Category Archives: Learning

Posted on

The Vision and Learning Connection: Is It Dyslexia Or Is It Something Else?

Parents usually assume that their children are seeing normally. That’s not always the case.

According to the American Optometric Association, up to 80% of a child’s learning in school is through vision! This makes you child’s visual health extremely important.

Did you know that 1 in 10 children has a vision problem that’s significant enough to impact their learning? In the United States, that translates to over 5 million children.

Three vision skills necessary for optimal learning are:

  • Visual acuity
  • Convergence
  • Visuospatial attention

Visual Acuity

When you take your child to the pediatrician, he gets a typical vision screening. Have you ever wondered if those screenings are foolproof? The National Center for Biotechnology Information says that at least 50% of vision problems are missed by typical screenings.

In addition to that, being assured that your child has 20/20 vision only tells you he can see at a distance. It does not dismiss the possibility of visual focusing, coordinating or tracking problems – all related to learning.

Convergence

Both eyes must work together, effortlessly and without hurting. That’s convergence. When they don’t quite work together, most likely, the child will sees words on a page bounce around. The child may then tell you that the words are blurry or swimming.

Most children under seven years will assume that everyone sees like they do and say nothing.

When this eye-jumping happens in a classroom, the child may complain of feeling tired, headaches (across the forehead, above the eye brows), and/or aching eyes. Some children tilt over to one side to read, thus creating a way to read with only one eye. For these children, reading is linked with distress and comprehension of what is read is low.

Convergence problems can also cause writing problems, because of poor hand-eye coordination.

Visuospatial Attention

Skilled readers are able to focus on individual words within a cluttered page of text, and after a word has been identified, they must rapidly shift their gaze to fixate on the next word in the line. These changes in visuospatial attention must occur rapidly and accurately to enable fluent reading of a page of text.

When the eyes do not move smoothly along together, the child skips words and phrases, or entire lines while reading.

A 2007 study showed that dyslexics have visuospatial attention deficits that parallel their deficits in some linguistic measures, like verbal short-term memory.

Does your child

  • Complain of stomach aches at reading time?
  • Skip and reread lines?
  • Have poor reading comprehension?
  • Take longer to do homework?
  • Show a short attention span for close work?

It may be dyslexia, or it may be learning-related vision problems.

Be observant!

If you suspect your child is having vision problems, contact the College of Optometrists in Vision Development to locate a developmental optometrist in your area.

Have you ever had to take your child for vision testing because of learning difficulties?

Posted on

Determination: The Third Letter to My Dyslexic Daughter

A child’s high school experience can be pivotal. For a dyslexic, it’s an even greater achievement, considering that 35% of dyslexics drop out of high school.

My dearest K,

I can’t believe this time has come. You never thought you would achieve this much. But our God has been faithful! You are at the end of High School, and it’s your graduation day. Well done, my child!

Some Things Remain

Testing seemed to have been the first order of high school. Those pre- and post- IOWA tests seemed to be written in a different language and the New York State Regents examinations loomed ahead and you didn’t know what to expect. Now, the bulk of schoolwork had to be done at home, since school hours were spent in discussions and experiments.

You still struggled for hours, every night, to complete your homework assignments; and your late nights made it difficult to wake up early for school, the next day. But you pushed on. It was a blessing you had the Learning Ally audio textbooks to accompany your print books.

You still weren’t very motivated to go to school, but you went, without complaining.

Do you remember how, in addition to your school, you had to work through those brain exercises and the Learning Ears program? It seemed like intervention programs would never end, but I kept pushing and encouraging you.

A New Experience

High school was different from elementary and middle school. For you, it was a good change. Here students were expected to be responsible and you were no longer dependent on teachers.

The many intervention programs began to pay off. You’re reading better and not afraid to be called to read in class. You learned tips and tricks of blending with the crowd and appearing “normal,”

You were involved in more student interaction and collaborations and were accepted into the groups without question.

Teachers

Your teachers here were empowering and less punitive.

Your 9th grade homeroom teacher set the tone and spiritual foundation for your high school experience. She was kind, supportive, friendly, yet demonstrated excellent classroom control.

Your 12th grade homeroom teacher and Digital Media teacher (whom we found out later is also dyslexic) were great cheerleaders.

You history teacher taught you much about the philosophy of living, and kept you curious about life and the world.

I don’t know what you told him, since you determined not to let anyone in your school know you were dyslexic, but it was admirable of your Bible teacher to allow you to take his scripture memorization tests verbally, rather than written.

Your science teacher, Ms. A., took the crown. She was focused on your success. She was the reason you scored so high on the Biology Regents. She taught you how to explain yourself verbally and on a written test. She moved around the class and met you and your classmates on your level. The atmosphere she created in her classroom made it easy to ask any question, and not feel ridiculed. Along with that, she seemed to put extra effort into getting you to the point of clarity, then remembered to celebrate your successes and cheer you on to the next level. All in all, she made learning fun, and your high school experience enjoyable.

Your teachers didn’t seem bent on embarrassing you, but allowed you to take responsibility for your decisions and actions.

Friends

It was easier to relate to your classmates and you acquired female friends. Even when you misspelled or verbally mixed up words and phrases, your friends just laughed, corrected you and moved on. When you didn’t understand some concepts, they chuckled and explained it. It just wasn’t a big deal!

What relief I felt that you maintained a pleasant demeanor and displayed no more evidence of daily anxiety. The communal atmosphere certainly added to what I was doing to build your self-esteem. You took your inclusion in activities and the respect shown to you as evidence of your friends’ trust.

To top it off, your peers considered you to be smart.

Successes 

Your work ethic began to pay off – you are reading better.

More importantly, you now understand the implications of your different thinking style and have discovered how to teach yourself to learn, and developed a personal manifesto:

  • Passing or failing is a decision.
  • If you wanted to pass, you needed to prepare, and it was up to you to adequately prepare for upcoming examinations.
  • It was okay for your preparation to look different from your peers.
  • You should not rely on your teachers or even me.
  • You must be deliberate and intentional when asking questions.
  • You will remain after school and ask your teachers additional questions to further your understanding of the concepts taught that day.

Finally getting a grasp of how you learned helped you prepare for and pass you exams.

Your high school experiences helped you see that, although you may learn and see the world differently from others, the foundation for success is the same.

You made a conscious decision to pass and be a success in life.

Do you remember the knot-board you created for your club assignment? It was so creatively organized – so exceptional – the club director kept it as a sample to show future members.

Your decision to be intentional about your success permeated every area of your life.

You are admired by young people and adults alike.

Today, you graduate Valedictorian of your class. Yes! VALEDICTORIAN!!!

You deserve every moment of your celebration!

Look out College. Here she comes!

Love,

Mom

How has your child overcome personal challenges to achieve success in some area of life?

Posted on

From Drug Addiction to Academy Award-Winning Actress – A Dyslexia Success Story

Only a few people have won an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar, and a Tony Award (EGOT). Caryn Elaine Johnson is one of them.

She was born on November 13, 1955 in Chelsea, New York and grew up in a housing project with her brother and mother, who was a nurse and later became a Head Start teacher.

In school, she was called “slow,” “dumb,” “lazy,” or “retarded.” She wasn’t diagnosed with dyslexia until she was an adult, so when school kept getting harder and harder, she eventually dropped out at 17. With her self-esteem low, she traveled a turbulent road in life, which included poverty, drug addiction, single motherhood, welfare, and a series of wide ranging jobs.

In his interview for the Child Mind Institute, the founder, Dr. Harold Koplewicz, called her a woman of grit and resilience.

Today, we know her as Whoopi Goldberg, actress, comedian, radio host, television personality, author and UNICEF International Goodwill Ambassador. Listen to her recall some of her challenges and her mom’s support in her interview with Quinn Bradlee:

She counsels parents to be supportive of their dyslexic children –  “Stop trying to find a reason why it happened… It’s not your fault… Pay attention to how your child is doing stuff.”  

Then, listen to her speak at the Goodwin College 2018 Commencement where she counsels the graduates, after receiving an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters.

How can you build your child’s self-esteem at home to combat the negative labels in school?

Posted on

Unlocking the Dyslexic Potential

When you consider the vast advancements that have been made in science and technology, and the multiple methods for accessing information, it is fair to say that schools and institutes of learning insist on using, as Dean Bragonier puts it, “the most archaic form of educational media.”

If dyslexia is considered a different way of thinking rather than a disadvantage; if the different patterns of strengths and challenges are kept in mind; if as much importance is placed on those strengths as their difficulties; then early intervention and continued support would be made a priority.

Imagine a world where the thinking skills that dyslexics excel at are used to prepare them to contribute to their communities and the world. What would be the possibilities?

You may be wondering what those skills are. Here are they:

  • Visualizing
    • 75% of dyslexics are above average.
  • Imagining
    • 84% are above average.
  • Communicating
    • 71% are above average.
  • Reasoning
    • 84% are above average.
  • Connecting
    • 80% are above average.
  • Exploring
    • 84% are above average.

After many years of struggle, usually, with very little significant support, many dyslexics gravitate to career paths that cater to their preferred way of thinking.

In my previous article, I cited some data from Dr. Gershen Kaufman. Here’s some more:

  • 35% of all entrepreneurs are dyslexic.
  • 40% of self-made millionaires are dyslexic.
  • Over 50% of NASA engineers are dyslexic.

In his autobiography, Nicholas Negroponte, founder of the MIT Media Lab and the One Laptop per Child Association, called dyslexia the MIT disease because of how common it is among students on the campus of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

If you’re not already familiar with the world of dyslexia, it’s time to educate yourself about it and encourage every teacher and educator to do the same. After all, if one in five children are dyslexic, there is at least one child in every class who can be identified with dyslexia.

What are you willing to do to support the movement to reshape the teaching industry in the area of dyslexia?

Posted on

Learning Denied – The Dyslexia Dilemma

Dyslexia and similar learning differences often show up in a child who appears bright, highly intelligent, and quite articulate for his age. Unexpectedly, this same child has difficulty reading, writing, and spelling at grade level.

Sadly, many of these children will go through life labelled as lazy, careless, dumb, displaying immature or inappropriate behavior, or “not living up to his or her potential.”

Why do they get these labels?

They usually score average or high on IQ tests and aren’t lagging behind their peers badly enough to qualify for specialized intervention. If you ask them questions about what they heard from you, they’ll, most likely, answer adequately, yet their written tests are atrocious.

Added to that, they often zone out, daydream, and lose track of time. It appears that they have difficulty sustaining attention to anything they’re not personally interested in.

There are also those children who are confused with right and left. Not just in terms of the direction, but also with their handedness. They may write with the right hand, but do other activities with the left. Some mispronounce words, by switching letters or transposing words, for example, saying “mower lawn” for “lawn mower.”

One sign of dyslexia that’s commonly overlooked is word-finding difficulties. This leads to trouble expressing oneself and can have a social impact on the dyslexic. They often suffer from low self-esteem, thinking that there’s something wrong with them, because they’re not like the “normal” children.

What happens to dyslexics?

As students, they are ridiculed by classmatea and teachers alike, causing them to be isolated and, by middle and high school, seek the company of peers engaged in risky behaviors like drugs and alcohol.

Everyday experiences of failure, ridicule and not measuring up to expectations, sow seeds of shame, which grow in the minds, emotions, and souls of young children who are just beginning to discover their potential and form their identities.

Dr. Gershen Kaufman discovered in his study on shame culture that people who cannot read feel the same level of shame as people who have engaged in incest.

Where do these feelings lead?

Shame and rage seem to love to keep each other’s company. For the dyslexic, school becomes a place where there’s a struggle to survive instead of a place where joy is experienced in learning.

In Dr. Kaufman’s research, he found that:

  • 35% of dyslexics drop out of high school.
  • 50% of all adolescents involved in drugs and alcohol rehabilitation are dyslexic.
  • 70% of juvenile delinquents are dyslexic.

Dean Bragonier, the founder of NoticeAbility – a nonprofit dedicated to changing the world for students with dyslexia – summarizes the statistics this way, “Some of the most creative and innovative minds are wasting away behind bars.”

It is obvious from these statistics that early identification of dyslexia is crucial. Not only is initial identification essential, timely remediation of learning disabilities associated with it is also necessary.

What is one way you can contribute to eradicating this dyslexia dilemma?

Posted on

The Skinny On Hearing… Listening… And Dyslexia – Part 1

When asked what does our ears do, many people will say that they hear.

Did you know that hearing is not the ear’s only function?

Most of the sensory energy transferred to the brain goes through the ears. They:

  • Regulate balance
  • Direct movement and coordination
  • Permit language
  • Cause us to speak eloquently
  • Make us sing in tune
  • Adjust our eyes when we read
  • Control our arm, hand, and finger movements when we write
  • Protect us from sounds we do not want to hear, e.g. sounds of our own body

In addition to all of that good stuff, the ears are interconnected with several levels of the brain and act as a double antenna through which it receives messages from the body and the environment.

So, you can see, your ears are your link to your inner world and the outside world.

What is listening?

Merriam-Webster defines it as paying attention; hearing something with thoughtful attention.

This definition denotes that listening is an active process through which we make sense of, evaluate and respond to what we hear.

On the other hand, hearing is passive – once the hearing mechanism is physically intact, sound enters the ears and travels along the auditory pathway to the brain, where the sound waves are changed to electrical signals and given meaning.

Listening, therefore, brings harmony within us, as well as in our relationships with others. When listening does not develop in a satisfactory manner, the harmony is broken and good communication is sabotaged.

Although some generate good results with sustained effort on the part of the child, many of the programs promoted as interventions for the reading difficulties experienced by dyslexics are minimally effective.

While there is efficacy in practice, considering Herman Ebbinghaus’ work on memory (without context, about 50% of what is heard is forgotten within 1 hour), most remediation programs include multiple repetitions of instruction with lots of drill and practice, without any work to eliminate underlying issues with foundational skills, like listening.

I have not read any scientific or academic research studies, which looked at improving listening as an avenue for alleviating reading difficulties, but I have my own anecdotal experience. As mentioned in my previous post, when my dyslexic daughter completed The Listening Program, her singing voice improved (the voice can only produce what the ear can hear). In addition to that, she demonstrated better attending skills. This led to increased success in learning and communication.

Have you or any of your children experienced any form of auditory stimulation?

Posted on

Dyslexia and the “Sound” of Learning

Knowledge…learning…education, fueled by literacy, are keys to success.

Traditionally, literacy is defined as the ability to read and write.

A more complete definition, however, encompasses listening, speaking, reading and writing and today, using electronic media.

The major goal of every educator and parent should be to instill in children a solid foundation of transferable skills and a life-long love of reading and learning. To stay relevant, our children must constantly update their knowledge base. Hence, the prioritizing of literacy.

Dr.Carol Flexer, professor of audiology at the University of Akron, explains the importance of literacy this way,

“Literacy is inextricably entwined with sound. Immature listening abilities and underdeveloped auditory feedback loops have a substantial impact on how children learn to read.”

Literacy is all about sound. All its components incorporate sound in some way. Children learn to speak from listening. They learn to read from speaking and to write from reading.

Although our ears are the conduits for sound, we hear with our brains. Human development studies tell us that the human auditory brain structure does not fully mature until around age 15.

When brains do not receive intact sound, it is usually due to any one or a combination of factors, which include a noisy environment, ear infection, lack of auditory experience or immature brain development. Dyslexics have trouble connecting the sounds that make up words with the letters that represent those sounds. For them, the problem is often immature brain development.

Brain development studies show that sensory stimulation can influence growth and organization of auditory brain pathways.

That is why a number of currently available programs are helping dyslexic children develop their language and literacy skills. They are able to stimulate the auditory centers of the brain with precise sound. Music listening therapy helped my daughter tremendously.

This is good news for the dyslexic community.

Does this mean that every dyslexic person who receives this type of stimulation will learn to read at the same level as his non-dyslexic peers?

No.

Just as there is a continuum in the severity of characteristics in dyslexics, there is variety in their response to various sound development programs.

As technology takes over more and more, the skills that dyslexics find challenging are on the decline, while the thinking skills needed in today’s workplace are an integral component of their strengths.

Does interpretation of sound still matter? Yes.

But let us keep things in perspective. The goal is to learn concepts and generate ideas that will serve humanity and improve society.

There’s eye-reading – print books; ear-reading – audiobooks; and finger reading – braille. Whichever method one uses to accomplish this goal, is what’s best for him.

Which method of reading do you and your children prefer?

Posted on

Perseverance: Another Letter to My Dyslexic Daughter

Letters can be very personal and are often treasured by the receiver, so I’ve penned another letter to my daughter.

My dearest K,

You have hated every minute in school and never thought you would have made it this far. But, here you are at the end of the eighth grade. Congratulations, my child!

Struggles

My heart ached every time I saw how difficult it was for you to read out loud. We would practice your scripts and Bible verses for church, until you had them memorized. But those times when you were called on suddenly, because the church leaders perceived you to be such a brilliant young lady, I was embarrassed for you, as you labored to get through the readings.

Then there was the dreaded school. Every day. I made you go even when you complained of feeling sick, because I thought you were trying to escape. Unlike your third grade teacher, you middle school teachers did not understand the challenges of dyslexia, neither did they seem to want to.

I cringe every time I think of the public humiliation you endured, dying a thousand deaths every day. My heart aches when you recall how a teacher would unmercifully keep embarrassing you for reading aloud haltingly. Or making derogatory statements when you didn’t quite process and understand her question, preferring to think you hadn’t prepared at home, when you had spent many hours doing so, and fell into bed exhausted, every night.

No wonder you preferred hanging out with the boys. Unlike the girls who sat around talking about the books they were reading, they ran and jumped and played games you could identify with and feel accomplished.

Spelling continued to haunt you. Now, even more than before considering the difficulty of the assigned textbook.

Do you recall your difficulty reading social cues and showing appropriate behavior for different places? There was that time when you were playing with classmates instead of lining up and you were punished by having the class treasurer job – the one thing you exceled at and cherished, taken away. That was very poor judgment and downright mean of the teacher.

I can only imagine the way your experiences eroded your trust in adults who glossed over the tasks you accomplished, but humiliated you for the ones you did not do because you did not know how.

Successes  

On the other hand, do you remember how you learned to find your orientation point so you stopped your mind’s eye from roaming and getting you disoriented? And the clock technique that helped you go to sleep at night and wake up in the mornings?

Then, I got you that music listening therapy program to tune up your ears and your brain and you learned that your brain is musical. As your listening improved, so did your singing voice.

When we started to travel to other countries, your eyes were opened and your mind exploded when you realized that there was more to life than the struggle at school, and more ways of expressing yourself and viewing intelligence. You were permanently changed.

Traveling gave you an opportunity to see what you learned in books come to life. You observed firsthand, different cultures, food, governments and ways of life. Theory was now real.

Added to that, our extended family dynamics allowed you to ask any question and get an answer, without making you feel stupid.  

You have worked so hard and so diligently.

I continue to be very proud of you.

In spite of the challenges you encountered because of dyslexia, you courageously plowed ahead and conquered them.

You are getting better, every day.

Today, you graduate with high honors.

You deserve every moment of your celebration!

Now, on to High School. I’m in your corner and you will succeed!

Love,

Mom

What positive experiences can you reinforce in your child to counter the struggles they experience, every day?

Posted on

From School Dropout to Founder of the Virgin Group – A Dyslexia Success Story

“I was dyslexic, I had no understanding of schoolwork whatsoever. I certainly would have failed IQ tests.” ~ Richard Branson

Sir Richard Charles Nicholas Branson was born on July 18, 1950, at Blackheath, London. His father was a barrister and his mother a flight attendant. His academic performance was poor. He was always interested in becoming an entrepreneur, so he dropped out of school at age 15, to start his first business…a magazine named Student. Listen to this interview in which he credits dyslexia with helping him.

He founded the Virgin Group in the 1970s. In 1984, he started Virgin Atlantic Airlines. In 2004, he founded spaceflight corporation Virgin Galactic, based at Mojave Air and Space Port, for the SpaceShipTwo suborbital spaceplane designed for space tourism. Today, his group controls more than 400 companies in various fields.

Having faced a lifetime of failures, Branson noted, “I suppose the secret to bouncing back is not only to be unafraid of failures but to use them as motivational and learning tools.”

Branson learned he was dyslexic as an adult. In one of his many interviews, he counseled, “Never give up… Fight, fight, fight to survive.”

Talking about dreams, he says, “If your dreams don’t scare you, they are too small.”

Do you have a dream that scares you?

Have you asked your children (dyslexic and non-dyslexic) about their dream lately?

Posted on

Decoding Dyslexia – Decoding the Mind

When most people consider dyslexia, they think it is just about struggling to read. What is often missed is that there is also a speech processing component involved.

If parents and teachers are aware of initial warning signs of dyslexia, early intervention with research-based remediation can be used to help these children.

It is easy for observers to label children who confuse letters like b and d as dyslexic while missing those who struggle to link letters with sounds.

When I worked in a public school district as a speech-language pathologist, many teachers complained that some of their students were unable to recognize, much less manipulate, the sounds in words – a process (phonological decoding) that is unconscious and automatic, but still an integral part of reading.

Knowing that I advocated for screening and helping dyslexic students, they were quick to tell me about the students who confused letters, not realizing that letter reversals are common to all students up to grade one, but although perplexed and frustrated with the students who were unable to hear and process sounds, they never linked their difficulty with dyslexia.

Whereas speaking is a natural outgrowth of listening and associating with speaking adults and older children, reading must be taught. However, it requires some prerequisite skills. The child must somehow recognize that spoken words are made up of sounds, or else the work that letters do becomes mysterious.

The reading brain network uses mechanisms from the speech and language brain network. Because of that, atypical speech in young children is a red flag for atypical reading and also dyslexia.

So, parents, when you read Dr. Seuss’s books and nursery rhymes to your children and they have trouble with the rhymes and wordplay, take that as warning signs and have your child screened for dyslexia. You can read more about the connectedness in the phenomenal human brain here.

Did you know that children who demonstrate difficulty with speech, like mispronouncing long words, or transposing phrases, words, and syllables when speaking could be dyslexic?