Blog
“Stamina & Grit”
It’s always interesting to me how words or terms come in and out of favor. I see it all the time with kids on the vocabulary portion of the assessment. Ask any child what the word “seldom” means. I would venture to say 99% of the kids I see stare at me blankly when...
Inside Out 2 Helps Kids Label Their Emotions – Is That a Good Thing?
Is it healthy to label emotions, or are we over-clinicalizing childhood?
504 Plans: Avoid Templated Accommodations
504 plans make a lot of accommodations for children that sound good … until the child finds out, and has other thoughts about it.
Balanced Literacy vs. Bottom-Up Methods: Which is Better?
When they are given nonsensical methods that do not work for them, they remain shut-down and discouraged.
Getting a Roadmap – The Stages of Reading Development (Part 2 of 2)
Regardless of whether the child does or does not have a learning disability, the concept is that a child is somewhere on a continuum from the first stage through to the final stages.
Getting a Roadmap – Knowing the Stages
An “old-school” concept not discussed much anymore, but that is still quite relevant has to do with the “Stages of Reading Development.”
“‘The Blind Men & the Elephant'” #Dyslexia
"It was six men of Indostan To learning much inclined, Who went to see the Elephant Though all of them were blind, That each by observation Might satisfy his mind." The above comes from the parable of "The Blind Men and the Elephant." A group of blind men touch an...
“Does Spelling Matter – Part II” (#Dyselxia)
Last week we raised the question of whether spelling matters (,https://shutdownlearner.com/does-spelling-matter-2/), as the issue of struggling spellers is often dismissed since there are a variety of spell check tools available. Almost always, struggling spelling is...
Does Spelling Matter?
Georgia is a lively, spontaneous and friendly 10-year- old student entering the fifth grade. Cognitive testing placed her between the average to above average range for most of the domains assessed. Spelling and writing were a different story for her. Here are some...
“Reading Comprehension Challenges & School Bus Problems: What’s the Connection?”
When Kids struggle with reading comprehension it is interesting that there often is an overlap in "real life,” that is in the way the child interacts in their personal world. In this era of automatically labeling and pathologizing behavior as “ADHD,” this overlap is...
“Rubbing My Head” (#Dyslexia #ADHD #Whatever)
This blog can occasionally serve as a bit of a confessional, providing me with a forum to voice some concerns regarding the issues that emerge while working with struggling children and their parents. So, with that in mind here’s a confession. Sometimes I honestly...