Dyslexia/Reading & Learning Disabilities

Those of you who have been following this blog or other Shut-Down Learner stuff for some time know that I have somewhat of a preoccupation with those kids I’ve  referred to as “Lego Kids.”

Even though I have assessed a few thousand kids in my career (yes, it’s true), I continue to be amazed by this style of child, their incredible strengths as well as their inherent weaknesses.

On average, these children excel with tasks that are nonverbal in nature.  They love building, organizing, tinkering, imagining, all in nonverbal ways.

They are our future engineers, architects, designers, landscape engineers, and builders.

There’s just one problem.

Quite often, they don’t read, spell or write very well.

There’s nothing wrong with their brains; they’re just not wired to excel in the domain where language functions predominate, such as with reading, spelling and writing.  They’re not sensitized to the way words are made up of individual sounds.  So if you ask the child to add or remove sounds to words (e.g., “Say flat.”  Now say flat without saying the /f/ sound”), they look at you blankly or just guess with little understanding.

Take, young Chris, age 6, who is not progressing well in the basics of reading, spelling and writing.  Continual reports about his inattentiveness are coming home with the implied message that he needs to be seen by a neurologist and put on medication.  The parents are told that Chris can’t pay attention and while the school personnel freely state that they can’t diagnose, they give strong signals in other words that Chris needs to be put on medication.

When I meet Chris he doesn’t look thrilled about the idea of the evaluation, but when the blocks break out to match them to complex patterns and he is given puzzles tasks, he becomes a different child.  He goes from disengaged to engaged in seconds. (With his rapid change of demeanor, some might even ridiculously start thinking he was bipolar!!!).

When I ask Chris to perform the tasks that involve language like the one above described his demeanor changes again and he starts to complain and rapidly falls off-track.

When Chris was done the testing, he involved himself with a very creative drawing at the white board, with a fully elaborate story with the pictures all connected in an imaginative sequence.

I don’t think we get these kids who are wired for the nonverbal.  Too quickly we think of them as “disordered” or “disabled.”

Even with all of the training initiatives taking place around the country, it’s my sense that we still are light years away from truly understanding them.

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Not in the South Jersey area? For a free 15 Minute Consultation, contact Dr. Selznick: email – contact@shutdownlearner.com.

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I try and find my weekly inspiration from my interactions as they happen from parents and kids.

This week’s comes from a seven year old second grader, Jonah, who told me he was not a big fan of school.  In fact, he was clear in stating that he “hated it.”

I pressed Jonah to tell me why.

“It’s all this testing,” Jonah started.  “The stories are nice, but the worksheets are really boring – they really get on my nerves.  I try and stay as focused as I can be.”

Mind you, he’s seven and my testing did not turn up any significant learning problems, no signs of dyslexia.  He just wasn’t into it – losing interest at seven.

We need to face that the “work-sheeting of childhood” is not working.   To so many kids worksheets represent one more compliance hurdle after another.  (“Do this worksheet and then do another and while you’re at it, here are two for homework.”)

Why does this worksheet stuff matter?  Why has this been a near obsession of mine over the years?

Beside the fact that I need to get a life, practically every day parents come in with large folders stacked with worksheets that their struggling child is asked to endure.  Sure, the kids on the “smooth road,” the ones lucky enough not to be struggling, tough it out like dutiful soldiers and they get one good grade and smiley face after another.

For the 30% or so who are struggling for a whole combination of reasons, they are also toughing it out, but the feedback isn’t so great.  Putting a frowny face on the page with a circled ‘F’ on a worksheet is helping no one.

It’s my impression that the boys in particular are disdaining school because of the constant drudgery.   (I’m not saying it’s any better for the girls, but maybe because 98% of the teachers are female, they feel a greater sense of connection and are more motivated to please their teachers.)

Worksheets are not motivating. No child ever came home saying, “Hey, mom, guess what? I got a great worksheet today in school.”

Math word problems are particularly confusing to a considerable number of children.  Even if the words could be read (many of them cannot be), the way the problems are written, they are confusing.

Here’s a sample of a one that a second grader who was struggling with reading had recently:

Jake bought some stickers at Sticker Station.  He bought 4 strips of ten sun stickers and 3 single sun stickers.  He also bought 2 strips of ten moon stickers and 5 single moon stickers.  How many stickers did Jake buy?

In this confusing attempt at being cute with the story of Sticker Station, there were at least eight to ten words that the second grader couldn’t easily read.  (Not to mention that the mathematic operation involved here ([4 x 10 +3= 43] + [2 x 10 + 5= 25] = 68), seems a bit heady for a seven year old, if I did the math right.)

There was a time in school when worksheets did not rule the education landscape, when real literature served as the primary instructional vehicle in the classroom with stories that captivated kids with imaginative experiences to get them connected.

Don’t you think seven is a bit young for disdain?

Any of you who have been following this blog for some time or who have read Shut-Down Learner, know that we pay particularly close attention to the kids I have called “Lego Brain Children.” These are children who gravitate to “hands-on” visual thinking activities like building with Legos, making pictures or constructing things.

While most people learn best when there is a multisensory presentation of information, these kids really thrive and are “wired” for the visual. In the classroom they often look quite drifty and inattentive, yet give them some hands-on tasks (drawing, building, creating, taking swimming lessons somewhere like Coast2Coast First Aid and Aquatics) and they can do these activities for hours, with little to no sign of inattentiveness. Typically, their reading spelling and writing are shaky at best.

I have literally evaluated a few thousand kids in my career and I continue to be struck by how children like these are misunderstood and quickly put into “disordered” categories.

Perhaps the question is not whether the child is disordered, but “disordered for what?” That is, I may be pretty “disordered” at this task in front of me (say, paying attention in school or reading, for example), but am pretty capable in this other area (say, creating elaborate Lego cities).

Most of you are aware of the different “intelligences” (e.g., verbal, visual/spatial, social, musical, athletic/movement, interpersonal/social, mechanical, etc.).

It’s my guess that the vast majority of people are pretty good at one or two of the intelligences, fair at a few others, and pretty poor at another two or three.

It’s just the way we are wired.

Neurodevelopmental variation rules.

The problem is we form much of our self-esteem and core set of self-beliefs within the first 10 years or so in our life and if we are one of those Lego-brain types who are not reading, spelling or writing very well, not to mention drifting off task, we form some pretty erroneous conclusions that become deeply hard-wired in our belief system.

“I am really dumb” is one of the core beliefs held by these children, hardwired into the personality and mental structure at a very young age.

(As I write this I reflect on the thought that most of my professional life has been devoted to one thing – trying to help kids overcome this one core belief.)

Understand this. While many talk about dyslexia and ADHD (who are often Lego-Brained children) being a “blessing and a gift,” underneath it there is often great pain.

Sure, it’s wonderful being able to build elaborate cities with your Legos and to create elaborate drawings, but when you are getting frowny faces and “D’s” on worksheets that are not readable by you, at that moment you’re not easily reflecting about the blessing or the gift.

Takeaway Point

On an email I received recently from a colleague, the bottom of her email had the following quote:

Everyone is a genius, but if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing it is stupid ~Einstein

I think that about says it all.

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Not in the Philadelphia area, for a free 15 Minute Consultation, contact Dr. Selznick: email – contact@shutdownlearner.com.

To receive free Dyslexia Infographics and updates, go to: www.shutdownlearner.com.

This week on my Twitter feed, I came upon an article that talked about a billionaire who felt that his dyslexia was a “gift.” In his mind, it was the primary reason for his success as a businessman.

Many businessmen and women get their inspiration to start their own business from somewhere. Without it, they won’t have the drive that is needed to build a successful company from the ground up. Whilst in this case someone took their inspiration from dyslexia, it could come from a wide array of things including learning new skills and being able to call something their own.

The truth is that some people don’t excel working in professional workplaces under employers. Whilst the creating of the resume is easy because you can contact somewhere like ARC Resumes in PA (https://www.arcresumes.com/local/pennsylvania/) to give you a helping hand in finding a job, it may not be what you expected, thus causing you to move onto other things, including starting your own business.

Having that primary reason to start your own business, like the businessman with dyslexia, you could find that it is the gift you need to help you excel in your chosen field.

When it comes to dyslexia, I get it.

Dyslexics have an array of “gifts.” In my book, The Shut Down Learner, the essential theme is that kids (and adults) with dyslexia often have this incredible other side to them – that is, the creative, spatial, visual side. This allows them to flourish in so many ways that often are not recognized in school.

In fact, in the back of the book I list about 50 different jobs that tend to “pull” for dyslexics. These range from trades, such as automotive engineering, plumbing and landscaping, to professions, such as engineering and architecture, as well as a variety of creative endeavors, such as video production.

I understand the “gift side.” I also think it’s important not to lose sight of the pain and the anguish that also comes with having a learning disability like dyslexia.

How does dyslexia affect everyday life?

This week alone I evaluated three different kids, all at various levels of development, who turned out to be dyslexic.

Each child was fun, spirited and vibrant in their style. However, I also detected the deep insecurity and embarrassment that they felt from struggling with reading, spelling and writing.

Take Mary Beth, age 10, a twin who detests reading (and spelling and writing).

For Mary Beth, school is a daily embarrassment that she quietly stifles in terms of keeping her feelings under wraps. She feels like she is constantly running a race at a 45 degree angle (with hurdles) while everyone else is on a level track. When she sees her twin brother blithely sailing along in school, she’s not feeling all that fortunate about “the gift.”

I see a girl like Mary Beth, who would normally at her age love reading, saying she hates it. When I hear from her parents that there is almost a nightly ritual of tears and crying, I think that the billionaire’s view is a bit short-sighted.

Takeaway Point

Focus on the strengths and recognize the gifts, but you can’t ignore the pain.

About 50% of the kids in the early grades are pretty immune to whatever they get in school.  Whatever reading or learning method comes their way they handle it and make good progress in the key areas of development.

I call these the “Smooth Road Kids.”

Everybody’s happy on the smooth road.

The smooth road kids don’t need to be taught directly or explicitly.  They just pick it up, almost through osmosis.

It’s the kids on the other side of the road that we continually worry about for a whole variety of reasons.

For them, they need to have instruction broken down, step-by-step, explicitly laid out in a sensible sequence of skills.

In addition to the explicit, step-by-step instruction, what do you think these kids need above all?  It’s something that is not talked about enough.

They need patience…patience.    Let the kid marinate in the skills. Don’t rush the process or the kid.  Let the skills soak in and take hold.

If it takes the average kid a few repetitions, our kids of concern need many more repetitions over a longer period of time.  The skills need to be continually revisited even if it is believed that the skill has been acquired.

In spite of whatever fast-paced curriculum might be suggesting about the pace of things, we can’t hurry them along.

Takeaway  Point

“Marination is the process of soaking foods in a seasoned, often acidic, liquid before cooking.  It is commonly used to flavor foods and to tenderize tougher cuts of meat.    The process may last seconds or days.” (Wikipedia)

For a free 15 Minute Consultation, contact Dr. Selznick: email – contact@shutdownlearner.com.

To receive free Dyslexia Infographics and updates, go to: www.shutdownlearner.com.

                      Meat & Potatoes: adjective (Informal)-  fundamental; down-to-earth; basic (Dictionary.com)

This week I said to a mom, “We don’t use any fancy methods with our kids – it’s all very ‘meat and potatoes’.”

In this day and age there are all kinds of treatments and approaches to address children who are struggling, usually in the areas of reading, spelling and writing.  Many of the programs are computer based or conducted on iPads.  Minimal involvement or interaction with a teacher or tutor is required..

With these approaches, the kid logs on to a train the brain style program and each session picks up wherever the previous lesson ended.  As he progresses, the child racks up various points with the computer voice calling out “great job” or “You’re number one,” at least 50 times in the session just in case the child had forgotten how great he was.

In the other, “meat and potatoes” approach,   the teacher works with the child on fundamental skills in a more individualized format tailored to meet the child’s needs.  Knowing where the where the child is in his/her level of development, she targets those fundamental skills that are lacking or weak utilizing sensible approaches  that have been shown in research and through experience to work well in developing these skills.

Two essential ingredients in this approach are patience and encouragement.  The child can’t be rushed along.  The skills take time to consolidate and be internalized.  For children with learning disabilities they typically need much more repetition than is usually expected for the skills to take hold and become a part of the child’s automatic repertoire.

The “Meat and Potatoes” approaches target decoding  and reading fluency skills in the early stages of development and then shift into more complex reading activities that include targeting inferences, drawing conclusions and vocabulary.

There is also a layering or scaffolding in these approaches.  One skill is layered on top of another.  Kids who are struggling need this step-by–step mastery much more than the kids who have an easier ride.

Each step builds a little confidence, a little sense of mastery.

Takeaway Point

Pass the gravy.

The meat and potatoes are looking pretty good.