Nigel Lockett is a seasoned academic, Associate Dean, Head of the Hunter Centre for Entrepreneurship, co-author of a popular entrepreneurship college textbook, award-winning teacher, and serial entrepreneur who recently embraced his dyslexia and began blogging as “The Dyslexic Professor.” Listen to Nigel’s story below. In the video below, see how he introduced PhD Environmental Science students at his university to thinking more entrepreneurially. Often there can be a resistance among traditional scientists and academicians from thinking or acting entrepreneurially, but doing so could actually help the end goal of a healthy environment. Listen to some of the young scientists speak after attending this workshop – there’s no doubt in my mind that they are better equipped to communicate their ideas to non-scientists, to […]
The Darkest Hour: A Dyslexic Tour De Force
WOW! Joe Wright's The Darkest Hour was rightly been nominated for 6 Academy Awards winning top Oscars for Gary Oldman (Best Actor) and Kazuhiro Tsuji, David Malinowski, and Lucy Sibbick for Best MakeUp and Hair Styling). Look at Gary Oldman's transformation into...
DIFFERING OPINIONS: Dyslexic or Person with Dyslexia?
If you're not aware, there are new voices calling for changes in how we refer to individuals in groups such as ours. In the 1980's, various advocacy groups called for changes in how we refer to people in order to avoid stigmatizing or dehumanizing people. For...
Q: I am an Language Arts Teacher. How Should I Give Feedback About Spelling for Dyslexic Students?
Great question. The degree of accommodations and or modifications should be individualized. SPELLCHECK Severely dyslexic students may need to dictate written work or keyboard work using spelling check. One favorite teacher of ours told us that she had a breakthrough...
[PREMIUM] Encouraging Reluctant Talkers
Although we’ve spoken about verbally-gifted dyslexics, there are also many who find speaking a challenge. HOW CAN RELUCTANT TALKERS BE ENCOURAGED TO TALK? AT HOME: Create a positive no-stress environment for talking and don’t worry about filling in gaps if and when they occur. There can be a wide variety of reasons why dyslexic children are reluctant to talk–but one thing is for sure, things will only get easier with practice. As children get older, they are more self-conscious about saying the wrong words, stammers, or pauses, so all the more reason for making the time and find ways to give them more confidence. – Talk in the car. See if talking in the car is a good place to get your child talking on […]
Auditory and Motion Processing in Dyslexia with a Twist
Although there is now a substantial research literature documenting the presence of auditory and motion processing differences among children and adults with dyslexia, for the first time that we know of, a research group is studying whether these differences can...
How a Young Dyslexic Entrepreneur Launched a $2 Million Business
When Henry's 4th grade teacher announced a trading post project where students would have to come up with an idea to sell, Henry decided to make buttons instead of baking cookies or cupcakes which were the most commonly chosen products. With buttons like "I...
[PREMIUM] Troubleshooting Procrastination
IS IT PROCRASTINATION OR TROUBLE KNOWING HOW TO BEGIN? Go Through This List to Get to the Starting Block! DO I HAVE WHAT I NEED TO BEGIN? This may be one of the most common reasons why young dyslexic writers don’t start. They’re not sure what the prompt is asking for or they don’t know how to narrow a complex subject. Often it’s the flipside to the positive ability to see so many possibilities. Sometimes it helps to help them think about how they would explain the subject to a young child. STARTING HACKS: Hacks for this temporary halt include: brainstorming with a partner to get a topic, putting together a mindmap or list of possibilities, then crossing out ideas you want to give up. […]
DYSNIE! Dyslexia at Disney
Joan Bohan is a finance executive at Disney France. Joan found our book, The Dyslexic Advantage and the Dyslexic Advantage community after discovering that her son was dyslexic. Over the past few years, it's been exciting to hear how she was able to spearhead positive...
Response to Intervention RTI Hurts Students with Dyslexia
RTI or Response To Intervention is currently the dominant approach to reading instruction in public schools across the United States (over 70% of school districts), but in a just-released progress report funded by the Department of Education from the Institute of...
[PREMIUM] Profiles in Courage: DYSLEXIA
Courage takes many forms, but if you are a member of this dyslexia community, chances are, you have it and have many times in your life when your courage was tested. Merriam Webster’s dictionary defines courage as the mental or moral strength to venture, persevere, and withstand danger, fear, or difficulty. The childhoods for most in this community are not carefree. However, there is a positive destination and there are signs that this world is slowly changing for the better. In this article, I thought I’d share excerpts from a recently published PhD that I found inspiring. The researcher was interviewing successful first-generation college students to find out why they were successful. These students were clearly gutsy, resilient, and hard-working, but they also shared the […]
Q: What Are the Best Tests for Dyscalculia? What About the Feifer Test?
Dyscalculia, or a math learning disability is important to identify because formal identification can qualify a student for accommodations both in the classroom and for high stakes tests. It can co-occur with dyslexia and it is under-recognized. We previously reviewed...