In Memoriam: Beryl Bennaceraf, Ultrasound Pioneer

In Memoriam: Beryl Bennaceraf, Ultrasound Pioneer

by | Dec 31, 2022 | , , , , , , ,

“What helped me was realizing that there was silver living, that it wasn’t all negative….in radiology… pictures just speak to me. I can look at a picture and I can see the pattern. I can see things that nobody else can see.” — Beryl Bennaceraf, MD With great sadness, we learned that Dr. Beryl Bennaceraf, a legend in the field of ultrasound medicine passed away. Condolences to husband Peter, their children, and grandchildren. Beryl had generously spoken to Brock and I about her dyslexic journey and the strengths she found in radiology. She helped over 350,000 women over her years in practice, and had legendary spatial expertise that she attributed to her dyslexia. You can learn about Beryl here and here. About her dyslexia, Beryl […]

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On Education with Dr John Lienhard IV [Premium]

On Education with Dr John Lienhard IV [Premium]

by | Dec 31, 2022 | , , , ,

“I couldn’t read and write, could barely scrape through school…” — Dr. John Lienhard IV, emeritus mechanical engineering professor, founder of Engines of Our Ingenuity   Recently, I had an opportunity to talk with a remarkable polymath (he prefers the word gadfly), John Lienhard IV, an emeritus professor of mechanical engineering. I had come across his podcast episode, Risk and Vocation, where he had said: “We dyslexics make fine engineers and inventors. We do fine in art, computers, theater. Why push your students into the standard prestige programs? They’re the people who’ll shape the material world we live in.” Also, “Real influence flows to people who leave the beaten paths and whose hands touch the material world.” If you’d like to hear my full interview […]

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Question: Keeping Up with Wilson at School [Premium]

Question: Keeping Up with Wilson at School [Premium]

by | Dec 18, 2022 | , , , , , , , , , , ,

Question: I have a third grade student who attends a school that used Wilson Fundations in the earlier grades. The problem is that even though my daughter did some summer work, she’s been having trouble keeping up. She’s dropped down a level from her peers so that she’s just repeating what she had been taught before. There is less stress in the lower group, but would changing her to a different curriculum be a better option? Answer: This is a difficult question to answer specifically. Ideally, someone who really knows your student could give you specific guidance on whether repetition or a new curriculum might be a better move. The Wilson Fundations program is designed for general education classrooms. It (as well as other programs […]

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Nature Journaling with John Muir Laws

Nature Journaling with John Muir Laws

by | Dec 18, 2022 | , , , , , , , , ,

“I notice, I wonder, it reminds me of” are powerful prompts that lead you to observe more deeply, ask better questions, and make interesting connections.” — John (Jack) Muir Laws   This is a great time to get outdoors and draw. Even if you’re a backyard nature watcher, trees and animals may be changing their appearance and tremendous shifts may be happening in migrating birds and other animals. We first got to meet Jack in person at our first Conference on Dyslexia and Talent almost a decade ago. He mesmerized us with his personal story (see video below) and approach to creating a more user-friendly field guide, Laws Guide to the Sierra Nevada. Fast forward to today, and Jack has launched an international movement of nature […]

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Dyslexia and Math: Knowing Why [Premium]

Dyslexia and Math: Knowing Why [Premium]

by | Dec 18, 2022 | , , , , , ,

It’s been estimated that almost half of dyslexic individuals will also be dyscalculic (Wilson et al., 2014), but dyscalculia is less likely to be assessed or formally identified in school, leaving students to flounder on their own.   WHY IS DYSLEXIA COMMONLY ASSOCIATED WITH MATH LD? Experts still debate why there is such significant overlap, but at least one recent study found that spatial difficulties were especially associated with students with dyscalculia or those with both dyslexia and dyscalculia. Besides spatial factors, difficulties in sequencing, trouble with symbols, working memory overload, and rote math fact retrieval are all difficulties commonly seen among dyslexic students and those with dyscalculia. What is not particularly common among dyslexic students is difficulty with math reasoning – in fact for […]

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Dyslexic Advantages in Electrical Engineering [Premium]

Dyslexic Advantages in Electrical Engineering [Premium]

by | Dec 18, 2022 | , , , , , , , , , , ,

A TALE OF TWO STORIES “At the beginning I can remember looking at blackboards or pages of text having no idea what other kids around me were seeing. For me the pages may have well as been blank for all I could glean from them. However I was lucky as when I started my secondary school my teacher spotted that I was having problems. I was tested for dyslexia and found to have a mild form… By the time I left I had poor grades and was told I would not amount to much…” Same person: “I became interested in geeky stuff when I was less than ten years old. I remember being given a toy wind up clock that you could open the back […]

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The Power of the List [Premium]

The Power of the List [Premium]

by | Dec 11, 2022 | , , , , , , , ,

For many of us, hearing about a new technology, app, or software can result in mixed feelings. We may have hope about better organizing and simplifying our lives, but also have reasonable worry about a difficult learning curve, a complicated interface, or any number of problems that can prevent us from reaping the benefits of whatever thing we are hoping might help. Enter – the simple list. If you have a weak short term or working memory, but great long-term memory and you don’t like reading lots of extra text, then lists may be the perfect productivity tool for you. Putting something down on a list can offload your working memory, but also have the benefits of reinforcing the big picture, while never losing sight […]

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Finding Your Voice [Premium]

Finding Your Voice [Premium]

by | Dec 11, 2022 | , , , , , , ,

Finding one’s voice is an existential issue for many – but for dyslexic folks in particular, it can be a difficult because of the nature of their challenges early in life and, of course, the school business. From a practical perspective, dyslexia can create many obstacles in expression and people may be trapped not being able to reveal the depth of their feeling and understanding. Even when the reading issues get remediated and accommodated and writing gets easier, many will still struggle – and that may drift into the adult years. WHAT TO DO? There’s a saying, “Use it or lose it”, and the dilemma for those who may have some trouble expressing their ideas is that they are more likely to be inhibited about […]

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Not Over Hurdles, But Around Them

Not Over Hurdles, But Around Them

by | Dec 9, 2022 | , , , , , , , , , , ,

If you have moderate to severe dyslexia, chances are that you’ve encountered many obstacles on path to higher education and career. The farther one gets in education, the more one can recognize that much of education deals with writing about things rather than doing them. If you can find a program that is more hands-on and real world problem solving, you may have hit the jackpot; if not, you may have heard the lecture that some thing that you want to do is impossible or out of-reach, but it may not be. You may need to find your way around a hurdle and not over it – like others of your peer group. Spiky profile dyslexics may find themselves getting A’s in physics, science, and […]

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Reading Beyond Level

Reading Beyond Level

by | Dec 8, 2022 | , , , , , , , , , , ,

Don’t restrict students to decodable readers. It’s a little like trying to feed an elephant one blade of grass at a time.   Reading decodable books has an important place in structured literacy programs for dyslexic students, but recently some in the reading community have been calling for “phonics-only” or “phonics-first” and this is not a good idea. Recently Emeritus Literacy Professor Timothy Shanahan from the University of Illinois at Chicago has also called these policies as overreach. From his recent blog post: “The National Reading Panel report (2000) is oft cited as the major support for phonics instruction. We found (I was a member of the panel) that explicit, systematic phonics instruction helped students to become better readers – based on a meta-analysis of […]

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Co-founder Brett Kopf’s Journey to Success with Remind and Omella

Co-founder Brett Kopf’s Journey to Success with Remind and Omella

by | Dec 8, 2022 | , , , , , , , , , , ,

“…Can I just start off by making a blanket statement that I think dyslexia can be such a gift?” — Brett Kopf   Brett Kopf is co-founder of Remind and Omella, two companies that grew out of his interest in solving problems that mission-driven organizations and schools face. Brett’s path from struggling in school and spending almost every day in the principal’s office, to difficulty deciding on a career path in college (agriculture?) seem disconnected to his remarkable success as a business co-founder, but there were signs of his talents even as a child. Brett remember enjoying talking to his principal, and in his job today he likes talking to customers and figuring out what they need and then brainstorming about how what he could […]

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