Meet Carol Kranowitz and Joye Newman Authors of Growing an In-Sync Child

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 On Feb 14th we have more than Valentine’s Day to be happy about. The Coffee Klatch tweetchat at 9am EST features Carol Kranowitz and Joye Newman authors of Growing an In-Sync Child: Simple, Fun Activities to Help Every Child Develop, Learn, and Grow. Join us to learn and share how early childhood motor development is the foundation for a child’s physical, emotional, and academic success. Discuss how even skipping, rolling, balancing and jumping can make a world of difference for our children.

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Countless special needs parents, educators, therapists, and of course kids have been touched by Kranowitz’s successful book The Out-of-Sync Child : Recognizing and Coping with Sensory Processing Disorder. This reader-friendly book that makes SPD understandable to parents and teachers was published in 1998, revised in 2005, translated into a dozen languages and has over 600,000 copies sold.

Terri Mauro's Review

The sequel, The Out-of-Sync Child Has Fun: Activities for Kids with SPD, was published in 2003 and revised in 2006. It has sold more than 200,000 copies. In her other books and DVDs and in national and international workshops, Carol explains to parents, educators, and other professionals how sensory issues play out and suggests enjoyable strategies for addressing them at home and school.

In Growing an In-Sync Child, the authors, both Bethesda, Maryland residents, show how simple movement in their “In-Sync Program” of 60 adaptable, easy and fun activities will enhance a child’s development, in just minutes a day. Kranowitz and Newman demonstrate that children at any age and stage, not just special needs kids, can benefit from time to explore, play, engage in lots of physical activity and do things for themselves and they will get the basic skills they will need.

“We have cut out the things that are important for development that everyone used to have: the play, the work, the chores," said Kranowitz, who taught music, movement and drama to preschoolers for 25 years. "We use this darn video to teach a kid how to count, and play dates where the children come together and they sit and play video games. Living in a 2D world doesn’t exercise the muscles and brain centers needed to learn to live in a 3D world.”

Meet Carol Kranowitz, MA

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Carol was a teacher at St. Columba’s Nursery School in Washington, DC for 25 years. In the 1980s, Carol and an occupational therapist began screening preschoolers for Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD), a common developmental problem causing difficulty in interpreting and using sensory. They guided children with probable SPD into occupational therapy, the primary treatment for this disorder.

They steered other children with perceptual motor problems (and possible SPD) into purposeful physical activities, best found at organizations such as Joye Newman’s Kids Moving Company. Joye and Carol met and have been buddies ever since.

In 1995, Carol earned her master’s degree in Education and Human Development at The George Washington University. She created a course of study about her special interest in sensory processing and turned her thesis into her book, “The Out-of-Sync Child: Recognizing and Coping with Sensory Processing Disorder”

Carol is Editor-in-Chief of “S.I. Focus” magazine and a board member of SPD Foundation. Her website is www.out-of-sync-child.com

Meet Joye Newman, MA

Joye is a perceptual motor therapist. Perceptual Motor Therapy (PMT) helps children, and also adults, to develop and enhance basic movement and learning abilities. Integrating studies in behavioral optometry, occupational therapy, and psychology into her graduate work, she developed her unique method of PMT.

 Recently, Joye closed her Kids Moving Company studio to focus on in-school programs, individual evaluations, and consultations with parents to help them understand how they can help their children become more confident and competent in everything they do.

Joye lectures on school readiness, creative movement, and perceptual motor development, and she consults to area preschools, helping them develop and refine their movement programs. Her website is www.kidsmovingco.com

Books mentioned in this post are available here: http://www.fhsensory.com/carolkranowitz.html

The Coffee Klatch Tweetchat:

Parents, if you want to know what an in-sync child looks like, and if your child is a bit behind, how to help him/her catch up, click to The Coffee Klatch tweetchat Feb.14th at 9 am EST Chat Room: http://tweetchat.com/room/tck

Related Posts:
*The Goodenoughs Get in Sync ~New Edition~ 5 Family Members Overcome their Special Sensory Issues by Carole Kranowitz

*2010 Book of the Year Award by Creative Child Magazine ~ Winner, Runners-Ups and Procedure

The Goodenoughs Get in Sync ~New Edition~ 5 Family Members Overcome their Special Sensory Issues

Turn the pages of this 6 chapter book and shadow the Goodenough family for one, harrowing day where the five family members deal with a different form of sensory processing disorder. Their solutions to overcoming the challenges of SPD will help families coping with SPD function in a “good-enough way” and learn how to get in sync also.

Best-selling author of The Out-of-Sync Child and The Out-of-Sync Child Has Fun, Carol KRANOWITZ, came out with the first edition in 2004. Since March of 2010, we can enjoy her revised edition with a new preface and revised introductory chapter to help people understand SPD even more clearly.

Her first edition, was the winner of an i-Parenting Media Award and was a Finalist for ForeWord Magazine's 2005 Book of the Year for juvenile non-fiction.

This 96 page book is actually two books in one. Younger children read the larger print and find an amusing account of a family that any child with sensory issues can relate to. Read the small print and find a wealth of information that meshes with the story about how sensory processing disorder can affect people in different ways.

Carol KRANOWITZ earned an M.A. in Education and Human Development from George Washington University in Washington, DC. With a 25 year background as a preschool music and movement teacher, she knows how to present these issues so children can easily understand. Being a mother of 2 and a grandmother of 4 probably helped also.

The story flows along as if the characters are just speaking to a friend. This is a quote from the large print. Darwin, with sensory over-responsivity says: “…out-of-syc feels like to me. I don’t like when someone nudges me or touches my hair. I’m choosy about clothes and food. My stomach gets upset when I move fast…”

The small print weaves in with the main story and is still in simple and clear sentences: “At school, Miss Morrison helps me with speech. She is a speech therapist. I have auditory distrim…I mean, auditory discrimination disorder. That means I don’t process sounds very well. I don’t always hear differences in sounds.”

Throughout the book, the author proves she is very knowledgeable about her topic. KRANOWITZ, for almost 20 years, has been writing and speaking about SPD and how this developmental problem interferes with children's ability to function smoothly in daily life. A sensory seeker herself, she is also an internationally renowned speaker and frequently presents for Sensory World.

The 37 pages added at the end of the story have a wealth of practical, immediately useful information for parents of children with SPD. Three appendices have to do with Sensory Diet Activities, how SPD affects different individuals and fun and functional techniques for helping kids at home and school. A list of equipment for the sensory diet and even the catalogue companies that provide the suggested equipment is included. Pages of helpful web sites end the book.

Guidance on the pronunciation of difficult words is given immediately after the word. Definitions of Sensory Processing Disorder terms and new words are in bold type and are found in a 7 page alphabetize glossary and index. This added feature makes this a handy research book that can have a place next to your dictionary on the book shelf.

T.J. Wylie, the illustrator, brings the 5 family members and their naughty dog to life. The use of charts, colors, color coded tabs and cartoon looking characters make this book one that children and parents would often want to read and consult.

This book belongs on book shelves at home, at school, a public library, in health professional offices and surely in every hand of a child with sensory processing disorder.

What resources have you found that have helped your family cope with special needs issues?

The Goodenoughs Get in Sync ~New Edition~ 5 Family Members Overcome their Special Sensory  Future Horizons Inc.  http://www.sensoryworld.com/childrensbooks.html
ISBN: 978-1-932565-88-1
US $14.95

Related posts:
*Meet Carol Kranowitz and Joye Newman Authors of Growing an In-Sync Child
*2010 Book of the Year Award by Creative Child Magazine ~ Winner, Runners-Ups and Procedure


*Picky, Picky Pete ~ A Boy and His Sensory Challenges Written by Michele Griffin and published by Future Horizons. Review here

*Sensitive Sam ~ Sam’s Sensory Adventure Has a Happy Ending! Written by Marla Roth-Fisch and published by Future Horizons. Review here

*Special People, Special Ways ~ Each page portrays positive images of children with various disabilities Written by Arlene Maguire and published by Future Horizons. About here