Parents of children who struggle in school due to attention disorders may feel at their wit’s end trying to concoct a solution that will help their child survive the educational system. Written from the firsthand experience of an educator with ADHD and the owner and operator of learning centers that specialize in working with children with ADHD, this book gives parents and teachers a roadmap of tasks to follow that will accelerate their children’s learning capabilities. By enacting strict organizational guidelines that ensure the turning in of completed homework and using an immediate reward system to celebrate adherence, this method is designed to get child and parent alike involved in a simple, short routine that yields results. By just checking in for a couple of minutes a day, parents can watch struggling grades work their way up to the head of the class.

Combining her personal experience in getting things done with her background as an educator, the author of this book goes into very specific detail on how to help kids with ADHD succeed in school. The plan is not left vague as it goes through each step, highlighting the rigidity and routine that needs to be established, but flexibility does appear in terms of reward systems and quantity. The firmness of the author’s system comes through in an authoritative but cooperative and understanding tone. The system itself is easy to follow, providing a focus largely on organization and accountability, while also tailored specifically for the intricacies of the ADHD-affected brain. Free of prescription medications or alternative teaching methods that can make a child feel isolated or different, this system is worth reading about because of the results it has accomplished as well as the relatively low but constant involvement by the parent in the education process.

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8 Minutes a Day to Make an A! Quick Change Your Adhd Child Now!

Pamela L. Johnson
AuthorHouse (Jun 13, 2018)
Hardcover $23.99 (108pp)
978-1-5462-4482-0

Both realistic and compassionate, 8 Minutes a Day to Make an A! puts control of the learning process back where it belongs.

Pamela L. Johnson’s 8 Minutes a Day to Make an A! presents the educator’s StudyQuick™ system, an easy-to-use method said to have resulted in raising the grades of 90 percent of ADHD-diagnosed students who used it from D’s and F’s to A’s and B’s.

Asserting that most of the disorganized, underperforming students Johnson’s worked with were actually above average in ability, though they lacked the study and organizational skills necessary to address the different ways they processed information, the book says that doing just a few things differently will enable students to dramatically change their results. It is clear in arguing that the current educational system is designed to meet the needs of leftbrained, abstract, auditory, and sequential part-to-whole learners, and that this is a problem for right-brained, concrete, visual, hands-on, and whole-to-part learners, especially those with ADD/ADHD, who have to learn to form an accurate picture of what they are reading or hearing and actively do something with it in order to retain information in their long-term memory.

Introducing methods of organizing learning materials for quick and easy access, the book also suggests ways toremove distractions and form habits that lead to efficient study. It encourages frequent rewards to foster motivation as well. It is also convincing in arguing parental participation is essential.

This is a text that will equip parents with the knowledge they need to understand how children learn, as well as with the techniques necessary to keep interactions positive. Its evidence that ADHD children have gifts that should be recognized and valued is compelling. It lauds them for being able to think outside of the box, as well as for being intuitive, inventive, and creative, not to mention hyperfocused to achieve mastery.

Addressing issues like missing homework, low motivation, low test scores, and poor organizational skills, the book’s methods are easy to learn and geared toward producing quick results. Technical terms are defined in a clear way, and insights are many. Straightforward and fun illustrations enhance the text. An ample bibliography provides options for further research.

Its tone conversational, sympathetic, and firm, the book proves easy to understand and its tips easy to implement. It is an encouraging text that’s filled with examples of its techniques at work. However, it includes grammatical errors, from missing and misused words to excessive and misplaced italics and bold print, and it is repetitious in its presentation of concepts and in its word usage.

Both realistic and compassionate, 8 Minutes a Day to Make an A! puts control of the learning process back where it belongs—in the hands of students and parents.

KRISTINE MORRIS (June 5, 2019)

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