From Book News, Inc.
Dawson and Guare provide a guide for school psychologists and other educational professionals working with youngsters whose executive skills may be impaired; the text may also be useful to clinical psychologists in private practice or therapy settings, regular education teachers, and parents. Coverage includes in-depth definition of executive skills, techniques to assess their functioning, linking assessment to intervention, intervention strategies, coaching students with deficits, and applications to specific populations. Dawson is a staff psychologist, and Guare a neuropsychologist, at the Center for Learning and Attention Disorders in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.Copyright © 2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR


Review
"Teachers, neuropsychologists, and health professionals are frequently asked to work with children and adolescents experiencing difficulties in 'high-level' skills--such as organization, attention, and problem solving--which impede learning and skill acquisition. Despite the prevalence of these problems, there is little practical information available to guide practitioners. This text provides a unique contribution, incorporating simple but comprehensive descriptions of such problems and how to identify them. Its greatest strength, however, lies in its inclusion of a range of helpful and practical intervention strategies that facilitate an integrated approach across home, school, and child."--Vicki Anderson, PhD, Department of Psychology, Royal Children's Hospital, Melbourne, Australia

"This volume is filled with promising practices for evaluating and improving children's executive functioning. The concept of executive functioning, informed by research in neuropsychology, provides new ways of viewing children's strengths and weaknesses. Initially developed to target the processing problems of children with ADHD and traumatic brain injury, this approach shows potential for assisting all children in the classroom. The book's interview protocols and checklists provide readers with specific guidance for informed professional practice."--Jonathan Sandoval, School of Education, University of California, Davis

"Dawson and Guare go far beyond the description of executive skill deficits found in currently available texts to provide school psychologists, special and general education teachers, graduate students, and researchers with empirically based, practical guidelines for assessment and treatment. A particular strength of their approach is a multi-component assessment model that includes formal standardized measures typically used in evaluating executive functioning difficulties as well as measures designed to assess executive skills in ¿real-world' situations. Thus, assessment data are linked directly to the design and evaluation of interventions based on children's individual strengths and weaknesses. By far the most noteworthy aspect of this book, however, is the detailed coverage and multiple examples of interventions, including environmental modifications, interventions addressing specific executive skills, coaching, and class-wide strategies. These interventions are not only based on solid research support but also have the added advantage of being practical and feasible for teachers and parents to use on a regular basis. Multiple, diverse case examples are provided to aid readers in understanding the nuances of assessment and treatment, and many helpful handouts facilitate implementation. This book would be an appropriate text for graduate-level courses in psychological/behavioral assessment and school/child interventions."--George J. DuPaul, PhD, School Psychology Program, Lehigh University

"Difficulties with self-regulation of behavior and of thinking are among the most stressful and difficult-to-deal-with issues faced by parents and teachers of children with disabilities. Dawson and Guare deserve high praise for presenting a practical, integrated, and easy-to-digest approach to disorders of executive self-regulation in children. Their emphasis on intervention within the routines of everyday life, with adults acting as the children's coaches, is most welcome, as are their many user-friendly forms and helpful case illustrations. This book will serve as a valuable resource for teachers, special educators, and parents."--Mark Ylvisaker, PhD, School of Education, College of Saint Rose, Albany, New York



Review
"This volume is filled with promising practices for evaluating and improving children's executive functioning. The concept of executive functioning, informed by research in neuropsychology, provides new ways of viewing children's strengths and weaknesses. Initially developed to target the processing problems of children with ADHD and traumatic brain injury, this approach shows potential for assisting all children in the classroom. The book's interview protocols and checklists provide readers with specific guidance for informed professional practice."--Jonathan Sandoval, School of Education, University of California, Davis "Dawson and Guare go far beyond the description of executive skill deficits found in currently available texts to provide school psychologists, special and general education teachers, graduate students, and researchers with empirically based, practical guidelines for assessment and treatment. A particular strength of their approach is a multi-component assessment model that includes formal standardized measures typically used in evaluating executive functioning difficulties as well as measures designed to assess executive skills in ¿real-world' situations. Thus, assessment data are linked directly to the design and evaluation of interventions based on children's individual strengths and weaknesses. By far the most noteworthy aspect of this book, however, is the detailed coverage and multiple examples of interventions, including environmental modifications, interventions addressing specific executive skills, coaching, and class-wide strategies. These interventions are not only based on solid research support but also have the added advantage of being practical and feasible for teachers and parents to use on a regular basis. Multiple, diverse case examples are provided to aid readers in understanding the nuances of assessment and treatment, and many helpful handouts facilitate implementation. This book would be an appropriate text for graduate-level courses in psychological/behavioral assessment and school/child interventions."--George J. DuPaul, PhD, School Psychology Program, Lehigh University "Difficulties with self-regulation of behavior and of thinking are among the most stressful and difficult-to-deal-with issues faced by parents and teachers of children with disabilities. Dawson and Guare deserve high praise for presenting a practical, integrated, and easy-to-digest approach to disorders of executive self-regulation in children. Their emphasis on intervention within the routines of everyday life, with adults acting as the children's coaches, is most welcome, as are their many user-friendly forms and helpful case illustrations. This book will serve as a valuable resource for teachers, special educators, and parents."--Mark Ylvisaker, PhD, School of Education, College of Saint Rose, Albany, New York


Book Description
In clear, step-by-step detail, this highly practical manual provides a research-based framework for strengthening executive functioning in children and adolescents. The book explains how executive skills develop in children and are used in everyday life--from the self-regulation required for responsible behavior to the planning and initiation abilities needed to complete homework on time. Guidelines are presented for conducting multimodal assessments and using the results to plan environmental modifications, individualized instruction, coaching, and whole-class interventions. Attention is also given to working with children with ADHD and other clinical problems in which executive skills are impaired. Many of the techniques described can be implemented by teachers and parents in collaboration with school-based clinicians. Designed in a large-size format with convenient, lay-flat binding, the manual includes over a dozen reproducible assessment tools, checklists, and planning sheets, ready to photocopy and use.



Book Info
Seacoast Mental Health Center, Portsmouth, NH. Provides school psychologists, graduate students, and researchers with empirically based, practical guidelines for assessment and treatment. Softcover.


About the Author
Peg Dawson, EdD, is a licensed clinical school psychologist with an undergraduate degree from Oberlin College and a doctorate from the University of Virginia. She is currently a staff psychologist at the Center for Learning and Attention Disorders, an agency within Seacoast Mental Health Center in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Dr. Dawson has over 25 years of experience working in the fields of education and psychology, with a specialization in assessment of children and adults with learning and attention disorders. In addition to working in schools and mental health centers in New Hampshire and Maine, she has also taught in the Education Department at the University of New Hampshire at both the graduate and undergraduate levels. Active in professional associations, Dr. Dawson has been president of the New Hampshire Association of School Psychologists, the National Association of School Psychologists, and the International School Psychology Association. She has also served as the newsletter editor for the National Association of School Psychologists, and has published many journal articles and book chapters on topics related to educational policy and practices and learning and attention disorders. In addition to Executive Skills in Children and Adolescents, Dr. Dawson and her colleague Richard Guare have written a manual on coaching students with attention disorders.

Richard Guare, PhD, a neuropsychologist, is Director of the Center for Learning and Attention Disorders in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Dr. Guare received his doctorate in school/child psychology from the University of Virginia and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in neuropsychology at Children's Hospital/Harvard Medical School. He has served as a consultant to a number of brain injury programs in New England, and has presented and published research and clinical work on acquired brain injury and attention disorders. In addition, Dr. Guare has been Adjunct Professor of Communication Disorders at the University of New Hampshire and teaches courses in child neuropsychology at the University of Southern Maine.



Excerpted from Executive Skills in Children and Adolescents : A Practical Guide to Assessment and Intervention by Peg Dawson, Richard Guare. Copyright © 2003. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Contents Chapter 1 Overview of Executive Skills Chapter 2 Assessing Executive Skills Chapter 3 Linking Assessment to Intervention Chapter 4 Interventions to Promote Executive Skills Chapter 5 Coaching Students with Executive Skill Deficits Chapter 6 Classroom-Wide Interventions Chapter 7 Applications to Specific Populations Appendix References

FROM THE PUBLISHER

In clear, step-by-step detail, this highly practical manual provides a research-based framework for strengthening executive functioning in children and adolescents. The book explains how executive skills develop in children and are used in everyday life--from the self-regulation required for responsible behavior to the planning and initiation abilities needed to complete homework on time. Guidelines are presented for conducting multimodal assessments and using the results to plan environmental modifications, individualized instruction, coaching, and whole-class interventions. Attention is also given to working with children with ADHD and other clinical problems in which executive skills are impaired. Many of the techniques described can be implemented by teachers and parents in collaboration with school-based clinicians. Designed in a large-size format with convenient, lay-flat binding, the manual includes over a dozen reproducible assessment tools, checklists, and planning sheets, ready to photocopy and use.

SYNOPSIS