“I’ve found that a single screen feels very restrictive to me. I normally have three screens since I jump between tasks a lot. Many neurodiverse people like myself find it difficult to stay focused on one thing for very long. Having my work “scattered” around on different screens feels sort of like having papers all […]
Dyslexia and Accelerated Reader [Premium]
Accelerated Reader (AR) is a popular computer-based reading program. It does not remediate students with dyslexia. It just offers books at different levels and nudges students to an “appropriate level of challenge,” in addition to offering comprehension tests to check understanding and quantitative information for parents and teachers in the process. The promises of AR […]
Lip Reading and Dyslexia [Premium]
There is a long and diverse research history of dyslexia and documenting the auditory processing difficulties associated with dyslexia that hinder phonological awareness. It’s why dyslexic kids will struggle in school when everyone is required to wear a mask. The sounds are muffled, but also if the teacher is masked, then students cannot look at […]
Auditory Processing and Remote and Hybrid Learning
"Children with dyslexia often exhibit increased variability in sensory and cognitive aspects of hearing relative to typically developing peers." - Hornickel et al., 2012 PNAS There is a long research history establishing auditory processing difficulties among...
My Pandemic Hack for Classes
Shelley Wear, a long-time volunteer on our Dyslexic Advantage editorial team shared these pandemic hacks for her classroom. Thanks Shelley! "The struggle is real to make sure students understand what you are saying with a mask on. I purchased a personal amplifier...
Dyslexia Advocacy: Say Dyslexia 2.0
From Chalkbeat's story, "NYC plans to screen nearly 200,000 students in the early grades to uncover struggling readers. Then what?" "In a massive bid to gauge reading skills following COVID-related learning disruptions, New York City’s education department is...
I Never Thought I’d Be Homeschooling… [Premium]
We never thought we would be homeschooling when we started almost 2 decades ago. What our family can say today, is that looking back, we’re so grateful for our entire homeschooling journey – even though initially homeschooling chose us rather than the other way around. Today there are so many reasons to homeschool […]
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) […]
Quick or Slow Remediation? [Premium]
The learning challenges of dyslexia can be very mild or quite severe, but the severity of challenges are not the sole determination of whether remediation will be quick or slow. Once we visited an elite private school for dyslexia on the East Coast. Their aim to get students through their program in 2 years, in […]
Dyslexia at College: Chat With Xinru at Brown [Premium]
Recently I had the pleasure of talking to Xinru about dyslexia, college, and computer languages. Xinru’s currently studying both music and computer sciences at Brown University, an Ivy League university that is known for its “Open Curriculum” – that allows students to choose their personal course of study. But briefly, I found her when she […]
Surviving and Thriving in Hybrid Classrooms
With the rise in vaccinations, many schools have opened with a hybrid schedule which has some pros and cons for dyslexic students. ONLINE ASSIGNMENTS - GROUP PARTICIPATION and AUDIO The reduction in written assignments since of the start of the pandemic has...
Processing Speed and Dyslexia [Premium]
“I’m still slow at reading but I’ve learned to adjust…while you will have dyslexia for the rest of your life, you can dart between the raindrops to get where you want to go. It will not hold you back.” – Steven Spielberg WHAT IS PROCESSING SPEED? Processing speed generally refers to the speed required to […]