This post is for all those great fathers who never lost sight of the young men or women their children could become. Here's a story from the past - some of the experiences will sound familiar: "Several of my uncles and aunts had tried to teach me to read, and because...
![A Home Run Hit with Humorous Poetry [Premium]](https://www.dyslexicadvantage.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/hum.jpg)
Education Prof Benita Bruster was invited to work with five 4th grade boys identified as struggling readers. When she asked them to suggest a favorite poet, the response was not unexpected “Poetry is dumb”, “Girls like poetry”, etc. When she asked about a favorite musician, she got a rousing response – but then she countered with, “I hate to break it to you, but you all like poetry…lyrics are just poems set to music.” Drawing on some cutting edge academic research (see Turn Your Boys to Readers on page 14), Benita predicted that boys would enjoy poems that were “silly, bizarre, gross, or absurd”. She chose her start with the poem, A Wild Turkey Comments on His Portrait. “Rather than passing out copies of the […]
![This is Your Brain on Words [Premium]](https://www.dyslexicadvantage.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Screen-Shot-2019-10-08-at-4.20.07-PM.jpg)
In breaking research from UC Berkeley, researchers have found a complicated filing system when it comes to how we process words that we hear. While listening to stories, individual words triggered tiny activation explosions all over the brain associated with word associations – “Words were grouped under various headings: visual, tactile, numeric, locational, abstract, temporal, professional, violent, communal, mental, emotional and social.” So a well-working human brain responding to stories functions more like a wall filled with stickie notes rather than a linear filing cabinet? Which sounds more like the dyslexic way of wiring? Check out the video explanation below. The finding certainly points out the fallacy of viewing language in simple right-brain-left brain terms, but it does support the complexity of language and the right-left […]
