From a Dyslexia Tutor I picked up Fish in a Tree, by Lynda Mullaly Hunt, because my 12-year old granddaughter had just finished it and liked it. As a dyslexia tutor, I felt curious to see how the author presented her main character, a 6th grade girl with dyslexia. Even though the book is written […]
Judge this book by its cover, not by its fonts Opening How Tony Learned to Read: Growing Up Dyslexic, by Tony and Judy Fishel, was a bit of a shock. I was confronted with some paragraphs in large print Comic Sans. It was stunning since I expected another sober case study by a dyslexia researcher. […]
Find out Why Public School is Attractive Home-educated children sometimes decide they want to try public school. This can cause a hard-working homeschooling parent to wonder why. In fact, that’s the first question to ask. The student has a reason, and that reason is the most important piece of the puzzle. It may take time […]
Writing Can Be Hard A recent conversation with author and writing coach Arnie Bernstein (@RealArnieB) convinced me I needed to write a piece on writing … with teens … with dyslexia. I’ve done a lot of that, and I’ve learned some things. Since many people with dyslexia also exhibit dysgraphia, writing can be a real […]
Expanded Edition Dyslexia Tool Kit Expanded Edition: What to do when phonics isn’t enough, published April 2021, replaces the first edition and costs less! The book is available on Amazon as an ebook or paperback. Dyslexia Tool Kit Expanded Edition includes three new chapters. The new version also answers questions posed by readers of the […]
Answers or Assumptions? A dyslexia diagnosis sends parents looking for answers. Often, the people with the answers are also the people with a program to sell. A common assumption is that children need to do well in school in order to do well in life. Another assumption is that the only way to succeed in […]
What is Phonics? Phonics is linking speech sounds (phonemes) to letters and groups of letters, providing a way to decode written text. More than Phonics May be Needed Education wars erupt between those who favor phonics and those who favor whole language approaches. For the sake of students with dyslexia, it’s essential to use both! […]
Online School is Hard on Kids with Dyslexia Obviously, online school work presents special challenges for all students and teachers. But there’s an extra challenge for students with dyslexia and the teachers who are doing their best to provide a great education under difficult circumstances. Students with dyslexia often depend on classroom discussion to correct […]
Testing Doesn’t Improve Reading Here’s why some teachers focus on test scores such as DIBEL, RAZ or Lexile. Test scores provide verifiable data that students are progressing. Unfortunately, teachers feel pressure to produce such evidence. Sadly, it doesn’t seem to be acceptable to report that “Johnny now loves reading whereas last year he hated it.” […]
Music Training Matters Music training means learning to play an instrument or sing, employing as many senses as possible — fingering the instrument, hearing pitches, seeing the score, feeling the rhythm, moving to the beat. Recent research shows that music education pays off for reading instruction as well! Music in Dyslexia Education Research Around 2003, […]