30 of 31 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Meeting the Challenge succeeds, July 8, 2000
By A Customer
This review is from: Meeting the Challenge: Using Love and Logic to help children develop attention and behavior skills (Paperback)
Meeting the Challenge provides information that every parentandeducator needs in the modern world. Children with attention orbehavior problems can succeed with the help of firm ,loving parents and teachers. This book shows us how with an understandable ten step program for home and an equally straightforward program for school. Every parent with young kids should have this book.
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26 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
A little too preachy., April 12, 2010
This review is from: Meeting the Challenge: Using Love and Logic to help children develop attention and behavior skills (Paperback)
I have had several past positive experiences with Love and Logic materials. When I came across this book, I was very excited to learn how to adapt the L&L principles to children with attention problems. As the mother of an 8 year old with ADHD, I have found that sometimes a child will simply "forget his jacket," no matter how many times you hope he will learn from the past mistake. I thought to myself, certainly there must be some special accommodations made or techniques to be picked up for these children? The answer, in a nutshell, is no.
After reading the book, I am not only disappointed; I am somewhat offended. The authors spend an entire chapter suggesting that ADHD is, in essence, caused by watching too much television at an early age, coupled with a lack of creative toys like Legos and Tinkertoys. The authors use the argument, "if the child can pay attention to a video or a game, it must not really be ADHD." They then delve into several pages of child development starting from birth (where they describe the intelligence of an infant by saying, "to find something dumber than a newborn human, one might check out a squash, or cucumber, or rock") through the first five years, which, while is interesting, is somewhat unrelated to the topic, because the reader is picking up this book not to learn why their child has ADHD, but to find out how to cope with it. The anti-television litany and lecture continues throughout, sprinkled with stories (that might as well be made up)of people who agree that television is the root of all inattention problems, and their so-called evidence of such.
Other chapters in the book are simply cryptic vignettes. Johnny's parents handled his behavior this way and life turned out awful. Joe's parents handled it this way and life turned out great. No explanation of why, or where the parents went wrong, or what should have been done differently. In one story, the author describes a past client by saying that after he worked with him, he "no longer thought of [the client] as lazy or stupid." Really? You are a professional in your field, and this was your first impression of your client? In another story, a parent contemplates getting a 504 accommodation plan for her son so that it will "make it harder for [the school] to suspend him." It is an incredibly judgmental thing to suggest that parents get 504 plans for this reason. Suggesting it in a book of this nature might shun qualified families from getting 504 plans, and children may continue to struggle in school as a result.
I found this book to be too preachy and too judgmental for my tastes. The basic principles of the book are found in any of the Love and Logic series, and quite frankly are better presented in "Parenting With Love And Logic." I'd recommend starting there.
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19 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Incredible book!, July 30, 2002
This review is from: Meeting the Challenge: Using Love and Logic to help children develop attention and behavior skills (Paperback)
I really don't know how anybody who could rate this item with anything other than 5 stars. The book is for all parents and anyone who works with kids. The principles are practical and wise and I know they work. I plan to buy all the books by these guys!
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