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The Motivation Breakthrough: 6 Secrets to Turning On the Tuned-Out Child | 
 enlarge | Author: Richard Lavoie
Publisher: Touchstone
Category: Book
List Price: $16.00
Buy New: $9.36
You Save: $6.64 (42%)
New (31) Used (8) from $9.16
Avg. Customer Rating:  17 reviews
Sales Rank: 9225
Media: Paperback
Edition: Reprint
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 416
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 9 x 6.1 x 1.4
ISBN: 0743289617
Dewey Decimal Number: 649
EAN: 9780743289610
ASIN: 0743289617
Publication Date: October 7, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: BRAND NEW
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Product Description
Any child can be motivated to learn."If he only would apply himself..." "She can do it if she puts her mind to it." "He just doesn't seem to care." "She's just not trying." Motivation is the key to learning. But very few parents and teachers have an effective arsenal of techniques at their disposal. Enter educator and acclaimed author Rick Lavoie, who arms all those who deal with children with proven, effective tools and strategies they can use to encourage any child to learn and achieve success. Lavoie's practical, innovative approach begins with a quiz that helps a parent or teacher identify -- using six different possible models -- a child's motivational style. - Is she motivated by power?
- Does he need prestige?
- Does praise mean a lot to this child?
- Does contact with other people inspire this child?
- Does he like to do projects?
- Does she enjoy receiving prizes?
He then explores each motivational style in depth, presenting proven techniques, strategies, and scripts that can be used in the classroom and at home to break through a child's apathy and discouragement and inspire him to succeed and achieve. Along the way, Lavoie explodes some common myths about motivation: for instance, he demonstrates that rewards, punishment, and competition are not effective motivational tools. He gives specific advice throughout for parents and teachers of children with learning disabilities and provides detailed instructions for how to create a motivated classroom. He outlines the parent's role, the teacher's role, and suggests ways in which they can work together to encourage children to reach their potential. The book's final chapter, "What Does Madison Avenue Know...That Maple Street Elementary School Doesn't," reveals what parents and teachers can learn from some of the most powerful motivators in our children's world: advertisers. With empathy and understanding, backed by decades of experience in the classroom, Rick Lavoie gives parents and teachers the key to unlock any child's enthusiasm and responsiveness. The Motivation Breakthrough will revolutionize the way parents, teachers, and professionals reach out to and motivate all children.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 12 more reviews...
 This is a keeper, for parents and teachers November 28, 2008
This book is filled with great ideas; some make me think, "I have to try this on my classes!" and others, "I should have done that with my kids!"
Even though both my students and my kids are now adults, I see a great deal that I can still use. The author is very specific and filled with enthusiasm for teaching and motivating. He shows great understanding of, and compassion for, kids and students who have difficulties in school or in social situations. He has certainly motivated me!
 Opens your eyes as to what to expect from your child's school November 17, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I am so glad I ordered this book. Last year, my child had great difficulty in school. She subsequently repeated the grade this year, however with a different teacher. She is doing much better this year. Although some of the differences were very obvious, this book opened my eyes to the subtle differences that revealed just how much of an uphill struggle my child faced last year. I've read a few reviews of this book, claiming the advice is elementary or basic. Unfortunately, there are still a lot of teachers out there who should read and follow the principles of this book. The first two-thirds of the book even seem to be aimed more towards teachers than parents. Just reading this book reinforced my belief that my daughter was placed in the absolutely worst possible situation last year vs the best possible situation this year. I found myself nodding in agreement as I read all of the bad and good teaching examples. Even the preface, which describes the author's daughter's initial bad school experience and subsequent turnaround was identical to what I experienced with my daughter between last year and this year. The fact that such a disparity exists in the same grade of my child's school disturbs me because parents have no say in what classes their children are placed into. This book offers excellent information as to what we as parents should expect and demand in our children's learning environment. I feel better informed and prepared for those parent/teacher conferences. Highly recommended for parents, especially if your child is experiencing difficulty in school or has learning disabilities.
Valuable advice that works November 14, 2008
I already knew from experience that different people are motivated for different reasons but I admit that I didn't realize the importance of recognizing these differences when it came to motivating my own children to excel at school. This book helped me understand the different reasons why children are motivated to succeed at school and it provided a method for classifying these differences so that appropriate motivation strategies could be selected and used.
As an example, through using the method in this book, I discovered that one of my daughters thrives on and is motivated by praise. When I pay close attention to her homework and provide plenty of praise for her successes, she's delighted and tries even harder...happily! In this case, identifying her motivational strategy provided me with a way to encourage her beyond doing mediocre schoolwork to doing outstanding schoolwork. I'm actually a bit surprised by how well this approach works.
To say that this book is a worthwhile investment for any parent of school age kids is an understatement.
 Who's the intended audience? November 10, 2008
I am reading this book as 1) a professor/college instructor, 2) a parent of a child with a significant learning disability (LD), and 3) a researcher in the field of childhood developmental disorders (e.g. ADHD and autism). Honestly, in my classroom I already care about how my students learn and how to reach out to struggling learners (yes, content applies to certain aspects of college instruction). This book affirms the techniques that I already employ - which is a boon to my confidence but offered me no new insight. As a researcher, this book is technically sound, giving information on how children learn, specifically how children with LD learn, that is supported by research. I applaud him for discussing in simple terms what we now know about how children learn. So, this book does compile "best practices" but does not fully cite sources, which is disappointing.
Now, as a parent, I read this and cheered along. Yes! Yes! I wish my son's school did that! However, what do I do with this information? I cannot exactly plop the book down and insist they conform. Lavoie fails to cite where he gets all his information, so I cannot direct educators to these sources from the material herein. Frankly, the focus is more on the classroom environment, so it will have limited applicability at home. Although, the information DOES apply, there is no help in how to carry it out. For instance, Lavoie discusses WHY yelling at a child reduces motivation and hinders positive behavior. To me, this seems obvious, but I'll allow there may be some adults who feel yelling is really effective. I yell from time to time. I feel bad. Lavoie offers no strategies or replacement behavior to reduce yelling. Fixing the problem that led to the yelling is your problem - use "I statements" just don't yell.
As a parent, basically I read this book and felt really awful and discouraged about my son's school and the education he is receiving. I felt frustrated to begin with, but reading about Lavoie's school demonstrated the lengths to which a school can go to include and educate the whole LD child. Since I cannot afford a private LD-centered school, I have no idea what to do with that information - I cannot exactly write into my son's IEP - "Ms. XYZ will praise in public and criticize in private" - it's just not realistic, and as a parent (even one carrying credentials of my very own), I just get very little respect from the district without threatening to sue (and that's not exactly respect or the relationship I seek). So, applying Lavoie's principles in a resistant school is impossible as a parent.
The writing itself is sound. The book could be dry and dense, but instead it is dense and interesting. It is a bit preachy, but he has the experience to justify that. One side note that really bothered me is that he uses far too many examples and analogies. I really only need 1, 3 is just obnoxious. It seems he has writing for people that are slow to understand or accept his point, possibly people like my son's teachers and administrators. Certainly teachers who belittle, demean, and see the LD as a reason to write a child off would have the most to gain from this book. Unfortunately, I doubt they are the audience who are actually purchasing and reading the book. My guess is people who read it probably are already two thirds the way to believing and adopting his philosophy, and for these people very little new information is offered, hence it's average but not superb. To be excellent, he would have needed to address some functional goals of the book and the appropriate audience(e.g. towards rehabilitating schools and/or teachers), streamline the text (cutting out superfluous analogies), adding more detailed research and citations in, and discussion of how to implement into a school as a parent or administrator.
For parents reading this with a child with any disability, I highly urge you to consider reading The Complete IEP Guide: How to Advocate for Your Special Ed Child and using NOLO's advocacy information to try and insert some of Lavoie's principles into your child's IEP. These can be done by asking for a behavior plan or study skills as a target area.
 better for parents than for teachers November 9, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I happen to be a special ed teacher, unlike the author of this book, however, I don't claim to know everything. At least this author has 30 years teaching experience, unlike many with two-five years experience who are deemed superior, and suddenly become philosophers, instructing the rest of us how to do things. The advice here for teachers is a little callow with platitudes like "Provide a structured, predictable environment" and "Give simple, single-step instructions." This is by far not the best book of its sort; certainly not comparable to Fred Jones' "Tools For Teaching." The author's advice for parents is probably far more helpful to them than his advice for teachers is for teachers. All considered, I would advise teachers to save their money for a better book.
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