What Reading Speed Has to Do With Leadership: Nothing
Many leaders succeed because of their dyslexia, not in spite of it. President Trump stirred up a hornet’s nest when he suggested that Governor...
Storytelling as a Dyslexic Strength
Storytelling is not simply a language skill. It is a form of reasoning. Recognizing these strengths helps shift how we think about writing instruction and creative expression.
Rethinking Auditory-Only Phonemic Awareness Training for Reading in the Early Grades Does Not Work
A new study reported on in Education Week found that a widely-used phonemic awareness program (the oral-only Heggerty curriculum) did not improve gains in word reading or oral reading fluency, although it did significantly improve phonemic awareness skills.
Free Back To School Reading Apps
Some of the most common free apps that dyslexic students use for school.
Beyond Behavior: Attention, Working Memory, or Something Else?
The problem with trying to diagnose with behavioral checklists is that behavior can result from many different sources. If you have a 3rd grader...
Math Difficulties Common with Dyslexia
Although the pace of research into dyslexia beyond reading proceeds very slowly, there is some welcome recent research into some of the...
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Your “Mini-Me” and Bullying [Premium]
English singer-songwriter Robbie Williams recently shared that he was saddened after learning that his 10-year old daughter who is like a “mini-me”, dyslexic also with musical abilities, was rejected by a friend who decided she didn’t want anything to do with her after learning that she was dyslexic. “I tried to make it clear to her that sometimes you just have to let other people go, that you should let them go – but without sacrificing your self-esteem in the process…This girl did not deserve her love and friendship…I speak from experience.” Because many adults today discover that they are dyslexic only after their children are identified in school, this reliving the school and social-emotional stresses as their own children try to navigate their lives […]
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Getting Your Phone to Read Your Screens and Books Without Audio Versions [Premium]
Maybe you know how to use your Siri or Google’s digital assistant, but do you know how to get all your screens including e-books read to you? For iPhones: Depending on your latest update, some of these settings may look a little different – but Accessibility from your General Settings should lead you to the right area. Some earlier version may just list “Speech”. You can choose to show the controller or hide it and also choose whether you would like text highlighted as it is spoken. The controller overlays any screen. Click on it to open. You can scroll horizontally on the button with numbers to increase or decrease speed. Other commands are listed on the page for Reading all content, speaking on touch. […]
New Edition of The Dyslexic Advantage – Updated and Revised
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efPNNW_gouI From Library Journal: "In this updated edition, the authors, leading dyslexia experts, analyze new research with modern techniques to emphasize a strength-based approach to dyslexia, instead of the typical deficit-based...
![The Benefits of Creative Writing [Premium]](https://www.dyslexicadvantage.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/The-Benefits-of-Creative-Writing-e1676063396893-371x250.jpg.webp)
The Benefits of Creative Writing [Premium]
It’s that time again – the Karina Eide Young Writers Awards are open for submission. Encourage a young person you know to submit a little story or poem. We’ll be giving away over $1000 in awards as well as some non-monetary awards. Submissions will be evaluated on storytelling, humor, and voice, and not spelling, grammar, or handwriting. Creative writing and storytelling is often a strength for dyslexic people and taking the time to write or dictate creative stories can build resilience and strengthen one’s awareness of strengths and value. “…writing can provide…a way to solve problems, capture feelings and inner experience, exercise power and freedom, and know one’s own voice.” – Genevieve Chandler, 1999 (A Creative Writing Program to Enhance Self- Esteem and Self-Efficacy in […]
Revised and Updated The Dyslexic Advantage: Q & A with Dr. Brock Eide
* MIND is an acronym from the first edition of Dyslexic Advantage. It stands for Material Reasoning, Interconnected Reasoning, Narrative Reasoning, and Dynamic Reasoning. Q: It's been 11 years since the first edition of The Dyslexic Advantage was published. Why is it...
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Memory Problems and Math [Premium]
Many students and adults attribute difficulties in math to memory problems, but probing these difficulties further often leads to the realization that it’s not a simple matter of remembering or forgetting, but rather trouble defining, organizing, then retrieving what has been learned. PROBLEMS DEFINING AND UNDERSTANDING ‘WHY’ First of all, if a student is struggling with remembering new information, it’s best to check and see if the definitions, procedures, and the why of procedures are clear. In fact, it may be a flipside of a strength in long-term memory that contributes to dyslexic students’ confusion with ambiguous terms. A good example of this James Tanton’s blog post: When fractions are introduced as pieces of pie, 3/5 + 1/5 makes sense to equal 4/5, but what […]
On Writing: A Guest Post
Recently, a bilingual teacher in my Dyslexia for Teachers class shared his experiences being a dyslexic writing in both English and Chinese. With his permission, I am sharing some of his reflections: “Under an educational system that attaches great importance to writing abilities, I have been subjected to countless criticisms and reproaches. I should have given up or avoided writing early on, but for a community college teacher who encouraged me, saying that my articles were imaginative and beautiful. That’s why I was determined to continue to study and write.” — Jason Jason’s post: “I love writing a lot, but it is always tricky for me. I used to have too many ideas and didn’t know how to start. Retrieving words and spelling are always […]
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Dyspraxia More than Dyslexia [Premium]
Dyslexia is known for its high co-occurrence with other neurodevelopmental conditions. Numerous studies have documented the high overlap (for review of the literature visit Brimo et al., 2021), but be aware that the literature is messy with different definitions of...
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Strengthening Executive Function Skills [Premium]
“Reading isn’t the most challenging part of dyslexia. It’s the executive function…” Executive function consists of different sets of processes in the brain that act like executives in business. Executives supervise all the activities and resources – organizing and prioritizing activities, developing plans, and making sure actions are properly executed. CHALLENGES AMONG CHILDREN AND ADULTS Executive function challenges that are commonly reported among dyslexic children and adults include limitations in working memory, task monitoring, inhibitory control, set-shifting, and organization (read more here). What that pattern also often means is that learning and working efficiency is at its best when information and tasks can be processed in smaller bits, a system is developed for checking and double-checking work, non-distracting learning and work environments are essential, and […]
California Teachers Union Reject Dyslexia
“It is reprehensible that California is one of 10 states that doesn’t screen for dyslexia,” said Portantino. “The issue isn’t going away. Every year we don’t screen first-graders is another class lost. Shame on us.” Despite some high hopes this past year, a bill for...
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Q & A: Bilingual and Dyslexic [Premium]
Question: Our 9 year old son is bilingual and also dyslexic. We have decided to allow him to attend a bilingual school with his older sister for cultural and family reasons. Will this harm his educational development? The school seems supportive, but does not have teachers trained to remediate dyslexia. There are many reasons why families choose to raise their children with two or more languages, not the least being ties to two cultures and communicating with extended family members. As you may be aware, language learning can be very difficult for some dyslexic students, leading them to seek waivers for foreign language instruction. That being said, we have known many families over the years who have done just as you plan to do. The […]
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Organizing Math [Premium]
Math is a challenge for almost every student as the world recovers from disruptions due to the pandemic. Although almost all community colleges waive some math requirements, only a few colleges completely waive them. One list I found was here, but do check individual college sites for current information. 1. University of Arizona – Substitution allowed 2. University of the Ozarks – Substitution for College Algebra 3. California Polytechnic State University – Substitution for non-math majors 4. Cal State Fullerton – Math substitution 5. Cal State Long Beach – Math substitution 6. Cal State San Bernadino – Math substitution 7. Menlo College – Math substitution 8. Santa Monica College – Math substitution 9. Sierra College – Math waiver 10. UC Berkley – Math waiver 11. […]
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Question: How to Help with Reversals [Premium]
Question: My middle grade student still has trouble with reversals. What can I do to help? Answer: Reversals can occur in different contexts, so understanding the different causes can help determine the best solutions. PERSISTENT LETTER REVERSALS Reversals can be a normal developmental finding up until the age of seven years. After that, severe difficulties with letter reversals may require intensive training or even therapy. Letter Recognition Persistent letter recognition problems are usually helped by a variety of multisensory sensory and mnemonic approaches. Programs like Zoophonics combine little memory associations and character drawings to help improve letter recognition. Hand visual mnemonics may help some children to distinguish between the letters b and d, as shown in the bed image: See more: Usually older students develop […]
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Text-to-Speech is Getting Better [Premium]
If you haven’t been using text-to-speech lately, you’ll be in for quite a treat. Innovations in voice generation and cloning have made many free and premium (pay) voices better than ever. If you haven’t visited our Dyslexic Advantage online library lately (HERE), you may not know that we’re adding audio players to all our articles. After 160 issues (newsletter and premium combined), we have a tremendous library that we’ll be converting to playlists for those of you who prefer to listen. If you access the audio on our web pages, you can also adjust the speed. If you or your student had trouble with listening to text-to-speech in the past, you might want to retry text-to-speech apps or programs. They have improved dramatically and if […]
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Visual Learning [Premium]
Two of the strongest differences seen in our survey of 12,291 members of our Dyslexic Advantage community were answers to questions below: LEARNING THROUGH PICTURES, DIAGRAMS, AND IMAGERY “I generally prefer diagrams or pictures to written instructions or explanations.” 70% of definitely dyslexic people strongly agreed with this first statement compared to just 7% of definitely not dyslexic people. And look at the different profiles in response to this question: “When I think of historical facts or events, I see “scenes” or images in my mind, rather than just recalling verbal descriptions. 64% of definitely dyslexic people strongly agreed with this statement, compared to just 8% of definitely not dyslexic people. Think about the implications for schooling, but also workplace communication! No wonder clashes are […]
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What’s the Connection between Auditory Processing and Dyslexia? [Premium]
It’s not uncommon when we speak to groups about dyslexia that someone asks why we are mentioning auditory processing when they (mistakenly) believe dyslexia is only about reading. In fact, there is substantial research literature about dyslexia and auditory processing difficulties – sometimes the problems can present with difficulty in learning phonemes, but other times it may affect sensitivity to auditory distractions, trouble listening to rapid or foreign speakers, and problems hearing in the presence of background noise. People who are dyslexic themselves or live with people who are dyslexic may know all about this. It’s a good example of how simplistic definitions can confuse rather than help. There’s been extensive work about auditory processing differences found in dyslexic vs. non dyslexic groups. The figure […]
Tom Cruise Performs the Greatest Stunt in Cinematic History
This is a mind boggling stunt if you haven't seen it. Tom Cruise of Top Gun and Mission Impossible fame rode his motorcycle off a cliff in Norway - not once, but six times in 1 day...and at the age of 60. ...
![How to Survive and Thrive at Parent-Teacher Conferences [Premium]](https://www.dyslexicadvantage.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/How-to-Survive-and-Thrive-at-Parent-Teacher-Conferences-1.jpg.webp)
How to Survive and Thrive at Parent-Teacher Conferences [Premium]
Some teachers find parent-teacher conferences the most stressful part of their job so it’s best to keep that in mind before you head off to the meeting. I remember we had “good” meetings and “bad”. The good ones seemed so easy – sit back and be presented with student work and positive comments. But there were also hard ones, frustrating ones, and depressing ones. People react to conflicts and crises in different ways – so that there can be psychological minefields for everyone involved in parent-teacher conferences – the parents, the teachers, and the students…and it all seems to go by so fast. BRING SOMEONE If you’re a single parent, bring someone with you – whether it’s a friend, fellow classroom parent, or relative. If […]
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Math Games for All [Premium]
Math games are a great way to build a hands-on sense for number flexibility and quantity. The best situation is if hands-on and visual math activities are started from the beginning, but the good news is that it’s never too late to start. Even students who are taught almost exclusively in rote/symbolic ways can benefit by activities and reinforcements at home or in out-of-class tutoring sessions. SUBITIZING AND NUMBER SENSE Subitizing is a term that refers to a rapid and confident judgment about a small number of items. If you have three coins in your hand or five do you quickly know how many coins there are without having to count? That number sense is important before progressing to higher calculations. Click on the photos […]
Where Classroom Reading Fluency Practice Can Go Wrong
Reading fluency is defined as an ability to read texts with accuracy, a good rate, and good expression (sometimes the latter two are referred to as automaticity and prosody). Strong reading fluency is a goal that all children should have on their path to becoming independent readers, but reading fluency practice is not sufficient to remediate dyslexic students. Students must reach a certain level of decoding before reading fluency can be meaningfully assessed. Decoding is the process of translating printed words into speech. READING FLUENCY PRACTICE IS NOT SUFFICIENT FOR DYSLEXIC STUDENTS STILL WORKING TO DECODE The idea that simply exposing students to reading quality texts and modeling fluent reading would be sufficient for an overwhelming majority of students is a failed theory that […]
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