Different Learners: Identifying, Preventing, and Treating Your Child's Learning Problems [Hardcover]

Jane Healy has done it again! Given parents and teachers a far-reaching, yet specific guide to support children's optimal development and learning. As in her now classic book, Endangered Minds, Healy delivers a comprehensive, user-friendly read in her latest book, Different Learners: Identifying, Preventing, and Helping Your Children's Learning Problems.

It's sobering to think that a child born in the United States has a 30 percent chance of being diagnosed with some type of learning problem. That about 2.5 million children take prescription drugs for attention and hyperactivity. That there are seven million children currently enrolled in special education with autism on the rise by 800% over the last decade. Beginning by describing the extent of the challenges, Dr. Healy shows us that there truly exists today a new epidemic of learning problems affecting children from across all levels of the socioeconomic spectrum. In her typical no-nonsense prose, the reader clearly understands the most current research, often through vivid examples from parents and succinct quotes from compelling experts.

The book considers different categories of learning disorders and/or learning differences with a review of the research on a variety of successful treatments. Healy then turns to the "heart" of the book--discussing how genetics and the environment interact to impact brain development. She emphasizes that a difference often doesn't mean a disability. Instead, Healy demonstrates the role of the environment in shaping a child's brain and simultaneously his/her learning skills. We emphasize the home environment as an important factor at the Parent Coaching Institute, (www.thepci.org) as anyone who has been coached by a PCI Certified Parent Coach® knows. By making adjustments, sometimes even seemingly slight adjustments in the child's home environment many positive changes occur. And environmental changes not only change children, they change parents as well. A parent who was tired out and overwhelmed by a child's poor progress in school, for instance, suddenly becomes infused with energy and new possibilities by the simple act of keeping the television turned off when the child is doing homework. I have seen this happen over and over for hundreds of parents and their children, bringing more engagement in previously "difficult" homework, and enhancing the child's motivation for learning in the process. On pages 300-302, Healy provides a concise explanation of the TV/brain interface that can give parents a motivation boost as well to make this simple environmental change.

Chapter 6 explains how the child's brain works, laying a solid foundation for Chapters 7 and 8 which discuss the interplay of genes, learning, and the environment and the role of stress to impact optimal development. Since scientists agree that the gene pool changes alone cannot explain the recent dramatic growth in diagnosed learning problems, the way we are forced to live nowadays must be taken seriously--hectic schedules, poor nutrition, sleep patterns, lack of physical exercise and play, overuse of TV and screen technologies, and environmental toxic chemicals--are significant factors. "We live in a culture that is both clueless and careless about what kids' brains really need," Healy writes, "No wonder there is problem in the schoolroom."

Healy explains that the answers lie in what she calls "brain-cleaning." Chapter 10 explains practical ways to "banish brain disruptors" such as toxic chemicals and nutritional risks. Chapter 11 helps parents "tackle lifestyle choices" such as sleep patterns and the media. In these, as in the other chapters, bulleted points throughout help the reader focus on the essentials while end-of-chapter summations make it easy to retain and replay the important points.

In today's increasingly hectic and fragmented world, Different Learners provides clear directives for focusing on what works to help any and all learners--no matter their challenges, styles, or diagnosis. Jane Healy, in her straightforward style and through her indomitable spirit, provides elegant answers for the ugly concerns wearing out millions of parents and wearing down millions of children. If you are a teacher or a parent seeking sane advice, helpful ideas, and fresh insights--buy this book. Since it is so jam-packed with useful information, you probably will want to refer to it time and time again. Different Learners is destined to become a classic by showing you unequivocally that your child, at home and in the classroom, is destined to succeed.

I am a former pediatrician, and I also have a grandchild with learning problems. I was hoping that this book would provide me with a better understanding of learning problems in children. Unfortunately I found this book so frustrating to read that I gave up on page 99.

The book struck me as a mixture of soft science, personal experience, annecdotes, speculation, "expert opinion", and name dropping. I suspect that, to a large extent, this reflects the state the art.(The discussion of diagnostic classification clearly reveals a field of investigation that is groping for clarity.) However, the book is further burdened with a writing style that is disorganized. For example, if there was some logic to the use of rubrics, italics, and other editorial devices, it escaped me. The author frequently refers the reader to her other books, a habit that struck me as evasive and self-serving. I also found it strange that a book so clearly aimed at parents of children with learning difficulties would include advice about prenatal prevention. I could understand a discussion about prenatal causes of learning problems since this might provide some insight into the origins of the problem confronting the reader. However, I doubt that the typical reader appreciates the rambling digression into prevention of the learning problems at a time when he or she is trying to cope with an existing one.

I suspect that the author is a marvelous and caring clinician, but I do not find her science or her writing rigorous.

Extremely informative and makes sense! I appreciate her advice on not rushing to medicate our children like so many others in the mental health field. Highly recommend.

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