Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

This book is mostly composed of inspiring stories of people (including the author) who have overcome various learning and cognitive disabilities using techniques developed by the author. Most chapters begin with a detailed and heart-wrenching description of the person's problem and how it made their life an abject misery, followed by a brief description of the dramatic improvement brought about by the author's remedial methods. The main problem with this book is that it contains virtually no specific information about these methods. When they are even discussed - and in most examples they are not described at all - it is in a vague, generalized and very, very brief way. All the discussion of actual remedial techniques in the entire book could easily fit on one page. Typically, after many pages of recounting the subject's terrible problems, there will be a passage like this (quoted from the book): "Much has changed for Nathanial. Two years of cognitive exercise to address the artifactual thinking deficit have induced a remarkable change in Nathaniel himself and the family dynamic." Unfortunately, just what those two years of cognitive exercise actually involved is not explained. There is no discussion of the scientific methods used to assess progress (especially with reference to a control group), or the process by which the author's training techniques (whatever they are - who knows?) are developed, tested, refined or rejected. It seems unlikely that this omission of key facts from the book was a simple oversight. Presumably this information gap is designed to encourage people to pay for training or treatment provided by the business associated with the author. Whatever the reason, it means that many readers will have tired of the soppy, over-emotional anecdotes and lack of hard information well before the half-way mark of the book. So to sum up: If you want to be inspired with stories of successful treatment for various cognitive and learning disabilities, then you will enjoy this book immensely. If you want to know anything at all about that treatment, forget it - this book will be an absolute waste of time and money and you will regret buying it. I'm giving it two stars just because it is helping to alert people to the fact that there are solutions to these problems aside from just learning to live with them. But I'm not giving it any more than that because it contains no useful information about those solutions.