“English A was ‘a disaster and French was like medieval torture. To sit down with a blank piece of paper and write was the most traumatic thing that had ever faced me in life. I had ideas in my head, but I could not get the stuff down. It was a crushing time.” – Charles Schwab “It will be particularly helpful if they give themselves practice in precis writing, paraphrasing, and note-taking. If one has to write a precis one is forced not only to think out carefully what are the key ideas in a particular passage but also to express them concisely, accurately, and clearly. Paraphrasing makes similar demands and also forces one to consider the style of the original and to be critical […]
MATH: When Words Get In the Way [Premium]
For dyslexic students, the language of math can confuse and obscure. Teachers, tutors, and parents should be aware that language could be interfering with math performance and not mathematics itself. From Dyslexia and Mathematics: Here is an example of a dyslexic student’s sharing of how she becomes confused by what a teacher is saying. The capital letters indicate words that required her to stop and think. Teacher: “We are going to TAKE 25 FROM 61. WRITE DOWN 61 first (I sometimes wrote the first figure I heard before the second one). WRITE DOWN 25 UNDERNEATH it. Put the 2 UNDER the 6 and the 5 UNDER the 1. Draw a line UNDERNEATH. Start at the bottom on the RIGHT. Take 5 AWAY FROM 1. […]
Dyslexia: The Twenty-Something Years [PREMIUM]
“These are the years when it will be easiest to start the lives we want. And no matter what we do, the twenties are an inflection point- the great reorganization – a time when the experiences we have disproportionately influence the adult lives we will lead.” – Meg Jay, author of The Defining Decade “Life for emerging adults is vastly different today than it was for their counterparts even a generation ago. Young people are waiting longer to marry, to have children, and to choose a career direction. As a result, they enjoy more freedom, opportunities, and personal growth than ever before. But the transition to adulthood is also more complex, disjointed, and confusing. ” – Christian Smith, lead author of Lost in Transition Many ‘experts’ have […]
Dyslexic Entrepreneur’s Advice for the Road [Premium]
Great advice from Stephen Key at Additude. For many adult dyslexics, running your own business is the best way to build on strengths and create a positive working environment. Stephen offers the following helpful advice for those at the beginning their journey. “1. I prepare for every situation. My learning disability has caused me to fear the unknown. Feeling prepared soothes my nerves. Before I attend a meeting, I make sure to have an agenda. I like knowing what is expected of me. Because I don’t like being caught off guard, I am constantly studying up — on all sorts of topics. Much to my wife’s amusement, I even studied up on the first book we read for our neighborhood book club. When I’m traveling, […]
50 States – Audio Driver Training Manuals – Department of Motor Vehicles
Check out the links below to audio versions of state drivers manuals OR pdf files of the manuals that can be read with our web-enabled text to speech program ReciteMe. ALSO, if the manual is available to read online, you can try read it in a Google Chrome browser. A...
Children’s Book Author Roald Dahl – Dear Lexdyslic Reader
“What I mean and what I say is two different things," the BFG announced rather grandly.” - Roahl Dahl Thanks fellow dyslexic author Jackie French for her lovely tribute to Roald Dahl (author of BFG, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Matilda, James and the...
The Power of Different – Exclusive Interview
Dr. Gail Saltz has a hit book on her hands, and it's called The Power of Different. In addition to being a professor of psychiatry at Columbia University, she grew up with a brother who'd win a Nobel Prize. Gail was kind enough to talk to her about what she learned...
What’s the Most Stressful Time for Dyslexic Students?
ANSWER: Grades 3-5 in Elementary School. If we know this, are we doing everything we can to help students emotionally and socially in these grades? There are many pressures that converge on the 3-5th grade (see The 3rd Grade Wall), and developmentally, it is a...
A CHAT WITH MATH AND VISUALIZATION EXPERT JENNIFER PLOSZ
Today, I had a great conversation with Jennifer Plosz, a math teacher currently at the University of Calgary School of Education who is also a talented visualization expert and is dyslexic. She had recently been in touch with Dr. Manuel Casanova, the neuropathologist...
ACTING WITH DYSLEXIA [Premium]
There are some dyslexic children who seem to be natural actors and actresses at early ages and their talent and imitating the gestures, voices, and personalities of others seems almost from birth. What are the strengths and talents that make so many dyslexic people talented actresses and actors? For some it may be emotional empathy, others, an ability to visualize events and personal interactions cinematically, and still others, a love of ‘getting into the heads’ of so many characters. Some drama schools report as many as 30% of their students are dyslexic, so dyslexia seems to be over-represented in these school compared to the general population. Some researchers have observed that as a group, dyslexics are more likely to visualize events upon reading text than […]
Q: What Help is Available for Adults with Dyslexia ?
A. Depending on what kind of help you are seeking and where you live, there are many different types of resources available to help adults with dyslexia. In the United States, it's been estimated that 3 out of 4 children are not being identified in school; among...
Latest Research: Repetition As a Poor Way to Teach Dyslexics [Premium]
In groundbreaking research, researchers at MIT or the Massachusetts Institute of Technology reported that dyslexic children and adults have “a diminished ability to acclimate to a repeated input in their paper titled “Dysfunction of Rapid Neural Adaption in Dyslexia.” Like many research papers, dyslexia is seen through a negative lens (‘dysfunction’) and the take-home points through university press releases, similarly so, however the findings are interesting ones and fit with an evolving picture of dyslexia as a learning difference (rather than disease or disability) that extends beyond reading and has ramifications for many aspects of education. “It’s a difference in the brain that’s not about reading per se, but it’s a difference in perceptual learning that’s pretty broad,” says John Gabrieli, who is the study’s […]
