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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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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Preparing with Templates and Posters [Premium]

Preparing with Templates and Posters [Premium]

When interviewing accomplished people of all sorts who are also dyslexic, there are some recurring themes – and one is, “I learned how to do the ‘dyslexic thing,’ you know, overprepare.”     In some cases that means committing more hours to something – whether it was oral presentation or final project or job rotation. But often, it’s not just extra time spent; it’s also learning how to streamline certain repetitive features along the lines of “plan better” and not just “work more.” I was recently reminded of this when a social worker posted her work hacks for school and for work. One example is creating a template for her case notes:   The template streamlines repetitive information that needs to be covered and reduces […]

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Learning Irregular Words: Activities and Games [Premium]

Learning Irregular Words: Activities and Games [Premium]

Irregular words don’t fit the standard sounding out convention, but because they can occur commonly in text, they need additional practice to be recognized quickly.   How do you help students practice, but not be guilty of “drill and kill”? Rote memorization is also difficult for many dyslexic students so that not only is repetition inefficient, it often introduces unwanted errors. Having a toolkit of games and various activities to change up the learning practice can make the session fly by and you may be surprised how much better the information is remembered later. In the videos below, check out low tech ways to change things up and make practice more fun and less drudgery.         Because there are so many spelling […]

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The Late Bloom [Premium]

The Late Bloom [Premium]

The cognitive profile associated with dyslexia is the quintessential “late blooming” profile. There can be a lot of stress and angst that comes with late blooming, but the good news is that the bloom is a gift when it arrives.     Here are some facts that are helpful to know about late blooming and dyslexia:   1. DYSLEXIC DEVELOPMENT AND READING: DELAYED AT FIRST, SPURTING AHEAD LATER In the figure below, look at the spurt in reading comprehension that takes place especially after the 4th grade. Between the 4th and 8th grade, the “poor decoders” (dyslexic readers with weak phonology) actually improved faster than typical readers. This improvement was very different from poor comprehenders (poor readers with more pervasive language difficulties) who hit a […]

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The Strength Switch [Premium]

The Strength Switch [Premium]

Lea Waters is a psychologist and author from Australia who has developed a helpful strategy to reframe and help common childhood challenges. She suggests 5 Questions to overcome a natural tendency to be negative.   Here are the 5 questions. 1. Is It Strength Overuse? 2. Is It Strength Underuse? 3. Is it the Flipside of a Strength? 4. Could It Be a Blocked Strength? 5. Could It Be Forced Overuse of a Weakness or a Learned Behavior?   #1. Is It Strength Overuse? Lea gives the example of her husband’s playfulness and humor. He could make his classmates laugh, but his playfulness and humor could also get him in trouble with teachers and other authority figures. From Lea: “A strength-based parent taking a child […]

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Music And Dyslexia:  Chat with Sally Daunt, Chair of the Music Committee of the BDA [Premium]

Music And Dyslexia: Chat with Sally Daunt, Chair of the Music Committee of the BDA [Premium]

Recently, I had a wonderful opportunity to chat with Sally Daunt, Chairwoman of the Music Committee of the British Dyslexia Association. We had been corresponding about dyslexia and choral groups and Sally had asked about how dyslexic strengths can manifest themselves in choral groups where singers had to fit into tightly controlled schedules of music, extensive sight reading, and music performances which could have limited opportunities for musical interpretation. From my discussion with Sally: “Many dyslexic musicians have difficulty with sight reading – and perhaps cathedral choirs might consider whether an absolute requirement is necessary in the audition process. Some who have difficulty with sight reading might be able to pick music up quite quickly having heard a version once. In theater companies, some accommodations […]

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Apps for Productivity and Organization [Premium]

Apps for Productivity and Organization [Premium]

How about apps for productivity and organization? Here are useful ones you can try.       ToDoist is a popular to do list that is integrated with email, IFTTT, Dropbox, and Slack. It is free – premium and available on iOS and Android.   For some people, free Google Calendar is sufficient. Just remember to set up your calendar notifications and Google Tasks (iOS and Android).   Just Press Record $4.99 iOS I use this app all the time to record – just a big red button and store audio recordings to the cloud. With a recent update, this app has also added free transcriptions. It’s not perfect (probably Otter.ai is more accurate, but it’s great to be free and definitely helps searching through […]

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