It's that time of year again - either time for standardized tests or end of year exams. Test anxiety includes a variety of physical and emotional symptoms that include feelings of nervousness and hopelessness, fear, self-doubt, irritability, shortness of breath, rapid...
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 […]
Question: Advice for a Student Who Does Not Want to Disclose in High School
It is very common for people to want to choose whether they want to formally disclose their dyslexia, and to whom. This may change over the years and of course depending on particular contexts. WHY DOES A STUDENT CHOOSE NOT TO DISCLOSE IN HIGH SCHOOL? Some...
Tips for Heading Back to School with Dyslexia
Question: How Do I Help My Student Go Back to School? For many students, it will be a relief to get back to school because of all the disruptions in the past. Teachers, principals, and administrators are aware of the impact of the pandemic and school disruptions over...
New to Dyslexia [Premium]
More people are finding out that they’re dyslexic, so it seemed like a good time to write a big picture of dyslexia for new members. DYSLEXIC STRENGTHS First of all, there seem to be intrinsic strengths associated with dyslexia and not simply weaknesses or impairments. Understanding the strengths and positive differences can help people […]
Learning from Lockdown: Dyslexic Medical Students
"The learning experiences of dyslexic medical students during the COVID-19 pandemic: a phenomenological study. This study has explored the learning experiences of dyslexic medical students during the COVID-19 pandemic... Generally, it fostered a culture of...
Mind Mapping Math
Fractions can be confusing. Some students are confused by the new terminology that comes with fractions (numerator, denominator), while others are confused because they seem to have different principles from those learned from whole numbers. Numbers that "get bigger"...
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 curricular plan, it looked as if plenty of reading instruction was given every day, but his […]
The Highs and Lows of Remote Learning
"I don’t know how I’ll get through this. I know I must, but I am beyond exhausted." - a parent, APM Reports "What did we do to deserve this torture?" - a student about I-Ready By now, many school children and university students around the world have had some...
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 TIME If pandemic education has told us anything thus […]
Auditory Processing and Remote and Hybrid Learning
"Children with dyslexia often exhibit increased variability in sensory and cognitive aspects of hearing relative to typically developing peers." - Hornickel et al., 2012 PNAS There is a long research history establishing auditory processing difficulties among...
Dyslexia Advocacy: Say Dyslexia 2.0
From Chalkbeat's story, "NYC plans to screen nearly 200,000 students in the early grades to uncover struggling readers. Then what?" "In a massive bid to gauge reading skills following COVID-related learning disruptions, New York City’s education department is...