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Dyslexia
ByVeronique Rabot
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Overcoming Dyslexia – Part 1/8

By Sally E. Shaywitz, M.D.

Introduction.

We explore the book “Overcoming Dyslexia” by Sally E. Shaywitz, through a eight-part series. A complete science-based program to remediate reading problems at any level.

Who is Dr. Sally E. Shaywitz?

Dr. Shaywitz is a professor of pediatric neurology at Yale University. She also belongs to the Institute of medicine at the National Academy of Sciences and the national reading panel.

She dedicated her life to understanding dyslexia. Also, she mentioned that dyslexia touches 80% of students with a disability.

Furthermore, her passion for understanding dyslexia led her to become a neuroscientist. She then set herself out to help children and families overcome reading difficulties.

Likewisde, she became the co-founder and co-director of the Yale University for Dyslexia and Creativity (Book: “Overcoming Dyslexia”).

How Dr. Shaywitz came to study dyslexia?

Firstly, Dr. Shaywitz, while in pediatry, realized that many parents were distressed. This feeling appeared when their children faired poorly in school.

Secondly, she observed the negative effects on children’s lives when they were not performing well academically. For this reason, she realized that something needed to be done to mitigate this situation.

In conclusion, she went on to further her education into developmental and behavioral pediatrics. She then developed her education in learning disabilities.

Finally, she extended her knowledge to the field of reading.Dr. Bennett A. Shaywitz.

Who is Benett A. Shaywitz?

Dr. Shaywitz has the privilege to share her passion with her husband, Bennett A. Shaywitz, M.D.

Consequently, he is also a professor of pediatrics and neurology Yale University.

Finally, his role is to ensure the progress made in the field of dyslexia and translate them into policy and practice.

People who read this post also read: Lost at school – Part 2/2

Dr. Sally and Bennett Shaywitz.

Moreover, Dr. Shaywitz has been selected by the National Academy of medicine as the best doctor in America.

Along with her husband, they became the recipients of the liberty science Center 2019 genius award. This award was “for advancing our understanding of dyslexia.” (Book overcoming dyslexia second edition).

To know more about Dr. Sally and Bennett Shaywitz, please click here.

Literary trail.

Dr. Shaywitz authored about 350 scientific articles and book chapters such as:

For a more comprehensive list, please click here.

Connecticut Longitudinal Study: Prevalence of reading disability in boys and girls.

This study was conducted in 1990 with a sample of 215 girls and 199 boys. These children were separated in 2 groups. One group was identified by schools and the other one by researchers.

So the results showed that there was no significant difference between boys and girls with the sample determined by researchers.

However, there was a significant difference between boys and girls with the sample determined by schools.

Meaning of the results.

It meant that in the sample of students determined by researchers, there were no more boys than girls with dyslexia.

On the contrary, in the sample of students determined by schools, there were more boys than girls with dyslexia.

The reason could be determined by biases from schools referring more often boys than girls to special education.

Why is it so?

The reason is simple. Boys are often more demonstrative than girls.

Consequently, they are more likely to misbehave in the classroom and therefore be noticed by school members. Girls, on the contrary, are more likely to be quiet and thus, unfortunately, unnoticed.

To know more, please click here.

Birth of the book “overcoming dyslexia” in 2003.

Finally, after many different kinds of research with patients affected by dyslexia, Dr. Shaywitz wrote the book “overcoming dyslexia” in 2003.

She deemed it important to dissipate her knowledge to consequently, inform the population. Her goal was to define the characteristics of dyslexia and what could be done about it.

However, as technology evolved and fMRI’s (*) were able to catch the brain in action while reading, Dr. Shaywitz updated this book with a second edition published in 2020.

(*) fMRI is functional magnetic resonance imaging. Neuroscientists are using this noninvasive method to observe and study the human brain in action. For instance, neuroscientists can visualize the brain while reading. Effectively, blood flow to the regions used by the brain shows on the fMRI, which allows scientists to view the brain in action.

Book content

The book “overcoming dyslexia’s” second edition is divided into seven parts.

  • 1: The nature of reading in dyslexia
  • 2: Translating science into practice: diagnosing dyslexia
  • 3: Helping your child to become a reader
  • 4: Turning struggling readers into proficient readers
  • 5: Choosing a school
  • 6: Success at the high school and beyond
  • 7: Making it work for the dyslexic child and adult

Therefore, I will summarize each part and add information from my research. This will conclude our series on Dyslexia!

Purchasing  the book

If you are interested in purchasing the book “Overcoming Dyslexia, the second edition” please click the image below.

eLearning-sofun a site dedicated to parents who want to have another perspective on the academic and social-emotional welfare of their children!

“Learning is intelligence having fun!”

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Ross W. Greene Phd
ByVeronique Rabot
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Lost at School – Part 2/2

Ross W. Greene Phd

Lost at School – Why Our Kids with Behavioral Challenges are Falling Through the Cracks and How We Can Help Them By  Dr. Ross W. Greene

Part 2/2

Here is part II of the book “Lost in School.” In the preceding article, we discussed the principles of Collaborative & Proactive Solutions (CPS). For a refresher, please refer to the article Part 1/2 – Lost in School.

As promised, here is the CPS method in action with a concrete example.

Review of plans A, B and C with a “live” situation:

Johnny is in class and is called on by his teacher to go to the board to show his work to the class.

Dialogue

Teacher: Johnny, could you be please go to the board and show your classmates how you responded to question number 5?

Johnny: “No”

Teacher: “Johnny, please, go to the board!”

Johnny: “No, I don’t want to.”

Teacher: “I am asking you to get up and go to the board. It is important that we all share our work.”

Johnny: Getting up and storming out of the room screaming: “This is stupid, I am not going to the board, and you all suck!”

Plans A – B and C 

According to Dr. Green here are the 3 plans one can follow to address this situation.

Plan A: “You do or else.”

Johnny ends up in the principal’s office and gets a speech about the rules and gets his punishment. Then, he returns to class, and no one will discuss this again… until the next outburst.

Plan C: “Letting go.”

The teacher finally did not consider it important for Johnny to go to the board or not. In this case, upon Johnny’s return, she would not mention it and would not call on Johnny again.

Plan B or Collaborative, Problem Solving (CPS):

Upon his return, in the classroom, the teacher would ask for a moment to discuss what happened with Johnny.

Plan B in action: Dialogue between Johnny and his teacher

Teacher: “Johnny, I noticed that you were pretty upset about going to the board. What happened”

Johnny: “It is dumb! Why do I have to go to the board?”

Teacher: “Students take turn to go to the board for 2 reasons:

One

I can see if you or your classmates understood the problem and how they solved it, and

two

I can assess if I have been doing a good job teaching you these concepts.

You see, if everyone answered the problem correctly, then I know that I did a good job. If not, I try to teach it differently so everyone can get it.

Johnny: “You are wondering if you are doing a good job?”

Teacher: “Yes, of course, I want for all of you to be successful, but I am wondering if I did a good job with you? Obviously, you left the room pretty angry, what happened?”

Johnny is opening up

Johnny: “I don’t get any of it, and when you call on me, everybody can see how stupid I am.”

Teacher: “I am sorry to have put you in this situation, Johnny. Do you have a solution to this situation never to happen again.”

Finding a solution together

Johnny: “You could check with me first to see if I did it right.”

Teacher: “That is an excellent idea, but first, we want to make sure that you are understanding what you need to do and how you need to do it. Do you have a solution for that?”

Johnny: “I do not want others to see that I am not getting it, so maybe we can have a code. This way, you could come and help me without me asking in front of everybody.”

Teacher: “This is great, I can certainly do that! But you know Johnny, you can also come before or after school or whenever it works for you. Together we work ahead of time on what I will be teaching. As a result, you will be prepared. How does it sound?”

Johnny: “Yes, I would like that. Thank you Mrs. Garret.”

What happened here?

Did Johnny want to do well? Was his misbehavior coming from something else than not wanting to follow the rules?

If your answer is YES for both questions, you are right!

Tip of the iceberg

Dr. Green (and also do I) believe that the misbehavior is just the tip of the iceberg. Fundamentally, a child wants to do well and follow the rules. Therefore, if he goes against them, we have to wonder why and ask him.

Lack of cognitive ability

It is clear to Dr. Green that some students, mostly kids who are too often in trouble, might lack the skills to respond conventionally.

It would be like having an academic learning disability, but instead having a cognitive learning disability.

Consequently, it is not that they do not want to but that they cannot process conflicts appropriately.

Our role is to provide the child with the tools necessary to acquire these skills!

For this, it is necessary to engage in open communication without judgment or an agenda. Just let the conversation develop naturally.

However, let’s not forget that the goal is to address the problem and work together to solve it.

In the end, the child has to understand that his behavior was not appropriate, the adult has to understand the underlying reasons for the misbehavior, and that the solution has to satisfy both parties.

Were the 5 CPS goals met in the story with Johnny and his teacher?

  1. Did the teacher address the problem while engaging Johnny into finding solutions?
  2. Was the teacher able to get Johnny to open up about his challenging behavior and to engage in a collaborative discussion on the matter?
  3. Once a mutually agreeable solution has been defined, did the teacher give him the tools to act differently next time?
  4. Would this approach reduce Johnny’s challenging behavior in the future?
  5. Did the relationship between the teacher and Johnny become based on trust?  

If you answered yes to all these questions, you now have a good handle on CPS. Yeah! Be proud of yourself!

Now you just need to try it at home now!

I would love to hear how it went, please leave me comments on your experiences. Finally, by clicking on this link: www.eLearning-sofun.com, you can download my free book: “10 fun, simple yet effective technics for your child to read with pride and joy!”

In the meantime, parents and children, eLearning-sofun is for you! If you have questions after reading this post, please send them below. We will answer every question.

“Learning is intelligence having fun!”

So have fun on this new journey!

Ross W. Greene Phd
ByVeronique Rabot
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Lost at School – Part 1/2

In our serie  “Books to travel beyond,” we will start with “Lost at School”

Ross W. Greene Phd

Lost at School – Why Our Kids with Behavioral Challenges are Falling Through the Cracks and How We Can Help Them, by  Dr. Ross W. Greene.

Part 1/2

Dear parents,

As promised, here is a book summary of “Lost at School” from Dr. Ross W. Greene. He is an eminent American clinical child psychologist who is a New York best selling author.

He has been featured on Oprah Show, Dateline NBC, the CBS Morning Show, and the Public Broadcasting Services (PBS), among others, for his work on the book “Lost at School.”

Indeed, Dr. Ross W Greene developed the innovative Collaborative & Proactive Solutions (CPS) framework to handle conflict with children while teaching them the skills they are lacking.

Why this book?

We often hear that “school is not for everyone,” but are schools doing everything they can to include everyone? Dr. Greene, in his book “Lost at School,” challenges educators to go further than the usual “you do not follow the rules; here is your punishment.” But instead, collaborating with the child to find mutually agreeable solutions.

Why is this book for you!

Indeed this book was written for educators in a school setting. However, as parents, you are the first educators of your children.

Unfortunately, parenting doesn’t come with a manual as soon as our child is born. Therefore, we learn, we fumble and do our best! Thanks to this book you will have different tools to deal with conflict or plain disagreements with your child at home.

This book is a response to conflict resolution with your child. By this token, I am challenging you to use the Collaborative & Proactive Solutions (CPS) framework to apply at home!

People who read this post also read “Your child has challenges with reading”.

What are Collaborative & Proactive Solutions (CPS)?

The CPS framework is based on a question. Are we asking too much from a child for his capacity to handle a situation? It is true that some children are more apt to handle conflictual situations than others. In fact, a child can respond calmly to a given request while another will explode, screams, hits, bites, or worse.

Dr. Greene considered 3 plans, A, B and C to conflict resolution.

Even though 2 are obviously not ideal but nonetheless can find their place in dealing with discipline, the third one teaches skills a child might be lacking to resolve conflict.

Plan A: “You do or else.”

Although this authoritarian approach can be applicable when safety concerns are at stake, if used as the only mean of discipline, it might exacerbate conflicts. Where is the child’s voice with this approach? How can a child develop the necessary skills to manage conflict when adults impose their will through punishment?

Plan C: “Letting go attitude.”

Even though this laxity can find its place, what are we teaching the child? Granted that we have to pick our battles and let go of some of our expectations, but systematically doing it will leave the child to fend for himself to learn right from wrong.

Plan B or Collaborative, Problem Solving (CPS)

This solution requires the most work but the most rewards too.

  1. Tell yourself that if your child is not behaving appropriately, it is that maybe he does not have the cognitive capacity to handle the situation.
  2. Be clear about your expectation and engage in a dialogue with your child.
  3. Together find a solution agreeable to you and your child.
  4. Take this opportunity to teach the skills your child is lacking.
  5. Create a trusting relationship.

As a result, notice if you detect a reduction of challenging behaviors at home!

In our next post, we will develop on plan B and how it applies to a concrete example.

If you tried plan B, please, let me know how it went. We are here for you!

Your child is a person who develops at his own pace. Consequently, allow him time to learn what is expected of him.

I would like to hear from you, and please send your comments, questions on the link below.

You can also download my free book: “10 fun, yet effective technics for your child to read with pride and joy! 😉

“Learning is intelligence having fun!”

P.S: Amazon links are affiliated. We perceive a small commission if you use the Amazon links. The commission keeps us diffusing free content. Thank you for your support! 😉

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