Dyslexic Super Learners [Premium]

Dyslexic Super Learners [Premium]

“This isn’t how I think either; this is how I have trained myself to think, because it works.” – Kevin Horsley, World Memory Champion and author of Unlimited Memory   It seems surprisingly common that dyslexics are found among the world’s super-learners. It might be that all share a passion for understanding their memory strengths after suffering what may have been years in the school system, not realizing how to use their gifts. It also might be that dyslexics as a group have strengths in metacognition, especially when studied in selected groups like those found in universities. When Kirby and colleagues studied dyslexic and non dyslexic students in college, his study group of dyslexic students were more likely to use metacognition (i.e. thinking about their thinking), […]

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Understanding Dyslexia as an Exploratory Advantage [Premium]

Understanding Dyslexia as an Exploratory Advantage [Premium]

“Approaches to explaining developmental dyslexia must account for both the difficulties and the enhanced abilities that are typical of people with developmental dyslexia. All the proposed strengths… relate in some way to seeking out the unknown, often at the expense of exploiting known information. A useful framework for tying together these observations is cognitive search, which involves a trade-off between exploration–exploitation.” — Helen Taylor and Martin David Vestergaard   In an extraordinary article in Frontiers in Psychology, two Cambridge University scholars have put forth a paradigm-shifting concept of dyslexia that integrates over a century of research from diverse perspectives. It is a tour-de-force that might help society put dyslexia in its proper context. From the paper (the simple term “dyslexia” is substituted for developmental dyslexia […]

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Reading Fluency for College [Premium]

Reading Fluency for College [Premium]

Recently we were contacted by a student who wanted to improve his reading fluency before attending college. He had completed a full course of “Wilson and Orton-Gillingham” yet his reading was still slow and effortful. He asked, “Is there anything I can do to improve my reading to help me be successful in college?”   ANSWER: First of all, good for you for looking ahead and preparing yourself for college. It is possible to get through college with slow effortful reading, but probably only if you’re competent with assistive technology and can listen to all of your books instead of reading them traditionally. Although most colleges and universities are required to make “reasonable accommodations,” schools and individual faculty members can vary, and practical issues – […]

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Daydreaming While Reading [Premium]

Daydreaming While Reading [Premium]

“There are certain half-dreaming moods of mind in which we naturally steal away from noise and glare, and seek some quiet haunt where we may indulge our reveries and build our air castles undisturbed.” – Washington Irving   Daydreaming holds a curious position in the areas of science. On the one hand, daydreaming has been seen as a negative, associated with inattention and poor task persistence, but on the other, associated with creative behavior and personal inspiration. Neuroscientists have taken a renewed interest in daydreaming because daydream pathways activate the default mode network, a brain network that is now known to be important for reflecting on one’s self as well as others, remembering the past, and imagining the future. Studies of dyslexic and non-dyslexic people […]

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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, some accommodations […]

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Hands-on Math and Games with Ronit Bird [Premium]

Hands-on Math and Games with Ronit Bird [Premium]

Recently, I discovered the math activities of Ronit Bird.   Ronit Bird is the author of several books about Dyscalculia. She has helpful tips for parents and teachers about concrete manipulatives and building up a sense of number through activities more than worksheets. I confess, I wish I had had this more when I was a kid. The tricky thing about math and activities even if you’re home schooling or home-enriching is that students who are weak in an area will often not want to do it, even if it’s something that would be beneficial for them to do. In our family, we had one child who was very, very good at all types of speed-based computer games, and another who was decidedly not good […]

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Cognitive Overload [Premium]

Cognitive Overload [Premium]

Here is a nice overview of cognitive load theory – the only downside is due to some ads, but that’s YouTube for you.   Everyone is susceptible to cognitive overload, but overload increases with stress (pandemic anyone?), younger age, and dyslexia. Some people have small working memory capacities which may make them more prone to cognitive overload. As a group, dyslexics tend to be more susceptible to cognitive overload, meaning that they are more dependent on how information is taught.     If you’re dyslexic yourself, it’s good to periodically do a productivity check. If you’re a college student, chances are you already know what it means to have memory overload. Students can prepare for tough subjects by reviewing in advance (finding a relevant video […]

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Tech Executive Justin Johnson [Premium]

Tech Executive Justin Johnson [Premium]

“One of the things I love about startups is I get to engage the strategic thinking part of my brain across a broad set of things…”   John Edgar introduced me to Justin from Macrometa and he shared his career and dyslexia story with me: “What I do now is, I work in a very early stage startup. So I do a lot of different things. Part of it’s visual, I manage user experience. With UX UI, or Developer Console, our company is kind of like cloud computing, like Amazon Web Services. We just have a little different play on it, where we do a lot of similar things to what Amazon does, we just do it all distributed across multiple locations, and we manage […]

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