Amazon.com
Recognizing each child's intellectual, emotional, and physical strengths--and teaching directly to these strengths--is key to sculpting "a mind at a time," according to Dr. Mel Levine. While this flashing yellow light will not surprise many skilled educators, limited resources often prevent them from shifting their instructional gears. But to teachers and parents whose children face daily humiliation at school, the author bellows, "Try harder!" A professor of pediatrics at the University of North Carolina Medical School, Levine eloquently substantiates his claim that developmental growth deserves the same monitoring as a child's physical growth.
Tales of creative, clumsy, impulsive, nerdy, intuitive, loud-mouthed, and painfully shy kids help Levine define eight specific mind systems (attention, memory, language, spatial ordering, sequential ordering, motor, higher thinking, and social thinking). Levine also incorporates scientific research to show readers how the eight neurodevelopmental systems evolve, interact, and contribute to a child's success in school. Detailed steps describe how mental processes (like problem solving) work for capable kids, and how they can be finessed to serve those who struggle. Clear, practical suggestions for fostering self-monitoring skills and building self-esteem add the most important elements to this essential--yet challenging--program for "raisin' brain." --Liane Thomas
From Publishers Weekly
Children have different ways of learning, argues Levine, a professor of pediatrics at the University of North Carolina Medical School and director of its Clinical Center for the Study of Development and Learning, so why do schools behave as though a one-size-fits-all education will work for everyone? Like Howard Gardner's Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences (1983), Levine's book argues that our educational shortsightedness results in a loss of human potential on a grand scale, as kids who don't fit the mold are misclassified, stigmatized and then fail. If educators could assess differences more intelligently and redesign educational models to account for these differences, they would radically improve people's prospects for success in and out of school. Based on his work with children who have learning or behavioral problems, Levine has isolated eight areas of learning (the memory system, the language system, the spatial ordering system, the motor system, etc.). He provides chapters describing how each type of learning works and advises parents and teachers on how to help kids struggling in these areas. Levine emphasizes that all minds have some areas of giftedness and pleads for educators to "make a firm social and political commitment to neurodevelopmental pluralism." Such a plea may seem daunting, but Levine's compassionate, accessible text, framed around actual case studies, makes it seem do-able. This is a must-read for parents and educators who want to understand and improve the school lives of children.Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
From AudioFile
In humane and colloquial language, Dr. Levine explains that intelligence is more complex and broad than what is measured by psychological tests. He describes a set of life skills that are neurologically determined and that people take for granted, such as paying attention, coordinating physical space, and organizing words in a thematic context. When not recognized as deficits, handicaps in these skills can be seen as lazy or oppositional. While the recording has both extraneous sounds and clicking voice sounds, the audio is still a wonderful showcase for the gentle, lucid writing of this innovative psychiatrist/teacher. T.W. © AudioFile 2004, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine
From Booklist
Levine, a pediatrician with 30 years of experience, offers a straightforward look at why some children struggle with learning and behavior. In accessible language, Levine examines research on how the brain functions and ties it directly to how children learn and behave. He offers vignettes of children struggling with learning challenges--sitting still for class instruction, doing tasks in sequential order--and how those challenges often continue into adulthood. He questions the frequent diagnoses of attention-deficit disorder in children and, instead, offers parents and educators insights into brain development. Using new research, Levine offers a practical model for learning that takes into account a wide spectrum of ability and will help parents and teachers understand and manage weak school performance. He examines learning profiles, strengths and weaknesses, and different learning styles--visual, verbal, and sequential. Finally, he tells parents and teachers how to design learning programs to suit children's learning styles. A helpful resource. Vanessa Bush
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Review
Edward Hallowell, M.D.instructor, Harvard Medical School; director, The Hallowell Center, Sudbury, Massachusetts; author of Driven to Distraction and Human Moments.A Mind at a Time continues Mel Levine's enormously valuable lifework of helping children find success....Brimming with intelligence, humor, wit, and originality...this is a groundbreaking and useful book.
Book Description
Different minds learn differently. That's an issue for many children, because most schools still cling to a one-size-fits-all education philosophy. As a result, children struggle because their learning patterns don't fit the schools they are in. Learning begins in schools, but it doesn't end there. Frustrating a child's desire to learn will have lifelong repercussions. In A Mind at a Time, Dr. Mel Levine shows parents how to identify these individual learning patterns. He explains how parents and teachers can nurture a child's strengths and deal effectively with weaknesses. This type of teaching produces satisfaction and achievement for all students. There are eight fundamental systems of learning that draw on a variety of neurodevelopmental capacities. Some students are strong in certain areas and some are strong in others, but no one is equally capable in all eight. Drawing from actual case studies, Dr. Levine shows how parents and children can identify their strengths and weaknesses to determine their individual ways of learning. We must pay attention to individual learning patterns, to individual minds so that we can maximize children's performance in school and in life. In A Mind at a Time, Dr. Levine shows us how.
Download Description
Different minds learn differently, writes Dr. Mel Levine, one of the best-known education experts and pediatricians in America today. And that's a problem for many children, because most schools still cling to a one-size-fits-all education philosophy. As a result, these children struggle because their learning patterns don't fit the schools they are in. In A Mind at a Time, Dr. Levine shows parents and others who care for children how to identify these individual learning patterns.
About the Author
Mel Levine, M.D. is a professor of pediatrics at the University of North Carolina Medical School and the director of the universitys Clinical Center for the Study of Development and Learning. He is the co-founder and co-chair of All Kinds of Minds, a nonprofit institute that develops products and programs to help parents, teachers, clinicians, and children address differences in learning. A Rhodes scholar and graduate of Harvard Medical School, Dr. Levine lives in the Raleigh-Durham area with his wife, Bambi, and many geese, donkeys, and other animals.
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