About MAP's Creators
I started MAP as a Father/Daughter project. I had been attending the CHADD (Children and Adults with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder) meetings for several years. The conferences were informative and gave specific suggestions how to organize students with or without disabilities. Some suggestions included color coding, using detailed calendars, and breaking down large projects into small steps. I also had my daughter, Lindsey, evaluated by many educators and experts, such as the faculty at the University of Illinois and University of Iowa. Everyone was excellent. However, I keep getting larger lists of “things to do.” This became overwhelming.
Bookstores and office stores did not contain any of the organizational tools which the experts recommended. Everywhere I looked, there were planners for adults and nothing for children, teenagers, or college students. This created even more frustration.
So I asked my daughter, “Let us take a look. Let’s see if we can put something together.” And so began our father-daughter project. Lindsey and I took the theory of experts and wrote them in a concrete and tangible form which can be used by anyone. However, we continued to get input and advice from teachers, special educators, psychologists, psychiatrists, parents, and so forth. A framework was created after much collaboration.
Searching for a publisher willing to tackle to complexity of MAP was a nightmare. Almost every publisher declined to accept the project. One challenge we encountered was printing the multicolored daily assignment pages. Not an easy task for a printer. And adding dividers became another dilemma. However, we finally found someone willing to accept the challenge. Many thanks!
After we created the prototypes, we wondered if others would have an interest. We took our prototypes to the national CHADD meeting in October of 2006. The response was unbelievable! On a scale from 1 to 10, it was almost an 11! In fact, we had one parent, who had just gotten out of a conference that covered organizational principles, say “I can’t believe it! This is everything that they talked about! Can we buy it?” We have had similar responses from pediatric psychiatrists, psychologists, educators, parents, counselors, and college students.
MAP – Homework solutions for students.
~ Alvin and Lindsey Weintraub
