Brochure for Linda Siegel's book Understanding dyslexia and other learning disabilities

1. UnderStandInG
DYSLEXIAand
other LEARNING
DISABILITIES
Linda Siegel
PACIFIC EDUCATIONAL PRESS

2. Understanding Dyslexia and Other Learning Disabilities addresses how our educational
system has failed to identify many children with learning disabilities and calls
for the adoption of straightforward diagnostic techniques so that treatment
options can be implemented at a young age. Many children who struggle with
learning become discouraged in the classroom and isolated from their peers.
Many adults whose learning disabilities were not recognized in school suffer
from deep feelings of inadequacy that often prevent them from developing
close relationships, finding rewarding employment, or living happily.
In this accessibly written book, Linda Siegel challenges the use of complex
and time-consuming testing that is currently used to diagnose learning
disabilities. In their place, she outlines simple and pragmatic techniques for
testing for disabilities in reading, mathematics, spelling, and writing.
The text is enlivened by first-hand accounts of people living with learning
disabilities, case studies from literature, and profiles of highly accomplished
individuals who have achieved success despite their learning disabilities. Their
stories encourage people with learning challenges and those who support them
to recognize and nurture each person’s special talents.
Understanding Dyslexia and Other Learning Disabilities implores families,
teachers, and other educational professionals to provide resources and services
for all those struggling with learning so that no more lives are compromised.
“…a substantial contribution to the field of education
from a preeminent scholar in the field of learning
disabilities”
—Dr. Gina Harrison,
professor in Special Education at the University of Victoria
UNDERSTANDING DYSLEXIA and other LEARNING DISABILITIES
Linda Siegel
Introduction: A Wake-Up Call
Part I:Types of Learning
Disabilities
1 The Giant with Dyslexia
2 Spelling Test Terror
3 Picasso, the Artist with Dyslexia
4 The Case of Agatha Christie:
Dysgraphia
5 Winston Churchill–Famous
Orator, Superb Military Strategist,
Failure at Mathematics
6 Hans Christian Andersen: A Case
of Non-Verbal Learning Disability
7 Yeats, the Poet with Dyslexia
Part II: History, Assessment,
Diagnosis, and Misdiagnosis
8 Jane Austen: The First Educational
Psychologist
9 “Stupid Tom”: George Eliot on
Dyslexia
10 The Scientific Discovery of
Dyslexia
11 Tiptoeing Through the Minefield
of Diagnosis
12 IQ Worship: Into the Quicksand
13 Abuses of the IQ Test: The Case of
Johnny
14 Not Stupid: A Tale of Two
Teachers
15 Not Lazy: The Case of Darryl
Part III: Coping with a Learning
Disability
16 Reading Is a Goose Flying:
Learning Disabilities through the
Eyes of Children
17 The Albatross, or Living with a
Learning Disability
18 Becoming Rhinoceros-Skinned:
Learning to Jump the Hurdles
19 “School Sick”: Avoiding Detection
20 Dyslexia and Murder?
21 A Parent’s Worst Nightmare
22 The String Inside My Head:
Struggles and Triumphs
23 Drowning, Diving, and Surfacing
Part IV: Solutions
24 Teaching Basic Skills
25 Technology and Other Ways of
Helping People with Learning
Disabilities
26 The Great Cover-Up: What
Parents Should Know to Avoid
Being Victims of the System
27 The Road Ahead
Acknowledgements
Permissions
Bibliography
Index
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Foreword by Peggy McCardle

3. FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:
Pacific Educational Press
Faculty of Education
University of British Columbia
411–2389 Health Sciences Mall
Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z3
Note: For international callers, Canada’s country code is 1.
BOOK SPECIFICATIONS:
Trade paperback
6″ × 9″ • 296 pp • Price: $29.00
Publication date: September 2013
ISBN: 978-1-926966-29-8
ebook ISBN: 978-1-926966-30-4
For ebook availability, see our website.
Phone: 604-827-2232 or toll-free in
Canada and the US 1-855-827-2232
Fax: 604-822-6603
Email: pep.sales@ubc.ca
Website: www.pacificedpress.ca
P
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
LINDA SIEGEL is a professor in the Department of Educational and
Counselling Psychology and Special Education at the Univer-
sity of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada where she holds the
Dorothy C. Lam Chair in Special Education. She has conducted
research on the development of reading and of mathematical con-
cepts, language development, dyslexia, mathematical learning dis-
abilities, early identification and intervention to prevent reading
difficulties, and the development of reading and language skills in children learning
English as a second language. She has consulted on the development of reading skills
in elementary school age children in China (Hong Kong, Xian, Guangzhou, and Shen
Zhen), Barbados, Brazil, Argentina, Switzerland, and many places in the US and
Canada. In 2010, she was awarded the Gold Medal for Distinguished Contributions
to Canadian Psychology from the Canadian Psychological Association. In 2012, she
received the inaugural Eminent Researcher Award from the organization Learning
Difficulties Australia.She has been awarded an honorary doctorate from the University
of Gothenburg (Sweden).
FOREWORD AUTHOR PEGGY MCCARDLE is President of Peggy McCardle Consulting, LLC,
and former Chief of the Child Development and Behavior Branch of the Eunice
Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.