Smart But Scattered: The Revolutionary Executive Skills Approach to Helping Kids Reach Their Potential

All kids occasionally space out, get sidetracked, run out of time, or explode in frustration/m-/but some do it much more often than others. If you have a ＂smart but scattered＂ child, take heart. This encouraging guide is grounded in research on the crucial brain-based skills that 4- to 13-year-olds need to get organized, stay focused, and control their impulses and emotions. The expert authors guide you to identify your child’s executive strengths and weaknesses, boost skills that are lacking, fix everyday routines that don’t work, and reduce [ital]everyone’s[/ital] stress. Including new research, new and updated vignettes, and ＂A Good Place to Start＂ suggestions for each skill, the revised and updated second edition features a new chapter on technology and a greatly expanded school chapter. Helpful practical tools can be downloaded and printed.

See also the authors’ Smart but Scattered Teens, Smart but Scattered--and Stalled (with a focus on emerging adults), and The Smart but Scattered Guide to Success (with a focus on adults).

Peg Dawson, EdD, is a psychologist who provides professional development training on executive skills for schools and organizations nationally and internationally. She was previously on the staff of the Center for Learning and Attention Disorders at Seacoast Mental Health Center in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Dr. Dawson is a past president of the New Hampshire Association of School Psychologists, the National Association of School Psychologists (NASP), and the International School Psychology Association, and a recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award from NASP. She is coauthor of bestselling books for general readers, including Smart but Scattered, Second Edition; Smart but Scattered Teens; Smart but Scattered--and Stalled (with a focus on emerging adults); and The Smart but Scattered Guide to Success (with a focus on adults). Dr. Dawson is also coauthor of The Work-Smart Academic Planner, Revised Edition, and books for professionals including Executive Skills in Children and Adolescents, Third Edition.

Richard Guare, PhD, BCBA-D, is a neuropsychologist and board-certified behavior analyst who frequently consults to schools and agencies on attention and executive skills difficulties. He is former Director of the Center for Learning and Attention Disorders at Seacoast Mental Health Center in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Dr. Guare is coauthor of bestselling books for general readers, including Smart but Scattered, Second Edition; Smart but Scattered Teens; Smart but Scattered--and Stalled (with a focus on emerging adults); and The Smart but Scattered Guide to Success (with a focus on adults) He is also coauthor of The Work-Smart Academic Planner, Revised Edition, and books for professionals including Executive Skills in Children and Adolescents, Third Edition.

Colin Guare MS, BCBA, is a Rhode Island-based behavior analyst and writer. He is coauthor of bestselling books for general readers, including Smart but Scattered, Second Edition; Smart but Scattered Teens; and Smart but Scattered--and Stalled (with a focus on emerging adults). Mr. Guare currently works with schools, organizations, parents, and kids of all ages. He has a special interest in motivation and behavior change, and has worked on several projects developing new techniques to help adults seek and achieve their long-term career and personal goals.