Most Popular Books by Mel Levine

''Different minds learn differently'' writes Dr Mel Levine, one of the best-known education experts and paediatricians in America today. And that''s a problem for many children, because most schools still cling to a one-size-fits-all education philosophy. In A MIND AT A TIME, Dr Levine shows parents and others who care for children how to identify these individual learning patterns. He explains how parents and teachers can encourage a child''s strengths and bypass the child''s weaknesses. This type of teaching produces satisfaction and achievement instead of frustration and failure. Different brains are differently wired with eight fundamental systems of learning that draw on a variety of neurodevelopmental capacities. Certain students are strong in certain areas and some are strong in others, but no one is equally capable in all eight. Learning begins at school, but it doesn''t end there. Frustrating a child''s desire to learn will have lifelong repercussions. We must begin to pay more attention to individual learning styles, to individual minds, urges Dr Levine, so that we can maximise our children''s learning potential. A MIND AT A TIME shows us how.

A nationally known pediatrician and author addresses the question of why some youngsters make a successful transition into adulthood while others do not. Parents and schools often raise children in a highly structured world, leaving them unable to cope on their own. Dr. Levine urges that schools teach "life prep," equipping adolescents with what they will need to succeed as adults. He identifies these skills as "the four I''s": inner direction, or self-awareness; interpretation, or understanding the outside world; instrumentation, or the acquisition of mental tools; and interaction, or the ability to relate to other people effectively. He offers advice for young adults who find themselves unable to navigate the world of careers.

One of the most common complaints parents hear is that their child has great potential but is lazy. In the workplace one hears that a colleague is brilliant but just can''t seem to deliver on time. Dr Levine believes that in reality very few people are truly lazy. Nearly all ''lazy'' children and unproductive adults are in fact suffering from some sort of ''output failure,'' that is, some problem of the mind that inhibits their productivity, despite their good intentions. In this book Dr Levine draws heavily on his years of clinical experience to construct the stories of representative children and adults who failed to be productive for the most common reasons. Too often we focus only on failure but people benefit enormously from recognition of their successes. In explaining outside or environmental factors that can affect productivity, Dr Levine points to the role of parents as well as teachers in identifying a child''s weaknesses and nurturing the capacity to deliver, with such practical suggestions as describing the ideal study environment for a child. Whether the problem is manifested in motor breakdown, memory shortfall, verbal problems, lack of mental energy or underlying disorganization, Dr Levine provides a workable solution and dismisses the ''lazy'' label.