Smart Kids With Learning Difficulties: Overcoming Obstacles and Realizing Potential

by Rich Weinfeld, Linda Barnes-Robinson, Sue Jeweler

The second edition of Smart Kids With Learning Difficulties is an updated and comprehensive must-read for parents, teachers, counselors, and other support professionals of bright kids who face learning challenges every day. This practical book discusses who these students are; how to identify them; what needs to be implemented; best practices, programs, and services; and specific actions to ensure student success. Along with tools and tips, each chapter includes Key Points, a new feature that will help focus and facilitate next steps and desired outcomes and follow-up for parents and teachers. The new edition includes a look at current definitions of twice-exceptional students, updated research findings and identification methods, a detailed description of the laws and policies impacting this population, what works and what doesn't work, model schools, Response to Intervention, Understanding by Design, comprehensive assessments, social-emotional principles, and new assistive technology.

Featured in The Fresno Bee

Genres: Adhd

284 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 2013

Reviews

[Evan Wood · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you are a Special Education teacher who would like to get a quick look into recent research into working with gifted students, this is a good book to start with. I really liked the structure of the book. Each chapter ended with a "Key Points" section followed by a copy of various tools and resources that could be used with students. For busy teachers (which we all are), this feature made it easy to navigate to the parts of the book that were of interest to me. My criticism is that this book is very American-centric; all of the definitions used to identify gifted students are based on american legal definitions. But overall, a good resource.

[Courtney · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some interesting stuff, but there's a huge focus on how to get different types of academic assistance in the States, so it wasn't entirely relevant to me.

[Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

I entered to win this book because I was a teacher before becoming a stay-at-home parent, and I wanted to prepare myself to better help students when I was ready to re-enter the workplace. Since then, however, I've learned that my oldest child is twice-exceptional, i.e., one of the kids this book is about. It's full of tips on how to best help a child from multiple angles: as a parent, as a teacher, for students themselves once they're old enough to plan their own educational approaches. It's also got handy lists and printable checklists, and it's written in an easy-to-understand manner. I'd recommend this for teachers and parents. Teachers can sometimes misunderstand these kids and assume they're just troublemakers, and parents can be discouraged by not knowing how best to help their very unusual children.

[Amanda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good overview and statement of principles that should guide education of 2e students. Some info on laws is out of date now but a good jumping-off point. Would not be appropriate for someone who lives outside of the US, as this is heavily about the American public education system.

[Janet · Rating 5 out of 5]

awesome info