Show #108 Dr. Stuart Brown Part II- Success, Practice, and Grandparents

In today's show, I talk a little bit about the importance of working memory, and then we hear the second part of the interview with Dr. Stuart Brown, as we finish our discussion about the importance of play and imagination in developing critical thinking and social skills.

I've also recently reworked my Guide for getting Good Grades into a PDF, available here for download.

The picture to the right is from our recent trip to the newly renovated Smithsonian Museum of American History, where they have a fantastic exhibit on science, invention and play. We have to remember that so much of an adult's later success can depend on what interests they developed in childhood. Our children, even if they struggle in some aspect of school, have many talents and areas where they are special. We need to find these, but moreover, give our children the opportunity to find these things on their own- to try, to experiment, to fail and to try again on their own.

That's what we can all learn from play, aside from the true joy it brings to our lives.

Click here to listen to Show #108- Dr. Stuart Brown- The Importance of Play

Shelley Dannenberg, Dyslexia Testing and Information Services Part II

(more extensive show notes coming after resolution of technical issues- hope it will be later today.)

Click here to Listen to Show # 88, Shelley Dannenberg, Dyslexia Testing and Information Services, Part II

Show # 87 Shelley Dannenberg, Dyslexia Testing and Information Services

Shelly Dannenberg is a certified Dyslexia Testing Specialist, an Ohio licensed teacher with 9 years teaching experience in Language Arts and Reading, and the parent of a dyslexic child. Shelley has taught in both regular education and special education classrooms and has tutored many students with learning disabilities. In today's show, we discuss what dyslexia is, how it effects kids in schools, and discuss how early intervention is the key to helping kids with dyslexia succeed in school.

Dyslexia is genetic and is a language processing disorder. In people without dyslexia, three centers of the brain work cooperatively to process language, for reading, writing and spelling. Functional MRI scans show that people with dyslexia do not have these areas working cooperatively, causing them to process language is a different way. Often there is a family history of dyslexia and/or school struggle, but often adults were not properly diagnosed as children. As many as 40% of kids with dyslexia also have concurrent ADHD, so you need to address attentional issues as well.

There are so many excellent resources available to help people better understand dyslexia and other language based learning disorders- We're starting a new page here on the LD Podcast site just for dyslexia, with other LD specific pages coming soon. Finding information, research, and the tools you need to help your child or student is the first step to helping a struggling child feel the thrill of success. Let us know if these resources are helpful and if you have any to add- drop me a line at ldpodcast@gmail.com !

Shelley and I discuss things you might look for as early signs of dyslexia or other language processing disorders:

Preschool age kids:

Chronic ear infections, severe childhood illnesses
Speech delay
Early stuttering
Late in establishing a dominant hand

Elementary School:

Is reading slow and labored?
Is it choppy? Inaccurate?
Do they skip words?
Do they guess at words based on the shape or beginning letters?
Misreading prepositions and common prepositions?

Do they dread going to school?
Do they have terrible spelling, or have no carry over for the spelling words they just learned last week, in the next lesson?

Many have trouble with math- they have problems with memorizing rote information

Kids with language based processing issues may have a bunch of different labels, including things like expressive language disorder. The most important part of any label is not so much "what" it is, but that it is the key to access for services in a school setting, so kids can get the help and accommodations they need to be successful in school.

Children are painfully aware that they are struggling- what we need to do is construct education and strategies that help them learn and succeed, rather than constantly focusing on their deficits.

Links:

Shelley's Website- Dyslexia Testing and Information Services
International Dyslexia Association

Click here to listen to Show #87- Shelley Dannenberg- Dyslexia Testing Information Service

LD Podcast#65: What are you waiting for? Tell them Now!

We're back after our Podcamp Philly induced hiatus.

There's lots of exciting things in store for the LD Podcast in the upcoming weeks. Today's show features some of the latest news in the LD world, including a study that reports 8.7% of kids may have ADHD, but that many kids, especially those from lower socio-economic families may be under-diagnosed. We discuss a school for kids with LD in the Philly-area, and more evidence that shows appropriate reading instruction can actually reverse the neurological differences in the brains of kids with dyslexia, so that they read and process language closer to that of their non-dyslexic peers.

This summer, I heard a moving episode of This American Life, a great show produced by WBEZ , Chicago Public radiom and distributed by Public Radio International. The show is entitled Special Ed, and has three moving stories of people with developmental disabilities. The whole show is simply amazing, and each story spoke to me. I really wanted to share some of it with you, and wrote the producers to ask if that was at all possible.

Seth Lind, Production manager from This American Life, got back to me and TAL generously agreed to let me play up to 5 minutes of the show on air, with credit. I decided to use the introduction to the show, because it talks about how sometimes, kids seem to be the last to know that they are different, special, and not always in a good way. As Ira Glass talks to several kids, we see how hurt they are to find out they're different.

I see parents all the time who are embarrassed by their child's learning disabilities. They try to couch taking meds as merely taking vitamins, or otherwise disguise the disability. Merely covering up an LD doesn't make it go away, though. It's part of a child's neurology, their make-up, who they are. And we have to get comfortable with it, and let them be comfortable with it, in order to figure out ways to deal with it.

Just imagine if you tried to give someone chemotherapy without ever telling them they had cancer. If you don;t acknowledge the problem, big or small, you can't being to deal with it or solve it. And your child should not be the last one to know they have an issue.

If there's one message I can impart it's this: Learning disabilities are not fatal. They are as natural as having brown hair, or blue eyes. It's a part of who a person is, and it's nothing to be ashamed of or embarrassed about.

The song today is Lend me Your Love by Slackstring- It's available both through iTunes and the Podsafe Music network.

Click here to download Show #65, What Are You Waiting For? Tell Them Now!


(This American Life is also available as a podcast, and it's one of my favorites. I strongly recommend this episode as well as every show, and would encourage you also to support your local public radio station.)

Dale Brown, Part II

In the second part of my conversation with Dale Brown from LD Online, we talk about using professional coaches for ADHD and other learning disabilities, when positive reinforcement works best, and the latest goings on at LD Online.
Dale knows from personal experience what it was like growing up with learning disabilities, and how hard it is to get the help you need. As parents, we need to know how to help our kids learn these self-advocacy skills, because they need to take charge of their learning issues. And there's no one better to learn from than Dale, who has not only advocated for herself, but has been instrumental in helping others learn to advocate for themselves in the workplace.

Click here to listen to Show #39: Conversation with Dale Brown, Part II

Show # 29 Lessons 9 & 10 and Wrap Up

Show # 29: Lessons 9 & 10 to Maximize Your Child's Cognitive Abilities and Wrap Up of Series

In today's show, we talk about the last 2 lessons in our ten lesson series on Maximizing Your Child's Cognitive Abilities. Less on 9 is about teaching your children to be able to see things from another point of view, and understanding that criticism is often something they should consider and use as a learning opportunity, not as a badge of failure or short coming. Lesson 10 is about how it's not the money you spend on your kids that matters, but the quality of their experiences. The Ten Lessons are adapted from a chapter by Williams and Sternberg in Volume 5 of The Handbook of Parenting, a five volume set of books digesting the research on parenting and raising children. It is edited by Marc Bornstein from the National Institutes of Health, and is probably the most complete digest of research into children and parents available. (It also the most expensive, as each volume retails for over $150.00).

The take home message from the series is that parents can be very influential in helping their kids maximize their intellectual potential, but it requires that parents get involved and stay involved in their child's intellectual development, rather than passing this off as the job solely of school.

Today's show includes 2 songs- Libery Jones by The Shakes, and Black Coffee by Chaz, available on the Podsafe Music Network.

We'd love to hear from you- you can click the email link at the bottom of this page, or go to the blog, and leave comments! Or even better, call (206) 666-2343 and leave us a voice message!

Click here to download Show # 29- Lessons 9 & 10

Show # 28 Academy in Manayunk Pt. 2 Reading and Self Esteem

Welcome to all our new iLearn Radio Listeners!

In the second part of my interview with Nancy Blair of the Academy in Manayunk, we talk about how important self esteem is to a child''s success in school. So many very talented people have learning disabilities and have struggled in school but my learning how to maximize their strengths, they have really been able to shine. Whether it's designers like Tommy Hilfiger, or Businessmen like Charles Schwab, or Actors like Henry Winkler (who now writes books about what it was like to grow up with learning problems) many kids are both smart and LD, and we need to be able to let their strengths shine while helping them overcome their weaknesses.

Please call our comment line at (206) 666-2343 or email us at ldpodcast@gmail.com with any and all comments!

Click here to listen to show #28