Raising Resilient Children: Fostering Strength, Hope, and Optimism in Your Child

Research shows that if these children do not “close the gap” before they finish third grade, they are likely to remain functionally illiterate throughout their lives. See Johnny Read! is the first book to offer practical, proven, and timely ways for parents to help their boys with this critical skill. Written by an expert teacher and educational consultant, this much-needed book answers essential questions, including: When does a reading delay become a reading problem? How, when, and where should I look for tutoring? How can I get the best help from the school? How can my son avoid (or overcome) the “Bad Boy” label? How can I help my son learn to read — and enjoy reading — at home?

This book uses the Building Blocks model. The Building Blocks model is practical, supported by research, and easy to implement. It identifies ten areas important to school success (the building blocks), divided into three levels:

1. the foundational level includes attention and impulse control, emotion and behavior, self-esteem, and learning environment blocks
2. the symbolic processing and memory level contains the visual, auditory, and motor skills blocks
3. the conceptual level comprises using strategies and thinking with language and images

Phoebe Flower’s is having some friendship troubles. Plus, her impulsivity and distractibility have landed her in trouble at school again. Her parents and the school principal decide that Phoebe needs a little help to get back on track. At first, Phoebe is worried when she hears her parents talking about something called ADD. But then her mother confides to Phoebe that she had similar problems as a girl. With Mom’s encouragement, Phoebe struggles with a writing assignment. Completing it at last, Phoebe is proud of her accomplishment, and excited that, through her writing; she’s discovered the true meaning of best friend.

Currently, only about 50% of American youths live in traditional two-parent, first-marriage families. This fact, combined with often bleak economic and social realities, creates the backdrop of interactions between families, children, and schools are examined in this probing volume. Answering a need for evaluative research in this area of increasing public interest, the contributors build a model for evaluation, focusing on the dynamics of family-school connections. How is school achievement influenced by parent-child interactions and the family environment? How do school, family, community, and peer-group connections affect early adolescents? What is the family’s role in the success of learning-disabled youth or in school truancy? What effect does parental discord and divorce have on a child’s learning?

These questions, as well as proposals for intervention and prevention, create the crux of this book designed to inform and motivate readers to respond to one of our country’s most fundamental social concerns. Vital reading for everyone who wants to better understand child-school-community interaction, this book especially warrants reading by students, researchers, and other professionals in developmental psychology, family studies, psychology, and social work.

Thoughtful and practical, this book will appeal to today’s busy parents, with its concise, easy-to-read style. Now in a convenient format, Don’t Miss the Bus! is even more accessible to parents with no time to spare. Smialek offers her expertise as a parent and teacher and shares her methods and anecdotes from her own home and classroom. She advocates a win-win approach with a concise action plan to prevent problems before they happen and maintain dignity for both parents and kids. Don’t Miss the Bus! focuses on children’s strengths rather than their weaknesses, resulting in happier, more knowledgeable, and more resilient parent-child-teacher relationships.

When Josh’s friends call him “Slosh,” it’s particularly painful. Although he’s smart when it comes to computers and math, Josh also has ADHD — Attention Deficit with Hyperactivity Disorder. After talking to his teacher, Josh’s parents decide to take him to a doctor, and things start looking up. Best of all, over time, Josh’s classmates come to appreciate him as just another one of the guys.