![Understanding the Late Bloom [Premium]](https://www.dyslexicadvantage.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/UNDERSTANDING-THE-LATE-BLOOM-400x250.jpg)
The term “late bloomer” seemed to have originated from botanical observations that certain flowers bloom later than others of its kind. It wasn’t until the early 1900s, when developmental psychology was burgeoning, that late blooming began being applied to young people.
Temperament has been compared to a person's emotional disposition - or their flavor of responding behaviorally and emotionally to the world. Temperament is a part of a person's personality - which also includes things like humor, intelligence, interests, and...
![The Unexpected Nature of Dyslexia [Premium]](https://www.dyslexicadvantage.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Unexpected-Nature-of-Dyslexia-DA-362x250.jpg)
![Asynchronous Development [Premium]](https://www.dyslexicadvantage.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/bell-curve-400x250.png)
Asynchronous development refers to an unevenness in development which may include wide differences in various aspects of cognition, physical development, and emotional development. The unevenness in these different aspects of development can create paradoxes (being ahead in some abilities as well as behind) and opportunities as well as stress. Asynchronous development was first introduced in the academic and educational literature in the context of gifted children – children who showed wide discrepancies between strengths and weaknesses and who were sometimes referred to as being “twice exceptional”. In the figure below, an example of score variations is seen in a gifted student with dyslexia. Where the standard scaled score for age is 100, this student had strengths in verbal comprehension with a score of […]
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...
![Helping Your Student with Intensity [Premium]](https://www.dyslexicadvantage.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Helping-Your-Student-with-Intensity-Premium-1-400x250.jpg)
“Challenging behavior is just a signal, the fever, the means by which the kid is communicating that he or she is having difficulty meeting an expectation. “ — Ross Greene, The Explosive Child The difference between the experience of one student and his or her dyslexia can vary a great deal depending on temperament. In psychology, temperament refers to consistent differences in emotional disposition and behavior that are biologically-based and relatively consistent over time. Temperament is part of a person’s personality, which also includes intelligence, humor, interests, and talents. Among the various temperamental differences, certain “difficult temperamental traits” may make some school experiences (like remediation or pull-out) difficult to accept. Examples of difficult temperamental traits include: negative responses to new people or situations, slowness to […]
Over the years, we've met many dyslexic adults with people strengths that span the full range of careers. Sometimes people with strong empathy are drawn to jobs that really need the human touch - whether it's counseling, nursing or other health professions, or in...
![Your “Mini-Me” and Bullying [Premium]](https://www.dyslexicadvantage.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Your-Mini-Me-and-Bullying-400x250.png)
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 […]
It’s that time of year again when students have either started back or are beginning to start back to the school year and even old work routines. While some aspects of getting back to old routines are welcome, there are plenty of reasons why students, teachers, and parents will have mixed feelings getting into what things that may have been disrupted during the pandemic. THE POSITIVES First the positives. Students will enjoy seeing old friends again, sports, extracurriculars, and trying new things. Dyslexics may thrive in personal interactions – social perception, empathy, teamwork, leadership – and this pandemic has been tough. Students learn from first-hand experiences and people. So, it’s nice to have more direct contact again. Other students may be significantly behind if your […]
![Sky’s the Limit: Finding Self-Efficacy [Premium]](https://www.dyslexicadvantage.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Skys-Limit.png)
“If I have the belief that I can do it, I shall surely acquire the capacity to do it even if I may not have it at the beginning…” — Mahatma Gandhi More people may have heard about self-esteem than self-efficacy, but self-efficacy may be a more important quality that will predict how a person may make personal life goals and meet challenges in the future. Self-esteem relates to how one values oneself. Self-efficacy, on the other hand, is a belief in how you can be successful or achieve something in the future. MAJOR INFLUENCES ON SELF-EFFICACY Dr. Albert Bandura, a pioneer in the study of self-efficacy, states that the major influences on self efficacy are: — mastery experiences (starting out as a beginner […]
![Understanding Dyslexia as an Exploratory Advantage [Premium]](https://www.dyslexicadvantage.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Screen-Shot-2022-10-02-at-8.43.03-PM.png)
“Approaches to explaining developmental dyslexia must account for both the difficulties and the enhanced abilities that are typical of people with developmental dyslexia. All the proposed strengths… relate in some way to seeking out the unknown, often at the expense of exploiting known information. A useful framework for tying together these observations is cognitive search, which involves a trade-off between exploration–exploitation.” — Helen Taylor and Martin David Vestergaard In an extraordinary article in Frontiers in Psychology, two Cambridge University scholars have put forth a paradigm-shifting concept of dyslexia that integrates over a century of research from diverse perspectives. It is a tour-de-force that might help society put dyslexia in its proper context. From the paper (the simple term “dyslexia” is substituted for developmental dyslexia […]
Dyslexia is not a neurological disorder or even an impairment, but rather a concession for having cognitive strengths in exploration, big-picture thinking, creativity, and problem-solving that have contributed to human survival amid changing environments. This insight comes from a new study published in Frontiers in Psychology that finds an association between the learning difference and “an explorative bias.” — Additude Magazine, on the recent paper by Taylor and Westergaard Cambridge scholars Helen Taylor and Martin David Vestergaard are shaking up the world with their article, Developmental Dyslexia: Disorder or Specialization in Exploration? In just a week, the article already had more views that 98% of all Frontiers articles. I’ve begun to a do a deep dive in our Premium magazines, but one of the reasons […]
