Families can really make a difference. Many times, they are the last place to find encouragement or to help find a connection to the next opportunity in life. MARC'S UNCLE Marc shared with me that he grew up in a family that was poor with both parents working...
Math Strategies Instead of Drill [Premium]
In the many years Brock and I spent testing and listening to dyslexic students at every level of education, we often heard first hand accounts of how they learned how to tackle difficult subjects and bypass school-related challenges. As research studies bear out (for...
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...
Marlon Brando, Dyslexia, and Method Acting [Premium]
There's a new book out this year on method acting, and it mentions Marlon Brando, his mercurial temperament, his dyslexia, and his method acting. Apparently he had ambivalent feelings about taking one of the leading roles in A Streetcar Named Desire, and he was told...
Education During the Pandemic: Preparing for the Unpreparable [Premium]
As I am writing this, omicron cases have not reached their peak in the US, and calls for schools to close again because of the extreme contagiousness of this variant. How do parents, teachers, and tutors prepare for another unpredictable year? ONE STUDENT AT A...
Strength-based Thinking and Communication through Metaphor [Premium]
"Since dyslexics are visual learners and thinkers, I make sure to integrate that into how I work throughout the day. I always approach architecture decisions via white-boarding. I use metaphors when I explain things to other people or when I try to reason about the...
Questions and Answers
From our recent virtual lecture for the Hamlin Robinson Speaker Series, here are a few questions from viewers: QUESTION: How do you separate vision processing disorders from dyslexia? How do you think about these? Also same with auditory processing disorders like...
Connecting the Dots with John Chambers of CISCO [Premium]
“A lot of leaders would say they’re curious. I can tell you from personal experience that most leaders are not. They don’t ask a lot of questions, rarely challenge conventional wisdom, stick with what they know, and often turn to sources that reinforce their existing point of view… my curiosity about things I don’t understand […]
Multiple Choice Questions and Dyslexia [Premium]
One bane of higher education and professionals is the ubiquity of multiple choice questions and tests acting as gatekeepers for higher levels of credentialing, program admission, or pay. This problem affects individuals seeking their GED, drivers licenses, college entrance exams, graduate school exams, professional licensing and credentialing exams, and formal performance reviews in company […]
The Social-Emotional Side of Dyslexia [Premium]
"A lot of the time I take the parts of learning that are still hard for me as rejection — as someone telling me I can’t. I see points taken off for misspelled words on in-class English essays, and I start to see my future crumbling. I see the colleges that my dyslexia...
Getting a Sense for Numbers [Premium]
For many, math is a somewhat mysterious subject. From an early age, some students may stand out from others in their mathematical ability whereas others don't and some may seem to have bewildering difficulty with even basic aspects of numbers and math quantity. The...
Rapid Automatized Naming (RAN) and Its Impact on Dyslexia [Premium]
"Substantial evidence shows that dyslexic readers have problems with rapid naming of visual items. Early research assumed that this was a consequence of phonological processing deficits, but recent findings suggest that non-phonological processes may lie at the root...