Emotional Intelligence: Why it can matter more than IQ

This book offers practical advice and tips on areas such as learning to relax, improving your memory, staying focused, getting homework done, and making friends.

Joey is out of control. He knows it, his mom knows it, and the school knows it. Nothing seems to remedy his behavior until Joey runs away from a class field trip, hurts a classmate, and is sent to a special education program. There, his medications are regulated and Joey achieves a level of control.

Spending a month on a remote island in Maine with his teasing older brother and grandparents he hardly knows is not Josh’s idea of a great time. But that’s what happens the summer his parents go abroad. Twelve-year-old Josh, who has dyslexia, can’t do anything right in his grandfather’s eyes, and is constantly compared to his perfect bookish brother, Simon. So Josh secretly plans to run away back to New Jersey. However, despite gruff Gramps, Josh finds himself captivated by life on Sea Island and all of the challenges it offers him. Plus, Josh discovers unexpected romance and kinship with a young visitor. His biggest challenge, though, comes at the end of the summer when he faces a life-threatening emergency and uses skills he didn’t know he had to lead the rescue.

Remember the kids who just didn’t fit in? Maybe they stood too close, or talked too loud. Whatever the reason, we called them hurtful names, and they never understood why. Now, clinical psychologists Duke and Nowicki call these children “dyssemic,” and offer some ideas of how to help them. Dyssemic children cannot readily comprehend nonverbal messages, much as dyslexics do not correctly process the written word. Yet nonverbal communication plays a vital role in our communication with others, and children who misunderstand or misuse it may face painful social rejection. In Helping the Child Who Doesn’t Fit In, Duke and Nowicki show parents and teachers how to assess the extent of a child’s problem, as well as how to help the dyssemic child.

Filled with strategies, and resources, this book uses the author’s groundbreaking research about successful adults with learning disabilities, to promote self-advocacy. This work is brimming with useful and practical information. It is easily understood and embraced by students with learning disabilities, their parents, guidance counselors, and stakeholders in the fields of both higher education and special education.

Jim is worried. He’s not sure he’ll have any friends at school! The other children in kindergarten are scary strangers to him. He’s sure that he’ll never find a friend…until naptime, when he discovers someone who feels the way he does.