Teaching Math with Visual Models [Premium]

Teaching Math with Visual Models [Premium]

One way to teach to students’ strengths is to build on nonverbal reasoning and experimential – multisensory learning strengths in math. What does that mean? It means not being in a hurry to have students work through math problems before a strong foundational understanding and technical math meanings are established, and building on math reasoning before diving into math problem-solving involving symbols and technical language. Room to Discover has an excellent post on Visual Models. With five representations of mathematical ideas, why is there so much focus on verbal and symbolic work? The creator of Room to Discover also runs workshops and publishes manipulatives and other resources to his store. The Room to Discover site focuses on graphic representations – but a related site (Math […]

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Math Problems: Does It Matter If It’s Identified As A Math Disability? [Premium]

Math Problems: Does It Matter If It’s Identified As A Math Disability? [Premium]

There are millions of school children struggling with math at school. Does it matter if a student’s math struggles are identified formally as a math disability or dyscalculia? 40% of dyslexic people are likely to also have dyscalculia, but because dyscalculia is rarely assessed in schools, few individuals ever receive that designation. Does it matter? In the short term, some school professionals might say it does not matter much – because students who need help in math will get it if their scores qualify. What do we believe? Having a math LD formally identified can be helpful – although we realize that testing may not always be easily available. If you are a testing professional, consider adding the WIAT Math subtests to routine comprehensive battery […]

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Question: Third Grader with Severe Dysgraphia and Moderate Dyslexia [Premium]

Question: Third Grader with Severe Dysgraphia and Moderate Dyslexia [Premium]

Recently we received a question about severe dysgraphia and moderate dyslexia. The dilemma was how to prioritize limited resources for therapy (if any). There is a high overlap between dyslexia and dysgraphia, but severe handwriting  difficulties in the early grades often suggest dyspraxia (a disorder of fine and gross motor coordination) as well. The practical dilemma many parents and students face is that the amount of support that students receive for dyspraxia or dyslexia may be far below what they need; also intervention may take years – and health insurance may not cover any outside therapy whether it’s pediatric occupational therapy, speech therapy, or specialist dyslexia intervention. There is no simple answer. Decisions about priorities depend on the severity of each, but also on the […]

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Teen with Newly-Diagnosed Dysgraphia: Will It Get Better ? [Premium]

Teen with Newly-Diagnosed Dysgraphia: Will It Get Better ? [Premium]

Dysgraphia (writing disability) is commonly seen with dyslexia. It does improve over time and can be improved by different approaches and training depending on the source. Many aspects of dysgraphia remain lifelong, though, and it’s common for adults with dysgraphia to opt to use computers and assistive technology when they have to write extensively for work or pleasure. It’s important to identify dysgraphia whatever the age because students with dysgraphia often need accommodations for routine classroom assignments and classroom and standardized tests. Students will need one and a half to twice the time for tests as well as the option to test orally and reduce the quantity of work. Severely dysgraphic students may need to type with word prediction and word correction software or speech-to-text. […]

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Math Strategies Instead of Drill [Premium]

Math Strategies Instead of Drill [Premium]

In the many years Brock and I spent testing and listening to dyslexic students at every level of education, we often heard first hand accounts of how they learned how to tackle difficult subjects and bypass school-related challenges. As research studies bear out (for instance, see Kirby’s study of dyslexic university students), many dyslexic students in higher education have arrived at where they are because they are deep learners, savvy about how they learn best, and strategic in how they approach school.   Brain-Based Reasons Why Math Strategies Are Better for Dyslexics Than Drill But there is also neurobiological evidence that supports why strategies may be a superior route for dyslexic learning compared to drill or simple repetition. By now, anyone who knows about brain […]

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How Not to Learn to Read aka Death by Worksheets [Premium]

How Not to Learn to Read aka Death by Worksheets [Premium]

Daniel Shanahan recently recounted his discussion with a principal about his school curriculum. His students were under-performing and he assured Daniel that students were receiving plenty of instruction in phonics and fluency.   When he looked at the teacher’s curricular plan, it looked as if plenty of reading instruction was given every day, but his impression changed once he began visiting classes. Daniel: “Much of the instructional time wasn’t used for instruction at all. The teachers spent a big chunk of time on “sustained silent reading” and they read to the children quite a bit, too. All the classrooms had multiple reading groups. That meant that the boys and girls did a lot of worksheets to keep them quiet while the others were reading with […]

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Dyslexia and Dysgraphia: What Does Writing Look Like? [Premium]

Dyslexia and Dysgraphia: What Does Writing Look Like? [Premium]

What does the writing look like in students with dyslexia and dysgraphia?   IMPAIRED AUTOMATICITY, CAPITAL LETTER INTRUSIONS, and SPELLING ERRORS Students who struggle with handwriting automaticity show irregular shapes and sizes of letters. For example, look at the letter ‘e’ in the spelling test at right. They are very different from one another, showing that the student has not ‘automated’ writing of the letter ‘e’. The more variable the letters are, the more arduous to write anything by hand. Working memory is easily overloaded, and students may be exhausted after writing a few words. The spelling test also shows capital letter intrusions (capital ‘D’), likely to avoid confusing lower case ‘d’ with ‘b’, irregular spacing, and phonological as well as sight word errors. When […]

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White Noise Improves Reading Skills and Memory in Reading Disabilities [Premium]

White Noise Improves Reading Skills and Memory in Reading Disabilities [Premium]

Some of you may remember research in the past that showed that individuals with dyslexia have more difficulty screening out background noise (discussed in the news HERE). Students or adults with this difficulty can usually request quiet area for work or test-taking under the ADA or Americans for Disabilities Act.   Now another research group has tested the effect of “white noise” on reading skills and memory recall in children with a reading disability.   From the paper: “The study was conducted with a group of 30 children with RD and phonological decoding difficulties and two comparison groups: one consisting of skilled readers (n = 22) and another of children with mild orthographic reading problems and age adequate phonological decoding (n = 30). White noise […]

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What Kind of Dysgraphia [Premium]

What Kind of Dysgraphia [Premium]

A recent clinical review of dysgraphia has defined dysgraphia in the following way: “At its broadest definition, dysgraphia is a disorder of writing ability at any stage, including problems with letter formation/legibility, letter spacing, spelling, fine motor coordination, rate of writing, grammar, and composition.”   Developmental dysgraphia (i.e. dysgraphia not based on some known injury) is described in the same article as having a “difficulty in acquiring writing skills despite sufficient learning opportunity and cognitive potential.” When a teacher or other professional asks a parent about “what type of dysgraphia their student might have,” they may be referring to the so-called “5 Types of Dysgraphia”, that often include, “motor”, “dyslexic”, “spatial”, and so on – but these distinctions are rarely clear-cut in real life and […]

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