Beyond the Label: A Guide to Unlocking a Child's Educational Potential

Abstract

Reviews the book, Beyond the Label: A Guide to Unlocking a Child's Educational Potential by Karen L. Schiltz, Amy M. Schonfeld, and Tara A. Niendam (2012). The book is a slim 200-page handbook written for parents who are contemplating, anticipating, or in the process of assessing of their child to address educational challenges. The book is divided into three sections. It starts with a short tutorial regarding the law and learning disability. The middle section settles in for a longer discussion of several common types of functioning deficits, including attention and concentration, memory, executive functions, language, visual perception, speed, achievement, social, and emotional development. The third section of the book offers a small recapitulation of important points to remember, a success story, and appendixes containing lists of accommodations and resources. One of the strengths of the book is that there is a concerted effort to educate parents about the level of severity and persistence in symptoms that would elevate them to cause for concern. A strong message of the book is that assessment offers the best pathway to understanding one’s child, and that it leads to targeted interventions and accommodations that can result in optimizing educational and academic outcomes for children with learning and psychosocial challenges. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved)