Academic Remediation

What I Do

Many families with elementary school children face daily homework battles -- which both parents and children dread.

A little-known cause of these battles is that many children struggle with handwriting -- their written work embarrasses them, handwriting is physically difficult for them, or producing handwritten work takes up so much mental effort that they aren't really showing what they know.

I can help.

I am trained in Handwriting Without Tears (HWT), and use the teaching principles from HWT and my own background in teaching various sports to help children whose schools use other handwriting systems (Zanner-Blosser, D'Nealian, and others) to develop fast and accurate handwriting.

If the child does not make significant progress in accuracy and speed after 15 hours of tutoring, the child's issues may be beyond my scope.  I have a referral list of local Occupational Therapists (OTs) who may be of further assistance.

Some children struggle with reading.

I can help.

Depending upon the child's needs, I use The Barton Method of Reading and Spelling, Funnix, and several fluency programs to help children achieve grade-level or above reading speeds and comprehension.

Some children struggle with math.

Some  of those children who struggle with math or arithmetic in the early grades have underlying handwriting issues.  Others need more practice with physical representations of math ("manipulatives") before moving on to abstract math problems (11+19=?).  I have the skills and tools to help such children.

Some children with attentional issues need more structured practice

Attentional issues are the core problem in ADHD and are also present in some people with autism.  Handwriting issues are also common in ADHD and autism.   Structured, direct practice can improve these students' handwriting. 

If you are interested in getting your child help, you can contact me directly via email: academic.remediation@gmail.com , through the tutor-matching service WyzAnt or through Thumbtack,  http://www.thumbtack.com/Handwriting,Reading, and Math Help for Grades K-5

Using Mobile Screens To Make Reading Easier For Dyslexics | Co.Exist: World changing ideas and innovation

Using Mobile Screens To Make Reading Easier For Dyslexics | Co.Exist: World changing ideas and innovation.

When Dr. Matthew Schneps needs to read, he turns to his iPhone 4S. The handset’s 3.5-inch screen squeezes text into one skinny column, which is helpful because the Harvard astrophysicist has dyslexia. Schneps finds the repackaged text easier to focus on, allowing him to better absorb everything from news articles to books to technical papers.

Before Schneps discovered this tactic, he had given up reading books and struggled to parse the scientific proposals and papers he encountered as an academic. Reading felt "overwhelming," he says. Now Schneps is bringing his method to a broader audience. Backed by the National Science Foundation and a Youth Access Grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, he and several other researchers from the Laboratory for Visual Learning at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics are investigating whether people with dyslexia benefit from reading on handheld devices with small screens.

OnMedica - News - Dyslexia still a blight for kids, despite treatment advances

OnMedica - News - Dyslexia still a blight for kids, despite treatment advances.

Most children are only diagnosed with dyslexia after they have experienced serious difficulties in school, at a time when it is much harder for them to master new skills, and this could be thwarting their ability to fully realise their potential, say the authors. 

“Professionals should not wait until children are formally diagnosed with dyslexia or experience repeated failures before implementation of reading treatment, because remediation is less effective than early intervention”, explain Robin Peterson and Bruce Pennington from the University of Denver in Colorado, USA. 

About 7% of the population are dyslexic, and boys are about twice as likely to have dyslexia as girls. Mounting evidence suggests that the underlying problem involves difficulty with how sounds in language are heard and mapped onto letters — phonological impairment.

Advice from the OT Part 4 – Teach Your Students the Right Way to Write

This is must reading for all parents, but especially parents of preschoolers and kindergarteners.

Advice from the OT Part 4 – Teach Your Students the Right Way to Write.

In New York City, where I practice, children are expected to be able to write at the age of four. In my clinical opinion, this is two full years before they are developmentally ready, and does more harm than good.  If a child does not yet have the internal strength and stability to perform such a high level task, in order to comply with the grownups demands, he is going to have to manufacture it by straining and contorting his body in a very unnatural way.  This sets him up for a lifetime of poor posture and bad habits.

Accelerated Reader: Undermining literacy while plundering library budgets « The Life That Chose Me

Accelerated Reader: Undermining literacy while plundering library budgets « The Life That Chose Me.

Here is a great article by Gary Stager on the shortcomings of AR and how it drains schools of scarce resources while creating and exacerbating a problem that it is claiming to address.  What I want to add to the conversation is first-hand experience with how AR, and its implementation has had a detrimental effect on reading in our household.

Emotional issues may follow motor problems in kids

Emotional issues may follow motor problems in kids.

Coordination issues -- sometimes diagnosed as developmental coordination disorder (DCD) -- prevent people from accomplishing everyday tasks, such as using scissors or buttoning their shirts. The disorder can lead to frustration at school, at home and on the playground. 

"Traditionally it was believed that children would outgrow any motor problems but there is now much evidence that these difficulties may continue into adolescence and beyond," wrote Daniela Rigoli, the study's lead author and a researcher at Curtin University in Western Australia, in an email. 

For the new study, published in the journal Pediatrics, Rigoli and her colleagues decided to see if, and how, the link between coordination and emotional issues like anxiety and depression is influenced by the way children with DCD see themselves.

Why Colleges Need Dyslexic Students

Successful dyslexics share their differences and why they flourished in higher education and later in their careers. This short video is the highlights from the Yale Center for Dyslexia and Creativity-sponsored conference for college admissions professionals.

Ellen Galinsky: Executive Function Skills Are Essential to America's Present and Future

Ellen Galinsky: Executive Function Skills Are Essential to America's Present and Future.

Just what are executive functions skills? Executive function skills take place in the prefrontal cortex of the brain and other areas of the brain working in concert with it. We use these skills to manage our attention, our emotions, our intellect, and our behavior to reach our goals. They include: 

• Focus -- being able to pay attention; Working memory -- being able to keep information in mind in order to use it; Cognitive flexibility -- being able to adjust to shifting needs and demands; and Inhibitory control -- being able to resist the temptation to go on automatic and do what we need to do to achieve our goals. As children grow older, these skills include reflecting, analyzing, planning and evaluating. Executive function skills are always goal-driven.  
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Reading Disability in Grades 3 - 8: Neurocognitive Fact | Kennedy Krieger Institute

Reading Disability in Grades 3 - 8: Neurocognitive Fact | Kennedy Krieger Institute.

Reading Disability in Grades 3 - 8: Neurocognitive Fact Principal Investigator: Martha Denckla The overarching goal of this Research Center is to examine the reading disabilities (RDs) present in children grades 3-8, including classification, identification, treatment, prevalence, neurocognitive characteristics, as well as the influence of comorbidities (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder; ADHD) on reading. While much is known about early reading development and disorders, there has been much less examination of reading and RDs past the early elementary grades. Therefore, there is a critical gap in knowledge about what it takes for a reader to be able to effectively glean information - or learn - from text, even though this is arguably the most important skill needed to achieve academic success after the 3rd grade. Our Research Center seeks to fill this critical gap in knowledge by bringing together a diverse and talented set of researchers and institutions (Kennedy Krieger Institute, Haskins Laboratories, Educational Testing Services (ETS), and University of Maryland) to conduct inter-related projects, the findings from which will allow us to gain a deep understanding of the neurobiological and behavioral processes that influence reading achievement past the early elementary grades. Our overarching hypothesis is that RDs past the early elementary years are heterogeneous in nature, caused by both "bottom up" and "top down" processes. Within this context, we propose projects that 

The State of Grade Inflation: 11 Unsettling Stats | Accredited Online Colleges.com

The State of Grade Inflation: 11 Unsettling Stats | Accredited Online Colleges.com.

If you’ve spent a Saturday morning driving around Suburbia, it’s entirely possible that you’ve seen hordes of children playing soccer in leagues that don’t keep score. Preferring to focus on "fun" and "positivity," the kids in these leagues don’t learn about winning and losing, but rather, the importance of simply showing up and participating. Certainly the kids are having fun, but some parents worry that a game without consideration of effort may be sending children the wrong message. 

It seems that the same concept is increasingly being applied to higher education, and especially at top schools like Harvard and Columbia, where making it through a stringent admissions process practically grants students the ticket to an Ivy League 3.0 GPA or higher. We’ve discovered 11 statistics that indicate grade inflation is a serious problem that may have today’s college students feeling like they’re playing a game without consequences.

Student Toolkit

this isn't a review, merely a link to an interesting and possibly useful page.

Student Toolkit.

Most things can be done in more than one way. Some ways will work better, some will be easy in the short term but work badly in the long term. This site aims to suggest simple ways to make learning more effective. It’s not just for the able, or those who struggle. It’s for any secondary student who wants to find a better way to do things. 

The links in the menu above take you to the main stages of learning, as summarised in the slideshow. These key ideas are also categories of post, so use the links on the left for recent additions and resources. Some of these are simple suggestions, some are printable – usually pdfs that you can write on. The hope is that you can apply the ideas quickly and easily, but there is a catch. You have to want to

Critical thinking explained in six kid-friendly animations

Critical thinking explained in six kid-friendly animations.

Critical thinking explained in six kid-friendly animations If you've been looking for a crash course in basic logic — or just want to explain to a friend exactly what a logical fallacy is — turn your attention to these simple, easy-to-understand videos, which lay out the basics of critical thinking. 

Creative solutions agency Bridge 8 created these animations to offer a basic overview of critical thinking. The videos were designed for an audience of kids (Edit: Australian grades, not ages) 8-10, but they're handy for anyone who wants to brush up on their logic.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSZ3BUru59A&feature=related

KU researchers mapping out students’ learning processes / LJWorld.com

This sounds fascinating.  I will have to dig deeper into this project.

KU researchers mapping out students’ learning processes / LJWorld.com.

Those working on a project funded by the largest grant in Kansas University history are part of a larger national effort to change the way testing is done at elementary and secondary schools. 

Neal Kingston, director of KU’s Center for Educational Testing and Evaluation, leads the $22 million project that was announced in October 2010. 

To get to the new tests, KU researchers are working on what they call dynamic learning maps, which look like large, complicated flow charts that show how students get from knowing none of the skills they learn in school to knowing everything they know at graduation from high school. 

 These are, to say the least, large documents. Putting together a complete picture For an upcoming conference, Kingston said the group plans to print one of the learning maps in a font size that’s large enough to read. It will be 6 feet tall and about 30 feet long, he said.

BishopBlog: Neuroscientific interventions for dyslexia: red flags

BishopBlog: Neuroscientific interventions for dyslexia: red flags.

I’m often asked for my views about interventions for dyslexia and related disorders. In recent years there has been a proliferation of interventions offered on the web, many of which claim to treat the brain basis of dyslexia. In theory, this seems a great idea; rather than slogging away at teaching children to read, fix the underlying brain problem. If your child is struggling at school, it can be very tempting to try something that claims to re-organise or stimulate the brain. The problem, though, is sorting the wheat from the chaff. There's no regulation of educational interventions and it can be hard for parents to judge whether it is worth investing time and money in a new approach. My aim here is to provide some objective criteria that can be used. First, there is scientific evaluation: does the intervention have a plausible basis, and how has it been tested? Where claims are made about changing the brain, are they based on solid neuroscientific research? Second, there are red flags, some of which I listed in a previous post on ‘Pioneering treatment or quackery?” Here I've gathered these together so that there is a ready checklist that can be applied when a new intervention surfaces.

Parents and Teachers Misunderstand Learning Disabilities

October 2010 Roper Poll Results.

“Our findings show an alarming lack of knowledge by parents and educators about learning disabilities, said Stewart J. Hudson, President of the Tremaine Foundation. “These findings threaten our children’s futures and undermine efforts to improve educational outcomes for all.” 

Learning disabilities are neurologically based; however people with learning disabilities have average to above-average intelligence. Their brains process information differently which often leads to problems learning how to read, write and do math. Seven out of ten parents, educators and school administrators incorrectly linked learning disabilities with mental retardation. 

This dangerous confusion reinforces the stigma around learning disabilities. It also does a great disservice to the roughly 2.6 million students (one in eight in the United States) who have been diagnosed with learning disability. Many more go undiagnosed or unremediated despite schools’ legal obligation to do so. “This is extremely troubling,” declared Hudson. “We talk a lot about the achievement gap in our education system, but unless parents, educators and school administrators understand learning disabilities and proactively address them, the achievement gap will never close.”

Essay Writing Made Easy- The Easy Essay!

I haven't used this resource yet but it got good reviews from educators.

Essay Writing Made Easy- The Easy Essay!.

The Easy Essay is the 2+2=4 of writing. Just as 2+2=4 works at all levels of mathematics, The Easy Essay Process works at all levels of expository/proof writing. It is being used by children who can write a simple sentence and is being taught as a college class. The Easy Essay is useful in TBI, ADHD, Sp Ed and dyslexia through and beyond the SAT and GED exams. Several graduate students are using it to organize their master's thesis' and a doctor is using it as a template for organizing the chapters in a book on new medical procedures, as the program can expand from the basic five paragraph essay to a 17 paragraph paper (i.e. a chapter). The Process can be learned in 5 minutes by following simple prompts and can be later used or taught without a computer. It is effective in any language and is limited only by the capacity of the user. The Program also has many business applications. Basically, The Easy Essay is helpful for almost anyone who desires to better organize their thoughts.

Dietary and nutritional treatments for a... [Curr Psychiatry Rep. 2011] - PubMed - NCBI

Dietary and nutritional treatments for a... [Curr Psychiatry Rep. 2011] - PubMed - NCBI.

Curr Psychiatry Rep. 2011 Oct;13(5):323-32. Dietary and nutritional treatments for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder: current research support and recommendations for practitioners. Hurt EA, Arnold LE, Lofthouse N. Source Nisonger Center, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210, USA. elizabeth.hurt@osumc.edu Abstract Evidence for dietary/nutritional treatments of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) varies widely, from double-blind, placebo-controlled trials to anecdotal. In guiding patients, clinicians can apply the SECS versus RUDE rule: treatments that are Safe, Easy, Cheap, and Sensible (SECS) require less evidence than those that are Risky, Unrealistic, Difficult, or Expensive (RUDE). Two nutritional treatments appear worth general consideration: Recommended Daily Allowance/Reference Daily Intake multivitamin/mineral supplements as a pediatric health intervention not specific to ADHD and essential fatty acids, especially a mix of eicosapentaenoic acid, docosahexaenoic acid, and γ-linolenic acid as an ADHD-specific intervention. Controlled studies support the elimination of artificial food dyes to reduce ADHD symptoms, but this treatment may be more applicable to the general pediatric population than to children with diagnosed ADHD. Mineral supplementation is indicated for those with documented deficiencies but is not supported for others with ADHD. Carnitine may have a role for inattention, but the evidence is limited. Dimethylaminoethanol probably has a small effect. Herbs, although "natural," are actually crude drugs, which along with homeopathic treatments have little evidence of efficacy. Consequences of delayed proven treatments need consideration in the risk-benefit assessment of dietary/nutritional treatments.

Students ask for Metacognitive tools

Students ask for Metacognitive tools.

...we heard some interesting thoughts from the students, many of which had a common theme; namely, that the students clearly wanted more metacognitive tools at their disposal prior to taking the quiz. Some of the comments included the following: “I was not sure exactly what to study?” “I did not know what I didn’t know.” “It was difficult for me to know if I was truly prepared.” Most of the comments like these were followed by qualifiers that were a good reminder to us as teachers. The students cited things we had done in the past, either in this course or in Microbiology this fall, that allowed them to better self-assess their level of mastery. More specifically, we have included or done the following things in the past that were particularly helpful for the students: included a list of “questions you should be able to answer at this point” into the handouts for a lab or in the video podcasts. we used “clickers” (Student response systems) more frequently in the fall as a way for students and us to gauge their level of mastery. We have used Google Docs to have students report their progress in an experiment that stretches out over a week or more. This has helped many students keep track of where we are in a longer experiment.

A Maths Dictionary for Kids 2012 by Jenny Eather

A Maths Dictionary for Kids 2012 by Jenny Eather.

this is a wonderful, illustrated, animated dictionary.  It's not just for kids-- there are concepts I am unsure of, and the illustrations make things clear in a manner just words don't.

Are You a Dyslexic Adult About to Take A Standardized Exam? DRA Wants to Hear From You!

Disability Rights Advocates (DRA), a non profit legal center located in Berkeley, CA is seeking stories from individuals concerning issues of retesting on high-stakes graduate tests. If you have taken or will take standardized tests (LSAT, GMAT, and MCAT), DRA is interested in speaking with you.

Watch the PSA below, featuring Ben Foss

The 2 1/2 minute film below introduces DRA and Ben Foss:

 

If you just want to cut to the chase: http://www.dralegal.org/cases/education_testing/exit_exam_surveys/lsat-sat/

Cross posted at I Speak of Dreams

Dyslexia's Brain Changes May Occur Before Kids Learn to Read - MSN Health - Neurological-Cognitive Health

Dyslexia's Brain Changes May Occur Before Kids Learn to Read - MSN Health - Neurological-Cognitive Health.

MONDAY, Jan. 23 (HealthDay News) -- New imaging research shows that the reduced brain activity associated with the onset of dyslexia appears to develop before, not after, a child starts to read. 

Key parts of the brain's rear left hemisphere critical to language processing do not undergo activity changes as a consequence of dyslexia, the study suggests, but may instead be part of the cause. The finding could ultimately help clinicians screen for at-risk children at an early pre-reading age, when interventions to reduce the severity of the condition might be most effective.

 "We already knew that children and adults with a diagnosis of dyslexia show brain alterations within the left posterior -- back -- part of the brain," said study co-author Nadine Gaab, an assistant professor of pediatrics in the neuroscience program at Harvard Medical School and Children's Hospital Boston. "However, it was unclear whether these alterations are a result of dyslexia [that] show up after years of reading failure or whether they predate the reading onset," she noted. 

"[Here] we could show that they predate reading onset," Gaab said. "This suggests that children are either born with it or that it develops within the first few years of life."

Summit to Make a Case for Teaching Handwriting

Education Week: Summit to Make a Case for Teaching Handwriting.

Handwriting still has a place in the digital age, its proponents say, and they hoped that what they billed as a "summit" on the subject this week would spotlight their case for the enduring value of handwriting in the learning process. 

The Washington conference was designed to draw together research from psychology, occupational therapy, education, and neuroscience to demonstrate handwriting's role in students' physical and cognitive development, states' learning standards, and the classroom. 

The occasion also marked National Handwriting Day, Jan. 23. 

Doubt about the continued worth of handwriting skill is "similar to what happened with math as calculators and computers came into vogue," said Daniel A. Domenech, the executive director of the American Association of School Administrators, which co-sponsored the gathering with Zaner-Bloser, a Columbus, Ohio, company that produces a handwriting curriculum. "People wondered whether students needed to learn how to do math. The answer in both cases is absolutely yes. Writing is not obsolete."

Using Brain Imaging to Target Reading Remediation

Education Week: Special Educators Borrow From Brain Studies.

At MIT, neuroscientist and professor John D.E. Gabrieli has been working on using brain imaging to predict which students may eventually struggle with reading. He is clear about connecting his research with the classroom. One of his current projects involves working with about 20 Boston-area kindergarten classes in inner-city charter schools, suburban district-run schools, and Roman Catholic schools. 

As many students as possible are brought to his lab for brain imaging—through the use of noninvasive functional magnetic-resonance imaging, or FMRIS—and the students get additional help based on the results. Mr. Gabrieli will follow the students for several years to see if the targeted interventions can stave off reading problems. 

"How to diagnose and classify children—the more that we can make that scientific and less arbitrary, the better," he said. "If something about the brain—the luck of the draw of their brain—is making reading extra hard for them, maybe we could just intervene early and spare them a lot of grief." 

Typically, reading problems aren't diagnosed until students are in 3rd or 4th grade. Not only do reading problems at that age hamper students' ability to learn many subjects, they've lost hours of reading practice outside of school, essentially falling even further behind, Mr. Gabrieli said. Children who enjoy reading passively hone their skills by reading for pleasure, something poor readers are less likely to do.

Monday's medical myth: you can selectively train your left or right brain

Monday's medical myth: you can selectively train your left or right brain.

...although the notion of “hemisphericity” has captured the popular imagination, it is not supported by neuroscientific research. 

Everyone, from winners of the Nobel Prize in physics to the artists behind the Archibald Prize, uses both sides of the brain when performing any task. In fact, the idea that people can be classified as left- or right-brained was debunked in scientific literature in the 1980s. 

Despite this, left/right-brain training programs appear to be gaining popularity. This is puzzling because there’s no evidence indicating that you can train just one side of your brain. Such attempts are doomed because the two hemispheres are heavily interconnected and constantly communicating.

Group Acts to Address Overidentification of Black Children as Disabled - On Special Education - Education Week

Group Acts to Address Overidentification of Black Children as Disabled - On Special Education - Education Week.

Group Acts to Address Overidentification of Black Children as Disabled By Nirvi Shah on January 12, 2012 10:00 AM 

A new initiative hopes to tackle one of special education's most persistent problems: the disproportionate identification of black children as having disabilities. 

Now, the National Association for the Education of African American Children with Learning Disabilities will use grant money from the Oak Foundation to train parents how to better advocate for their children and address this persistent disproportionality. 

How big is the problem? While African Americans make up approximately 17 percent of public school enrollment, they account for 31 percent of students identified as having mental retardation or intellectual disabilities, 28 percent of students labeled as having an emotional disturbance, and 21 percent of students who have learning disabilities. Some of these categories aren't pure medical diagnoses, calling judgment, and perhaps bias, into play.

The Hard-to-Kill Neuromyth of Right Brain / Left Brain Dichotomies

This is a transcript of an interview with Annukka Lindell:

Transcript, La Trobe University.

Matt Smith:

Now it's a common belief that if you are creative, your right side of the brain is well active and dominant over the left, and if the opposite is true, then that gives you more of an academic bent and there's much teaching directed at this, but you're here to debunk this sort of thinking. So my first question to you, Dr Lindell, is right brain or left brain half-witted?

Annukka Lindell:

Well, the idea that your right hemisphere is creative and your left hemisphere is more logical intelligent is something that we call a neuromyth, so this is something that is a really popular belief but actually patently false, and this idea was debunked in the psychological literature over thirty years ago, but it's something that is just so appealing, and it's sort of captured people's imagination that it still gets bandied about quite a lot. And this means then that when marketers are coming up with a product, they can throw in a word like right brain or left brain and it makes it inherently appealing to the people that they're marketing to.

Abnormality in auditory processing underlies dyslexia | PsyPost

Abnormality in auditory processing underlies dyslexia | PsyPost.

People with dyslexia often struggle with the ability to accurately decode and identify what they read. Although disrupted processing of speech sounds has been implicated in the underlying pathology of dyslexia, the basis of this disruption and how it interferes with reading comprehension has not been fully explained. 

Now, new research published by Cell Press in the December 22 issue of the journal Neuron finds that a specific abnormality in the processing of auditory signals accounts for the main symptoms of dyslexia. “It is widely agreed that for a majority of dyslexic children, the main cause is related to a deficit in the processing of speech sounds,” explains senior study author, Dr. Anne-Lise Giraud and Franck Ramus from the Ecole Normale Supérieure in Paris, France. “It is also well established that there are three main symptoms of this deficit: difficulty paying attention to individual speech sounds, a limited ability to repeat a list of pseudowords or numbers, and a slow performance when asked to name a series of pictures, colors, or numbers as quickly as possible. However, the underlying basis of these symptoms has not been elucidated.”

Help Your Struggling Reader Develop a Strong Vocabulary | Reading & Other Learning Disabilities

Help Your Struggling Reader Develop a Strong Vocabulary | Reading & Other Learning Disabilities.

If struggling readers do not have strong knowledge of the vocabulary they hear in class and see when reading, they cannot become good readers. Below are three easy principles for helping struggling readers develop strong listening and reading vocabularies. Of course, you need to adapt these principles to the developmental level of your child or student. One more “of course”: Make the activities fun and interesting.

Education Week: Bringing Speech Recognition to Reading Instruction

Education Week: Bringing Speech Recognition to Reading Instruction.

Given “ears,” the computer can listen to students as they read, offering help or prompting further thought at just the right moments, while making records of their progress and difficulties in the background. Such technology, in other words, could provide the individualized, one-on-one, interactive support and guidance on which becoming a reader so integrally depends. 

In their potential for providing ample, affordable, effective reading support to every child, I believe that speech recognition-based reading applications should be a priority. Were we to redirect just a fraction of the time, genius, and creativity now devoted to developing ever more seductive ways for us to play games, to watch unwelcome ads, and otherwise to waste our time with our mobile devices and computers, we could do this. But until we somehow convince the hyper-educated to support such innovation, it will not happen.

Brain scans predict reading progress in children with dyslexia - About Kids Health

Brain scans predict reading progress in children with dyslexia - About Kids Health.

It has long been known that children with dyslexia use parts of the brain’s left-hemisphere distinctly from that of typical readers. Brain scans reflect these differences by producing discrete ‘activation’ patterns in parts of the left-hemisphere. 

Recently, researchers at Stanford University tried to shed light on a concept that is more novel: can brain patterns predict if a child with dyslexia will improve their reading in the future? According to their research, brain scans could make such predictions with over 90 per cent accuracy. 

 The researchers used two brain imaging techniques, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and diffusion tensor magnetic resonance imaging (DTI). They analyzed the brain patterns of 45 adolescents, while they took a series of reading tests. The adolescents were between 11 and 14 years of age. They were tested on a range of reading abilities, such as how well they were able to distinguish between sounds that make up spoken words (phonemic awareness), how accurately and fluently they could read and how well they understood what they were reading.

Read the rest of the article at the link above.

Learning To Write/Writing To Learn - Inform Science

Learning To Write/Writing To Learn - Inform Science.

Since cursive writing isn't emphasized after third grade, few students are getting enough practice or reinforcement to make cursive automatic. In other words, when the student no longer needs to think about how to write but can focus on what they want to say in their writing, the skill becomes automatic. How long this process takes may vary from child to child but it is certainly longer than the third grade. When kids aren't taught how to learn penmanship properly, they make it up, develop bad habits and handwriting never becomes fluid or routine. In many cases it becomes illegible. One of the results of the reduction in practice of cursive handwriting is that more and more students are printing. Many parents are unaware that their kids cannot write in cursive or in some cases cannot read cursive. Scenarios like the following are surprising many families.

Grandma writes a note in cursive on the birthday card she gives to her sixteen year old grandson. She is shocked to hear him say he can't read cursive so he doesn't know what she said.
Mom asks her thirteen year old daughter to sign her name on a savings account bank deposit slip. Her daughter prints her name on the signature line. When mom asks her to also write her name in cursive, her daughter replies that she doesn't know how to write in cursive. She always prints her signature.

The Sword of Darrow: Great Fantasy AND A Fundraiser for Dyslexia

From the International Dyslexia Association

The Sword of Darrow is a middle grade fantasy novel that was co-authored by Hal Malchow and his son, Alex. They began writing the novel in 2002. At the time, Alex was eight-years-old and struggled with serious learning differences. He could not read at all. The Sword of Darrow tells us that anyone can do great things if he or she has the courage to believe. The fact that an eight-year-old boy with learning differences helped to write a great novel proves the message of this book and can help our children reach for bigger dreams.

Not only have Hal and Alex faced the challenges of Alex's learning differences, they have made an impressive commitment to the cause of Dyslexia. They have generously agreed to contribute all royalties to IDA, and the publisher is donating half of his profits to other organizations supporting learning disabilities, as well. Above all, this is a great book that can inspire others and help them read.

Here's the Amazon page for The Sword of Darrow and here's the website for the book. I haven't read it yet but it's getting rave reviews.

Somebody should tell them to get a twitter account too....

Excellent new blog to go along with UM's new dyslexia website

The author's bio

DyslexiaDx.com - Getting the Answers You Need.

Michael Ryan began his career as a Special Education teacher in a preventive program for dyslexic children. He completed his clinical training at Colorado State University and the Devereux Foundation. He developed one of the first college programs for learning disabled students at Colorado State in 1980. He was Educational Director of Larimer County Mental Health in Fort Collins Colorado.

Since that time he has been in full-time private practice. Specializing in learning disabilities and attention deficit disorders. Dr. Ryan has lectured and published widely on Learning Disabilities, ADD, and Test and Measurement. He has taught at the graduate level at Aquinas College and has been on the Editorial Board of Annals of Dyslexia since 1985. He is the past Vice President for the International Dyslexia Association and the present President of the Michigan Branch of the International Dyslexia Association. Furthermore, he has been a consultant to the Governor of Michigan, the Michigan Department of Education and the Air Force Academy.

AAP: Guideline Calls for Pre-K ADHD Evaluation - in Meeting Coverage, AAP from MedPage Today

Medical News: AAP: Guideline Calls for Pre-K ADHD Evaluation - in Meeting Coverage, AAP from MedPage Today.

BOSTON -- Primary care physicians should begin evaluating children for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) at age 4 and continue through age 18, according to a new clinical guideline from the American Academy of Pediatrics.

An accumulation of evidence in recent years has enabled diagnosis and management of ADHD in a broader pediatric population. Earlier versions of the guidelines covered children ages 6 to 12. "

There was enough evidence that we could feel comfortable about the criteria being appropriate for preschoolers and that the process for making the diagnosis was similar enough to what primary care physicians were doing with the elementary school-age children that it would be appropriate to recommend their diagnosing to four years of age," said Mark Wolraich, MD, of the University of Oklahoma in Oklahoma City, and chair of the writing committee for the updated guideline.

A similar accumulation of evidence led to expansion of the age range to 18, he added.

Consistent with the broader age range, the guideline addresses clinical issues specific to preschoolers, adolescents, and teenagers.

[more at the link above]

An End To Homework! - etc : education, technology and culture

An End To Homework! - etc : education, technology and culture.

While no-one seems to be able to provide a really compelling reason for continuing with it, it's still a brave school leader who'll abandon homework, so much have we invested in this myth. In an era where we're all urged to implement 'evidence based policy' in education, we need to take a hard look at the evidence, and stop putting our kids through this cruel, pointless, nightly ordeal. Set aside the lack of evidence of improved outcomes for a minute - why do we put family harmony under such strain by fuelling endless rows between parent and child, when kids could be using the time to read, relax, play music or sports, or just be a kid?

And here's one final thought: if a parent comes back from a hard day's work, and is praised for refusing to bring work home, because time with the family is sacrosanct, how is it acceptable to ask a child to work 6 hours at school, and then forsake time with the family, to do another 2-3 hours at home?

Twenty-Two Reasons Why a Child Can’t Sit Still

Twenty-Two Reasons Why a Child Can’t Sit Still.

1. The child does not get enough exercise. Children require huge amounts of movement, preferably outside, every single day. Movement and exercise is as essential as food for children in order to stay organized, develop and mature their nervous systems, improve their coordination, strength and motor planning, and to be healthy! So many of us live in cities now and have just forgotten how vital it is for a child’s health and development to go outside and play. Have parents bring the child to the playground for half an hour before school starts, and let him play on the equipment, or have a game of touch football, statues, or tag. And if his teacher takes away recess as a punishment, you must insist that she find another way to help him manage his behavior. He is acting out because he needs to move more, not less!
2. The child has poor postural stability, low muscle tone, and a weak trunk and spine. This makes sitting physically exhausting, uncomfortable and painful. Circle time is especially grueling since sitting unsupported is such hard work.
3. The child’s chair/desk at school does not fit. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve walked into classrooms and seen children whose desks literally come up to their necks while their chairs are so high that their feet are dangling on the floor. Could you sit and do your work like that?

go read the rest.  Recommended.

A Student's Perspective on Writing | Reading Topics A-Z | Reading Rockets

A Student's Perspective on Writing | Reading Topics A-Z | Reading Rockets.

Eli, a young boy, tells us what it is like to have dysgraphia. Regina Richards, a well-known expert on dysgraphia (and Eli's mom), explains how to help children who struggle with the challenges Eli describes. Practical techniques discussed include POWER: Prepare, Organize, Write, Edit, Revise.

Sleep Needs and Learning

Loomis Chaffee: Head's Blog.

Sleep! Who ever gets enough? What follows is my annual plea to students, parents, and teachers to make sleep a priority. (For the two previous blogs, read "Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz—Let Sleeping Teenagers Sleep" and "Sleep Redux.")

The vast majority of adolescents require 9 hours and 15 minutes of sleep a night to perform optimally. Most adolescents, however, actually get fewer than 7 hours. This past week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was so concerned about this lack of sleep for high school students that it issued a health advisory about it.
Why should we care?

The CDC was primarily concerned with the health risks correlated with the lack of sleep, but a very direct correlation also exists between the amount of sleep students get and their academic performance, not to say their general sense of well being. So one of the most important things we can do for our children is to ensure that they get enough sleep.

Frontline has a terrific piece, “From Zzzz’s to A’s,” on adolescents and sleep that underlines some of the research findings. This online program includes interviews with two sleep scientists: Dr. Mary Carskadon from Brown University and Dr. Carlyle Smith from Trent University in Ontario. Both scientists point to the detrimental effects of not getting enough sleep, which include an inability to concentrate and difficulty in learning new skills and concepts.

A good night’s sleep is critical to the consolidation of the material that our students learn during the day. Skill retention, as well as deeper critical thinking and conceptual understanding, benefit from sleep. Indeed, Dr. Smith quotes a fellow scientist who argues that “the best predictor of how well someone is going to do, be they at Harvard or wherever, is not their SAT scores or anything else; it’s whether or not they get a good night’s sleep.”

Why You Should Make a Plan « peer-reviewed by my neurons

Why You Should Make a Plan « peer-reviewed by my neurons.

Obviously the efficient allocation of cognitive resources can help almost anybody in their everyday lives, but I think this kind of finding has a lot of specific unacknowledged potential for education. Any given student is essentially tasked with distinct learning goals in at least five or six different subjects, and concern for all those goals can create a heavy cognitive burden. A simple solution is for teachers and schools to do a better job letting students know exactly how a class will progress and what skills they are expected to have at any point in time. This could be done with improved syllabi or efficient use of the skill/course management software that is rapidly improving and finding its way into classrooms. At the very least, students will be more likely to feel as though there is a “plan” for their learning, and that will help keep struggles in one subject from creating distractions that exacerbate struggles in another subject.

Girls with autism or ADHD symptoms not taken seriously, study suggests

Girls with autism or ADHD symptoms not taken seriously, study suggests.

ScienceDaily:  Girls With Autism or ADHD Symptoms Not Taken Seriously, Study Suggests ScienceDaily (Oct. 4, 2010) — When girls with symptoms of autism or ADHD seek professional medical help, their problems are often played down or misinterpreted, and there is a real risk that they will not get the help or support they need. As such, more training is needed in this area, particularly in the public sector, reveals a thesis from the University of Gothenburg.

Grades 4, 5, & 6: Why Reading Struggles Intensify | Reading & Other Learning Disabilities

Grades 4, 5, & 6: Why Reading Struggles Intensify | Reading & Other Learning Disabilities.

In grades 4, 5, and 6, many struggling readers struggle far more than before. They slam into a wall of failure and frustration. Their struggles are not unexpected. They have well-known causes: * Curriculum that fails to focus on what they need to learn to become successful readers * Curriculum that doesn’t give them the kind of instruction and practice they need * Language, memory, and organizational abilities that can’t readily handle the grade’s more complex and demanding tasks and language * Frustration level texts and tasks, such as grade level reading homework that overwhelms them * Greater amounts of independent work * The unintentional hardening of ineffective, counterproductive learning strategies * Invidious self-comparisons with classmates and friends who appear to achieve effortlessly * Pressure to succeed on No Child Left Behind tests * Derisive or indifferent peer actions and statements * The lure of non-school activities, such as gangs, sports, and video games. * Inadequate family support * Discouragement, resignation, humiliation, and resistance to reading caused by years of failure

Colleges Step Up to Meet Dyslexia Challenge - US News and World Report

Colleges Step Up to Meet Dyslexia Challenge - US News and World Report.

But getting such help can be a challenge for those who need it. Each year the College Board administers the SAT to more than 2 million individuals. According to Steven Pereira, the College Board's executive director of services for students with disabilities, about 32,000 members of the class of 2010 took the test with accommodations.

Pereira says that about 85 percent of all students annually who request assists receive them if they can document their disabilities. However, Shaywitz points out that since dyslexics alone are about 20 percent of the population, the fact that so few students are accommodated suggests there are flaws in how they are handled.

Lori Vise, an independent educational consultant at Bass Educational Services, believes several factors may be at work, including students' erroneous fear that their test results will be flagged when reported to colleges. Families also may not be aware that such options exist. And though the ADA requires testing agencies to provide accommodations in a timely way, Shaywitz says, the review process generally takes weeks and can be burdensome.

Brain imaging study shows physiological basis of dyslexia

Brain imaging study shows physiological basis of dyslexia.

Shows Physiological Basis of Dyslexia ScienceDaily (Sep. 28, 2011) — Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine have used an imaging technique to show that the brain activation patterns in children with poor reading skills and a low IQ are similar to those in poor readers with a typical IQ. The work provides more definitive evidence about poor readers having similar kinds of difficulties regardless of their general cognitive ability

Schools and psychologists have historically relied on a child's IQ to define and diagnose dyslexia, a brain-based learning disability that impairs a person's ability to read: If a child's reading achievement was below expectation based on IQ, he would be considered dyslexic, while a poor reader with a low IQ would receive some other diagnosis. But these new findings provide "biological evidence that IQ should not be emphasized in the diagnosis of reading abilities," said Fumiko Hoeft, MD, Ph.D, an instructor at Stanford's Center for Interdisciplinary Brain Sciences Research, who is senior author of the study, which will appear in an upcoming issue of Psychological Science.

The new results come in the wake of recent behavioral studies showing that phonological deficits -- that is, difficulties in processing the sound system of language, which often leads to difficulties in connecting the sounds of language to letters -- are similar in poor readers regardless of IQ. Indeed, the 2004 reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act mandated that states no longer require school districts to use IQ tests in identifying individuals with learning disabilities such as dyslexia.

Handclapping Games Are Fun and Build Skills

ScienceDaily (May 3, 2010) — A researcher at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) conducted the first study of hand-clapping songs, revealing a direct link between those activities and the development of important skills in children and young adults, including university students.

"We found that children in the first, second and third grades who sing these songs demonstrate skills absent in children who don't take part in similar activities," explains Dr. Idit Sulkin a member of BGU's Music Science Lab in the Department of the Arts. "We also found that children who spontaneously perform hand-clapping songs in the yard during recess have neater handwriting, write better and make fewer spelling errors."

But what are those games? Below the fold, a few examples from YouTube and a bunch more game titles.  

Our Concerns About Recent ESEA Reauthorization Bill

Our Concerns About Recent ESEA Reauthorization Bill.

Our Public Policy team released a letter this week expressing serious concerns about the impact of a recent Elementary & Secondary Education Act reauthorization bill proposed by Senators Isakson, Alexander, Kirk, Rubio, Roberts, and Wicker on students with disabilities.

While HELP Committee Chairman Tom Harkin and Ranking Member Mike Enzi continue to negotiate a bipartisan ESEA proposal, the bill introduced by the Members provides a key indication of Republican policy goals in an ESEA reauthorization.

The bill continues the current practice of alternate assessments and modified achievement standards for students with disabilities. This is harmful to children with learning disabilities and many other underserved populations, as it allowed for them to be placed on a different track for success and not held to the same standards.

NCLD does not support this practice and highlighted that fact in the letter to these Senators this week, while also thanking them for other inclusions in the bill, such as continued analysis of achievement by subgroups.

Also highlighted in the letter is the bill's limits on accountability to the bottom five percent in each State. This would leave millions of students with disabilities and their schools with little if any oversight on their achievement.

With Dyslexia, Words Failed Me and Then Saved Me - NYTimes.com

With Dyslexia, Words Failed Me and Then Saved Me - NYTimes.com.

And suddenly I was reading. I didn’t know then that I was beginning a lifelong love affair with the first-person voice and that I would spend most of my life inventing characters to say all the things I wanted to say. I didn’t know that I was to become a poet, that in many ways the very thing that caused me so much confusion and frustration, my belabored relationship with words, had created in me a deep appreciation of language and its music, that the same mind that prevented me from reading had invented a new way of reading, a method that I now use to teach others how to overcome their own difficulties in order to write fiction and poetry. (It’s perhaps not surprising that many famous writers are said to have struggled with dyslexia, including F. Scott Fitzgerald and W. B. Yeats.)

We know now that dyslexia is about so much more than just mixing up letters — that many dyslexics have difficulty with rhythm and meter and word retrieval, that they struggle to recognize voices and sounds. It’s my profound hope that our schools can use findings like these to better teach children who struggle to read, to help them overcome their limitations, and to help them understand that it’s not their fault.

We knew so much less when I was a child. Then, all I wanted and needed, when I learned so painstakingly to read and then to write, was to find a way to be less alone. Which is, of course, what spoken and written language is really all about.

Dyslexia Style Guide- About Dyslexia- The British Dyslexia Association

This is from the UK and I do not know how much of this information has been validated by research, vs. just being some people's preferences.

Dyslexia Style Guide- About Dyslexia- The British Dyslexia Association.

Dyslexia Style Guide This Guide is in three parts:
1. Dyslexia Friendly Text
2. Accessible Formats
3. Website design

Do Kids Have Too Much Homework? | Arts & Culture | Smithsonian Magazine

Do Kids Have Too Much Homework? | Arts & Culture | Smithsonian Magazine.

Sara Bennett, a Brooklyn criminal attorney and mother of two, began a second career as an anti-homework activist when her first-grade son brought home homework only a parent could complete. The 2006 book she co-wrote, The Case Against Homework, is credited with propelling a nationwide parent movement calling for time limits on homework.

[snip]

The trend, instead, is to lessen the quantity while improving the quality of homework by using it to complement classroom work, says Cathy Vatterott, a professor of education at University of Missouri at St. Louis and author of Rethinking Homework: Best Practices That Support Diverse Needs (2009). Cynthia Schneider, principal of World Journalism Preparatory school in Queens for 570 sixth through twelfth graders, plans to encourage all students to read for pleasure every night, then write a thoughtful response. There are also initiatives to “decriminalize” not finishing homework assignments.

What do the world’s most successful school systems do regarding homework? | Dangerously Irrelevant

What do the world’s most successful school systems do regarding homework? | Dangerously Irrelevant.

Does anyone have successful strategies for working with our local schools to opt our children out of homework we consider to be busy work?

Elementary-school students shouldn't do homework. - By Emily Bazelon - Slate Magazine

Elementary-school students shouldn't do homework. - By Emily Bazelon - Slate Magazine.

Over the last decade, Japanese schools have been scrapping homework while American elementary schools have been assigning more of it. What gives—aren't they supposed to be the model achievers while we're the slackers? No doubt our eagerness to shed the slacker mantle has helped feed the American homework maw. But it may be the Japanese, once again, who know what they're doing.

 Such is my conclusion after reading three new books on the subject: The Case Against Homework by Sara Bennett and Nancy Kalish; The Homework Myth by Alfie Kohn; and the third edition of The Battle Over Homework by Duke psychology professor Harris Cooper. If you already despise homework, Bennett and Kalish provide advice on how to plead with teachers and schools for mercy. If you're agnostic, as I was, Kohn is the meatier read. Kohn is the author of several rebellious books about education, and he exposes the lack of evidence for many of the standard arguments in favor of homework: that it boosts achievement, that it inculcates good study habits, that it teaches kids to take the initiative, that it's better than video games or whatever else kids do in their free time.

Human Factor: A bridge from dyslexia – The Chart - CNN.com Blogs

Human Factor: A bridge from dyslexia – The Chart - CNN.com Blogs.

People like to say that I have overcome dyslexia. Nothing could be further from the truth. What I have overcome is the mainstream world. A person in a wheelchair overcomes stairs with a ramp. In the same way, I have overcome people who think dyslexia equals lazy. This experience is why I am now the executive director of Disability Rights Advocates, a national legal center that tries to get people to do what they should have done in the first place, i.e., include people with disabilities in the mainstream.