Discrepancies in Math [Premium]

Discrepancies in Math [Premium]

“For as long as I can remember, numbers have not been my friend. Words are easy as there can be only so many permutations of letters to make sense. Words do not suddenly divide, fractionalize, have remainders or turn into complete gibberish because if they do, they are gibberish. Even treating numbers like words doesn’t work because they make even less sense. Of course numbers have sequences and patterns but I can’t see them. Numbers are slippery.” – Jess Blackburn     Although it’s been estimated that 40% of dyslexic individuals are also dyscalculic, dyscalculia is rarely formally identified in schools. As neuroscience studies have uncovered more differences in mathematical processing, the problem of identification has not become simpler. But although it appears that there […]

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Learning Irregular Words: Activities and Games [Premium]

Learning Irregular Words: Activities and Games [Premium]

Irregular words don’t fit the standard sounding out convention, but because they can occur commonly in text, they need additional practice to be recognized quickly.   How do you help students practice, but not be guilty of “drill and kill”? Rote memorization is also difficult for many dyslexic students so that not only is repetition inefficient, it often introduces unwanted errors. Having a toolkit of games and various activities to change up the learning practice can make the session fly by and you may be surprised how much better the information is remembered later. In the videos below, check out low tech ways to change things up and make practice more fun and less drudgery.         Because there are so many spelling […]

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Dyslexic Talents: Team Building and Software Design [Premium]

Dyslexic Talents: Team Building and Software Design [Premium]

“I was dyslexic – I couldn’t read. My father was an engineer, so I grew up thinking I was like him, but I was actually intellectually more like my mother. They were both smart people.” — Jim Keller, past VP Engineering at Apple and Tesla, Senior VP at Intel, and CTO and President of Tensetorrent     When it comes to talking about dyslexic talent, strengths in problem solving and team building often get mentioned. If such things get mentioned in school age children or even college students, it doesn’t truly capture what these strengths might involve when at their full powers in people at the top of their professions. Jim Keller is not a household name like Steve Jobs or Elon Musk, but in […]

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Tips for Academic Writing [Premium]

Tips for Academic Writing [Premium]

Here are tips for academic writing from dyslexic grad students and university tutors.     1. REGULAR TIME FOR WRITING Plan regular times for research and writing. Schedule breaks, transitions, and catch-up periods. Unplug from email and social media and tell people not to interrupt you.   2. USE PRE-WRITING STRATEGIES Use key words or mind mapping to get information down on paper without using full sentences. Tell someone about the topic or record yourself talking about what you plan to do or use speech to text dictation in your phone to jot down notes in Notability or another app of your choice.   3. USE PROMPTS TO STRUCTURE Simplify your question prompts or use a template (who, what, when where, why, how; statement, evidence, […]

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The Late Bloom [Premium]

The Late Bloom [Premium]

The cognitive profile associated with dyslexia is the quintessential “late blooming” profile. There can be a lot of stress and angst that comes with late blooming, but the good news is that the bloom is a gift when it arrives.     Here are some facts that are helpful to know about late blooming and dyslexia:   1. DYSLEXIC DEVELOPMENT AND READING: DELAYED AT FIRST, SPURTING AHEAD LATER In the figure below, look at the spurt in reading comprehension that takes place especially after the 4th grade. Between the 4th and 8th grade, the “poor decoders” (dyslexic readers with weak phonology) actually improved faster than typical readers. This improvement was very different from poor comprehenders (poor readers with more pervasive language difficulties) who hit a […]

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The Strength Switch [Premium]

The Strength Switch [Premium]

Lea Waters is a psychologist and author from Australia who has developed a helpful strategy to reframe and help common childhood challenges. She suggests 5 Questions to overcome a natural tendency to be negative.   Here are the 5 questions. 1. Is It Strength Overuse? 2. Is It Strength Underuse? 3. Is it the Flipside of a Strength? 4. Could It Be a Blocked Strength? 5. Could It Be Forced Overuse of a Weakness or a Learned Behavior?   #1. Is It Strength Overuse? Lea gives the example of her husband’s playfulness and humor. He could make his classmates laugh, but his playfulness and humor could also get him in trouble with teachers and other authority figures. From Lea: “A strength-based parent taking a child […]

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Music And Dyslexia:  Chat with Sally Daunt, Chair of the Music Committee of the BDA [Premium]

Music And Dyslexia: Chat with Sally Daunt, Chair of the Music Committee of the BDA [Premium]

Recently, I had a wonderful opportunity to chat with Sally Daunt, Chairwoman of the Music Committee of the British Dyslexia Association. We had been corresponding about dyslexia and choral groups and Sally had asked about how dyslexic strengths can manifest themselves in choral groups where singers had to fit into tightly controlled schedules of music, extensive sight reading, and music performances which could have limited opportunities for musical interpretation.     From my discussion with Sally: “Many dyslexic musicians have difficulty with sight reading – and perhaps cathedral choirs might consider whether an absolute requirement is necessary in the audition process. Some who have difficulty with sight reading might be able to pick music up quite quickly having heard a version once. In theater companies, […]

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Apps for Productivity and Organization [Premium]

Apps for Productivity and Organization [Premium]

How about apps for productivity and organization? Here are useful ones you can try.       ToDoist is a popular to do list that is integrated with email, IFTTT, Dropbox, and Slack. It is free – premium and available on iOS and Android.   For some people, free Google Calendar is sufficient. Just remember to set up your calendar notifications and Google Tasks (iOS and Android).   Just Press Record $4.99 iOS I use this app all the time to record – just a big red button and store audio recordings to the cloud. With a recent update, this app has also added free transcriptions. It’s not perfect (probably Otter.ai is more accurate, but it’s great to be free and definitely helps searching through […]

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Best Writing Apps [Premium]

Best Writing Apps [Premium]

We’ve talked a bit about speech to text for writing, but over time, many dyslexic students may prefer to write by typing or by hand. Technology can help dyslexic writers in many different ways, depending on their needs.     For young children with little or no eideitic (snapshot picture) memory for letters may benefit by an alphabet strip pasted inconspicuously in a folder or perhaps on a bulletin board. Students who are able to write by hand, but write very little because they’re uncertain of how to spell words, benefit tremendously by apps like Easy Spelling Aid which will find the spelling of words by speaking into the microphone. It also translate words. Check out these apps! Click on photos to access their sites. […]

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Multisensory Learning – Listen, Watch, and Do [Premium]

Multisensory Learning – Listen, Watch, and Do [Premium]

Multisensory learning is often considered the gold standard for dyslexic students. Technology can help by converting text to speech, adding pictures, or adding some action to what otherwise might be a passive task.       READING When it comes to reading, early readers need to reliably hear sounds and associate them with letters, letter groups, and words. The easiest to understand are professional readers of audiobooks who read with liveliness and drama. Older students and adults may be able to transition to electronic voices, especially if they can be sped up.   PHONICS AND STRUCTURED LITERACY Blending Board, iOS FREE (below) creates free customizable deck of phonemes. Also includes multisyllabic words. PHONICS GENIUS (below) is 99 cents on iOS and has over 6000 words […]

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