Many dyslexic kids and adults are great at games – all sorts of games. Not surprisingly, some decide to make games themselves and then some choose careers in some aspect of the game industry. There may be an ability to see game play from multiple perspectives including different points of view, while those who win these games are often good at strategy, role play, and pattern recognition. Among game creators, strengths in humor, and divergent and playful thinking are very well-suited to inventing new games. Some years ago, legendary toy inventor Howard Wexler gave our community a webinar about his life inventing toys. As a kid, he played with Tinkertoys and enjoyed taking things apart. His toys and games were very different from each […]
Completing My Degree with AI and ChatGPT
Recently, I spoke with dyslexic entrepreneur Stan Gloss, who returned to higher education to finish a degree in Educational Leadership. Stan’s full interview will be featured in an upcoming issue in our Premium magazine. What Stan shares is his workflow for conducting research and writing his dissertation for his degree. Because of the text-based burdens of researching and writing a dissertation, many dyslexic students may find themselves halted in “ABD” or All But the Dissertation limbo. Stan found an answer to this and won his university’s approval to use these technologies in his graduate work. Bookmark Please login to bookmark ClosePlease login to access.
Visiting the Seattle Art Museum
Recently I had such a nice visit to the Seattle Art Museum. It reminded me of how well dyslexic strengths can be cultivated in the multisensory experiences that are museums. This past summer we had had a visit by Yuko Tsuji, a dyslexia advocate in Japan who spearheaded an effort to get Dyslexic Advantage translated into Japanese. The photo includes our son Krister, who is an artist and author illustrator of graphic novels. I had seen that there was a visiting exhibit featuring Hokusai’s wood block prints at the museum.
MUSEUM VISITS ARE MULTISENSORY STORY EXPERIENCES Today’s modern museums are rich multisensory experiences, with pictures and 3-dimensional works of every size and shape, and stories conveyed in pencil and paint, sculpture, […]Emotions: Name Them to Tame Them
One of the most neglected issues in the field of dyslexia is the topic of social and emotional health. We now know that as a group, dyslexic people are more emotionally sensitive than non-dyslexic people and because emotion memories may be so strong in dyslexic...
Chat with College Coach Kara Matejka
"It is incredibly common for students to get to college and just question everything. That's when all the wheels fall off...What am I even doing here? " — Kara Matejka, College Coach When all the excitement of arriving at college for the first time, getting to...
My Child Won’t Go to School: What to Do About School Avoidance
By Dr. Dan Peters of Summit Center "Things were fine last year and now he wakes up with a stomachache and says he doesn’t want to go to school. It takes me forever to get him out the door. We are often late. He ends up screaming at me and telling me I am the...
AI Voices Make Listening Easy [Premium}
With AI, artificial voices for book reading are getting better. People who struggled with electronic voices in the past, may find themselves pleasantly surprised as AI-voices develop more natural voice pauses and even emotional tones that make listening more enjoyable and easier to keep in mind. The latest addition to free AI-read audiobooks include thousands of books in Project Gutenberg’s Open Audiobook Collection thanks to Project Gutenberg, Microsoft, and MIT. You can listen to the books on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Google Podcasts. If you’re new to electronic voices, check these out – they’re quite good. One of the benefits of getting used to these voices is that they’re very predictable once you get used to them (compared to human readers) and then it […]
The Beautiful World of Jarrett Camp
“I use my dyslexia as a form of artwork. When I create a composition of a piece, usually there’s another piece upside-down.” — Jarrett Camp Jarrett Camp is an award-winning fine artist based in Los Angeles. He is a stipple artist who creates large works that may take months to complete. He has been chosen to be a contributing artist to the NBA’s In the Paint program and he is represented by the Band of Vices art gallery. Jarrett’s work, Comatose (below) is work where he tried to present “right” and “left” brain related differences. Jarrett: ” This piece, actually upside down is another piece which tells the same story….how sleep works from the left brain and the right brain. The left brain […]
Getting into Film and TV with Isla Mcdade-Brown
“I think that dyslexia is hard. And I think that it’s OK to admit that it’s hard…and also admit that sometimes it does really suck…but I think that when you find your niche, and that can only really come from taking random opportunities…it really helps you find your thing.” — Isla McDade-Brown, Filmmaker It’s hard not to be enthusiastic about Isla McDade-Brown, because of all her her resilience and pluckiness filming Brock at Cambridge University when he traveled to Britain. Isla had first contacted us about her film dissertation on dyslexia and although there were some challenges organizing logistics along the way, she traveled down from York (with her film partner Ella Clements) to film him. One of the unexpected challenges they had […]
What About Audiobooks? Interview with Dyslexia Kit’s Yvonna Graham
“Audio books, turned out to be the most powerful tool I had in my toolkit.” – Yvonna Graham, MEd., author Dyslexia Toolkit Despite the widespread availability of text-to-speech and audiobooks, it’s only a small percentage of people who discover and use these tools. Parents and teachers may feel ambivalent about the use of audiobooks, especially if they believe that students need to practice reading, but the downside of withholding audiobooks or assistive technology in general is that they may deny individuals a tool that could really accelerate their reading progress. Recently, I sat down with author and dyslexia tutor Yvonna Graham to learn how she uses audiobooks and how they can accelerate reading progress rather than hamper it. Audiobooks are not a replacement for […]
Testing News: DOJ Forces Changes in Need for More Tests GRE AND PRAXIS
Any student who applies to college or graduate school knows that the burden to re-test can be costly for students pursuing higher education. For decades, families have had to navigate a minefield of proof to be granted much-needed accommodations for high stakes exams. The cost may really add up. We have posted on the Department of Justice’s regulations regarding the ADA at work and at school here. Although these guidelines clearly stated re-testing for accommodations should not be burdensome and that generally outside testing should be accepted, families have had to fight battles on an individual basis if their particular request for accommodations was denied. Well, the recent good news is that the Department of Justice has announced at settlement with the Education Testing […]
Great Reading and Audiobook Apps for Summer
If you or your student haven’t tried audiobooks or e-books, summer is a great time. You can get a public library card for free, and have access to thousands of e-books, audiobooks, comics and graphic novels, and movies and magazines from the convenience of your desktop or digital device. Many libraries may even have free 1:1 tutoring and language lab for foreign or English Language Learners. Some schools also have institutional subscriptions for online book services that families can use for free. Contact your teacher or tech support at school to see what additional goodies you may qualify for before school dismisses for the summer. Remember, too, that students with dyslexia or other print disability qualify for free e-books from Bookshare. First, I want […]
