Being in Control: Natural Techniques for Increasing Your Potential and Creativity for Success in School [Plastic Comb]

Jason Mark Alster (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1, 2001

Being In control. Natural Techniques For Increasing Your Potential And Creativity For Success In School. Also For Improving Concentration And Learning In Children With ADHD And Dyslexia.

Editorial Reviews

Review

A great book for children with simple and practical self-help techniques to help them build self-confidence and stay in control... -- Caroline Hensby-adders.org

A small and easy to read guide to help children do better at school. Using very simple language... -- Michael Tipper -Project Happy child

An indispensable guide for teachers, councils and parents who want to help their children -- Internet special Educational & Learning Disabilities Resources --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From the Publisher

The book is of a high graphic content and in a pictorial format so that children will find the exercises in the book to be easy to comprehend as well as fun to do. The book is very artistic and great just to look at. Each separate page is an exercise. The book is light weight so that children may take the book to school with them and do exercises like relaxation and focusing exercises in the class room.

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Product Details

• Plastic Comb: 40 pages
• Publisher: Rainbow Cloud; Second edition (December 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 9659025114
• ISBN-13: 978-9659025114
• Product Dimensions: 11.2 x 8.9 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,956,599 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #89 in Books > Health, Fitness & Dieting > Personal Health > Children's Health > Learning Disorders

More About the Author

My life and my books reflect it , are about empowering people. My professions include medical research , biofeedback therapist , art teacher , and educational technology, life coach. My very first book , which I published while living in Israel, Being In Control , a mostly picture book to help students with ADHD, and Test Anxiety increase their powers of concentration in the classroom , was a huge success. Surprisingly to me, at the time , it was the number two ranked book on Amazon.com for a few weeks compared to 800 other books on special education. I wrote this book because when I was a student , having an immigrant father, I had to basically succeed in school on my own. The passion I gained about school success strategies , I wanted to pass on.
My second book , Creative Painting For The Young Artist , was another successful surprise for me. I could not paint as a youngster and did not even like to join my mother when she visited art museums. I would never suspect that one day I would teach others through art workshops or have my own pastel paintings exhibited in an art gallery. So I wrote a book on how to be a creative artist and develop an artistic mode of seeing , using experiences from working with techniques in helping students in general.

My next project was an educational movie I made transforming the techniques in Being In Control into a live movie so students can see first hand how the simple techniques are demonstrated and come to life. Granted , this was my first movie, and needs a second edition to keep up with technology- a near future project.

Then I made what was probably one of the first movies on improving handwriting. Again, along with not being a good ealry age artist , I also had poor handwriting skills. As an adult artist , with a new appreciation for beauty in all things done, I taught myself how to improve my own handwriting and published the techniques in the CD, Anyone Can Improve Their Handwriting.

My next project was Guide to GSR Biofeedback Techniques for the Natural ADHD Practitioner. Since I was using GSR ( galvanic skin response ) as a biofeedback modality in helping ADHD students improve concentration, focus , and reduce stress, I developed many protocols in how to use this modality. Anyone , biofeedback practitioner , special education teacher , ADHD parent , would find the techniques and protocols in the movie useful.

Lately, my newest achievement was the publication of a non - fiction novel about my life in Israel and return to the USA. Leaving Home , Going Home , Returning Home , is an empowering book for anyone who wants to follow their dreams. Against many obstacles, I, and other Americans follwed our dreams , and moved to Israel. This book is a road map in showing others how to , too. It is also the story of modern day Israel as I saw her from my eyes , and it is also about my appreciation and love for America as I saw her and understood her , from there.
My next project will be to improve on my movie " Anyone Can Improve Their Handwriitng" . I put the first edition up on YouTube and it had thousands of viewers. I just bought a new high definition digital video camera for this project .

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Don't waste your money., June 9, 2003

By 

litXlit (Ca United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Being in Control: Natural Techniques for Increasing Your Potential and Creativity for Success in School (Plastic Comb)

If you buy this book, you will get three pages worth of information, in a thirty page book that costs [item price] and could have been written by a junior high school student without doing any research. The author advises relaxation, aroma therapy and affirmations; non-specific suggestions that may help anyone a little, but have no particular relevance to A.D.D. or dyslexia.

My dyslexic son had no interest in this book or its recommendations. I was also very disappointed. Spend your money on the many other excellent books on learning disorders on Amazon.

9 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Some ideas are good but pages are too busy, February 11, 2005

By 

Carol Watkins "Psychiatrist" (Parkton, Maryland, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Being in Control: Natural Techniques for Increasing Your Potential and Creativity for Success in School (Plastic Comb)

I read this book, and then had two of my children look at it. The adolescent was unimpressed. She said that the pages were distracting and there was too much on each page. The younger child, age 9, said that he liked the book. However, the things he read didn't stick. He liked the pictures but the ideas did not draw him in enough to make him want to practice what he read. In all fairness, though the 9 year old is the type of kid who likes an idea better if he has more of a "why" explanation.

I would have liked the book better if there were only one idea per page spread. If you have two different technquies on the same page spread, the child may move on to the next idea without fully exploring and digesting a particular suggestion. It takes some discipline to practice some of these relaxation and self control techniques.

The pages were bright and the pictures sharp. The pages were held together by a few staples, not a conventional book binding. A better quality binding would help so that the book could lie flat while the child used it.

Despite these criticisms, I think that the book has some value. Children can benefit from learning relaxation and self-monitoring techniques. For children who have a limited repetoire of coping skills, this provides a number of different avenues to try. The book might be more effective if an adult worked through the exercises with the child.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Being in Control: Natural Techniques for Increasing Your Potential and Creativity for Success in School, November 10, 2006

By 

Anna Z. Amar (Gaithersburg, MD, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Being in Control: Natural Techniques for Increasing Your Potential and Creativity for Success in School (Plastic Comb)

A VERY short book (maybe so people with attention deficit can read the whole thing?). But, some good (although brief) techniques and explainations for ADD/ADHD kids and their parents on focusing. Nice to find some alternative advice on treatment other than drugs.