Review ~ Learning In Spite Of Labels by Joyce Herzog
I highly recommend Learning In Spite Of Labels to any parent, not just those who have struggling learners. There are so many wonderful ideas in this book on education, ways to learn, and work around struggles.
Disclosure: I received a free copy of this product for review, all opinions are 100% my own.
Learning styles have been a topic of interest to me for the past year.
So I was very excited to receive a copy of Learning In Spite Of Labels by Joyce Herzog to review.
Joyce Herzog has a passion for teaching and helping people to learn how to learn. She has been an educator for 25 years in public and private schools.
Joyce Herzog has also been serving homeschoolers with her speaking and writing for over 25 years.
I loved reading Learning In Spite Of Labels and I'm already reading it for the second time and reading it aloud to my hubby. I love that this book is written from a Christian perspective, and filled with tips and suggestions on how to help your children learn.
I love finding solutions to try!
It's Table of Contents:
Section One: What Do I Need To Know?
What Does It Feel Like to Be Learning Disabled?
A Look At Learning
Behavior and Strengths
Issues to Consider
Section Two: What Do I Need To Do?
Introduction to Doing
ABCs of Learning
Twenty-Five Teaching Techniques that WORK!
Teeny Tiny Teaching Tips
Section Three: Where Do I Start?
Begin At the Very Beginning!
Setting the Stage
A Person, Not a Problem
Section Four: And Furthermore
Learning Styles
The Law
Learning Problems in History
History Repeated
Attention Deficit Disorder
Vision Skills and Therapy
Speech and Language Development
Individualized Education Plan
Depression: Causes and Cures
Appendix A: Resource Guide
Appendix B: Author Information
Afterward
The book starts out trying to show you how it feels to be learning disabled. Your first task is to write an important date and place on a piece of paper.
Yes, it sounds simple enough, doesn't it? But the trick is you have to hold the paper on your forehead while you write. Then see how well you were able to write it.
It gives you a different perspective on how others may struggle to do what you think of as a simple task. Would you like to be judged based on what you just wrote?
Then it moves into how people learn information and how sudden a change it is for a child to go from a freestyle learning environment to an 8-hour school day. So many options of expression are removed from their abilities before they may be ready for reading and writing.
Joyce talks about how in some ways we are all learning disabled, in that she isn't good at understanding how things work and her husband can't style girls’ hair. It really depends on what standard you are measuring against.
I agree with this in many ways. My hubby can play many instruments wonderfully, me? Well, you don't want me to sing trust me!
The section on 25 Teaching Tips that Work is a gold mine of ideas, from thanking God for the situation and praying for his guidance and blessing to providing a frequent review of different learning styles.
The Teeny Tiny Teaching Tips section is filled with little nuggets for all parents. One of my favorites was if your child has trouble telling right from left, put little smiley faces inside the arch of each shoe. The shoes are on the right feet if the smiles are facing and "kissing".
To help mark the left and right-hand side of the page, put a green dot in the left margin and a red dot in the right margin. Green means start and red means stop. There are just so many ideas for hands-on learning that this will be a book I refer to often!
I highly recommend Learning In Spite Of Labels to any parent, not just those who have struggling learners. There are so many wonderful ideas in this book on education, ways to learn, and work around struggles.
