LD Resources » LD Support Sites

Dyslexia Scholarship Finalist Goes From Hopeless to National Speaker and Advocate

Sanford — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 02:14:20 +0000

This is about Jennifer Smith, a finalist in 2010 for an Ann and Allegra Ford Scholarship, and her story of growth and pain. Terribly and typically teased, she persevered through language training and to the growth of her self-confidence. She enters college in the fall, speaks to students about dyslexia, has written a book, “Dyslexia Wonders”
and has created a non-profit group, Jenny’s Wish Foundation. This foundation provides scholarships to kids with learning disabilities, and provides grants to organizations who help them.

Autism Spectrum, Family Workshop Series at NYU

Sanford — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 18:47:25 +0000

The NYU Child Study Center announces a series of free workshops in which expert clinicians and researchers will address these and other concerns. The Autism Spectrum Disorders Clinical and Research Program’s 2012 Family Workshop Series is open to the public at no charge.

Even as awareness of autism grows along with the number of cases diagnosed, it remains a topic likely to raise more questions than answers. If you are a parent whose child is on the spectrum, or a school or health professional encountering increasing numbers of children with this mental health condition, you may have a host of concerns. Are there medications that can help? How much improvement in symptoms can be expected with good treatment? What are the best treatments? What can be done in the home and in general classroom settings to best support these children?

Learning Disabilities Truth: Capitalizing on a Fixation.

Sanford — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 00:16:06 +0000

Temple Grandin, a noted animal scientist and professor at Colorado State University, who is also one of the world’s best known people with Asperger’s Syndrome (a form of high-functioning Autism) is often fascinating to listen to. She sometimes pops out with little gems, with a completely uncomplicated turn of phrase, that can go by so fast you might not even notice it.

In this video interview, listen later on (at about the 2:20 mark) when she describes how she went from being fixated with watching cattle go through squeeze chutes for vaccinations, to learning more and more about them. Eventually she not only reinvented various processes related to the raising of livestock, but noticed that she herself would become noticeably calmer while being in one of the cattle squeeze machines.

Later on she helped adapt some of these for kids on the autism spectrum. It apparently helps provide the right amount of deep pressure on large muscle groups, which in turn helps to calm down the person’s sensory system. They are now used in schools and occupational therapy offices across the country.

Temple says, “You have to take the fixations and broaden it out.” Brilliant.

She’s proving one of Mel Levine’s axioms about kids with LD; that you help kids capitalize on their “affinities” (areas of natural interest), and use that singular focus and knowledge-base to help them to broaden the focus and to develop other areas of expertise. People with Asperger’s often show hyper-focused interests in specific and somewhat idiosyncratic areas. Our choice is in how we respond to that. Our responsibility it seems to me is to use it as a positive. It’s called going with the path of least resistance. A child who’s fixated on trains and train schedules for example can then expand to learn more and more about trains and then eventually about other forms of commercial transportation.

When it comes to dyslexia, diagnosis is never too late.

Sanford — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 17:56:08 +0000

From Metro.US: When it comes to dyslexia, diagnosis is never too late.

Wealth and finance expert Charles Schwab didn’t quite figure out he has dyslexia until his son was a teenager. Pulitzer Prize winning poet Philip Schultz also didn’t realize he is dyslexic until well into adulthood as his son was receiving the diagnosis.

Although early intervention is the name of the game and the concept most covered in the news, finding out the reasons for one’s struggles and differences at any age can be a huge relief and a light bulb moment.

Autism Controversy: Over-Diagnosis and Over-Zealous Parents?

Sanford — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 21:49:17 +0000

On boingboing dot net, there’s a fascinating discussion going on about the growing number of people getting diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). The controversy involves the questioning of whether or not this represents a true increase/explosion of ASD, or attributable to better diagnostic tools, more awareness of symptoms and better informed parents and professionals. Where the controversy begins to get really lively and heated is when suggestions are made that parents are doctor shopping in order to get the diagnosis they want in order to get the services they want. The discussion further devolves while paring down the possible motives by some parents, to being purely financial.

Controversies are sometimes a created illusion, which misses the truth of a situation. In this situation, painting this as an either-or scenario is misleading. The tension of opposite camps on this matter hides reality. What is the reality? The reality is that the apparent rise of ASD is because of increased sophistication of diagnostic tools and awareness AND there are parents unfortunately, who needlessly overreact to their child’s behaviors and can only see what they want to see. Are some parents trying to stuff their kids with anxiety disorders and/or other social/sensory/behavioral struggles into an Asperger’s diagnosis? My guess is yes. However the debate of which is true is one that misleads. It’s both.

Corresponding with the increase in the numbers of reported cases of childhood autism is the reported decrease in “developmental delays, cognitive disorders, or mental retardation.” There was a time when children with ASD, particularly those with more classic autism, were misdiagnosed with developmental or cognitive disabilities, aka, mentally retarded. So, there’s a trade-off in terms of some of the numbers.

I started working with kids and families with Autism Spectrum in 1994, while I lived in CT. Since then I’ve helped kids and teens directly and consulted with many families on things like school placement and parenting issues. I’ve also been a school director of a private day school where at least a good 60% of the students were somewhere “on the spectrum.” I’m saying this because I do know the lay of the land. The suggestion that many or most parents are shopping for the diagnosis of Autism is really ignorant of the realities. Autism is not some light diagnosis that has any cache, or is “desirable,” and the stresses of parenting a child on this spectrum can be enormous.

The LA Times series on which this Boing Boing discussion rests can be found here.

[via Richard Wanderman]

Once Again, Waiting for a Criteria of Failure

Sanford — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 19:36:42 +0000

Lianne Milton for the Bay Citizen

In this article from The NY Times, evidence once again, that innovation sometimes appears only when there’s been enough failure. In this San Francisco program, kids who’ve been exceedingly truant are given great opportunity to engage in exciting real-word activities with highly motivated teachers.

I’m glad for these kids, many of whom probably have learning disabilities. I just wish there was more innovation for all kids.

College Support for Students with Learning Disabilities

Sanford — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 22:06:44 +0000

An interesting and pretty thorough article from US News and World Report, Colleges Step Up to Meet Dyslexia Challenge, which addresses a recent meeting at Stanford University, of 45 college admission deans on the different aspects of the admissions process and levels of support once in college, for students with documented learning disabilities.

Interestingly, given the discussion at this site on the relationship between IQ and dyslexia; this is pretty much geared to high academic achieving kids who have LD.

Also there’s a link in the article that the reporter titles: [Read how learning disabilities may offer an edge in college admissions.] While there are ways in which disclosure of your learning disability during the admission’s process can somewhat level a skewed playing field, I’d say it’s a bit of an unnecessary spin to characterize having a learning disability as something that gives you an advantage.

Internet Disability Resources

Sanford — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 18:14:10 +0000

New Link for Disability support: High Speed Disability Access Guide for various disabilities.

More on “Auditory” aspect of Dyslexia

Sanford — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 20:53:20 +0000

This article from the NYTimes.com is another slant on the recent MIT Study about the difficulty (some) people with dyslexia have when trying to distinguish tonal aspects of different voices.

In the Times article, emphasis is given to relating this new study to what we already know about the phonological difficulties people with dyslexia have when reading and spelling.

Dr. Sally Shaywitz, director of the the Yale Center for Dyslexia and Creativity, links these findings to the often-cited and sometimes joked about tendency towards malaprops (substituting similar sounding but incorrect words). She gives examples: “A child at Fenway Park watching the Red Sox said, ‘Oh, I’m thirsty. Can we go to the confession stand?,’ ” she said.

“Another person crossing a busy intersection where many people were walking said, ‘Oh, those Presbyterians should be more careful.’

The problem is not in word meaning (can be a strength) but in retrieving, hearing and re-ordering the small sounds within words (phonemes).

Learning Disabilities and Second-Hand Smoke

Sanford — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 19:43:12 +0000

Well, not that there aren’t enough reasons already not to smoke and not to smoke around kids.

Learning Disabilities and Second-Hand Smoke

This is one of those studies that isn’t air tight but does corroborate other indicators and point towards more studies to see whether causation exists.

The Disappearance of Asperger’s Syndrome

Sanford — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 03:09:46 +0000

Why and How Asperger Syndrome Will Disappear

With the American Psychiatric Association’s new Diagnostic Manual (DSM-5) due to come out sometime this year, the diagnostic term Asperger’s Syndrome will begin to disappear.

In an attempt to streamline the umbrella term of Autism Spectrum Disorder, the discrete subcategory term of Asperger’s will no longer exist, except in the minds of proponents of the term.

Personally I liked the term and it has meaning to me and many others, both professionals and those with the syndrome.

Instead of Asperger Syndrome, high functioning individuals with the core symptoms of autism (now defined essentially as repetitive behaviors and perseverative interests combined with sensory issues) will probably receive an “autism spectrum” diagnosis. It’s also likely that they’ll receive some sort of yet-to-defined extra term such as “without intellectual challenges.”

I’d love to hear from those who have an opinion on this one way or another.

On the DSM-5 site, you still have a couple of weeks left for you to register a comment on this.

Amazing Volunteer at Dyslexia Association Turns 101

Sanford — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 00:06:09 +0000

This amazing woman, Lillian Davis, has been volunteering at the International Dyslexia Association in Towson, MD, for over 20 years.