From our Community: Can Dyslexia and Dysgraphia Affect IQ Scores? My son got officially diagnosed with both dyslexia and dysgraphia this week. I suspected he would come back with the diagnosis. What surprised me a bit were his IQ scores. The scenario is a common one – one sibling is dyslexic while the other is not. The non-dyslexic student qualifies easily for a highly capable / gifted program while the dyslexic one does not…although that may be the one who is a “head turner” because of creative thinking, intuitive leaps, and general reasoning and questioning capacity. The short answer is YES. There are many individual factors that can affect the accuracy of a student’s testing. A student’s temperament (perfectionistic, introverted), oral fluency, persistence / resilience, verbal […]
How to Become More Resilient
"Do you conceptualize an event as traumatic, or as an opportunity to learn and grow?..." Resilience is a topic that's one of our favorites because although people may temperamentally vary in how much they have of it, science shows that it is trainable, it helps people...
Never Give Up [PREMIUM]
“Throw your soldiers into positions whence there is no escape, and they will prefer death to flight. If they will face death, there is nothing they may not achieve. Officers and men alike will put forth their uttermost strength.” – Sun Tzu, The Art of War Ancient Chinese military strategist Sun Tzu recognized that extraordinary feats of courage and bravery can happen when it seems as if there is no escape. Battles are not all of the military kind, of course. Recently, real estate mogul Barbara Corcoran shared her experience when she first got contacted for starring on Shark Tank: After she had shared the news with everyone she knew, she got a call that said they had changed their mind and invited another […]
Fighting February Blues [Premium]
FIGHTING FEBRUARY BLUES There are seasonal issues that can make February an especially difficult month for everyone. The holiday rush and start of the new term are over, the daylight hours are shorter, and midterms are looming large. Work may pile up as students fall increasingly behind. They may no longer have the positive input or feedback that good parents may have provided when they were younger. Seasonal Affective Disorder is fairly common. Symptoms of seasonal affective disorder tend to begin in the teen to early adult years and affect 5-10% of the population. Symptoms may include: increased feelings of stress or anxiety, oversleeping, lowered mood, more irritability, appetite changes, changes in school performance. If students are away at college or if adults work in […]
What’s the Most Stressful Time for Dyslexic Students?
ANSWER: Grades 3-5 in Elementary School. If we know this, are we doing everything we can to help students emotionally and socially in these grades? There are many pressures that converge on the 3-5th grade (see The 3rd Grade Wall), and developmentally, it is a...
Effect of Strength-Based Coping on Children’s Stress and Coping
From Australia: "Strength-based parenting is an approach where parents deliberately identify and cultivate positive states, processes and qualities in their children," Professor Waters said. "This style of parenting adds a 'positive filter' to the way a child reacts...
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 […]
Dyslexic Advantage Premium – Issue 11 Organizing Creativity [Premium]
Premium Issue 11 October 29, 2016 Organizing Creativity, Stealth Dyslexia, Dyslexia and Self Image, Memorizing for School, What Worked for 2E Gifted Dyslexics, Art Therapy for Dysgraphia, Hands-On Math for Fractions, More Interactive Reading Strategies, Mastering Foreign Languages and More This issue has memory strategies that seem to be helpful for a majority of dyslexic folk – whether it’s history facts, science vocabulary, or foreign languages. Subscriptions support Dyslexic Advantage. [/wcm_restrict]
Dyslexia and IMPOSTER Syndrome [Premium]
“It’s only because they like me.” “I just got lucky.” “I just work hard.” “If they really knew me…” Recognize this? It’s a the voice of self-doubt, fear, and anxiety. It’s a feeling like you’re a fraud and that any time, you might be found out. Imposter syndrome was first characterized in 1978 when Clance and Imes studied a group of successful, high-achieving women. Despite their high success, these women had high levels of self-doubt and a feeling that any time, they might be found out.
The Wisdom of Pooh and Dyslexia
“You are braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.” – A.A. Milne Winnie the Pooh’s advice is smarter than we may think when it comes to encouraging young readers. What’s better than reading intervention and working memory training? Reading intervention and working memory + education about intelligence. If students believe they are not intelligent or bad at school, that negative mindset is likely to sabotage even well-planned educational programs. Students who believe that they become more intelligent step-by-step by persistence and hard work, are significantly higher achieving in reading and working memory, but also math and science. Now researchers are discovering that some studies that didn’t discover significant improvements in working memory training may have been due to this […]