Customer Reviews

Raising Topsy-Turvy Kids: Successfully Parenting Your Visual-Spatial Child

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This book is an incredible resource. Some of the things the previous reviewer pointed out as negatives, I find to be quite positive. Yes, Allie Golon does tell stories about her kids, she does tell stories about other VSLs, and she does provide her own personal insight - exactly what I was looking for!! As a parent who has done countless hours of research (and could probably research for the rest of my life) it is so refreshing to find a book that tells things from the perspective of someone "who's been there". As a mom, I appreciate the personality of this book. I've read about the studies and the science and the research and the experts. This book does not shy away from the research, but it also provides real-life tools from a real-life expert! This book is a wonderful companion to Dr. Silverman's book, Upside-Down Brilliance. I was also thrilled to discover Allie Golon's new book, If You Could See the Way I Think. I got it for my daughter and it is so wonderful for her to see that she is understood. It is directed to kids and provides them with tools for life - everything from spelling helps to organizational skills to self-advocacy. Check out Dr. Silverman's website, visualspatial.org and purchase all 3 books! Your eyes will be opened and you'll be thankful!!

If you're the parent of a visual-spatial child, this book is for you. If you don't know what type of child you have, this book can tell you if you child is visual-spatial... and if you are. Do you remember in pictures? Does your child learn better hands-on, or by taking notes in charts and colors? If so, you've got a visual-spatial child.

Now what? Allie gives suggests for parneting and educating this wonderful, but unique, kids. Does your child's room look like a bomb hit, but she knows exactly where everything is?

How do can you help your child through those elementary years and beyond? Allie offers help, and hope, for parents of visual-spatial kids.

And while you're reading, do you find that struggle with a visual-spatial spouse... or self? Raising Topsy-Turvy Kids brings insight to the rest of the family, too.

If you've got a gifted child who seems to learn differently than the school is teaching, you need this book!

If your child has horrible handwriting, hates to write, appears disorganized, has a messy room (but still can find things when he needs to), loves LEGO's, or loses track of time, this is the book for you.

Alexandra Golon has been influenced by the work of Silverman, and has developed specific techniques in dealing with her own VSL children. She also includes ideas that other parents of VSL's have shared. One suggestion is that, since VSL's think in pictures, not words, post a picture of a chore (such as feeding the dog) because the child will remember the chore better with the picture than with words.

Based on over 20 years of research, Silverman believes that appoximately 60% of all students (not just gifted) have strong VSL tendencies. Many dyslexic children and children in special education classes are VSL's. VSL's often have had numerous ear infections during early childhood.

Golon reognizes the problems her children experience because of their learning style differences and wants to help other parents and teachers of children with similar problems. Since her experience is with her own children, she refers to them in this book. She works closely with Silverman and is very knowledgeable about the theory behind her techniques. Silverman originally intended to write UpsideDown Brilliance as a book listing VSL techniques (rather that the research and theory behind it), so this is the book she says she wanted to write.

This is a must read for all teachers and for parents of children with school problems. It is easy to read, with illustrations that visually describe the situation described.

I constantly recommend it to parents and teachers and am donating copies of it to several libraries so that more people can be helped by the VSL concept and some specific ways to help VSL learners.

this book provided lots of entertaining dialogue about the author's family, but failed to provide any concrete information that helped us with our child. we were really trying to purchase upside down brilliance and clearly still need to do so.

I ordered several books in the category "Visual-Spatial-Learners". Three of them had been written by A Golon:

"If You could see the way i think - a handbook for visual-spatial kids",
"Visual-Spatial Learners: Differentiation Strategies for Creating a Successful Classroom" and
"Raising Topsy-Turvy Kids: Successfully Parenting Your Visual-Spatial Child"

Well, what shall i say? Save Your money and buy only one of these books because it is ALL the same. Almost exactly the same content, just wording/phrasing is different. If You have read one you'll know the rest.

Unfortunately the highly recommended book from Silverman is not available at the moment...

If you have a child that is bright yet does not perform well, this book may shed some light as to why. Many children struggle in an auditory/sequential learning environment. The tools offered in this book will empower them to get their needs met in any classroom. The companion book, "If You Could See the Way I Think," is another tool for the children who struggle in traditional classrooms. I love this book and will continue to share it with my students.

This book is no comparison to Linda Kreger Silverman's book as it tells you nothing, but how talented the author's children are. Trust me, save your $$$.

There are other books on the market that are much more valuable than this one. Her book is also biased toward the extremely gifted VS learners (especially hers)...we got it... your kids are extremely gifted VS learners.

Much more substantial books on this topic are: "Right Brained Children in a Left Brained World" by Jeffrey Freed and Laurie Parsons and "Upside-Down Brilliance" by Dr. Linda Silverman. The authors of these books are the experts in the field. This author basically copied basic ideas from these books and then wrote a lot of stories about her kids, provided stories about other VS learners and provided her personal insight into it all. The only new information from this book that you might not find in as much detail in the others are some of her own practical suggestions of how to help your child cope w/some of their areas of weakness and how to deal w/these areas as a family.
If you must buy this book, BUY IT USED & SAVE YOUR $