Across the pond, there's an entrepreneur who has a lot of grit and resilience. It might be because he was faced with adversity from day 1, because he was also born with cystic fibrosis and never expected to have a full life span. He is dyslexic, and also faced shaming...
STEM / STEAM: Dr. Doresa Jennings, Steam Chasers
Dr. Doresa Jennings is the author of an exciting book series that has positive role models for dyslexia and underrepresented minorities, and it's an exciting book with humor and amazing facts. From Doresa's successful Kickstarter: "Middle Grade readers (9-12 year...
JAY BLADES – Furniture Designer and Restorer, BBC TV Presenter
"Originally from Hackney, Jay is dyslexic and after leaving school at 15 with no qualifications, he eventually managed to get back on track studying for a degree in criminology and philosophy at Buckingham University before finding his true vocation in restoration."...
SING! Dyslexia and Song
What is the connection between dyslexia and music? If you ask some families, dyslexia and musical talent go hand-in-hand. There can also be challenges in music, in particular with reading music; however, the strengths can be seen in areas such as musicality,...
Understanding Your Dyslexic Advantages Have Implications for Action and Leadership
As it turns out, the advantages that come with being dyslexic are not little skills that don't amount to something. In fact, just the opposite. The advantages and abilities that come with dyslexic thinking are "big hairy audacious" skills if you've heard about that...
Drawing Inspiration from MICHELLE OLLIE and COCO FOX
"My dad noticed I was reading the comics with no trouble. Soon there were comic books in the house and I was writing and drawing stories of my own. Instead of shame, I felt empowered." - Michelle Ollie Michelle Ollie is a cartoonist and co-founder of The Center for...
Founder of Alaska Alchemy Orthotics & Prosthetics
"I wouldn't have made it through school if it wasn't for shop class." - Wil Sundberg, Owner Alchemy Orthotics & Prosthetics I first learned about Wil Sunderland in a news article about Alaska's struggles to identify dyslexic students. Wil is founder of Alchemy...
READING WITH COMICS
"Dyslexics like myself can’t learn anything without a narrative to hold on to. Why am I being given this information? What does it do? What is it relevant to? What similar thing should I store it next to in my head?" - Jay Stringer, Book Riot Jay Stringer has a a...
Dyslexic National Geographic Photographer Michael Shainblum
Michael Shainblum is a photographer/filmmaker who specializes in a wide range of photography including night-cap, aerial, travel, adventure and more. Michael: "As a kid, a lot of people would succeed in certain ways that I couldn't. It took me a really long time to...
Unleash Dyslexic Writing with Dr. Nicole Swedberg [Premium]
In step-by-step fashion, learn how to unleash the dyslexic writing talent of students through Dr. Nicole Swedberg’s idea of Mini-Writes. In her talk, Dr. Swedberg talks about short writing assignments can help students master small achievable goals. She describes how she can take a student through the writing process in 1-3 sessions. Some strategies include using wordless picture books, a word bank, and afterwards a routine involving spellcheck and finally use of text-to-speech for each sentence. Other topics include strategies for overcoming a report meltdown and strategies for note taking using assistive technology. Dr. Nicole Swedberg has generously donated this 20-minute webinar on Teaching Writing to LD Kids as a fundraiser to support the programs here at Dyslexic Advantage and we are very grateful.
Beautiful Minds – What New Research Shows Dyslexia and Artists Have in Common [Premium]
BBC Science: “…artists had increased neural matter in areas relating to fine motor movements and visual imagery. The research, published in NeuroImage, suggests that an artist’s talent could be innate…these detailed scans revealed that the artist group had significantly more grey matter in the area of the brain called the precuneus in the parietal lobe.” From Cerebral Cortex 25:3502-3514: “we found that connectivity between multiple reading-related areas and areas of the default mode network, in particular the precuneus, was stronger in dyslexic compared with nonimpaired readers.” In an interesting study comparing drawing ability and enrollment in art student group with structural brain studies examining brain matter density in specific areas, researchers found greater representational art ability and enrollment in an art school (Royal College of Art […]
Creativity Boost, How? [Premium]
From Dr. Robert Brooks: “If someone approached you and said, “I have a recommendation that will require only 10 minutes of your time each day, it poses no risk and will increase your creativity and your overall health,” what would you guess was involved in the 10 minutes? Or, if you were between 70-89 years of age and someone suggested you set aside approximately three hours each week for a couple of activities that would significantly decrease the likelihood of physical disability, what do you think you would have to do to realize this benefit? And, very importantly, once you had this knowledge, how likely would you be to put it into action? From a Stanford Report: “Creative thinking improves while a person is walking […]