Dyslexia and Me: Dyslexia, Self Esteem and Depression

This is an important blog to read about Robin Williams.  I have to admit that I did not know that he had dyslexia although I  was well aware that Whoopi Goldberg had it.

It is so important for us to realize that dyslexia and other learning struggles do have an impact on children.  What they don’t need to hear is that they have to work harder and then they will get it.  What they need is for teachers and parents to realize that the “usual” way of teaching them might not be fitting, and to look at other methods which have evidence to back that they help.  The use of multisensory, structured, language-based reading approaches have been around since the 1930’s but most schools still don’t use them, even for the struggling readers. While the most severely impaired students with dyslexia may not make as much progress they still will make more than with the right brained approach of look/memorize, write and rewrite approach. They need to have the left side of their brains activated in order to develop the phonemic and phonologic neural pathways.

I hope that you approach children differently who are struggling with learning after you read this.

Dyslexia and Me: Dyslexia, Self Esteem and Depression.

Bill to Adopt Internationally Recognized Definition of Dyslexia Now Law – Cape May County Herald

See on Scoop.it – Developmental & Behavioral Challenges in Children

By Press Release TRENTON — Legislation sponsored by Senator Jeff Van Drew and Senate Education Chair M.

Dr. Pat McGuire‘s insight:

This is such an important action by New Jersey for all those with dyslexia.  We as a nation don’t recognize dyslexia as the neurologic, language-based disorder of oral and written language that it is.  It is sad that knowledg has to be legislated but sometimes that is the only way to get people to acknowledge something they need to know more about.  Now lets get the rest of the states that are not already on board (which is most of them) so that accurate identification and remediation can be put in place for our children.

Contact your elected officials to see where your state is (Iowa doesn’t recognize it for example) and push for a bill to be introduced and pushed to passage fort his significant minority of our population (1 in 7 to 1 in 10 depending on how it is classified).

See on www.capemaycountyherald.com

Are you ready to help in the education transformation?

different yet beautiful

A colleague shared this video with me which I must pass on to you.  It shares the facts about what is happening to our country compared to others in terms of literacy and strong nations.  We have to make a change in how children are taught and how they are seen when they struggle developmentally and behaviorally.

Literate Nation 

Share this if you agree.

2012 in review: Thank you all

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I started this blog in the middle of 2011 as an avenue for sharing my knowledge of children and youth with developmental and behavioral challenges. My passion was also to help others understand and find new ways to help, rather than punish these struggling children and youth.

I am excited and gratified to see how much growth this site has had over the last 1 1/2 years.  I am preparing for even more growth in 2013 as I relaunch my book, Never Assume: Getting To Know Children Before Labeling Them through Advantage Media.  It will have an updated resource section as well as two new chapters. I will then be ready to get on the road to share with parents and professionals the ways to understand the “whys” of these children in order to provide them with effective interventions.  I am also planning to add many more posts to this blog, thus sharing what’s new and important in the research on child development and behavior.

Happy New Year’s to all and I look forward to hearing from you and seeing others in 2013.

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

The new Boeing 787 Dreamliner can carry about 250 passengers. This blog was viewed about 1,500 times in 2012. If it were a Dreamliner, it would take about 6 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.

Commander Ben dishes on handwriting with dyslexia

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Parents and teachers are always asking me how to help their child/student who has dyslexia and dysgraphia become engaged in reading and writing. Commander Ben does a great job sharing how he works with his dyslexia and dysgraphia rather than fight with them all the time. Please read this blog to get some great ideas.

Commander Ben

It may seem funny to talk about technology in one breath and then mention pen and paper in the other, but they really can work together. For most everything I do, I use some form of technology – my Victor Reader Stream, a laptop, an iPad or an iPhone – but sometimes , well almost daily actually, I still enjoy writing something down into my old-fashioned journal.

My journal is a small leather three-ring binder with lined paper which is actually three generations old. I found it tucked away in my dresser draw in my room where my Mom had saved it for me. She used it as a kid and her Mom used it before her.  I think that fact that it was old and looked different than other notebooks was part of it’s appeal.  Even though I am a 21st century kid, I like old-fashioned things.

Handwriting…

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Our ignorance of learning disabilities

See on Scoop.it – Developmental & Behavioral Challenges in Children

As the new school year begins this article/survey highlights the needs we have to provide more knowledge and training to our parents and teachers.  I know I will be out there doing my share to close the gap.  Who else will be helping to get the word out?

See on www.washingtonpost.com

Can I have your help on my upcoming book?

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Greetings all on this Labor Day weekend. I am asking your help by sharing stories of when you were in school or stories of your children for my upcoming book, The Pediatric Profiler.

I want to have the voices of the students/parents about what they felt teachers and administrators did right as well as those who totally blew it on dealing with a behavioral or learning situation. Please share with me via email at patricia@allchildrenarespecial.com.

I can start it out with an example of my oldest when she was in high school. She has mild dyslexia, which leads to a slower reading rate and some spelling problems. In the AP LA class they were assigned to read 3 books in 3 weeks, and then choose 2 to compare and contrast. My daughter asked her teacher if she could do at least one of them as an audio book. Her teacher responded that if she was incapable of doing the assignment as directed, she shouldn’t be in the class. There was more after including a comment on her report that she was basically “an overachieving slackard”. Needless to say, she dropped out of AP classes after that so she wouldn’t have to deal with the teacher again. And no, the administration did not side with my daughter.

Thanks for your help.

Why have a label?

Labels are not bad or good.  They are a form of name. A means of being able to understand or know how to use something.  They help you understand what category they are in.  McDonalds, Nike,  oak tree, rose, alligator – they are all names or labels.

So why do so many people have problems with labels such as autism, dyslexia,  learning disabled, and ADHD?  There are definitions of these labels, books written on how to understand and help them, and a profile to make sense of the “whys” of their behaviors.

I have been told by parents and schools, that labels such as these limit children.  That they are not needed for providing help to children.  I have also been told that they are just excuses for laziness, poor parenting/or teaching, and bad behavior.  It seems to me that these are just other labels for the same problems, but with an entirely different set of interventions put into place.

I have also seen people accept these labels but not do anything to help children.  Instead they say that the children can’t help themselves, can’t achieve, can’t be encouraged to reach higher levels because they won’t be able to succeed.  I have seen that with children with Down’s Syndrome, who when moved to a different school or situation, then begin to learn.  I have seen the same with children in the autism spectrum, when interventions and strategies that have been shown in research to allow learning and achievement, are implemented and indeed these children do learn and achieve.

I see a label, or diagnosis, as part of that child’s profile.  Their profile helps the adults around them know where to look for understanding of how that child functions, processes, and interacts with their world. The profile allows the adults to develop interventions and strategies to help that child maximize their potential, not limit it.  The profile allows the adults to predict potential barriers and work around them.

Let’s embrace labels as a means of being better helpers to children. Let’s look at labels as means of helping children achieve despite neurologic wiring differences that make learning and succeeding more work than for their peers.  We all use labels.  Let’s just make sure we use them correctly and positively.

Would you want to be treated this way?

It happened again this week.  Not only in my office but in the different stores I went to in order to feed my family and my cats.  Adults chastising children for making mistakes.  Not children intentionally creating destruction, but rather demonstrating difficulty based on their size, age, or developmental level.  I saw a 4 month old being spanked for fussing in the cart as her mother was roaming the isles.  I heard a 6 year old being told that he was a loser after bumping into a shelve in an isle that was overcrowded with carts and people. I had parents tell me that their children are failing on purpose.  They say that they can’t take anything more away to get their children to successfully complete their school work because “the child doesn’t care”.

One out of 3 children are born with a congenital defect.  One child in six has a developmental delay. One out of 7 children have dyslexia, a neurologic language disorder that affects, to varying degrees, oral language and written language for reading, writing, or spelling.  It can also affect mathematics due to the fact that math has a language  too, such as 5 x 6 = 30, which is actually different than 6 x 5 = 30 although the answer is the same.

Even typically developing children are not capable of knowing everything early on.  Babies only have crying to let others know of their distress, be it hunger, tiredness, discomfort, or illness.  They don’t cry to irritate their parents, but only to try to get help for issues that they can’t control themselves.  Preschoolers don’t have the same sense of time as older children and adults but are frequently blamed for making their parents late on purpose.

Is he the one in seven who will have dyslexia?

This is dyslexia awareness month, so it is important to consider how this language-based disorder may be affecting every 7th person, child or adult, that you come in contact with.  If that individual has problems processing what you are saying, they may either ask you to repeat yourself, ask for clarification, or more likely due to fear of criticism, just try to do what they understood. A customer may ask you about something on sale, although to you the information is clearly stated on the banner or flyer, but the customer has significant difficulties decoding words that are not in his sight vocabulary.  They fear that look of disdain or disgust but don’t want to be more embarrassed by buying the wrong things.

Take a moment to remember how you felt as a child when you were criticized or punished for something that you felt you had tried your best to accomplish.  Now bring that feeling forward to provide empathy for the child or adult you are with, so that you don’t just repeat history.  Create a better experience for this child or adult.  At the same time you will be creating a better people skill for yourself.