Yes! Your Child Can: Creating Success for Children with Learning Differences
Help and hope for parents of children with learning differences.
Every child can succeed in school and life, but some children need more help than others. For over 40 years, internationally acclaimed reading specialist and student advocate Dr. Victoria E. Waller has helped children who have trouble reading, who can't sit still in class, who don't feel like they can participate--children whom teachers have all but given up on. In Yes! Your Child Can, Dr. Waller shares with parents, teachers, and therapists her proven techniques to create success for children with learning differences and draw out the singular genius within your child.
In compassionate, nontechnical, easy-to-understand language, Yes! Your Child Can gives step-by-step guidance on how to help your child achieve in school and build lifelong intellectual confidence. Drawing on the latest science and her own wide-ranging experience, Dr. Waller explains why it's important to pay attention to your first gut feeling that your child may need extra help and shows how to navigate testing, medication, and choosing a team to help your child.
Most importantly, Yes! Your Child Can shows you how to use your child's natural strengths and passions to build their academic, social, and personal confidence. Dr. Waller empowers parents to let their children follow their own interests, whether that's learning about sharks, reading to the dog, or building with Legos and writing about their creations. With Dr. Waller's help, learning can be motivating and fun. Dr. Waller's techniques are smart, caring, and effective with any child, no matter their current or past educational difficulties.
Respectful, compassionate, and offering real help, Yes! Your Child Can is the first book every parent of a child with learning differences should read.
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focusing on reading and learning differences from the University of Cincinnati. Dr. Waller has been awarded the University of
Cincinnati's Distinguished Alumna College of Education Award, was one of three finalists for the L.A. Music Center's Bravo Award for
Outstanding Teaching, and was named the Local Hero in the L.A. Times for her Printer Pal Program, connecting students with nursing home
occupants. She was the creator of the Disney Busy Bags for Travel on Planes and Cars for Disney/Hyperion Books and has created backpacks
and toys for M&M Mars, Inc. She was a founding member of the L.A. Children's Museum, was a veteran speaker for the International Reading Association for 25 years and is the focus of Eve Bunting's internationally-acclaimed-and Caldecott Medal award-winning middle grade novel, Sixth Grade Sleepover. Waller's articles on creative reading and writing projects for children have been widely viewed on U.C.L.A.'s Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior website, and the award-winning Grandparentslink.com. Dr. Waller and her husband, Marshall, live in Los Angeles, California.
"Creativity is important in every walk of life, mine especially. And Vicki Waller's book, Yes! Your Child Can: Creating Success for Children with Learning Differences, shows what an extraordinary and creative educational therapist she is. She digs deep to find out what interests each child, unlocks their own creativity focusing on a subject a child is passionate about, and, astonishingly, they learn to read. Magic happens!" --Michael D. Eisner, former chairman and CEO of The Walt Disney Company and president of The Tornante Company
"Dr. Waller unlocks the super powers within her students using their own creativity to make their learning soar." --Patty Jenkins, writer/director, Wonder Woman "This is by far the best book on learning differences I have ever read. It is comprehensive, readable, so wise, beautifully balanced between anecdotes about the kids Dr. Waller has worked with and her terrific recommendations and advice. Dr. Waller covers all aspects of what a parent will run into dealing with learning differences in her child. This is a brilliant book!" --Dana Buchman, founder, Promise Project "Dr. Waller is a force of nature and a gift to people like me who learn differently. She is a brilliant educator for those of us who the system readily discards. Her heart is gold and her enthusiasm for lifting people up who learn differently or who were not born on a level playing field is platinum. For over 20 years serving on the board of the Putney Open-Door Fund, a nonprofit that offers full scholarships to students from underserved communities enabling them to participate in educational programs all over the world, she has changed lives and opened opportunities for many. If we could clone Dr. Waller, the world would be a better place." --Peter Shumlin, former governor of Vermont "Dr. Waller is a brilliant, gifted educator who has taught countless children with learning differences to read, thrive, and achieve success. In Yes! Your Child Can she provides parents with a step-by-step guide about what to expect when they come to the sudden realization that their smart, interesting child is failing in school. In this groundbreaking book, based on 40 years of teaching children with learning differences and evidence-based research, Dr. Waller shows parents how to create fun learning experiences that enhance a child's unique passions. By teaching to their interests, Dr. Waller engages her students and makes them excited about learning and reading. It is evident in this book that she believes and is enthusiastic about each student's unique talents and strengths. She makes each child feel understood, important and appreciated for who they are. That is a recipe for future success!" --Vicky Goodman, founder and president, Friends of the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA and Resnick Neuropsychiatric Hospital Founding Board of Directors"Dr. Waller understands the complexities of children, the importance of reading, and how to bring them together successfully." --Kevin Henkes, Caldecott Medal and Newbury award-winning writer and illustrator of Kitten's First Full Moon, Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse, and over 50 other children's books "It has been a great privilege to connect with Dr. Waller and to see first-hand the tremendous care and attention she gives to her students. She has provided numerous students with introductions to me and thus those having an interest in sharks have been able to converse with me about them." --Chris Fallows, shark expert, wildlife photographer, and co-host of Discovery Channel Shark Week "If you have a feeling that your child is not quite on top of things, that your child is not well understood at school or even at home, that your child could be doing so much better if only. . . Yes! Your Child Can completes the 'if only. . .' Dr. Waller is my favorite kind of expert. She totally knows her stuff. She's seen a lot of kids, like a lot. And she knows how to get to the bottom of things. Plus, she loves children. Like a detective, she loves figuring out what makes children tick, especially the ones who tick differently from most. She's the person I'd send my own child to, if I needed help, because she's seen it all. She knows how to tell a parent what the parent really needs, with no extra fluff or theory. If you're not lucky enough to get a session with Dr. Waller in person, then this book is the next best thing. It's an instant classic. And the title says it all: YES!"--Edward Hallowell, M.D., author of Driven to Distraction and A.D.H.D. 2.0 "I've seen many educational therapists in my 56 years of teaching and school administration and without a doubt Dr. Waller is the most inventive and successful therapist I have known. From the bottom of her heart, she BELIEVES in each child and each child senses her unconditional respect and support. Then she finds out what interests the child and uses that content and those experiences to teach them to read, and most importantly, to believe that they CAN read." --Joan Martin, director emerita, Crossroads Elementary School, Santa Monica "Our family was broken when we came to Vicki Waller, beaten down by a school who didn't want to do the work to find out what made our son tick. Our six-year-old son was anxious and convinced he wasn't smart, all because his school told him he wasn't. As it turns out, he's wildly smart and was happy to read about sharks. So, Dr. Waller had him read about sharks. Then write about sharks. Then they'd talk about sharks. Then they'd read some more. We call Dr. Waller the Kid Whisperer because she can teach anyone to read, but she's doing more than just teaching reading. She's teaching kids they're smart long after their school has given up on them. She's advocating for children, fervently, relentlessly, graciously, and without limit. And she's repairing families who don't know where to turn. 'Smart kid, ' she'd say after every session. Then she'd send him off with a bunch of books about sharks, or baseball, or World War II. He'd read them all. Every single time." --Meredith Gordon, parent "Reading this book reminded me of how lucky I was that I had Vicki as an educational therapist who knew how to teach kids with learning differences. She is the reason that I am doing so well in school right now. She knew I was smart and she used all of my strengths and passions to teach me and make reading fun." --Alex, 16 (profiled in Yes! Your Child Can)
"Yes! Your Child Can: Creating Success for Children with Learning Differences by Victoria E. Waller, Ed.D, should be the first book a parent chooses when their child has been diagnosed with a learning challenge. It addresses family relationships, support systems, and how to best work with such children, sharing Dr. Waller's techniques for creating success and a sense of empowerment and achievement in kids with learning differences. The step-by-step guidelines and discussions of science that supports her real-world-tested techniques provides hope and specific direction."--Midwest Book Review
