"Over the long term in reading, the lowest performing students – those readers who struggle the most – have made no progress from the first NAEP administration almost 30 years ago..." There are discouraging reports from the 2019 NAEP Reading Assessment. NAEP stands...
![Executive Function: What Smart People Do Differently While Learning [Premium]](https://www.dyslexicadvantage.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/woman-thinking-our-shutterstock.jpg)
When researchers compared high IQ and average test subjects in a learning paradigm, the results were surprising. In some areas high IQ individuals work less, as might be expected by the idea that higher IQ people have more efficient brains for learning tasks, but in other areas, high IQ brains were working harder. When were high IQ brains working harder? Not prior or during the task, it seems, but when feedback was given and individuals were learning from their mistakes. From Graham et al. : “the Average IQ group failed to produce as much activation during feedback evaluation as did the High IQ group. These group differences are inconsistent with the neural efficiency hypothesis and instead suggest that the High IQ individuals were engaged in […]
Often when the term “multisensory” is used when talking about dyslexia, math manipulatives or Orton-GIllingham curricula are what come to mind. But multisensory is much more than its association with education. Multisensory abilities and talents account for many super powers that dyslexic people use in their every day success. Strong multisensory learners may learn well by immersion, real life experiences with social interaction, personal connections, movement, and hearing, seeing, touching (and yes also smells and sometimes tastes). Some multisensory experts show expertise in certain sensory modalities – like being visually aware or particularly sensitive or having an ear for music or different aspects a peoples voices. People Reading Skills in reading people’s emotional expressions, gestures, and nonverbal cues can lead to super skills in fields […]
It's not easy. There are lots of reasons to hate or at least strongly dislike high school. What if you've done what you could to self-advocate and educate your teachers and classmates, but can't help but dread going back to school every day? Here are some tips from...
![The Remediated Student – WHAT TO EXPECT [PREMIUM]](https://www.dyslexicadvantage.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Screen-Shot-2019-08-30-at-8.33.17-PM.jpg)
For the overwhelming majority of dyslexics, early intervention helps with the decoding step of reading. Usually 2-3 months of intervention is enough to see a measurable difference, and at least in our experience, 1-3 years to bring most children from failing their grade to being able to keep up in diverse subjects at grade-level with appropriate accommodations and sometimes modifications in place. What Should a Teacher Expect with a Remediated Student? Remediated students can vary a great deal depending on whether they are gifted, dysgraphic, dyspraxic, dyscalculic, have attention or working memory difficulties, or English as a Second Language. In general, though, students who have successfully been remediated are able to decode text on grade-level, but may still have slow and inaccurate reading, difficulty reading aloud, […]
![Moving to learn: The UPSIDE to Fidgeting [Premium]](https://www.dyslexicadvantage.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/shutterstock_331750409.jpg)
Researchers from Florida presented visually dramatic evidence of the difference in ADHD student hyperactivity dependng on the task at hand. 52 boys ages 8 to 12 were studied. 32 had ADHD and 30 served as controls. 44% of ADHD students had been prescribed stimulant medication, and these students had medicines held for at least 24 hours prior to the study. What you can see in the video is the dramatic difference in hyperactivity depending on whether the student was watching a mathematics instructional video or the pod racer scene from Star Wars. Perhaps not completely surprisingly, both ADHD and neurotypical boys showed better attention for the Star Wars video than the math instruction. Remember that ADHD is distinct from dyslexia and boys in general are […]
![Dyslexia-FRIENDLY Foreign language Instruction [PREMIUM]](https://www.dyslexicadvantage.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Screen-Shot-2019-08-30-at-12.47.29-PM.jpg)
Because dyslexia has significant challenges that make foreign language learning difficult (e.g. impaired phonemic awareness, limitations on auditory verbal working memory, weak rule-based memory and syntax, etc.), many students request and are granted foreign language waivers. That being said, there are many students who can do well at foreign language learning, and alternative classrooms should be considered in order to help more students achieve proficiency in a second language. From Dr. Jonathan Arries: “Studies suggest that students with LDs may experience difficulties with the following tasks: 1) imitation and differentiation of vowel sounds 2) orthography 3) vocabulary acquisition 4) comprehension and memory of spoken instructions 5)reading comprehension passages 6) comprehension of written instructions 7) application of grammar rules taught inductively….Javoarsky, Sparks, and Ganschow indicate some […]
![[PREMIUM] Reading and Spelling: When Sights and Sounds Don’t Match](https://www.dyslexicadvantage.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Screen-Shot-2019-08-31-at-2.19.00-PM.jpg)
TRICKY WORDS: WHEN SIGHTS AND SOUNDS DON’T MATCH Spotlight: Inflectional Suffixes Because many dyslexic students don’t have a visual imprint of words, there are common spelling or pronunciation errors that occur when word endings seem to vary. In most cases, being explicitly taught the different patterns can reduce a great deal of distress later. The technical term “inflectional suffixes” refers to word endings that change a word to make it grammatically correct, but don’t fundamentally change the meaning or the class of words that they are. For example, in the following sentences, the suffixes are shown in red: The dog barks. The dog barked. The endings may reflect whether a noun is singular or plural (e.g. dog or dogs) or whether the action is happening […]
![Why a NICHE is Important [PREMIUM]](https://www.dyslexicadvantage.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Screen-Shot-2019-08-30-at-9.17.40-PM.jpg)
In Michael McNulty’s clinical research looking at the life stories of dyslexic adults, one thing became clear – finding a niche in adolescence or young adulthood had the dramatic potential to improve the course of people’s lives. Here (in abbreviated form) are some of the subjects of his life study. Tommy (38 yo highly successful industrial designer) – ‘Why doesn’t Tommy speak?’ (diagnosed at age 8). Difficulty reading, writing, spelling resulting in low grades through high school, but “self-esteem from success in part-time jobs, athletics, and art.” Although reluctant to go to college, “he found a niche in industrial design and was eventually ranked number one in his prominent university program.” Jeanine (25yo customer services supervisor) – reading, writing, and attention problems from grade school […]
![Strategic Thinking and Dyslexia Education [Premium]](https://www.dyslexicadvantage.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Screen-Shot-2019-08-30-at-9.11.07-PM.jpg)
There are many accomplished dyslexics who have told us that one of their greatest strengths in their current career is strategic thinking, but is there any evidence that strategy is a strength that is present in the school years, and if so, can it be better used to help students tackle the many academic hurdles that they face? Unfortunately, there has been relatively little attention studying the potential of strategy in the curriculum of dyslexic students, but there is some and in those studies, the findings are interesting. For instance, in a study of LD students attending 4 Southern California universities, researchers sought to understand how students with significant difficulties in phonological awareness and word attack were able to do just as well as non-LD […]
![How to Teach Dyslexic Students Geography [PREMIUM]](https://www.dyslexicadvantage.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Screen-Shot-2019-08-31-at-5.21.43-PM.jpg)
Many people may not know that a dyslexic scientist (Dr. Wally Broeker) led the first research team characterizing the Great Ocean Conveyor Belt – a massive cycling that takes place in the world’s oceans that circulates the sun’s heat around the globe and also has profound effects on marine animal migration and climate. Although the subject of Geography should be a natural fit for many dyslexic students with its high demands on MIND strengths (material, interconnected, narrative, and dynamic reasoning), it can also be taught in rote fashion (memorize map names and features) that can lead many students to struggle. In at least one study, dyslexic students being taught geography learned significantly better than their non-dyslexic counterparts if they were taught using multimedia (text, graphics, and sound). Multimedia was […]
Here's one remarkable school decided to go 'all in' to help a dyslexic high school student who seemed to be slipping away. Matthew was a rising 10th grader at a non-selective high school. The majority of students at the school were described as being of low...
