Resources
Overcoming Dyslexia
One in five American children has trouble reading. But they are not stupid or lazy. In Overcoming Dyslexia, Dr. Sally Shaywitz, codirector of the Yale Center for the Study of Learning and Attention and a leader in the new research into how the brain works, offers the latest information about reading problems and proven, practical techniques that, along with hard work and the right help, can enable anyone to overcome them. Here are the tools that parents and teachers need to help the dyslexic child, age by age, grade by grade, step by step.
Helpful Links
International Dyslexia Association, Georgia Branch
Florida Center for Reading Research
Yale Center for Dyslexia & Creativity
Wrightslaw Special Education Law and Advocacy
Learning Ally
National Center for Learning Disabilities
International Dyslexia Association
Georgia Department of Education
Reading Rockets
http://www.readingrockets.org/
We Connect Now
http://weconnectnow.wordpress.com/
Understood
Decoding Dyslexia
College Guide for Students with Learning Disabilities
http://www.bestcolleges.com/resources/college-planning-with-learning-disabilities/
Books & Publications
A Mind at a Time
"Different minds learn differently," writes Dr. Mel Levine, one of the best-known education experts and pediatricians in America today. And that's a problem for many children, because most schools still cling to a one-size-fits-all education philosophy. As a result, these children struggle because their learning patterns don't fit the schools they are in.
In A Mind at a Time, Dr. Levine shows parents and others who care for children how to identify these individual learning patterns. He explains how parents and teachers can encourage a child's strengths and bypass the child's weaknesses. This type of teaching produces satisfaction and achievement instead of frustration and failure.
From Emotions to Advocacy
Pete and Pam Wright provide you with a clear roadmap to effective advocacy for your child. You will learn about your child’s disability and educational needs, how to organize your child’s file and develop a master plan. You’ll learn about conflict, negotiating, creating paper trails, and effective letter writing. The book includes dozens of worksheets, forms, and sample letters.
How Children Succeed
The story we usually tell about childhood and success is the one about intelligence: success comes to those who score highest on tests, from preschool admissions to SATs.
But in How Children Succeed, Paul Tough argues that the qualities that matter most have more to do with character: skills like perseverance, curiosity, conscientiousness, optimism, and self-control.
How Children Succeed introduces us to a new generation of researchers and educators who, for the first time, are using the tools of science to peel back the mysteries of character. Through their stories—and the stories of the children they are trying to help—Tough traces the links between childhood stress and life success. He uncovers the surprising ways in which parents do—and do not—prepare their children for adulthood. And he provides us with new insights into how to help children growing up in poverty.
Early adversity, scientists have come to understand, can not only affect the conditions of children’s lives, it can alter the physical development of their brains as well. But now educators and doctors around the country are using that knowledge to develop innovative interventions that allow children to overcome the constraints of poverty. And with the help of these new strategies, as Tough’s extraordinary reporting makes clear, children who grow up in the most painful circumstances can go on to achieve amazing things.
This provocative and profoundly hopeful book has the potential to change how we raise our children, how we run our schools, and how we construct our social safety net. It will not only inspire and engage readers, it will also change our understanding of childhood itself.
Advice from Parents
1. Trust your instinct. Even if a teacher tells you your child is fine, listen to your gut. If you are not satisfied with the answer, continue to research the problem until you find an answer that makes sense and feels right. You know your child better than anyone.
2. Educate yourself. There is nothing more daunting than not knowing how to help your child with his/her struggles. Do everything you can to educate yourself with information on websites, publications, live seminars, webinars and documentaries. Talk to other parents who have a child that struggles with reading and writing to find out what they did to help. Knowledge is power! The more you know, the less you feel at the mercy of others.
3. Textbooks at home. Having a textbook at home makes it easy to preview upcoming topics discussed at school. Make sure to get a class syllabus so you know the correct order of topics. Early exposure to material will make it easier for your child to put the information in long term memory.
4. Start tutoring as soon as you detect a problem. Do not wait until after the evaluation to get your child help. Sometimes it can take months to get an evaluation. Time is precious and even more precious when your child is struggling to reading.
*Please keep in mind that we are not experts, just parents hoping that others can benefit from our experiences. Contact a professional for an evaluation if concerned about your child's reading.
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IDA Fact Sheets On Dyslexia and Related Language-Based Learning Disabilities:
Downloadable PDFs
Tutoring Providers
For a list of current tutoring providers, please refer to the links below or email us at dyslexiaforsyth@gmail.com
List of possible accommodations for students with Dyslexia
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•Extended time on standardized tests
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•Small group setting for standardized tests
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•Extended time on class assignments, tests and projects
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•Small group setting for classroom tests
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•Clear and concise directions given and/or broken down into smaller parts
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•Preferential seating
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•Copy of notes provided, if necessary
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•Permission to use laptop for writing assignments
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•For tests that are not spelling tests, allow no penalties for spelling errors and use of spell check devices
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•Provide advanced organizers for writing assignments
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•Provide study guides for tests
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•Allow use of recorded books and textbooks
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•Allow student projects to be presented orally or through demonstration pictures/models
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•Allow for use of calculator
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•Allow use of speech to text or text to speech software
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•Break assignments into smaller segments
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•Allow answers to be written in test booklet
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•Use large-print text for worksheets
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•Provide bookmarks to follow along when reading
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•Pre-teach new and important concepts
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•Provide sentence starters to show how to begin a written response
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•Show examples of work to show what is correct as a model
Courtesy of www.understood.org and The Schenck School
