Strengthening Executive Function Skills [Premium]

Strengthening Executive Function Skills [Premium]

“Reading isn’t the most challenging part of dyslexia. It’s the executive function…” Executive function consists of different sets of processes in the brain that act like executives in business. Executives supervise all the activities and resources – organizing and prioritizing activities, developing plans, and making sure actions are properly executed. CHALLENGES AMONG CHILDREN AND ADULTS Executive function challenges that are commonly reported among dyslexic children and adults include limitations in working memory, task monitoring, inhibitory control, set-shifting, and organization (read more here). What that pattern also often means is that learning and working efficiency is at its best when information and tasks can be processed in smaller bits, a system is developed for checking and double-checking work, non-distracting learning and work environments are essential, and […]

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Learning with Dr. Sara Renzulli [Premium]

Learning with Dr. Sara Renzulli [Premium]

“I was identified as dyslexic and having ADHD in the fifth grade. I struggled quite a bit academically…” — Sara Renzulli, PhD, Visiting Professor, U Conn     Recently I had the pleasure of talking to Dr. Sara Renzulli, a teacher in the Counselor Education department at the University of Connecticut, and daughter of illustrious educators, Drs. Joseph Renzulli and Sally Reis. I had discovered Sara’s interview at the 2E Newsletter and read some research publications of her work with college students. “My dyslexia made it extremely hard to learn how to read. I remember being so frustrated. If things were explained to me orally or read out loud to me, I understood what was going on. I just couldn’t decode words on my own […]

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The Writing Process From a University Tutor [Premium]

The Writing Process From a University Tutor [Premium]

I recently came across a helpful account from a university-based tutor who worked with a fellow college student at Reed. There are many points that are helpful to consider if you are working with a student in the area of writing. For some, writing is the most frustrating task they are likely to encounter in school. It is often the gateway to higher education and most common way their knowledge and ideas are assessed as they progress through education. The full article is HERE. She begins with a disclaimer, recognizing that she is “no expert,” but I think she is an expert of sorts, having worked through many difficult challenges with her student and helping him to reach a higher level of proficiency. “As my […]

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Executive Function: What Smart People Do Differently While Learning [Premium]

Executive Function: What Smart People Do Differently While Learning [Premium]

When researchers compared high IQ and average test subjects in a learning paradigm, the results were surprising. In some areas high IQ individuals work less, as might be expected by the idea that higher IQ people have more efficient brains for learning tasks, but in other areas, high IQ brains were working harder. When were high IQ brains working harder? Not prior or during the task, it seems, but when feedback was given and individuals were learning from their mistakes. From Graham et al. : “the Average IQ group failed to produce as much activation during feedback evaluation as did the High IQ group. These group differences are inconsistent with the neural efficiency hypothesis and instead suggest that the High IQ individuals were engaged in […]

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Breaking Research : Dyslexia in Adolescents and Adults [Premium]

Breaking Research : Dyslexia in Adolescents and Adults [Premium]

An important paper was published this month from the University of Washington, entitled “Evidence-Based Reading and Writing Assessment for Dyslexia in Adolescents and Young Adults.” The paper is especially important guiding testing professionals who assess teens and adults for dyslexia or see gifted or twice-exceptional students. This paper also takes a more systematic look at the roles of individual factors like working memory and executive function on dyslexia and reading and spelling performance. The data will be helpful in targeting educational interventions and can also guide requests for testing accommodations. There are interesting observations too in that paper that will help with characterizing the strengths that occur among adolescent and adult dyslexics, with implications for twice-exceptional or gifted students with dyslexia. In several areas, adolescent / adult […]

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Processing Speed & Writing [PREMIUM]

Processing Speed & Writing [PREMIUM]

Question: I know my son’s processing speed is slow from his testing, but how slow should his speed on something like writing take? My son has slow processing speed, dyslexia, dysgraphia, and a loose attention control system – but how long should it take him to write a 5 paragraph academic paper… after which the paper still needs revisions? It takes him hours to complete assignments.  This is a great question…but of course, the answer depends on a lot of individual factors regarding your student. When essay or paper writing takes so long, it’s good to try to troubleshoot ways to make the process quicker. If the delay occurs at the beginning, before any ‘writing’ occurs, then maybe he doesn’t have a template in which […]

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[PREMIUM] Gifted with ADHD: How We Asked for Extended Time & a Better Schedule

[PREMIUM] Gifted with ADHD: How We Asked for Extended Time & a Better Schedule

The road to advocacy has many twists and turns so if your student has moderate to severe difficulties with processing speed, be prepared to be nimble and responsive to challenges that arise. In our previous newsletter, we mentioned some of the advocacy that Laura and her son John took on his path as a 2E (gifted, dyslexic, dysgraphic, and ADD) high school student. Here are some additional problems that arose and ways Laura and John responded: PROBLEM: LOW GRADES WHEN DENIED ACCOMMODATIONS D’s in AP English Class (no accommodations for tests) although a strong score on the AP exam. Although John’s dyslexia has been identified since elementary school, the school suggested he no longer needed accommodations. SOLUTION: ACCOMMODATIONS Laura and John appealed the zeroes given […]

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Moving to learn:  The UPSIDE to Fidgeting [Premium]

Moving to learn: The UPSIDE to Fidgeting [Premium]

Researchers from Florida presented visually dramatic evidence of the difference in ADHD student hyperactivity dependng on the task at hand. 52 boys ages 8 to 12 were studied. 32 had ADHD and 30 served as controls. 44% of ADHD students had been prescribed stimulant medication, and these students had medicines held for at least 24 hours prior to the study. What you can see in the video is the dramatic difference in hyperactivity depending on whether the student was watching a mathematics instructional video or the pod racer scene from Star Wars. Perhaps not completely surprisingly, both ADHD and neurotypical boys showed better attention for the Star Wars video than the math instruction. Remember that ADHD is distinct from dyslexia and boys in general are […]

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Executive Function: DE-STRESS [PREMIUM]

Executive Function: DE-STRESS [PREMIUM]

Dyslexic children who are struggling in school will be under tremendous stress and have varying levels of anxiety and depression. Stress is well known to affect executive functions and children experiencing stress can look as if they have ADHD. – Destress the Learning Environment. Are expectations well matched to the student’s current ability? Is the workload appropriate? Are accommodations needed? – Is your student being heard and understood? Is your student able to express herself and her feelings? Putting thoughts and feelings into words can have a positive distancing and organizing effect for people under stress. Can your child problem-solve setbacks and disappointments? If not, she may need some help scaffolding her challenges and coming up with a plan. Is there a positive working relationship […]

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[PREMIUM] Latest Research: Dyslexia, Sequential Memory, and Seeing the Big Picture

[PREMIUM] Latest Research: Dyslexia, Sequential Memory, and Seeing the Big Picture

“My mind doesn’t work like a train track. It’s more like a web page with lots of hyperlinks.” – dyslexic honors college student. It’s refreshing to see that more researchers take an interest on dyslexia beyond reading. In this recent paper from Belgium and Missouri, the challenges of remembering sequential information  for dyslexics and non-dyslexics was reviewed. Both working memory and sequencing were examined. Working memory is a type of short-term memory necessary for keeping information ‘in mind.’ Sequencing is remembering the order that things are said. It’s activities such as this that that can make something like following classroom instructions or remembering computer passwords easy or hard. Several interesting observations were made from their review of the research literature: – Dyslexic children and adults tend […]

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