It's important to be aware that although many dyslexics have natural strengths in math reasoning and scientific thinking, these strengths may not be evident during K-12 education because of challenges with symbol confusion and polysemous or multiple meaning words in...
Dyslexia: The Changing Landscape of College Entrance Exams
FEWER COLLEGES REQUIRING STANDARDIZED TESTS If you or your students struggled with standardized tests, there is good news on college admissions as increasing numbers of schools no longer require tests for admission. This fall, over 80% of four-year colleges won't...
Public Education is General, Make Your Education Specialized [Premium]
I had been re-reading Taylor and Vestergaard’s Developmental Dyslexia: Disorder or Specialization in Exploration? and reading more of the background studies that led the authors to suggest that dyslexia was a cognitive specialization with evolutionary advantages. If that is the case, it seems more important than ever to specialize education to nurture abilities that build on how dyslexic minds are optimized. Successful human problem solving groups often exhibit different types of “intelligence” and the importance of explorers can be seen in many different types of problem solving groups. For instance, studies of groups addressing crises have shown that groups that insist on consensus may develop decision inertia or persist in using solutions that worked in the past although current crises involve new problems. The […]
What to Do This Summer?
Summertime tends to be a great time for dyslexic students. The grinding schoolwork routine is gone - and school, if at all, has fewer time commitments and less time in a seat. TAKE A BREAK First, especially if your student has had a difficult school year with heavy...
Managing Test Anxiety
It's that time of year again - either time for standardized tests or end of year exams. Test anxiety includes a variety of physical and emotional symptoms that include feelings of nervousness and hopelessness, fear, self-doubt, irritability, shortness of breath, rapid...
Q & A: Bilingual and Dyslexic [Premium]
Question: Our 9 year old son is bilingual and also dyslexic. We have decided to allow him to attend a bilingual school with his older sister for cultural and family reasons. Will this harm his educational development? The school seems supportive, but does not have teachers trained to remediate dyslexia. There are many reasons why families choose to raise their children with two or more languages, not the least being ties to two cultures and communicating with extended family members. As you may be aware, language learning can be very difficult for some dyslexic students, leading them to seek waivers for foreign language instruction. That being said, we have known many families over the years who have done just as you plan to do. The […]
Smooth Sailing into September
It's that time of year again when students have either started back or are beginning to start back to the school year and even old work routines. While some aspects of getting back to old routines are welcome, there are plenty of reasons why students, teachers, and...
The Language of Math [Premium]
“The meanings of words in general usage are often very different from their mathematical meanings.” — Marilyn Burns Educational leaders are becoming increasingly aware of the importance of teaching the language of math in order to raise understanding and performance. There can be extensive reading and writing demands associated with math learning and dyslexic students may be at particular disadvantages learning because they may have trouble reading word problems, dual tasking (listening while taking notes), and confusion with symbols. A paper by Riccomini and colleagues recalled some of the difficulties associated with learning the language of math: – Words that have different meanings in contexts (a foot = 12 inches vs. foot of the bed) – Homonyms (pie vs. pi) – Concepts that may be […]
New to Dyslexia [Premium]
More people are finding out that they’re dyslexic, so it seemed like a good time to write a big picture of dyslexia for new members. DYSLEXIC STRENGTHS First of all, there seem to be intrinsic strengths associated with dyslexia and not simply weaknesses or impairments. Understanding the strengths and positive differences can help people navigate through the most difficult periods of schooling and life. We discuss dyslexic MIND strengths in more detail in our book, The Dyslexic Advantage, but briefly, these strengths include reasoning through materials and physical experiences, reasoning through the interconnection of ideas and knowledge, storytelling, and reasoning through visualizations and mental simulations. Dyslexic learning may conflict with conventional classroom instruction because traditional teaching may emphasize passive learning and rote memorization over […]
Learning from Lockdown: Dyslexic Medical Students
"The learning experiences of dyslexic medical students during the COVID-19 pandemic: a phenomenological study. This study has explored the learning experiences of dyslexic medical students during the COVID-19 pandemic... Generally, it fostered a culture of...
Dyslexia and Your IEP
Endrew F. vs. Douglas County School District decision: "The IEP must aim to enable the child to make progress. After all, the essential function of an IEP is to set out a plan for pursuing academic and functional advancement... When all is said and done, a student...
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 […]