Tips for Academic Writing [Premium]

Here are tips for academic writing from dyslexic grad students and university tutors.     1. REGULAR TIME FOR WRITING Plan regular times for research and writing. Schedule breaks, transitions, and catch-up periods. Unplug from email and social media and tell people not to interrupt you.   2. USE PRE-WRITING STRATEGIES Use key words or mind mapping to get information down on paper without using full sentences. Tell someone about the topic or record yourself talking about what you plan to do or use speech to text dictation in your phone to jot down notes in Notability or another app of your choice.   3. USE PROMPTS TO STRUCTURE Simplify your question prompts or use a template (who, what, when where, why, how; statement, evidence, […]

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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, […]

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Mind Wandering, Reading, and Dyslexia

“My mind is very visual: I can see anything in pictures, and I always visualize things. I can’t help it. It’s how I’m wired. So whatever you talk about, I’ll see pictures in my head. Very vivid, colorful, lifelike pictures. They aren’t still pictures. I can make them move. Reality, fiction, whatever. I really have to pull it back in to get focused. It was also a problem in the classroom because I’d sit there and imagine where I’d want to be, and what I’d want to do, and what I wanted to become, and I’d think happy thoughts, and I’d just be tuned out the whole time in class.” – Dyslexic CEO Glenn Bailey   Does this sound like you or does this not […]

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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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Best Writing Apps [Premium]

We’ve talked a bit about speech to text for writing, but over time, many dyslexic students may prefer to write by typing or by hand. Technology can help dyslexic writers in many different ways, depending on their needs.     For young children with little or no eideitic (snapshot picture) memory for letters may benefit by an alphabet strip pasted inconspicuously in a folder or perhaps on a bulletin board. Students who are able to write by hand, but write very little because they’re uncertain of how to spell words, benefit tremendously by apps like Easy Spelling Aid which will find the spelling of words by speaking into the microphone. It also translate words. Check out these apps! Click on photos to access their sites. […]

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Dyslexic Talents in STEM: Chemistry [Premium]

“Through most of high school, I hated math and science. It wasn’t until my senior year when I took AP statistics and AP chemistry that I discovered that I enjoyed solving challenging analytical problems. After I graduate in May, I plan to pursue a graduate degree in Electrical Engineering.” – Leah Harper   Although chemistry may present dyslexic students with challenges, once the initial difficulty of notation and the periodic chart are mastered, the spatial and analytical aspects of chemistry can become life-long endeavors. In a video (that’s now unavailable on YouTube), Dr. Blake Charlton talked about how he discovered the narrative intelligence associated with dyslexia and how he used it to help him learn the periodic chart. Instead of memorizing columns of elements by […]

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Managing Information with Concept Maps [Premium]

Although many people may use the terms “concept map” and “mind map” interchangeably, mind maps tend to be simpler, relating information to a central topic, whereas concept maps seek to cover more complex subjects, relating different parts to each other. Concept maps can be used to simplify material because different information can be grouped together and in the making of the map it can be easier to see how new knowledge builds on old. The process of making a concept map also transforms learning into an active process and students who are strong personal and experiential learners may remember the process better than reading through notes again and again. For students who say that they get lost in class, doing a concept map can help […]

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Hands-on Math and Games with Ronit Bird [Premium]

Recently, I discovered the math activities of Ronit Bird.   Ronit Bird is the author of several books about Dyscalculia. She has helpful tips for parents and teachers about concrete manipulatives and building up a sense of number through activities more than worksheets. I confess, I wish I had had this more when I was a kid. The tricky thing about math and activities even if you’re home schooling or home-enriching is that students who are weak in an area will often not want to do it, even if it’s something that would be beneficial for them to do. In our family, we had one child who was very, very good at all types of speed-based computer games, and another who was decidedly not good […]

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Cognitive Overload [Premium]

Here is a nice overview of cognitive load theory – the only downside is due to some ads, but that’s YouTube for you.   Everyone is susceptible to cognitive overload, but overload increases with stress (pandemic anyone?), younger age, and dyslexia. Some people have small working memory capacities which may make them more prone to cognitive overload. As a group, dyslexics tend to be more susceptible to cognitive overload, meaning that they are more dependent on how information is taught.     If you’re dyslexic yourself, it’s good to periodically do a productivity check. If you’re a college student, chances are you already know what it means to have memory overload. Students can prepare for tough subjects by reviewing in advance (finding a relevant video […]

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Education Where Things Are Now & Looking Ahead To Fall Semester [Premium]

As expected, many students have experienced learning loss because of school changes related to the pandemic. As new cases fall and immunizations rise, school plans begin to take shape.   Although some educational reports have tried to take a rosy picture of the pandemic’s effect on education, learning loss appears to be worldwide with the widest losses among lower socioeconomic groups, Blacks and Hispanics, and students with disabilities.     The research firm McKinsey & Company found that learning loss during the pandemic average 6.8 months for K-12 students. In order to make up for losses, the report recommended at minimum 50 hours of targeted instruction over a two week period. Many states put waivers on dyslexia screening, teacher training, and intervention requirements due to […]

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Tech Executive Justin Johnson [Premium]

“One of the things I love about startups is I get to engage the strategic thinking part of my brain across a broad set of things…”   John Edgar introduced me to Justin from Macrometa and he shared his career and dyslexia story with me: “What I do now is, I work in a very early stage startup. So I do a lot of different things. Part of it’s visual, I manage user experience. With UX UI, or Developer Console, our company is kind of like cloud computing, like Amazon Web Services. We just have a little different play on it, where we do a lot of similar things to what Amazon does, we just do it all distributed across multiple locations, and we manage […]

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