The Dynamics to Speak with Care: Attending Support and Understanding, The Magnetic Words to Assist Others

Eladio Pasqual, Ph.D.
Outskirts Press (2010)
ISBN 9781432751777
Reviewed by Christine Watson for Reader Views (12/10)

 

If you are looking for concise advice on how to talk to teenaged students, this is a good book for you.  Each brief chapter offers suggestions for creating meaningful communication with often hard-to-reach students.  Dr. Pasqual gives many sample dialogues between a teacher and student. 

In my opinion, this book starts slowly, but there are some nuggets inside.  Several of the early chapters are choppy with short sentences that didn’t flow, and I found them frustrating to read.  Many other chapters gave good advice for better communication.   Chapter 6 on responding gives a full page of responses that hinder good communication, which I found to be helpful.  The chapters on Expressions and Feelings clearly explain “I” messages to help students articulate their feelings, which is a difficult skill. 

The last few chapters get into more complex issues such as suicide and abuse.  I found these chapters to be over-simplified.  While Dr. Pasqual advises getting the police and psychologist involved, I think these chapters could use more depth for such serious topics.

Overall, “The Dynamics to Speak with Care” has good suggestions for improving communication with students.  I plan to implement some of Dr. Pasqual’s ideas with my own students.

Make comment on weblog

FTC Disclosure