Under the IDEA or Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, a free and appropriate public education (or FAPE) is granted to eligible students with disabilities. In schools, a lot of the funding for special education and additional resources is...
Dyslexia and Your IEP
Endrew F. vs. Douglas County School District decision: "The IEP must aim to enable the child to make progress. After all, the essential function of an IEP is to set out a plan for pursuing academic and functional advancement... When all is said and done, a student...
Recovering from Pandemic Loss
Numbers are starting to trickle in from February testing and the good news is that things are beginning to recover, but younger grades are behind more than older children. The numbers below are all students, without dyslexic students studied separately, but if...
Should I Homeschool?
With a large part of the world at least partially homeschooling this past year and students falling behind, some parents are asking whether they should homeschool their kids for the rest of the school year or perhaps for the 2022-23. Homeschooling during the pandemic...
Eugene Matusov on Teaching and Motivation [Premium]
I recently discovered Eugene Matusov’s writings on motivation and agency. He is a professor at the University of Delaware and he is also dyslexic. I found it interesting that he ended up choosing a career teaching other teachers and yet his early years seem to be fairly traumatic in school. He had some very […]
Auditory Processing and Remote and Hybrid Learning
"Children with dyslexia often exhibit increased variability in sensory and cognitive aspects of hearing relative to typically developing peers." - Hornickel et al., 2012 PNAS There is a long research history establishing auditory processing difficulties among...
Dyslexia Advocacy: Say Dyslexia 2.0
From Chalkbeat's story, "NYC plans to screen nearly 200,000 students in the early grades to uncover struggling readers. Then what?" "In a massive bid to gauge reading skills following COVID-related learning disruptions, New York City’s education department is...
The Dyslexia Crisis in Schools
The house is on fire. There is a conflagration of factors coming together that are affecting dyslexic students in public school beyond COVID. COVID certainly has its share of blame and breaking the camel's back when it comes to providing essential services to...
Supporting Young Dyslexics during the Pandemic
With all the continued upheaval due the pandemic, here's some advice for trying to keep the big picture of the coming school year. DYSLEXIC DEVELOPMENT HAS ITS OWN TIME TABLE There can be a very late bloom for a lot of the younger years for dyslexics - so don't...
Helping With Homework If You’re Not A Wiz Yourself [Premium]
These are strange times and even if you’re not accustomed to helping with homework (including different types of homework), it may help a lot if you can help. Even pre-pandemic, when parents were surveyed about their helping with homework and trouble lending help, about 50% said they had difficulty… so you’re not alone. […]
Sports and Getting Outdoors [Premium]
“He started swimming lessons when he was 3,” Terri says. “At the pool, his skills just grew and grew. By middle school he was one of the most valuable members of the swim team and the other kids looked up to him. Now in high school, Shawn still has to work hard at reading and […]
Here We Go: Back to School
A survey by Decoding Dyslexia of California found, not surprisingly, that many parents reported that school closures had a negative impact on their children's education. Interestingly, about 1 in 4 said that school closures either had a positive effect or...