Academic Remediation

Dyscalulia -- trouble with arithmetic and math -- An Expert Panel

An expert panel discusses the math learning disability called dyscalculia, which affects five percent of children, making it as common as dyslexia.



The moderator is Cheryl Jackson. The participants are John Mighton,  Daniel Ansari, and Mahesh Sharma The discussion is at a rather abstract level. I'll post more videos as I find them. Parents (and older children who are struggling with math) may want to visit the Dyscalculia Formum, http://dyscalculiaforum.com/news.php

Research: Object Naming Speed Before Reading Instruction Predicts Reading Difficulty

Livia Blackburne is a writer and brain scientist who keeps the blog Reading and Word Recognition Research, discussing in lay terms articles of interest.

In this post, she discusses some research from Norway:

An important goal for any developmental disorder research is early detection. The earlier the detection, the earlier we can start intervention and treatment. Dyslexia is tricky though. It’s a reading disorder, and by definition cannot be diagnosed until reading instruction begins. However, we can still look for signs that predict future risk for dyslexia.

One predictor of future dyslexia is rapid automatized naming (RAN) speed. A RAN test consists of naming an array of objects, colors, letters, or symbols as quickly as possible. It makes sense that letter and symbol naming speed (also called alphanumeric RAN) might predict reading skill. Surprisingly however, speed at naming pictures of objects and color patches also predicts future reading skill. Lervag and Hulme (Psychological Science 2009) studied this in a longitudinal study of Norwegian schoolchildren.

Are There Quick Fixes for Struggling Learners?

Previously published at I Speak of Dreams

Valle Dwight has published an excellent short article, Beware the miracle cure: Miracle cure scams abound in the world of learning disabilities. Here's how to spot them..

Marshall Raskind, a learning disability researcher and author, shares a few tips on how to avoid getting taken in by people and products that promise a cure for LD or other disabilities.

“Parents should be suspicious about anything that claims to be a panacea, produces immediate results, or promises a cure,” Raskind says.

Go read the rest of the article. Take notes.

Dyslexia: How Is It Diagnosed?

My thanks to eHow, Dr Diane Sawyer (who is speaking in the film) filmmaker Dimitri LaBarge, and YouTube for making this video available.

Diagnosing dyslexia involves a series of tests that assess a child's learning, reading and speaking abilities. There are eight predictors of a child's dyslexia diagnosis:

1. A family history of dyslexia (there are suggestions that dyslexia is heritable)
2. A history of early language delays
3. Print awareness
4. Letter knowledge
5. Phonological and phonemic awareness
6. Expressive vocabulary
7. Sentence / Story Recall
8. Rapid Automatic Naming

As it turns out, with later research, it is now thought that screening children early for both phonological/phonemic awareness (PA) AND weakness in rapid automatic naming  (RAN) is a very powerful predictor of later difficulty in learning to read.

What that means is that children who, upon screening, have difficulty both with PA and RAN, may benefit from early (kindergarten and first grade) intervention.

Dr. Diane J. Sawyer is the holder of the Chair of Excellence in Dyslexic Studies MTSU, the Tennessee Center for the Study and Treatment of Dyslexia. Please visit the center form more information.

More information on diagnosing

Dyslexia: Will My Child With Dyslexia Live A Full And Productive Life?

My thanks to eHow, Dr Diane Sawyer (who is speaking in the film) filmmaker Dimitri LaBarge, and YouTube for making this video available.

Personally, I'm a bit tired of the "famous people who may have had dyslexia". Some years ago I began compiling a list of more every-day people who have had success, whic you can peruse at High Achieving Dyslexics. The list includes authors, school teachers, university professors, and artists.

Dr. Sawyer mentions "assistive and augmentative communications" products. A more updated list might include (for people with dyslexia who are beyond secondary school, or who are in the workplace:

• Intel Reader (a text to speech device
• Dragon Naturally Speaking (a speech to text application)
• Microsoft Word's capacity to read text written in word
• many iPhone applications

Dr. Diane J. Sawyer is the holder of the Chair of Excellence in Dyslexic Studies MTSU, the Tennessee Center for the Study and Treatment of Dyslexia. Please visit the center form more information.

Dyslexia: Ineffective Treatments

My thanks to eHow, Dr Diane Sawyer (who is speaking in the film) filmmaker Dimitri LaBarge, and YouTube for making this video available.

The three possible core issues in dyslexia are

1. Phonemic awareness: A difficulty distinguishing the small, overlapping sounds that are imbedded in spoken language.
2. Matching the spoken form of a sound or word to the written form
3. Recalling the forms and meaning of given written representations of a spoken word

Ineffective treatments for dyslexia do not directly address the skills that are impaired by dyslexia, and therefore less effective.

Dr. Diane J. Sawyer is the holder of the Chair of Excellence in Dyslexic Studies MTSU, the Tennessee Center for the Study and Treatment of Dyslexia. Please visit the center form more information.

Dyslexia: Three Theories

My thanks to eHow, Dr Diane Sawyer (who is speaking in the film) filmmaker Dimitri LaBarge, and YouTube for making this video available.

In this 2 minute, 52 second video, Dr. Sawyer presents three common theories of dyslexia:

1. Phonemic awareness: That people with dyslexia have difficulty distinguishing the small, overlapping sounds that are imbedded in words.
2. Processing or recall: That people with dyslexia are slower than non-dyslexic people in the accurate recall of words, given a visual prompt
3. Orthography or spelling: That people with dyslexia have more difficulty than  than non-dyslexic people given several ways of spelling the same sound

Dr. Diane J. Sawyer is the holder of the Chair of Excellence in Dyslexic Studies MTSU, the Tennessee Center for the Study and Treatment of Dyslexia. Please visit the center form more information.

Dyslexia: Are There Are Different Types of Dyslexia?

Dr. Diane J. Sawyer is the holder of the Chair of Excellence in Dyslexic Studies MTSU, the Tennessee Center for the Study and Treatment of Dyslexia. Please visit the center form more information.

My thanks to eHow, Dr Diane Sawyer (who is speaking in the film) filmmaker Dimitri LaBarge, and YouTube for making this video available.

In this 2 minute, 18 second video, Dr. Sawyer discuss the different types of dyslexia, which include phonological dyslexia, orthographic dyslexia, dyscalculia and dysgraphia, all of which present difficulties in different areas of speech and reading.

I disagree, mildly, with Dr. Sawyer's view as presented in this video. She lumps dysgraphia and dyscalculia in with dyslexia. I don't agree.

Dysgraphia can be a bit confusing. It includes people who have difficulty accurately, rapidly, and automatically forming letters, which it might be possible to remediate. It also includes people who may not have difficulty with handwriting per se, but may have difficulty actually capturing their thoughts in print.

Dyscalculia isn't really a part of dyslexia, and may have a different neurological cause. Look under the category struggling mathematicians for more information.

Dyslexia: What Parts of the Brain Does Dyslexia Affect?

My thanks to eHow, Dr Diane Sawyer (who is speaking in the film), filmmaker Dimitri LaBarge, and YouTube for making this video available.

Dyslexia affects the development of the left temporal lobe in the brain that controls language, which lies just behind the ear. Find out how the brain develops with dyslexia from a recognized scholar of dyslexia treatment in this free video on learning disabilities.

Dyslexia: At What Age Can Dyslexia Be Diagnosed?

My thanks to eHow, Dr Diane Sawyer (who is speaking in the film) filmmaker Dimitri LaBarge, and YouTube for making this video available.

Dyslexia is usually diagnosed at early ages, but it depends on the severity of an individual case. Find out why some children are diagnosed later in their schooling while others are diagnosed early on with tips from a recognized scholar of dyslexia treatment in this free video on learning disabilities.

The video runs 1 minute 26 seconds

Dr. Diane J. Sawyer is the holder of the Chair of Excellence in Dyslexic Studies at MTSU, the Tennessee Center for the Study and Treatment of Dyslexia. Please visit the center form more information.