Summary: A child prodigy usually displays high intelligence very early in life. But what makes such a child exceptional? Is it simply his or her IQ, or are other, less definable factors involved? This program enters the lives of several child prodigies, documenting their early growth and development as well as their family lives. Three-year-old Mikhail is the youngest-ever member of Mensa, able to...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
View online at AVOD
Summary: One in 25 people are dyslexic, but the teenagers involved in making this program would say that 24 out of 25 people miss out on dyslexia. This program approaches dyslexia from a new angle, exploring how the so-called disability might prove an advantage in an increasingly image-based world. Educational experts from America and England discuss aptitudes of dyslexics, while video diaries show how...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: Often viewed as a weakness, dyslexia actually means that a person processes information differently, and many with the disorder have learned to see it as a strength. This program illustrates the challenges faced by Amanda, Carmen, and Gio-three young people living with dyslexia-through personal interviews with them and those close to them. Viewers are guided into their unique and often...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
View online at AVOD
Summary: Reudiger Gamm performs complex arithmetic instantly and without help-his brain stores numbers like a calculator. Orlando Sorrel remembers exactly what he was doing on any date, at any hour, and can accurately predict the day of the week thousands of years in the future. Kim Peek-the original "Rain Man"-has read 12,000 books and hasn't forgotten a single word. What lies behind these astonishing...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: Communication is at the core of the human experience, even though effective communication takes a lifetime to learn. This program explores how we develop the arts of speech and physical expression to make ourselves understood and to understand others. Visiting a group of 25 three-year-olds, the film observes them learning as many as ten new words a day-some already grasping the first 1,500...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
View online at AVOD
Summary: The pressures of high-flying scholarship mixed with churning hormones can prove overwhelming to young geniuses. This program catches up with several child prodigies as they become teenagers, examining the forces, both positive and negative, shaping their development. Aimee's star is rising, including a win at a high-profile music competition, but her relationship with her parents is undergoing...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
View online at AVOD
Summary: Whether it's English, Spanish, Chinese, or Urdu, babies and young children are able to pick up their native language with remarkable ease; no one language seems any more difficult than any other. Yet few children who are taught a language in school have anything to show for it when they grow up. Why is learning a second or third language so difficult? Are the teaching methods at fault? Enough...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
View online at AVOD
Summary: This program describes and demonstrates specific examples of instructional conversation and other types of cognitive coaching; identifies instructional arrangements that are used to promote active learning by students; models questioning techniques and student interactions, including the ways in which cognitive coaches keep student discussion focused and productive; and considers the role that...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
View online at AVOD
Summary: In her youth, Barbara Arrowsmith struggled with a severe learning dysfunction-until she designed a self-improvement regimen aimed at strengthening areas of her brain. This film profiles Arrowsmith, takes viewers inside the school she founded, and follows the progress of four cognitively challenged students enrolled there. Psychology and special education experts articulate diverging opinions of...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
View online at AVOD
Summary: Social context, intonation, and body language add a vital layer of meaning to the spoken or signed word-a layer that can manifest only in conversation. In this program, Dr. Jonathan Miller addresses the subject of group talk, offering his observations on topics including the concept of "speech acts" a la Austin, Wittgenstein, and Searle; the implicit mechanics of verbal give-and-take; and the...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: Eager for knowledge, a child is by nature curious about everything. Why, then, is school such an unpleasant place for some children? In this program, teachers, researchers, a psychoanalyst, a neurologist, a neurobiologist, a psychomotor specialist, and others examine the process of learning and the classroom as a learning center. Mastery of reading and writing-the key to unlocking all forms of...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: When leaving no child behind amounts to holding many children back, parents and politicians raise their eyebrows. This ABC News program seeks to understand the ramifications of high-stakes advancement and exit exams-tests that are being used to measure schools' effectiveness, to allocate funding, and to shape the future of the nation's children. The dilemma of how to cope with students...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2011
View online at AVOD
Summary: How could a child be a top math student yet not be able to read? Why can another child read well but not be able to write a paragraph that makes sense? While watching children being taught new ways to learn, this program offers expert insight into the nature of learning disabilities, why learning disabilities may also be accompanied by ADHD or social disorders, and what can be done to help...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: Extremely gifted children are the envy of many parents-but no childhood, least of all that of the young prodigy, is without stress and frustration. This program visits several such children in the midst of lightning-quick development and progress toward puberty. Peter, at 11, is a chess champion. Adam, now eight and a half, is heading off to a prestigious boarding school, while math wonder...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
View online at AVOD
Summary: Mute until the age of nine, Stephen Wiltshire learned to communicate through realistic, richly detailed drawings. Alonzo Clemens sculpts clay animal figures with great precision, even though he can barely form a sentence. Matt Savage faced extraordinary developmental problems as a child but has become a teen prodigy among jazz musicians. What is the relationship between creativity and autistic...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: How do multiple intelligences and different thinking styles relate to traditional IQ scores? What role should teacher creativity and the family play in shaping student intelligence? In this interview by Phillip Harris, of Phi Delta Kappa, Robert Sternberg-IBM Professor of Psychology and Education at Yale University-answers questions about the IQ-based "single trait notion of intelligence"; the...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: The emphasis in this program is on the development of language in babies and young children. The program follows this development from the first cry of an infant in the delivery room through that of a seven-year-old, when language development is almost complete. The program features babies and children attempting to communicate, from crying and babbling to making grammatical errors to speaking...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: Approximately 70,000 years ago, humankind began talking, and hasn't stopped since. In this fascinating program, a diverse group of experts-an evolutionary linguist, a neurologist, a geneticist, a neuropsychologist, a developmental cognitive neuroscientist, and an Oxford professor of communication-discuss the birth, development, and transmission of the mysterious phenomenon called language....
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: Dyslexia, a learning disability that affects oral and written language, often masks the presence of a gifted mind. People with dyslexia learn differently. This program from The Doctor Is In explores that cognitive difference by examining how dyslexic students learn, and how new teaching techniques are helping them succeed in school. These teaching approaches are explored at the Washington Lab...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: According to education statistics across North America, boys now perform poorly compared with girls-and with boys of previous generations. What is causing this trend? What can be done to help both genders succeed? This program presents insights from experts in child development-including Dr. William Pollack, Harvard clinical psychologist and author of Real Boys, and Jean-Claude St. Amant,...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
View online at AVOD
Summary: Why do some children give up on problems easily while others persevere? What makes a boy or girl afraid to try in the first place? This program studies the factors that help create a resilient personality and the reasons why some children back down from challenges. Visiting a group of 25 seven-year-olds, the film observes them with their parents and on their own as they undertake practical...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008