Blog
“We’re Not Doctors…We Think You Should See a Neurologist”
Oliver, age 8, has difficulty behaving in his third grade class. They were told by the school, "We're not doctors, so we don't know why he's doing these things, but we think you should see a neurologist." The last statement is code language. Here's the translation -...
7 Keys to Comprehension
Recently I had the good fortune of being able to interview Susan Zimmermann on The Coffee Klatch Network. Zimmermann is the author of The Seven Keys to Comprehension: How to help your kids read it and get it! Within the interview, we talked about the challenges with...
Learning from Detective Columbo: A Parent Approach for IEP and 504 Meetings
Perhaps you are old enough to remember Lieutenant Columbo (played by Peter Falk) in the famed TV show from the 1970s. I use Columbo as a model to help frustrated parents in terms of their style of communication. I call it, “Going Columbo.” Here’s how “Going Columbo”...
Dyslexia – “We Hold These Truths to Be Self-Evident”
Dyslexia – “We Hold These Truths To Be Self-Evident” I am not pretending here to be the Thomas Jefferson of learning disabilities, but to borrow a phrase from that famous document that he authored (you know the one), where it was said “We hold these truths to be...
The Commutative Property of Childhood (and Dyslexia)
A dad came in this week to talk about his struggling 8 year old, Anna, who just started third grade. Anna has reading fluency issues, with particular difficulty managing words that are “low frequency.” Even in this early part of the school year Anna is welling up...
Deep Breathing Down the Jangly Road
By the upper elementary school grades, parents are given the message from the school that their child needs to do school work on his or her own without the parental support that was offered in previous grades. For many children, that's exactly what should be...
Dyslexia: It Comes From Some Place
A very common question that parents will ask me of their child who is showing signs of dyslexia is “Why? Where does it come from?” As suggested in International Dyslexia Association definition of dyslexia it states that it is likely to be of “neurobiological origin.”...
5,000 Tweets & Counting: A Milestone Is Reached!
This week I glanced at my Twitter page and found that I was at 4,999 total tweets! Over the 5,000 tweets there are themes that emerged that are fairly consistent. These themes were summed up in my book, School Struggles, but I thought they would be nice here as a...
Bright Kids Who Can’t Keep Up – An Interview With Dr. Braaten
Franklin, age 8, can build wonderful Lego cities. A creative and thoughtful child, he is also a wealth of information when it comes to anything about nature - he can talk about swamps like no one’s business. The problem is Franklin is having trouble keeping up in...
Dyslexia in the New Year: Trying to Stay Away from the “New School Year Blues”
It’s that time again. Another summer slips away. They just don’t make them like they used to. Soon you will be bombarded soon by all of “top tips for having your child to have a great school year.” They will be in all of the magazines and the evening news. Even...
“Lost at Sea:” Executive Function Weaknesses
Every 10 years or so in education and psychology there is a trendy hot topic or new term that was essentially unheard of the previous decade. Before learning disabilities became a hot term in the 1970s, these were virtually unknown in the public. The same was true...