Smart Kids With LD

By Lynn Eastman Rider, M.S.W., M. Div.

For every parent, educator, or student grappling with dyslexia, a vital new book has been added to the toolbox. The Dyslexic Advantage: Unlocking the Hidden Potential of the Dyslexic Brain is the work of Brock and Fernette Eide, both MDs and experts in neuroscience and learning disabilities who have worked with hundreds of individuals with dyslexia and their families. In the process they’ve seen patterns emerge across generations. People with dyslexia who struggle in school are often late bloomers who excel in distinctive fields later in life. The authors attribute this pattern to the dyslexic brain that is now understood by science as simply different, and not defective.

The Eides take that difference one step further and assert that dyslexia is rightfully understood as an advantage.

By detailing the strengths and benefits of this advantage, they hope to shift our attention from fixing problems to unleashing the potential of brains that they assert aren’t supposed to be like everyone else’s. They want to “show you what the dyslexic mind looks like when it opens its wings and begins to soar.”

This is heady stuff for anyone trying to build a bright future for someone with dyslexia. The very readable book contains chapters full of studies, anecdotes, and examples describing the four core strengths the Eides have observed. But most compelling are the excerpts from dyslexic individuals themselves explaining their minds at work. For example, geologist and mystery novelist Sarah Andrews once wrote,

“We are great sponges for observed patterns… Repeated patterns become ideas, and new patterns lead to new paradigms… We can, using the barest shreds, ‘see’ through solid rock, back through time, and into future events.”

In addition to the excitement of identifying specific strengths in your child (or yourself), there are helpful chapters on how to access, train, and put those strengths to use from elementary school through college and into the workplace.

In this book, the Eides have articulated the essence of a paradigm shift that’s taking root within the LD community. Research scientists, educators, diagnosticians, students, and parents are recognizing that people with dyslexia bring more than puzzling challenges to the table—they also bring an array of unique strengths that, when tapped, position them for success.

If you are wondering where to go once your dyslexia paradigm has shifted, look no further. The Dyslexic Advantage is a must-read brainstorming aid and source of concrete hope that you will refer to again and again.

If your child struggles with reading, you must check out Bookshare, the free service that provides electronic audible versions of books to students with reading disabilities and vision problems.

Funded by the U.S. Department of Education, this member-based service turns traditional books from print into speech allowing children to access the content via listening. In addition, Bookshare can reformat text to increase the font size and adjust spacing for easier reading.

In an article appearing in the Nov 1 online edition of Education Week, Bookshares’s V.P. of Literacy and General Manager, Betsy Beaumon, explained that the 10-year-old service has agreements with approximately 160 publishers. “We get an electronic feed from our publishers the same time a book is hitting Amazon, the same time it’s hitting iTunes.”

In addition to receiving books from their stable of publishers, Bookshare also gets electronic copies of textbooks from the National Instructional Materials Access Center, a federal repository created under special education law. To date the company has more than 125,000 titles and is open to suggestions for others

To learn more about Bookshare go to http://www.bookshare.org.

Tuesday, April 5, 2011
1:00 to 3:30 p.m., Room 1-D, Legislative Office Building
300 Capitol Avenue, Hartford, CT

A Legislative Forum:
Reading: The Engine for School Success

The We Will Read Coalition in Connecticut sponsors a forum on reading on April 5, to promote effective reading instruction for all children, including those with dyslexia

Opening Welcome

Rep. Gary Holder-Winfield of New Haven, Chair of the Black and Puerto Rican Caucus

The Impact of Reading Failure
Ralph Smith, Executive Vice President, Annie E. Casey Foundation, Baltimore
Among his many accomplishments, Mr. Smith has helped design the Casey
Foundation’s comprehensive effort to help communities improve outcomes for
children by strengthening families and neighborhoods.

Teaching Reading-What the Research Tells Us

Dr. Marilyn Adams, Visiting Professor at Brown University Author of “Beginning to Read: Thinking and Learning
about Print,” Dr. Adams has also designed and written three empirically proven instructional programs

Teachers: What if No One Taught Us How to Intervene?
Teachers discuss exposure to reading intervention and needs

Reading and Competitiveness–the Business Concern
Joseph McGee, Vice President of Public Policy and Programs, Business Council of Fairfield
County

School Leaders and Systems Reform in Reading
Dr. Jordan Grossman  Principal, Canton Intermediate School
Joseph N. Amato, Principal, Wendell Cross Elementary School, Waterbury

Higher Education: A Key Partner to Turn the Curve
Dr. Maureen Ruby  Assistant Professor of Education, Eastern Connecticut State University

The Role of the Family in Love of Language Parents discuss their role in learning.

What Communities Can Do Community agencies, libraries, pediatricians speak.

Discussion and Wrap-Up

Agenda subject to change

Prepare, prepare, prepare. That’s the advice from experts and parents of children with learning disabilities and ADHD for those who are new to the IEP process. Knowledge of your child, the school system, and federal and state laws and regulations will empower you to become the effective advocate your child deserves.

To help you through the process, the Special Education Network of Wilton, Ltd. (SPED*NET Wilton) has put together a handy guide with everything you need to know to make the most of your IEP experience. In Bringing Knowledge to the Table: How To Be An Effective Advocate For Your Child this Connecticut-based organization provides user-friendly information for first-time IEP goers and helpful reminders to seasoned veterans. Although the manual is written with their local constituents in mind, don’t let that dissuade you; the hints, tips, strategies, and suggestions apply across state lines and are sure to help parents everywhere become full partners in their child’s education. Check out a sample in Before the IEP Meeting: 6 Tips for Parents or find the entire handbook online at www.spednetwilton.org.

Reviewed by Miriam Cherkes-Julkowski, Ph.D

Stanley and Nancy Thorndike Greenspan’s book, The Learning Tree: Overcoming Learning Disabilities from the Ground Up, is the latest addition to Stanley Greenspan’s signature view of child development. Based on years of research, the eminent psychiatrist and early childhood expert maintains that real learning takes place through child-directed initiatives—not adult-driven actions. In Greenspan’s view, the role of adults is to support child-driven initiatives and expand upon them gradually, always handing the initiative back to the child. For example, he describes how a little girl works with her mother to organize herself in a fun, everyday learning situation:

She (the little girl) draws on her ideas to plan what she wants, and her eyes, ears and hands to carry out the plans, all in logical order. Packing the lunch, she and her mother talk about shapes—a round apple, a rectangular box of juice, a triangular half of a sandwich. This little girl is more likely to remember all this than repetitive, non-expressive activities, such as flash cards or a shape sorter, used to memorize shapes.

Power Play

No flash cards? This is likely to be a welcome relief for most parents and even more so for parents whose children have learning disabilities. As implied in the book’s title, learning cannot simply be drilled into place without the requisite developmental readiness. It begins from the bottom (roots) up and takes form through creative, interactive play:

Play excites your child’s interests, draws her to connect to you, and challenges her to be creative, curious and spontaneous—all of which move her forward intellectually and emotionally…. For a child of any age you do three things:  1) follow your child’s lead; 2) challenge her to be creative and spontaneous; and 3) expand the action.

True to their developmental point of view, the Greenspans place the emphasis on early ages. However, throughout the book they provide references on how their model might be applied as children develop through the school years.

Holistic Approach

It is the whole child that is the focus of concern. Behaviors are not to be taken out of their contexts, and symptoms are not to be disconnected from the dynamic out of which they emerge:

For the most part, inattention is a symptom of other problems. It’s like having a fever. Obviously, a fever is not a disease but a symptom common to many. Taking a pill to get rid of a fever without looking for the cause is not good medicine.

From this holistic vantage point, behaviors that might be seen at first to be problematic, are framed in a developmentally positive light:

Just hearing a child explain what she likes or why she doesn’t want to do something, you can feel proud about how thoughtful and insightful she is becoming, even when she disagrees with you.

Continuing the theme of respect for the child, the Greenspans caution against knee-jerk kowtowing to IQ and emphasize instead a child’s strengths (mostly) and weaknesses (some):

Children are often smarter than we give them credit for, but they do vary in terms of processing capacities. They can be uneven in their central nervous system development. Time, however, is on their side. There’s no horse race. …The most important element, is to engage the child by building on his existing interests and experiences, on what he already likes and feels comfortable with…

While the Greenspans provide an important and humane foundation for understanding, interacting with, and supporting children, their discussion of specific learning disabilities in this book is not sufficient for pinpointing instruction or grasping the nature of the problem. That aside, the reader will be left with perhaps a new respect for the role of experiential learning particularly for students with LD and ADHD.

The Learning Tree: Overcoming Learning Disabilities from the Ground Up, Stanley I. Greenspan, MD and Nancy Throndike Greenspan. Da Capo Press; Philadelphia, PA, 2010

The new HBO documentary airing Tuesday, October 26^th doesn’t flinch from testifying to the pain that children with LD and ADHD endure in school: “They said I was stupid, so I thought I was stupid,” says Abby, a bright and articulate nine-year-old who struggled to read, write, and spell. But after receiving appropriate help for her dyslexia, Abby regains confidence in herself, declaring, “Now, I love books!”

“I CAN’T DO THIS BUT I CAN DO THAT:  A Film for Families About Learning Differences” is an account of 8 children who speak movingly about their hard-won understanding that they have very real abilities along with their learning problems–and, like Abby, have learned to use their strengths to compensate for their difficulties.

I Can Do That!

The film highlights the resourcefulness, creativity and strengths that schools frequently fail to acknowledge when students with LD are viewed as less capable than others, and are not given the help they need to succeed.  As director and producer Ellen Goosenberg Kent notes, the film “encourages students, families, and teachers to look beyond labels and discover the gifts each child possesses.”

An engaging 12-year-old, John used to hate school. Like many of the children interviewed for the film, he was often humiliated in class: His third-grade teacher called on him to do math problems in front of the class, and published his failing grades in the school newsletter. Today John attends Denver Academy in Colorado, a school that acknowledges and supports instruction for children with learning difficulties, and expects them to excel. John says, “I have problems with handwriting, but I can still play guitar!”

And as he notes with wisdom beyond his years, “It’s not a learning disorder, it’s a learning difference.  If people think you have a disorder, their expectations drop tremendously.  I can do better than that.”

Joey, also 12, is a talented artist, whose room-sized mural of knights fighting dragons reflects his efforts to contain his anger when he has trouble understanding what he hears, or expressing himself clearly—the result of his auditory processing disorder. “I didn’t think I had a very bright future,” Joey says. But after receiving help from trained instructors and the support of his school principal, he says now, “I realized I could change that future.”

Viewing times

I CAN’T DO THIS BUT I CAN DO THAT:  A Film for Families About Learning Differences” debuts Tuesday, Oct. 26th (7:30-8:00 p.m. ET/PT) exclusively on HBO.

HBO2 playdate:  Nov. 23 (6:00 a.m.)

HBO Family playdates:  Oct. 30 (6:30 p.m.) and Nov. 3 (8:30 p.m.), 12 (10:30 p.m.), 18 (6:30 p.m., 2:00 a.m.), 21 (noon) and 29 (8:30 p.m.)

A trailer for is available for viewing at http://www.hbo.com/#/documentaries/i-cant-do-this-but-i-can-do-that-a-film-for-families-about-learning-differences/synopsis.html