A Small Book of Kick-Arse Poetry

This book is written particularly for youngsters who have reading difficulties, low self-esteem and behavioural problems. ADHD, dyslexia, oppositional defiant disorder, rage attacks and other behavioural problems and learning disabilities - these have a tendency to hang out together. They are an endless source of frustration for the afflicted child or teen, as well as their family and teachers One needs to chip away at the various stressors while at the same time dealing with the real baddie of the learning disabilities - poor flexibility and frustration tolerance. Life for some families is a war zone of explosive outbursts, defensive retreats and counter-attacks. It's high stress. It's low on fun. One of the stressors is the inability to read well. Reading is pretty fundamental to all school pursuits, and poor reading skills handicap you in all subjects. This inability to progress in even the subjects you like clobbers your self-esteem, and opens you up to ridicule (and worse) from your peers. If you have poor frustration tolerance this will foster inappropriate, often destructive behaviour. This poetry was one small part of the solution to the reading-averse, hyper-frustrated behaviour bomb teen. It gives parents, grandparents and teachers a well-deserved chuckle too. In my experience, teens who are reading-averse choose books by the thickness of their spine, and a book that is thin seems safe and manageable. In prose an unfamiliar word will stop the reading-averse in their tracks, whereas in poetry the rhythm gets them past it, and allows them to figure out the meaning by the context. Furthermore poetry, like the lyrics of a song, is easily remembered, which embeds new vocabulary in one's memory. There is much research to show that illustrations reduce reading comprehension rather than improving it, so with this book the reader must formulate their own images. Lastly, the book is not just a bunch of silly rhymes - there are plenty of serious subjects for discussion, such as death, bullying, bed-wetting, ADHD, to name a few. It champions the inarticulate, un-sporty, easily frustrated, wonderful children who have so much to offer, if given half a chance.