“The ability to recognize objects from various view-points has advantages in perceiving one’s environment, allowing one to identify a potential threat from many different views…(however) this trait of the object recognition system is disadvantageous for reading….” Blackburne et al., 2014 MIT When neuroscientists used neurophysiological techniques to study brain-based correlates of letter reversals, they were surprised to find how slowly children’s brains matured into the final adult pattern. Even when children were no longer writing letters backwards, their brains hadn’t matured to final “adult” pattern. Most researchers working in the area of reversals believe the letter reversal issue is related to how to recognize objects from different perspectives. We can recognize our friend if we’re standing right in front of them, to the side, at […]
HOW DID I NOT KNOW?
"I'm a teacher. I'm his mother. How did I not know? " - Maggie Harr Maggie just wrote a wonderful post at Love What Matters. “Smart. This was the first word that people would use when they met my son Aiden. He was precocious and funny, assertive and confident,...
MAKE GOOGLE DOCS WORK FOR YOU
Every operating system has its text to speech, but many people like Google Docs' Voice Typing system for its simplicity. Like many text to speech programs, you still need to speak the punctuation, like saying, "comma', or "period." Some errors do occur, but the system...
Dyslexia and Math: Understanding Decimals [Premium]
WHY DECIMALS ARE HARD There are many confusing aspects to decimals that are helpful to recognize when helping students. Contrary to working with whole numbers, longer sequences of numbers are not larger than shorter ones. For instance, with whole numbers, 245 is greater than 2, but .0245 is smaller than 2. For math processes involving decimals, multiplying by a decimal number between 0 and 1 is also opposite to what one might be used to. After learning that multiplication is equal groups or repeated addition, multiplying 0.3 x 0.4 = 0.12, a number that is smaller than 0.3 or 0.4. Similarly, dividing by a decimal can result in a number that is bigger than what we started out with, which can seem even more confusing. […]
PUTTING A NAME ON IT: Dyslexia, Dysgraphia, and Dyscalculia
The school year begins and then there's a lull. The first days of excitement and change are past and now teachers are trying to figure out their students and students are trying to figure out their teachers. Now is a good time for students to talk to their teachers...
READING FLUENCY: Phrase Cueing [Premium]
Once students have made significant progress with single word decoding, reading fluency practice can be rolled into reading practice with phrase cueing. HERE is a nice review of reading fluency approaches that includes a discussion of phrased reading. Phrase scooping or cueing involved the drawing of scoops underneath groups of words that go together in parts of a phrase. Combining scooped words with choral reading or echo reading can help students get practice with both reading and listening for phrases. Intervention Central has a Phrase Cued Text Generator, but it’s so-so. It’s better to break sentences into 3-6 word phrases to increase the ease of reading. From Steve Peha, check out the example below: Of course these shorter phrases also help with reading on a […]
INTERVIEW: Dr. Brock Eide & the Neurolearning Dyslexia App
After writing The Dyslexic Advantage and co-founding this non-profit, why did you decide to create this innovative dyslexia screening app? After 20 years working in this field it's become clear that the biggest problem facing dyslexic people is access. That includes...
The Calm Before School
When it comes to big picture wisdom, one of our favorite people to listen to is Dr. Michael Ryan, who has a life counseling practice in Michigan. He came to our first Dyslexia and Talent Conference, now many years ago and for years we've enjoyed his various letters...
Great College Application Essay
Here is one of our favorite college application essays of all time (shared with permission): Please provide an answer below if you wish to provide details of circumstances or qualifications not reflected in the application. When I started the process of looking for...
Dyslexia | How to Choose Books | Premium
How Can We Help Dyslexic Students Choosing Books? Here are a Few Tips… Say Yes as Often as You Can Dyslexia by its very nature presents with a gap between intellectual or conceptual ability and reading, so it’s like that sometimes student will want to choose a book much higher than his or her reading level, whereas at other times, surprisingly pick a book much lower than their intellectual ability would predict. What your student is doing is selecting a book for a particular purpose. Higher level books feeds their intellectual hunger, while the lower book helps them skill build – for students who want to really master reading not just get the gist. Preview Books and Read Together If the book is a reach book, then consider previewing or chatting about […]
Teaching Math – No Need for Speed
"What do teachers need to know about teaching math? Strategy over speed, and math thinking over rote memorization." - Stanford Professor Dr Jo Boaler Check out Jo's tips from her new article, Speed and Time Pressure Block Working Memory (below). "I was always deeply...
Test Accommodations for Students with Dyslexia Under the ADA – DOJ Statement
The Department of Justice has also released video clarification of key rights for students regarding testing accommodations under the ADA or Americans with Disabilities Act. The entire video is located at the bottom of this post, but we are highlighting a section...