Richard Guare Phd

While I consider my organizational and executive functioning skills to be strong, I was interested to read this book for two reasons: 1) One can always improve, and 2) I was looking for ideas to implement for some in my family who could use help in these arenas.

Authors Peg Dawson and Richard Guare have penned several books in the "Smart but Scattered" series, and I believe that this is the first book focusing on adults. They offer an overview of 11 executive skills areas, with a quiz that will help the reader determine his/her strengths and weaknesses. Following the quiz is an in-depth look at strategies to manage and improve each of the 11 skills.

This book offers many solid, practical solutions for people who are ready to make improvements (like any other program, in order to work, the first step is that the person actually wants to change his/her behavior). To that end, this book not as helpful for parents looking to help their children improve executive function skills (to be fair, it doesn't claim to be). If that's what you seek, turn toward the authors' books written specifically for children and teen behavior.

4 stars.

Thank you to NetGalley and Guilford Publications for a galley of this book in exchange for an honest review.… (mehr)

I was surprised by the amount of charts/checklists throughout the text, as this is not what I was expecting. I had never thought of “thinking” and “doing” as two separate dimensions of executive skills, but I think the text did a nice job in helping me decipher the difference between the two. As a child, I’m sure I thought proper time management, for example, was an overwhelming cognition skill; however, as a parent and a teacher, it has become a necessity for my success. Parents (and teachers) forget we were once children and get too caught up in the now, which seriously puts our children at an immediate disadvantage. I like that the text forced me to step away from my role as mom and put myself in my child’s world.
I think the text did a nice job of pointing out many areas that I feel my own children and my students could use: guidance, strengthening, and motivation. As a parent, I found myself tabbing a few pages that I would like to discuss or try with my children; but as a high school teacher, I was often a little disappointed. I would get into a target area, completely relate to the text, but then not find much advice that I felt could really work in a highschool classroom of all boys. I do, however, certainly believe there are many skills mentioned throughout Dawson’s text, such as verbal scaffolding, incentives, goals, and personal interaction, that are extremely important both in school and at home. ( )
vote | flagKMClark | Jul 15, 2014 |
The new buzzword/term in special education is "executive function." This book does a good job explaining it and how to deal with it with kids ages 0-12 years old. ( )… (mehr)

This review is going to be especially applicable to parents of a certain age. Remember when reading What to Expect While You’re Expecting was your go-to book? Fast forward to today, and this is the replacement. Maybe you have kids that went away to school, graduated and landed back in your home. Or you have kids who graduated and never really left or some other version of the story that emerges after you get together with old friends for a drink or two. It’s happening all around us, and we all seem flummoxed over the right course of action.

Dads seem to lean into the hardcore and Moms are usually the softer touch, and these twenty-something kids have learned to get what they want from all of us. Not that it’s all their fault, it’s sort of a perfect storm that this generation is navigating. Do they need a degree? Should they follow their bliss? You can’t blame them for being confused by the whole new paradigm.

This book though- it’s gold.

You’ve got checklists, quizzes, and resources for both you and your kid. The best part? The co-author is the real-life stuck kid of the author. This isn’t some tough love book, but it does point out ways that you may have made it easy for your kid to feel so safe at home that leaving isn’t appealing.

This is a book that you can use together to make a plan that fits your situation and helps you to implement that plan as well.

I read it on my kindle but have it preordered for the January release date.

Please note that I received a free advance E ARC of this book from Edelweiss without a review requirement or any influence regarding review content should I choose to post a review. Apart from that, I have no connection at all to either the author or the publisher of this book.… (mehr)