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Greetings!
November is another exciting month at Dyslexic Advantage, and in this happy Thanksgiving month we'd like to thank you for taking a moment from your busy schedules to catch up on what's going on! |
| Dyslexic Advantage: What We've Been Up To | |
 Dyslexic Advantage Goes to the San Francisco Bay Area!
More Talks with Accomplished Dyslexics, Dyslexic Families, and Experts: One of the best things about working in the field of dyslexia is the chance it gives us to meet so many interesting and accomplished people! Earlier this month we traveled to the San Francisco Bay Area, where we met with the following fascinating folks:
On a sunny patio on the Stanford campus overlooking the Rodin Sculpture Garden [ed., so...why didn't we apply to Stanford?] we met for coffee with Dr. Lynn Newman, a senior scientist at the Stanford Research Institute (and proud family member of several brilliant dyslexics) to learn about her fascinating work with National Longitudinal Transition Study. Of the many important findings from this study, we found one particularly shocking: Among students with documented learning challenges, there was a profound drop-off between the number who received accommodations in high school-- ~ 90%--and those who received them in college--less than one third! While many factors are likely involved,this clearly points out the need to do a better job providing support for students transitioning between high school and college.
 Across the Bay in Berkeley we had chance to meet with staff attorneys of
truly inspiring non-profit legal center has represented individuals with learning differences in many important legal cases in the past, including a recently negotiated a
landmark decision with UC Berkeley to ensure timely access to digitized print materials. DRA also helped end the practice of flagging (or putting an asterisk by) results on tests like the SAT or ACT for students who use accommodations like extra time. Dyslexic Advantage was meeting with DRA to discuss ways our organizations could work together to prevent the systematic discrimination to which dyslexic and other special needs students are routinely subjected on standardized exams. DRA is a remarkable organization on many levels, "run by people with disabilities for people with disabilities." They are also funded completely by donations of supporters and by awards and settlements when they win their cases. DRA's New York office is headed by attorney Julia Pinover, who is herself dyslexic, and who we're hoping will be able to conduct a webinar for us next year.
DRA would like to hear from you if you have had trouble accessing higher education course materials or may have experienced discrimination while taking the SAT, ACT, GRE, or other licensing exams. Contact Rebecca Williford
 Back in Palo Alto we met with Laura Maloney, the Executive Director of Parent Education Network, a wonderful organization that connects parents, teachers, and students in the SF Bay Area. Laura shared with us the exciting expansion plans that PEN is enacting both in Northern California, and most recently in the Phoenix area.
Once again in Berkeley, we met with the extraordinary dyslexic biologist and ecologist--and world-renowned origami expert--Bernie Peyton, and his wife, special education expert and educator Susanne Tilney. Bernie shared many remarkable stories about his work as a field biologist and his current full-time work with origami. Read more about Bernie HERE.
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And finally, back in Palo Alto we met with an edtech venture group about the plans that Dyslexic Advantage has for developing a series of apps to provide affordable and accessible dyslexia screening, strength identification, and training to dyslexic students everywhere. In the US, more than 75% of dyslexic students are never identified, so one of our organization's key priorities is to work toward . Work has already begun on building a prototype for a free screener to identify children at ages 5-6 in the pre-reading years. Please check back in future newsletters for updates on our progress, and if you would like to contribute to this important work, please click on the 'Donate' button above left.
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| Dyslexic Gamemakers Group Forming! | |
 Join Us & Bring Your Dyslexic Friends!
Renowned dyslexic video game designer Joe Booth has graciously volunteered to lead a 'dyslexic gamemakers community' to help young dyslexic individuals learn the basics of game design and programming in a positive dyslexia-friendly space.
Many dyslexia-associated strengths and talents are well-suited to game design, programming, and computer technologies, and this community will exist to provide encouragement, troubleshooting, and practical feedback on programming and design of games.
Newbies / Beginners, Intermediate, and Advanced gamemakers welcome. Membership is FREE, but volunteers of time and money are gratefully appreciated. If you'd like to help, please let us know!
And spread the word! (For teachers: contact us to see if we can work with your class or students.) |
| Webinar TOMORROW: Cultivating Strengths | |
 Dr. Thomas Armstrong - Nov 13th
Don't miss best-selling author Thomas Armstrong's webinar THIS WEDNESDAY on how to create strength-based classrooms appreciating neurodiversity. Tom will be focusing on dyslexia, but also mention a bit about ADHD and using strengths to find life success. Tom's latest book is Neurodiversity in the Classroom.
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| Webinar Best iPad Apps for Dyslexia: Nov 23rd | |
 Jamie Martin, the Kildonan School
Just in time for holiday shopping, Jamie Martin will be talking to us about accessibility features of the iPad, and the best iPad Apps for dyslexia, including apps for:
- Reading
- Literature
- Writing
- Spelling
- Phonics
- Study Tools
Jamie will also share experiences from his school's 1-on-1 iPad program.
Register for Jamie's webinar HERE !
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| How I Use Text to Speech | | |
Dr Beth Gatewood
We've received loads of enthusiastic feedback for Dr. Beth Gatewood's recent webinar on Assistive Technology for dyslexic individuals. If you missed the webinar, you can watch it here, or on our YouTube page at YouTube.com/dyslexicadvantage
 | | Dyslexia and Assistive Technology: How I Use Text-to-Speech-Dr Beth Gatewood |
For a copy of Beth's handouts, slides, and chat notes (with Q & A) click HERE.
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| Great Free College & Transition Handbook | | |
Denver Academy
For all dyslexic students or their parents who are thinking about heading to college, the Denver Academy--a wonderful school for dyslexic students in Denver, CO--has
 published one of the most helpful reviews we've seen of LD-Friendly Colleges, which begins on page 61 of the following link:
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| Amazing New Book by Dyslexic Bear Expert Ben Kilham's | |
 Out on a Limb
Ben Kilham is one of the most remarkable people we know. Prevented from attending graduate school by low GRE scores, Ben worked for years as a successful craftsman before settling on a maple tree farm in New Hampshire. When a harsh winter caused several local bear cubs to be orphaned, Ben stepped in as surrogate mom. 20-plus years later, Ben has become "matriarch" to 3 generations of black bears. He's also become one of the world's foremost authorities on bears (recently awarded a PhD by Drexel University for his studies), and the lead consultant to the Chinese government in their program to reintroduce panda bears to the wild. Ben's book is an amazing description of his experiences with and observations of bears, an insightful account of the advantage his dyslexia gives him in his work, and a thought provoking exploration of the place of observation in science. Ben's book may be a perfect gift for you or a young naturalist in your house. We couldn't put it down. It's hard to choose a single excerpt that captures all the wonderful things about this book, but this should give you a flavor: "I had a love of nature, a deep curiosity about animal behavior, and an ability to tap into animals' emotional sensitivity--which I perhaps developed in lieu of a capacity for learning from books.... My perceived shortcomings turned out to be a perfect fit for studying bears..." We're delighted to recommend Ben's book, and also to say that he's planning to come to our conference in March (if his trees and the New Hampshire winter cooperate...).
Ben's book on Amazon is HERE. |
| Mnemonics: Memory Strategies | | |
 And finally, our Learning Resource tip of the month:
With the adoption of the Common Core guidelines, students may be faced with more material to memorize than ever; and for many dyslexic students, rote memory is particularly challenging. But this is not because dyslexic students have poor memories across the board. In fact, dyslexics show superior memory skills in several areas. The keys for dyslexic students are to learn which parts of their memory system work well, and how to learn to use those memory strengths to compensate for their areas of memory weakness.
Below we've linked to two great resources that can help you learn more about how mnemonics--or strategies that employ memory strengths to compensate for memory weaknesses--can help students with dyslexia memorize hard-to-remember information:
- First, a great Mnemonic Strategies article from George Mason University (see an example for Baton Rouge, Louisiana)
- Second, a good overview at LDonline.
Many of the best mnemonics use wordplay, humor, and/or visual imagery. The LDonline article covers keyword, pegword, and letter strategies as well as presenting data on effectiveness. By learning how to create their own mnemonics, dyslexic students can be empowered to become better classroom learners. |
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