HOW TO HELP YOUR PRESCHOOLER LEARN MORE--FASTER--& BETTER

by David Melton ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 18, 1976

A smugly ingratiating book, overflowing with contempt for educators and child development theorists, which insists that ""children can learn anything you care to teach them"" and implies that parents who don't ""encourage"" their children are negligent. Melton, whose book When Children Need Help described Glenn Doman's successful methods used with brain-injured children (including his own son), extends these teaching techniques to all children, sedulously maintaining that the five-year-old is already past his learning peak. ""Inside every little child there is a talented genius,"" he contends, giving numerous examples of early reading ability and triumphs in other areas (Suzuki violin lessons), never reporting a single failure. His advice is not completely egregious; he allows that a child's environment should support exploration, that parents who push won't get relaxed children although they may get results, that a mother's loving example is more lasting than lessons in a fine nursery school. In fact willing mothers are the key here (most men aren't suited to it), and they can save time by checking out the Doman-Delacato Developmental Profile and buying the Doman-Delacato Early Reading Kit. Piaget (whom he rebukes) has come to refer to the ""American question"" about child development--can they do it faster? This is a good example of that kind of ambitious enterprise, seductive in its promises of certain accomplishment, which pays lip service to personality development and virtually ignores consequent outcomes.

Pub Date: Oct. 18, 1976

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: McKay

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1976

Categories: NONFICTION