In groundbreaking research, researchers at MIT or the Massachusetts Institute of Technology reported that dyslexic children and adults have “a diminished ability to acclimate to a repeated input in their paper titled “Dysfunction of Rapid Neural Adaption in Dyslexia.” Like many research papers, dyslexia is seen through a negative lens (‘dysfunction’) and the take-home points through university press releases, similarly so, however the findings are interesting ones and fit with an evolving picture of dyslexia as a learning difference (rather than disease or disability) that extends beyond reading and has ramifications for many aspects of education. “It’s a difference in the brain that’s not about reading per se, but it’s a difference in perceptual learning that’s pretty broad,” says John Gabrieli, who is the study’s […]
How a Dyslexic Author Wrote a NYTimes Bestseller about Joy
"...He explained that there is a Tibetan saying that it is the painful experiences that shine the light on the nature of happiness... The Archbishop added that that “nothing beautiful comes without some suffering,” and he mentioned how our muscles need resistance to...
Improved College Board Guidelines for Test Accommodations
New from the College Board: "Beginning January 1, 2017, the vast majority of students who are approved for and using testing accommodations at their school through a current Individualized Education Program (IEP) or 504 Plan will have those same accommodations...
[PREMIUM] Latest Research: Dyslexia, Sequential Memory, and Seeing the Big Picture
“My mind doesn’t work like a train track. It’s more like a web page with lots of hyperlinks.” – dyslexic honors college student. It’s refreshing to see that more researchers take an interest on dyslexia beyond reading. In this recent paper from Belgium and Missouri, the challenges of remembering sequential information for dyslexics and non-dyslexics was reviewed. Both working memory and sequencing were examined. Working memory is a type of short-term memory necessary for keeping information ‘in mind.’ Sequencing is remembering the order that things are said. It’s activities such as this that that can make something like following classroom instructions or remembering computer passwords easy or hard. Several interesting observations were made from their review of the research literature: – Dyslexic children and adults tend […]
[PREMIUM] Tips from a Dyslexic World Memory Champion
When people say they would like to ‘brain train’ or get smarter for school, they often mean they want to make their brains more efficient – so they learn more, but also work less. One of the most straightforward ways to do this is to boost memory – and for most dyslexic people, the way you train may be more important than how hard or how much. We talk about memory trade-offs a bit in our book, The Dyslexic Advantage, but briefly, in general, dyslexic people of all ages tend to show a preference for personally-experienced memories rather than dry facts that need to be memorized by rote. A trick for memorizing more efficiently is to take the dry stuff and transform it into something […]
The Fight over Rote Math
If you think you've been hearing conflicting information about rote math in the news or from schools, you're absolutely right. The fight is spilling over to educational policymakers and makers of standardized tests such as the College Board. For dyslexic and...
Research: Classroom Culture Matters – Effects on Reading Performance [Premium]
In the latest issue of the Journal of Learning Disabilities, researchers from Harvard and Greece found that classroom culture, and in particular LD students’ perceptions of their classrooms motivational framework had sudden, significant, and unpredictable effects on reading performance and students’ emotional state. From the authors: “The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the proposition that a classroom’s motivation discourse exerts significant influences over students’ achievement in reading.” The two conditions that researchers compared were: #1. Mastery (internal standard) – “In our class trying hard is important” #2. Performance (external standard) – “In our class, getting good grades is the main goal.” Their brief conclusions: “…the results confirmed the research hypotheses concerning the role of mastery and performance goals. The form (mastery) had a […]
Bridging the Gap to Reading Long Words [Premium]
In our last post, we wrote about the 3rd grade gap or wall. Dyslexic students typically get through the hard slog of phonemic awareness and then parents and teachers breathe a sigh of relief. Many times, the extra work fades away and students are integrated back into their usual classroom routine. All seems well, but a problem may remain. Reading remains effortful and the complexity of the text goes up. Students may not be able to keep up. With little extra help and too little time to complete assignments, the “guess and go” approach may dominate the reading strategy so that the gap between peers increases. A large part of the problem may be that students have not effective strategy to read long words. These problems can come […]
Dyslexia and the Third Grade Wall
If you're not aware if the '3rd Grade Wall', you can get blind-sided. A recurring theme that we hear about when we interview accomplished dyslexic men and women is the trouble and failure (often grade retention) that happens in the 3rd grade. Why? What's the big deal...
PACIFIC STUDIO VISIT: Interview with Michael Graham about his ‘Dream Job’ Making Museum Exhibits
This past summer, our high school volunteer Krista, my son, and I had a wonderful opportunity to visit Michael Graham, High End Fabrication Program Manager for Pacific Studio in Seattle. Michael has what many would call a dream job - making exhibits for museums all...
Dyslexia and Medical School – AMA Journal of Ethics [Premium]
In an important article published in the AMA Journal of Ethics, physicians call for mandatory dyslexia training for medical school faculty. The article presents the case of a 1st year dyslexic medical student who excelled in college and in clinical research, but who is conflicted about whether to disclose his dyslexia to faculty and fellow classmates because of his concerns that it would negatively impact his “education, performance, and reputation.” The writers comment: “Given the scientific progress in understanding the epidemiology, cognitive basis, and neurobiology of dyslexia, it is surprising that ignorance of the condition persists; such ignorance continues to result in faculty misperceptions of dyslexia. For example, the very common and physiologically based symptom of slow reading in dyslexia can be misinterpreted as slow […]
Math and Dyslexia: Dyslexic Advantage Talks to Stanford & Georgetown Experts Tanya Evans and Michael Ullman
Last week, I had a chance to chat with Stanford's Tanya Evans and Georgetown's Michael Ullman about their recent research paper about procedural learning and math. In their paper, their definition of procedural learning relates to the type of learning that...