Ready to Learn: How to Help Your Preschooler Succeed

By Stan Goldberg, Ph.D.

Published by Oxford

February 2005; $28.00US; 0-19-516754-6

Do you tell your preschooler one thing and they do the opposite? Are they easily distracted or unable to focus? If you suspect that your child may have a learning problem -- or if you simply want to help them be ready -- here is the book to read before he or she enters the school system: a realistic, humorous, and kind-hearted guide to helping your little one learn.

In Ready to Learn, Stan Goldberg draws on thirty years of clinical experience (and personal experience as the father of two kids with learning differences) to provide an easy-to-use guide to helping children overcome any problems and improve their learning skills. Illustrating his discussion with many anecdotes about teaching both his own children and children in his private practice, Goldberg walks readers through the process of learning and shows how to identify a learning problem. He focuses on four major areas -- problems of attention, understanding, storage, and retrieval -- presenting each problem through the eyes of the child, in everyday terms that a parent can understand. He looks at seven down-to-earth strategies that will allow you to create the best plan to help your child overcome problems and he provides many handy charts and figures that will help you organize your efforts. The book also includes a list of useful web sites and a chart of developmental milestones, outlining motor skills, cognitive-sensory skills, and language and social skills.

Written in a style that blends humor, insightful stories, and practical experience, Ready to Learn provides a flexible time-tested approach, using step-by-step strategies that will help your preschoolers become confident and love learning -- before they enter the classroom.

Author

Stan Goldberg, Ph.D., is a Professor at San Francisco State University. For the last 30 years he has been involved in developing learning strategies for children and his techniques have been used to help over 1000 children of all ages. He has trained parents and consulted with public and private schools.

Reviews

"Finally, an author who understands the fears, hopes, and dreams of parents of children who learn differently. Goldberg provides clear explanations for complex problems and workable real-world solutions. This book is the set of instructions that should have been delivered with your baby . . . A 'must have' for parents and professionals alike."

--Richard Culatta, Ph.D., Professor and Chair of the Department of Language, Reading, and Exceptionalities, Appalachian State University

"In Ready to Learn, Dr. Goldberg provides concrete advice on ways parents can partner with their children for ultimate learning success. With emphases on individualizing learning activities based on the child's needs, empowering children to take responsibility for their own learning outcomes, fostering active engagement in the learning process, and methods of providing emotional support to children with learning difficulties, this book should be required reading not just for parents of children with learning differences, but for all parents everywhere."

--Teri James Bellis, Ph.D., Chair, Department of Communication Disorders, The University of South Dakota, and author of When the Brain Can't Hear: Unraveling the Mystery of Auditory Processing Disorder

"Dr. Goldberg delivers a long-awaited resource for both parents and educators alike. In Ready to Learn, Dr. Goldberg draws upon his clinical and personal experiences to deliver a tangible 'how to' foundation -- rich with analogies and effective examples -- for embarking on the journey of educating the special learner . . . . A required read for parents and professionals alike!"

--Jeffie Gellerman-Muntifering, Advocate and Consultant

"Dr. Goldberg describes the problems some children have with detail and humor, making this book a joy to read. He gives clear and helpful strategies to deal with everyday difficulties parents have with children who have special needs. He looks at solving problems with straightforward strategies and explains medical conditions in easy-to-read and understandable language. I fully endorse this book and encourage other parents who have children with special needs and behavioral difficulties to read it too."

--Caroline Hensby, adders.org

"The teaching methods in this book are simple, easy to use, and very effective. We have implemented many of these strategies, and as a result our son is experiencing more success in his daily learning. We highly recommend Dr. Goldberg's new book to parents, professionals, and school teachers."

--Jim & Grace Hsu, Parents

"This book's advice is pragmatic, proactive, and powerful. It is quite simply an essential guide to understanding and teaching the modern child."

--Fintan O'Regan, International Behavior Management Consultant

Excerpt

The following is an excerpt from the book Ready to Learn: How to Help Your Preschooler Succeed

Finding Happiness in Your Child

What do you think about when someone says "happiness?" Usually, what comes to mind are things, or outcomes. Happiness can be a four-car garage in the suburbs, a high-paying job, an expensive new car, or a child who becomes a successful professional. We have a tendency to externalize happiness. It becomes something intimately involved in a thing or event. It becomes a goal. Unfortunately, the path to that goal is often ignored. You had to have two backbreaking jobs just to afford the mortgage on the house with the four-car garage. That high-paying job was only possible by doing things in the workplace you would find unethical in social situations. The new car could only be purchased if you denied yourself simple pleasures over two years in order to afford your new status symbol. And what about your child? What would be required in order for you to feel happiness about what he or she achieves academically, socially, or professionally?

Once you associate happiness with goals, both you and your child are primed for a fall. The goals, many of which are unobtainable, become traps; if they can't be reached, neither can your happiness. And by focusing on the goal, the path is often ignored. I worked with a parent whose whole life was focused on getting her daughter into a prestigious university.

"It'll be worth it if I can get her into Stanford or U.C. Berkeley. Maybe she could even go to Harvard."

The mother was aware her daughter had a moderate learning problem. Since three, she had enrolled her daughter in as many enrichment classes as could fit into a day: sensory integration, speech therapy, physical therapy, occupational therapy, music, cognitive focusing, and others with questionable legitimacy. Her daughter enjoyed few of these activities.

"Does Anita like doing these things?" I asked.

"That's irrelevant. I want to give her the best chance possible to be accepted at a good college."

"But she's only five," I said.

"Yes," the mother responded angrily, "But if I don't do everything I can now, she'll never be successful."

"But do you get any pleasure now from what Anita is doing?"

"That's not important," she said, "Only the future is."

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to make any headway with this mother. Actually, she thought my understanding was so off base, she sought someone else to work with her daughter. Anita never made it to Stanford. Actually, Anita never made it through high school. She viewed each of the things her mother wanted for her as goals, most of which she wasn't interested in. The journey was so arduous the goals became unimportant. She had no joy or happiness in any of them. If you shift your search for happiness from the future to the present, from what your child may be able to do in the future to what he or she can do now, from goals to journeys, you'll find the happiness that eludes many parents. Happiness is not something that's external to you. It's not the successes your child has, or the intrinsic value of their accomplishments. Happiness is something totally dependent on how you view things. There's the old joke about two boys looking into a barn and seeing an empty stall filled with old manure.

"Ugh," the first child said. "Look at all of that crap. It stinks."

"Wow," the second child said. "I know there must be a pony here somewhere!"

Very rarely is something inherently good or evil, ugly or beautiful, depressing or joyful. It's our values and how we view them that attach meaning to events and things.

Copyright © 2005 Stan Goldberg, Ph.D.

Reprinted from the book Ready to Learn: How to Help Your Preschooler Succeed by Stan Goldberg, Ph.D.; Copyright © 2005 Stan Goldberg, Ph.D.; Permission granted by Oxford University Press; For more information please visit the publisher's website at www.oup.com

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