Blog
My Interview with Documentary Film Director, Jamie Redford (#Dyslexia)
(***This blog is a revision of an earlier post.) Understanding dyslexia is challenging, primarily because of the deeply embedded mythologies that we hold. Chief among them is “the reversal thing.” To illustrate, try this experiment. With any friend or relative ask...
REPORT FROM THE FRUA CONFERENCE
This past weekend it was my honor to be a presenter at the two-day FRUA (Families for Russian & Ukrainian Adoption: www.frua.org) conference, held at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. A range of speakers covered a variety of different...
HOWARD BEALE – WHERE ARE YOU?
Well, here I am listening to another parent story. No, it’s not actually me in the picture, but it certainly feels like me at the moment. This picture is taken from the movie “Network,” where Howard Beale (Peter Finch) a newscaster goes on nightly rants fed up with...
LITTLE REMORSE AND NOT MUCH COMPASSION EITHER
As part of a typical assessment battery that I conduct with young adults (16 years and older), they are asked to define certain words. One of the more curious trends that I’ve observed in recent years is the difficulty that these young adults have defining two...
17,000 TEXT MESSAGES THIS MONTH – “I Can Multitask!”
Kiera, age 16, has had a rough year in school. After receiving grades of D’s and F’s in most of her major subjects, Kiera’s parents have brought her to a variety of specialists. Different medications were prescribed and tried. "Train the...
INSIDE THE HEAD OF A BOY WITH A LEARNING DISABILITY!!!!!
You’re a 10 year old boy with a learning disability. This learning disability stuff is very tough. Every day you look around the room and see people finishing tasks quickly, getting smiles from the teacher for all the work handed in on time. You don’t get those...
THE BLIND MEN & THE ELEPHANT: (Dissecting Childhood)
"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 (or men...
Are You a “Curling Parent?”
Many of you who watched the last Winter Olympics became captivated by the curious sport of Curling. In it, players slide a stone across a sheet of ice towards a target area. Probably the oddest-looking aspect of the sport are the "Sweepers." It's their job to sweep...
Calculators ‘R Us
Martha, age 18, is about to be finished high school. Receiving a 504 Plan in high school, Martha is eagerly anticipating attending college. She comes in to see me for an assessment to help determine what accommodations she may continue to need. As part of...
Does Your Child Have Curriculum ADHD?
A mom came in the other day to talk about her struggling eight year old daughter, Hayley, a third grader. She presented with many of the common concerns – difficulty with decoding, reading fluency, spelling and writing, “What has the...
PARENTS! YOU’RE OFF THE HOOK (sort of)!!!!!
We recently talked about rigid, inflexible and difficult Marissa, age 7 (bit.ly/a7ZFoQ). For the next few blogs, I thought we’d stay on this theme and explore the topic of difficult children a bit more. Over the years so many parents have come...