Recently, I had the pleasure of talking to Tabitha Mancini, Director of Winston in College Online. Winston recently became a sponsor of this Dyslexic Advantage community, but I've known Tabitha for over a decade. She's been active in the learning support of...
![Understanding Dyslexia as an Adult [Premium]](https://www.dyslexicadvantage.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/dyslexic-advantage-cambridge-400x250.png)
When I listened to music, I used to get really frustrated because I could never understand the words of a song that I had just heard for the first time… then I reread my report: “Isla struggles with auditory processing.” Now, I understand…that makes a lot of sense, something that I hadn’t thought about, which is why I think it’s so important.” – Isla McDade-Brown When Dr. Brock Eide was in England, he met up with young filmmaker Isla McDade-Brown from the University of York who was filming a documentary for her final Film and Television dissertation. Isla was identified with dyslexia at the age of eight, but now as a final year college student, she was reading her assessment as an adult and reflecting […]
"A GradNation report recently released by Civic Enterprises and the Everyone Graduates Center at the Johns Hopkins University School of Education shamefully found that “… students with disabilities graduate at a rate nearly 20 points lower than the average...
By Brock Eide, MD MA, co-founder of Dyslexic Advantage and Neurolearning SPC In recent years, research on reading development has revealed that truly skilled reading requires two kinds of skills: the ability to quickly and accurately decode or “sound...
FEWER COLLEGES REQUIRING STANDARDIZED TESTS If you or your students struggled with standardized tests, there is good news on college admissions as increasing numbers of schools no longer require tests for admission. This fall, over 80% of four-year colleges...
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There are millions of school children struggling with math at school. Does it matter if a student’s math struggles are identified formally as a math disability or dyscalculia? 40% of dyslexic people are likely to also have dyscalculia, but because dyscalculia is rarely assessed in schools, few individuals ever receive that designation. Does it matter? In the short term, some school professionals might say it does not matter much – because students who need help in math will get it if their scores qualify. What do we believe? Having a math LD formally identified can be helpful – although we realize that testing may not always be easily available. If you are a testing professional, consider adding the WIAT Math subtests to routine comprehensive battery […]
![Public Education is General, Make Your Education Specialized [Premium]](https://www.dyslexicadvantage.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/special-education-stars-400x250.png)
I had been re-reading Taylor and Vestergaard’s Developmental Dyslexia: Disorder or Specialization in Exploration? and reading more of the background studies that led the authors to suggest that dyslexia was a cognitive specialization with evolutionary advantages. If that is the case, it seems more important than ever to specialize education to nurture abilities that build on how dyslexic minds are optimized. Successful human problem solving groups often exhibit different types of “intelligence” and the importance of explorers can be seen in many different types of problem solving groups. For instance, studies of groups addressing crises have shown that groups that insist on consensus may develop decision inertia or persist in using solutions that worked in the past although current crises involve new problems. The presence […]
![The ‘Why’ of Accommodations: Motor, Language, Speed [Premium]](https://www.dyslexicadvantage.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/The-Why-of-Accommodations-Motor-Language-Speed--400x250.png)
Although dyslexia is typically defined in terms of its effect on reading, research studies have established much broader effects on motor systems, language, and speed of processing. If professionals are not aware of these differences, they won’t request accommodations for the students who they test, and as a result, these students will miss out on supports that help them in higher education and beyond. MOTOR AND LANGUAGE – WRITING There are motor difficulties associated with dyslexia that are unrelated to reading (Turesky et al., 2023), but rather than being a difficulty affecting speed or coordination, it is more subtle – affecting automatic learning. If you are able to sign your name without thinking about all the twists and turns your fingers make for […]
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...
![Chief of Design at Nike: John Hoke [Premium]](https://www.dyslexicadvantage.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Chief-of-Design-at-Nike-John-Hoke.png)
“I’m dyslexic, so my first real language was drawing,” he said. “Even at the youngest age I can recall, I wasn’t necessarily interested in the essay or the text, I was graphically designing the header. I doodled everything. That was the way I communicated.” — John Hoke From Fast Company: “My father was an engineer and I used to only run in the waffle trainer cause that was my shoe. I had to have it. It was the best. And when I was done, I would bandsaw the shoe in half and I would look at the two halves of the section and I’d look at my air mattresses, my pool, my bike tire or my bike tire inner tube. I was like, why can’t […]
Summertime tends to be a great time for dyslexic students. The grinding schoolwork routine is gone - and school, if at all, has fewer time commitments and less time in a seat. TAKE A BREAK First, especially if your student has had a difficult school year with heavy...
