WHY DECIMALS ARE HARD There are many confusing aspects to decimals that are helpful to recognize when helping students. Contrary to working with whole numbers, longer sequences of numbers are not larger than shorter ones. For instance, with whole numbers, 245 is greater than 2, but .0245 is smaller than 2. For math processes involving […]
PUTTING A NAME ON IT: Dyslexia, Dysgraphia, and Dyscalculia
The school year begins and then there's a lull. The first days of excitement and change are past and now teachers are trying to figure out their students and students are trying to figure out their teachers. Now is a good time for students to talk to their teachers...
READING FLUENCY: Phrase Cueing [Premium]
Once students have made significant progress with single word decoding, reading fluency practice can be rolled into reading practice with phrase cueing. HERE is a nice review of reading fluency approaches that includes a discussion of phrased reading. Phrase scooping or cueing involved the drawing of scoops underneath groups of words that go together in […]
Chat with Jack Churchill, Winston’s Great Grandson & Co-Founder of SCANNING PENS
Jack Churchill, Winston Churchill's great grandson also graciously took time out his busy schedule to talk with us about his wonderful scanning pens that are now taking the dyslexia world by storm. Scanning Pens is also one of Dyslexic Advantage newest sponsors - so...
SENSING SHAKESPEARE: New Book of Teaching Strategies
This book has wonderful strategies and examples that will be helpful for many dyslexic actors and actresses, but also middle, high school, and college students who are tasked with reading complex texts. Listen to my interview with Petronilla here: "For me, as a...
MATH: The Problem with Word Problems [Premium]
For dyslexic students, the problem with word problems isn’t just the fact that they have to be read without error – but that there are many aspects of the language commonly found in word problems that will frustrate many dyslexic students if they aren’t explicitly taught where confusions arise. Here are just a few language-based […]
[PREMIUM] The Auditory Friendly Classroom
ENVIRONMENT – Reduce background noise as much as possible (carpeted, tennis balls on chair legs, closed doors) – Preferential seating for students – away from doors, windows, noisy heaters, overhead projectors, pencil sharpeners, noisy classmates – Allow students to wear musicians earplugs while doing quiet work. – FM Speaker or Headset FOR STUDENTS – […]
Blooming in Middle School
In our one of our Premium magazine issue, we wrote about the scientific basis of late blooming and why dyslexics students - and gifted dyslexic students in particular are likely to be this way. Shelley Wear, a long-time Dyslexic Advantage volunteer and teacher of...
[PREMIUM] The Dyslexic Professor
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 […]
When Spelling Words Don’t Stick
From this book from Nancy Mather and colleagues, a 5th grader was shown a word from her adapted spelling list, then asked to write it from memory. Needless to say, the exercise was quite frustrating for the student. From the authors: "Her teacher next showed Nalan the...
[PREMIUM] Tips for Listening in Foreign Language Classrooms
Although for some dyslexic students the listening component of foreign language classes is an area of strength, many have significant challenges that teachers should be aware of in order to have a successful year. MULTISENSORY AND EXPLICIT INSTRUCTION TO HELP WITH AUDITORY DISCRIMINATION Dyslexic students can have significant challenges in the auditory discrimination of quick […]
[PREMIUM] Letter for Teachers
As the school year starts, it’s time to open up the word processing program and get to work on a letter for your student’s teachers. Letters should be customized for the particular class, subject, grade, and student’s needs. Here’s a nice example from Trish: “You have our son, *** in your second period AP Lang […]