A MIND AT A TIME: America's Top Learning Expert Shows How Every Child Can Succeed

Worried about the growing tendency to medicate and attach stigmatizing labels (such as ADD) to problematic learners, Levine, cofounder of the nonprofit institute All Kinds of Minds, offers parents a heartening new model of learning based on his deep respect for the uniqueness of individual minds. Levine's soft-spoken reading style lends to the tapes a personal, compassionate and reassuring tone that would be lost in the written word, gently guiding parents to identify their child's strengths and weaknesses in any of eight neurodevelopmental systems, including attention, motor, memory, language and social thinking. Describing himself as "a pediatrician with a mission," Levine confirms the resiliency of children's minds to overcome dysfunction, bolstering his argument with more than 30 years worth of case studies, stories of his own struggle with fine motor function, plenty of indicative symptoms corresponding to each "system of the mind" and helpful teaching concepts and tips to enhance all learning patterns. Levine's recommendation for listeners to follow up with his book and Web site rings true—parents unfamiliar with their child's specific issues may find themselves a bit out of their depth, as the scope of this abridged version is extensive. Based on the Simon & Schuster hardcover (Forecasts, Mar. 11). (July)