«A Child with Behavioral Difficulties»
F. Folgheraiter - - Ed. Erickson - TN - 1988
«Initial Assessment of Abilities in the Handicapped»
D. Janes - Practical Worksheets for Teachers - Ed. Erickson - TN - 1987
Folgheraiter's «A Child with Behavioral Difficulties» and D. Janes's «Initial Assessment of Abilities in the Handicapped» stand out as essential reading for anyone engaged in educational work—whether by necessity, choice, or profession.
Though aimed at different contexts (the first at the "difficult" child, the second at teaching strategies for the handicapped student), both books share more than a foundation of love for their undertaking. They share a clarity of approach rooted in modern pedagogy: teaching requires, first and foremost, the ability to observe with patience, precision, and skill—and to evaluate everything a child's individual and relational behavior tells us. To ensure that such observation leads to genuine, useful goals rather than vague and frustrating ones, both texts offer detailed assessment worksheets. The second volume wisely divides these by age (before and after six years) and by behavioral domain: from «Prerequisites for Learning» (which carefully account for every capacity, even those easily overlooked—for instance, «Looks at objects pointed out by the educator») to «Basic Self-Care Skills» (such as «Eats independently at main meals»), «Personal Safety,» and «Drawing and Painting Abilities.»
Most teachers know that sense of helplessness when facing a task that seems impossible, that urge to call in the specialist—discussed in the opening chapter of the second text. I am confident that this understandable distress, rooted in our genuine gaps in training, can be significantly eased by knowing and using books like these.