injury, stroke, emotional disorders, PTSD, drug addiction, chronic pain, maybe even Alzheimer's. Boleyn-Fitzgerald shows how these discoveries are transforming our very understanding of the "self," from an essentially static entity to one that can learn and change throughout life and even master the art of happiness.

Language at the Speed of Sight


Mark Seidenberg - 2017
    Little has changed, however, since then: over half of our children still read at a basic level and few become highly proficient. Many American children and adults are not functionally literate, with serious consequences. Poor readers are more likely to drop out of the educational system and as adults are unable to fully participate in the workforce, adequately manage their own health care, or advance their children's education. In Language at the Speed of Sight, internationally renowned cognitive scientist Mark Seidenberg reveals the underexplored science of reading, which spans cognitive science, neurobiology, and linguistics. As Seidenberg shows, the disconnect between science and education is a major factor in America's chronic underachievement. How we teach reading places many children at risk of failure, discriminates against poorer kids, and discourages even those who could have become more successful readers. Children aren't taught basic print skills because educators cling to the disproved theory that good readers guess the words in texts, a strategy that encourages skimming instead of close reading. Interventions for children with reading disabilities are delayed because parents are mistakenly told their kids will catch up if they work harder. Learning to read is more difficult for children who speak a minority dialect in the home, but that is not reflected in classroom practices. By building on science's insights, we can improve how our children read, and take real steps toward solving the inequality that illiteracy breeds. Both an expert look at our relationship with the written word and a rousing call to action, Language at the Speed of Sight is essential for parents, educators, policy makers, and all others who want to understand why so many fail to read, and how to change that.

Wasted: An Alcoholic Therapist's Fight for Recovery in a Flawed Treatment System


Michael Pond - 2016
    . . A riveting and anxiety-inducing read. Mike Pond tells his story of recovery from alcoholism with a brutally honest, warts-and-all approach that makes you want cheer for him and simultaneously slap him upside the head.” – Vancouver SunPsychotherapist Michael Pond is no stranger to the devastating consequences of alcoholism. He has helped hundreds of people conquer their addictions, but this knowledge did not prevent his own near-demise. In this riveting memoir, he recounts how he lost his Penticton-based practice, his home, and his family—all because of his drinking. After scores of visits to the ER, a tour of hellish recovery homes, a stint in intensive care for end-stage alcoholism, and jail, Pond devised his own personal plan for recovery. He met Maureen Palmer and together they investigated scientific alternatives to the rigid abstinence doctrine pushed by Alcoholics Anonymous.

Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise


K. Anders Ericsson - 2016
    Rest assured that the book is not mere theory. Ericsson's research focuses on the real world, and he explains in detail, with examples, how all of us can apply the principles of great performance in our work or in any other part of our lives."-- Fortune Anders Ericsson has made a career studying chess champions, violin virtuosos, star athletes, and memory mavens. Peak distills three decades of myth-shattering research into a powerful learning strategy that is fundamentally different from the way people traditionally think about acquiring new abilities. Whether you want to stand out at work, improve your athletic or musical performance, or help your child achieve academic goals, Ericsson's revolutionary methods will show you how to improve at almost any skill that matters to you."The science of excellence can be divided into two eras: before Ericsson and after Ericsson. His groundbreaking work, captured in this brilliantly useful book, provides us with a blueprint for achieving the most important and life-changing work possible: to become a little bit better each day."--Dan Coyle, author of The Talent Code "Ericsson's research has revolutionized how we think about human achievement. If everyone would take the lessons of this book to heart, it could truly change the world."--Joshua Foer, author of Moonwalking with Einstein

The Learning Brain: Lessons for Education


Sarah-Jayne Blakemore - 2005
     Pioneering book in emerging field from two leading authorities Reviews in an accessible style what we know about how and when the brain learns Draws out the implications of this knowledge for educational policy and practice Covers studies on learning during the whole of development, including adulthood Looks at what we can learn from brain research about children with learning difficulties, and how this can inform remedial education

Now You See It: How the Brain Science of Attention Will Transform the Way We Live, Work, and Learn


Cathy N. Davidson - 2011
     When Cathy Davidson and Duke University gave free iPods to the freshman class in 2003, critics said they were wasting their money. Yet when students in practically every discipline invented academic uses for their music players, suddenly the idea could be seen in a new light-as an innovative way to turn learning on its head. This radical experiment is at the heart of Davidson's inspiring new book. Using cutting-edge research on the brain, she shows how "attention blindness" has produced one of our society's greatest challenges: while we've all acknowledged the great changes of the digital age, most of us still toil in schools and workplaces designed for the last century. Davidson introduces us to visionaries whose groundbreaking ideas-from schools with curriculums built around video games to companies that train workers using virtual environments-will open the doors to new ways of working and learning. A lively hybrid of Thomas Friedman and Norman Doidge, Now You See It is a refreshingly optimistic argument for a bold embrace of our connected, collaborative future.

Life with an Autistic Son


B's Dad - 2013
    He did not crave my company, cling to and cuddle me endlessly. He showed no need to bond with me, his father, and we did not. He exhausted me, he frustrated me and he scared me. I came to dread coming home from work sometimes, or those moments when it was my turn to wrestle him into bed and begin the long struggle to settle him. I said things that will forever haunt me, like “What is wrong with that child?” and “Is he always going to be this annoying?” What I didn't know then was that he was autistic.When that realisation came, so did the beginning of my mission to understand my son, and to understand autism. This book chronicles that search for understanding and answers. It documents one parent’s attempts to come to terms with, and accept, his child. It is raw and real, sometimes confused and frightened but also, I’d like to think, written with warmth and love and an ability to smile through difficult times.This book is for anyone starting out on a pathway with their child that they did not expect. It’s also for people who, like me, are a little further down that road but still learning, still asking questions and still getting it wrong sometimes. You are not alone.

Why Don't Students Like School?: A Cognitive Scientist Answers Questions About How the Mind Works and What It Means for the Classroom


Daniel T. Willingham - 2009
    Why is it that they can remember the smallest details from their favorite television program, yet miss the most obvious questions on their history test?Cognitive scientist Dan Willingham has focused his acclaimed research on the biological and cognitive basis of learning and has a deep understanding of the daily challenges faced by classroom teachers. this book will help teachers improve their practice by explaining how they and their students think and learn—revealing the importance of story, emotion, memory, context, and routine in building knowledge and creating lasting learning experiences.In this breakthrough book, Willingham has distilled his knowledge of cognitive science into a set of nine principles that are easy to understand and have clear applications for the classroom. Some of examples of his surprising findings are:“Learning styles” don't exist The processes by which different children think and learn are more similar than different.Intelligence is malleable Intelligence contributes to school performance and children do differ, but intelligence can be increased through sustained hard work.You cannot develop “thinking skills” in the absence of facts We encourage students to think critically, not just memorize facts. However thinking skills depend on factual knowledge for their operation.Why Don't Students Like School is a basic primer for every teacher who wants to know how their brains and their students’ brains work and how that knowledge can help them hone their teaching skills.

Intervention Strategies to Follow Informal Reading Inventory Assessment: So What Do I Do Now?


JoAnne Caldwell - 2004
    KEY TOPICS: Learn research-based measures for reading improvement. Understand the relationship between reading instruction and assessment. Identify practical intervention strategies based on students' informal reading inventory results. Use viable writing strategies within the context of literacy intervention lessons. Address difficulties in word identification, fluency, prior knowledge and comprehension. Access lesson plans via an all new PDToolkit. MARKET: For reading specialists, K--12 literacy teachers and literacy coaches.

Choice Theory in the Classroom


William Glasser - 1986
    Glasser translates choice theory into a productive, classroom model of team learning with emphasis on satisfaction and excitement. Working in small teams, students find that knowledge contributes to power, friendship and fun. Because content and the necessary student collaboration skills must be taught, teachers need to develop skills if they are to use this model successfully. The dividends are 'turned-on ' students and satisfied teachers."--Madeline Hunter, University of California at Los Angeles "Choice Theory in the Classroom is a landmark book, without question one of the most important and useful books for teachers to appear in a long while. Written with rare lucidity and grace, the book has numerous instantly usable ideas that will contribute fundamentally to the success of classroom teachers. William Glasser combines his extensive theoretical expertise and wide practical experience to provide a practical and illuminating guide for teachers [that] should be required reading in every college of education in the country."--David and Roger Johnson, University of Minnesota"Choice Theory in the Classroom presents an insightful analysis of what is wrong with traditional school and what need to be done about it. Dr. Glasser gives a compelling rationale for the use of learning-teams in schools to capture the excitement and commitment students display in sports but rarely in the classroom. The book is well written and persuasive. I hope every teacher in America buys it, believes it, and behaves accordingly."--Robert Slavin, John Hopkins University

Experience Psychology


Laura A. King - 2009
    Do you want your students to just take psychology or to experience psychology? Laura King's approach to introductory psychology embodies a balanced consideration of functioning behavior as well as dysfunction and a view of psychology as an integrated whole.

Exploring Lifespan Development


Laura E. Berk - 1904
    It is thorough, research-based, theoretically sound, engaging, interesting, personable and compassionate in tone.....a very rare set of qualities..” *Dale Lund, University of Utah    “[I appreciate the]great use of concrete, real-life examples of the various concepts throughout the chapter.  This is incredibly helpful for students’ learning and retention of the material.”   *Tracie Blumentritt, University of Wisconsin-La Crosse    “One of the strengths of this book is a sense that we are learning from someone who is both a great scholar and a very wise and experienced person.  Berk has credibility on both a professional and personal level.”   *David Shwalb, Southeastern Louisiana University   “I was very impressed with this text…Chapter 8 on social and emotional development in early childhood is outstanding.” ”   *Byron, Egeland, University of Minnesota   “I especially like the way Dr. Berk addresses policy in this text… the social issues boxes are very useful in engaging students in topics of real-life importance that go beyond the individual.”   *Ashley Maynard, University of Hawaii   “Bravo! Boy, was I favorablyimpressed!  The photos are BEAUTIFUL.”   *Laura Thompson, New Mexico State University     Berk has written a phenomenal chapter [on death and dying]… It is through, sensitive, and well written.”   Cheryl Anagnopoulos, Black Hills State University     “The author has done a very good job of presenting critical issues in a straightforward, understandable manner.  Students have commented on the usefulness of the text, and stated they particularly like the milestone tables, vignettes, and end-of-chapter summaries.  Students have also commented that the author manages to make potentially difficult concepts easy to understand.”   *Marita Kloseck, University of Western Ontario