0:00:00.041,0:00:01.872 [Dr. Fernette Eide] Welcome, everyone! 0:00:01.872,0:00:04.350 This is the first in what I hope will be 0:00:04.350,0:00:08.970 a series of webinars that will be helpful 0:00:08.970,0:00:11.416 to you, in our Dyslexic community at 0:00:11.416,0:00:14.345 Dyslexicadvantage.com. What I'm going to 0:00:14.345,0:00:17.658 do is do a brief overview of Dyslexia, and 0:00:17.658,0:00:19.810 talk very briefly about the Dyslexic 0:00:19.810,0:00:21.599 Advantage. We can talk more about that in 0:00:21.599,0:00:25.081 a future meeting, perhaps, and I'll try at 0:00:25.081,0:00:27.068 the end to address some of the questions 0:00:27.068,0:00:29.812 that we had in our live webinar. 0:00:32.592,0:00:38.409 First of all, it's good to recognize that 0:00:38.409,0:00:40.778 one in five people are Dyslexic--extremely 0:00:40.778,0:00:44.009 common. What that translates into is 0:00:44.009,0:00:46.972 8.4 million school age children here in 0:00:46.972,0:00:50.421 the United States who are Dyslexic. For 0:00:50.421,0:00:53.092 every one who is identified, there will 0:00:53.092,0:00:55.566 be 3 who will be missed. It 's really a 0:00:55.566,0:00:58.784 staggering percentage. There are a lot of 0:00:58.784,0:01:02.001 reasons for this, but teachers are often 0:01:02.001,0:01:05.364 not trained in detail about how to 0:01:05.364,0:01:09.234 recognize Dyslexia, and also, it's not 0:01:09.234,0:01:14.606 widely understood, either, one of the 0:01:14.606,0:01:19.639 common signs and features of Dyslexia. 0:01:19.639,0:01:21.851 So, Dyslexic students have strong big 0:01:21.851,0:01:24.670 picture skills. They are often known to be 0:01:24.670,0:01:27.228 very creative, observant, empathetic, 0:01:27.228,0:01:29.690 and great problem solvers. But they are 0:01:29.690,0:01:31.535 slower to acquire fine detail, basic 0:01:31.535,0:01:34.000 skills like reading ,writing , spelling, 0:01:34.000,0:01:39.516 or mastery of math facts. Dyslexia will 0:01:39.516,0:01:42.112 look different in different individuals, 0:01:42.112,0:01:44.624 because it will vary in terms of a 0:01:44.624,0:01:47.438 students age, verbal abilities, motor 0:01:47.438,0:01:50.911 abilities, working memory, that short term 0:01:50.911,0:01:53.017 memory that helps you keep information in 0:01:53.017,0:01:56.290 mind, and individual students learning 0:01:56.290,0:02:01.281 strengths; and also, temperament. I'm not 0:02:01.281,0:02:03.839 talking in detail about testing here, but 0:02:03.839,0:02:05.706 I wanted to introduce some of the common 0:02:05.736,0:02:08.035 questions that people have. Testing for 0:02:08.035,0:02:10.875 Dyslexia is called a clinical diagnosis, 0:02:10.875,0:02:14.834 so it can't be done definitively with a 0:02:14.834,0:02:16.508 checklist. It really needs to be done, 0:02:16.508,0:02:19.400 ideally, with comprehensive testing with 0:02:19.400,0:02:23.635 a professional who has a great deal of 0:02:23.635,0:02:25.714 experience with the variations that can 0:02:25.714,0:02:28.012 occur with Dyslexia. There is some debate 0:02:28.012,0:02:30.171 that exists in terms of the best method, 0:02:30.171,0:02:32.452 our preference, as I mentioned, is with 0:02:32.452,0:02:35.510 comprehensive testing. Usually that 0:02:35.510,0:02:39.200 entails some screening of vision, hearing, 0:02:39.200,0:02:43.046 and motor ability, but also, standardized 0:02:43.046,0:02:50.046 tests we like to use: a combination of IQ 0:02:50.046,0:02:53.335 tests such as the WISC-IV, or the WIAS-IV 0:02:53.335,0:02:56.316 for adults. These are standardized tests 0:02:56.316,0:02:58.850 that involve estimates of verbal and 0:02:58.850,0:03:00.926 non-verbal reasoning, working memory and 0:03:00.926,0:03:03.730 processing speed; in addition, there are 0:03:03.730,0:03:06.523 so-called achievement tests which look at 0:03:06.523,0:03:11.103 performance, for instance, on phonology, 0:03:11.103,0:03:14.462 on single-word reading, on passage 0:03:14.462,0:03:17.639 reading, listening. There are other tests 0:03:17.639,0:03:19.726 that are mentioned here, Nelson Denny is a 0:03:19.726,0:03:21.973 particular test that is helpful when 0:03:21.973,0:03:23.400 students are applying to the College 0:03:23.400,0:03:24.715 Board for accommodations because those 0:03:24.715,0:03:27.673 passages in the Nelson Denny reading tests 0:03:27.673,0:03:31.399 are really better indicators of challenges 0:03:31.399,0:03:33.540 that a student may have with college or 0:03:33.540,0:03:38.314 graduate school level reading passages. 0:03:38.314,0:03:40.338 Other things mentioned here are CTOPP, and 0:03:40.338,0:03:43.171 some of the sub-tests listed: listening, 0:03:43.171,0:03:44.670 comprehension, single word reading, 0:03:44.670,0:03:46.694 reading comprehension, writing, spelling, 0:03:46.694,0:03:49.602 phonology, math. In addition, we like to 0:03:49.602,0:03:52.373 make sure that we are not just focusing 0:03:52.373,0:03:55.272 on a students weaknesses, we like to find 0:03:55.272,0:03:57.629 out what a student likes to do in their 0:03:57.629,0:03:59.977 spare time, what they may be particularly 0:03:59.977,0:04:02.846 talented in doing; we evaluate creative 0:04:02.846,0:04:05.235 work and out-of-school activities. In 0:04:05.235,0:04:10.316 general, as much as possible, this should 0:04:10.316,0:04:14.176 be part of the basic assessment of 0:04:14.176,0:04:16.208 students with Dyslexia. We shouldn't just 0:04:16.208,0:04:18.171 focus on the weaknesses because that gives 0:04:18.171,0:04:20.459 a very lopsided view of a student: 0:04:20.459,0:04:22.639 where they are right now, as well as their 0:04:22.639,0:04:24.413 potential in the future. 0:04:29.513,0:04:33.897 So the hallmark of Dyslexia testing when 0:04:33.897,0:04:37.279 using these methods of ability-achievement 0:04:37.279,0:04:40.602 discrepancy is to look at how well a 0:04:40.602,0:04:42.862 student may perform with thinking skills, 0:04:42.862,0:04:45.000 reasoning skills that are communicated 0:04:45.000,0:04:47.270 verbally, or non-verbally with puzzles 0:04:47.270,0:04:51.141 or complex shapes or patterns that are 0:04:51.141,0:04:53.731 presented in front of them, compared to 0:04:53.731,0:04:56.308 for instance, written work or 0:04:56.308,0:05:01.105 calculations. That ability-achievement 0:05:01.105,0:05:03.140 discrepancy is the foundation for 0:05:03.140,0:05:04.774 understanding specific learning 0:05:04.774,0:05:09.845 disabilities, meaning that intellectual 0:05:09.845,0:05:12.657 ability may be high, but there are certain 0:05:12.657,0:05:16.474 patterns of specific weaknesses that are 0:05:16.474,0:05:19.276 consistent with a specific learning 0:05:19.276,0:05:21.245 disability. 0:05:24.845,0:05:29.774 So, if we look at how Dyslexic students 0:05:29.774,0:05:33.091 perform when they have a battery of 0:05:33.091,0:05:37.586 tests such as this; here, on the Y axis 0:05:37.586,0:05:43.042 are the scores that you might see in tests 0:05:43.042,0:05:45.330 that are standardly done as part 0:05:45.330,0:05:47.860 of the WISC test: this is an example of 0:05:47.860,0:05:52.432 a student from our clinic. If average is 0:05:52.432,0:05:57.972 10 for age, then these scores, 0:05:57.972,0:06:00.648 similarities --that's a measure of 0:06:00.648,0:06:04.872 analogical reasoning-- things like 0:06:04.872,0:06:07.443 comprehension might be extremely strong. 0:06:07.443,0:06:08.982 Here, this student was very high in block 0:06:08.982,0:06:11.786 design. So being able to perceive and 0:06:11.786,0:06:15.236 replicate different spatial patterns, 0:06:15.236,0:06:19.438 these are all above the average of 10. 0:06:19.438,0:06:21.975 Here, these other measures, things like 0:06:21.975,0:06:23.670 how much information can be kept in mind 0:06:23.670,0:06:26.920 at one time, a digit span, numbering, 0:06:26.920,0:06:29.910 keeping numbers and letters in order, 0:06:29.910,0:06:33.517 and coding--being able to copy different 0:06:33.517,0:06:36.883 symbols in a rapid fashion, are below 0:06:36.883,0:06:39.485 average. In this student's case, 0:06:39.485,0:06:41.574 listening comprehension was at the 0:06:41.574,0:06:44.400 98th %tile, single word reading was at the 0:06:44.400,0:06:47.836 8th, pseudoword reading was at the 0:06:47.836,0:06:49.574 3rd %tile--that's a measure of 0:06:49.574,0:06:52.190 phonological awareness, and alphabet 0:06:52.190,0:06:54.269 fluency-- how quickly you can actually 0:06:54.269,0:06:56.157 name letters of the alphabet when presented 0:06:56.157,0:06:59.712 in front of you, was at the 6th. The thing 0:06:59.712,0:07:02.189 that I wanted to get across to you here 0:07:02.189,0:07:04.382 is that the Dyslexic picture is really one 0:07:04.382,0:07:08.016 of peaks and valleys, it's not a flat line. 0:07:11.526,0:07:13.625 To look at....these are some additional 0:07:13.625,0:07:16.708 sub-tests here, to look at some of the 0:07:16.708,0:07:20.600 WIAT achievement scores here, again, 0:07:20.600,0:07:23.579 look at 100 here representing standard 0:07:23.579,0:07:28.062 scores, we had in our clinic students of 0:07:28.062,0:07:31.054 average verbal IQ, Superior, Very 0:07:31.054,0:07:34.652 Superior, and even above that. Again, 0:07:34.652,0:07:37.305 what I want to convey to you mainly is 0:07:37.305,0:07:39.856 the picture--if this is the average range, 0:07:39.856,0:07:41.576 what you don't see, is a flat line, which 0:07:41.576,0:07:43.733 is more typically the case for 0:07:43.733,0:07:45.723 non-Dyslexic students, but instead you 0:07:45.723,0:07:47.800 have Dyslexic students who really have 0:07:47.800,0:07:50.401 extreme of abilities, and also, very 0:07:50.401,0:07:53.800 specific weaknesses. Here, this is Oral 0:07:53.800,0:07:55.907 Reading Accuracy, that contribute to the 0:07:55.907,0:07:58.559 general reading picture. If we were to 0:07:58.559,0:08:00.610 look only at the weaknesses, we are not 0:08:00.610,0:08:02.513 really seeing the tremendous potential 0:08:02.513,0:08:05.735 that exists among these students. 0:08:07.865,0:08:09.542 So now, I am going to briefly go through 0:08:09.542,0:08:12.175 the different ages. In elementary school, 0:08:12.175,0:08:17.258 typically, Dyslexic students may present 0:08:17.258,0:08:19.362 with some of the challenges on the left 0:08:19.362,0:08:22.003 column here. Some students may be late 0:08:22.003,0:08:25.569 talking, others, parents often say that 0:08:25.569,0:08:27.652 they notice they seem to be slower with 0:08:27.652,0:08:30.070 letter or other types of naming. They may 0:08:30.070,0:08:32.846 have a low interest in books, mild 0:08:32.846,0:08:35.323 mispronunciation errors might be seen. 0:08:35.323,0:08:37.958 Things like "back-back" instead of 0:08:37.958,0:08:41.140 "backpack" , "pisghetti" instead of 0:08:41.140,0:08:44.600 "spaghetti", these are mispronunciations 0:08:44.600,0:08:48.255 that are not just motor, motorically being 0:08:48.255,0:08:51.400 able to pronounce the words, but more 0:08:51.400,0:08:54.466 representative of a general issue with 0:08:54.466,0:08:58.371 auditory processing and phonology. Often, 0:08:58.371,0:09:00.588 Dyslexic students don't 'get' rhymes. 0:09:00.588,0:09:03.080 It's because they are not hearing the same 0:09:03.080,0:09:04.860 things as non-Dyslexic students are 0:09:04.860,0:09:07.486 hearing. They may be slower in learning 0:09:07.486,0:09:10.070 to read, have difficulty remembering their 0:09:10.070,0:09:12.867 math facts, and also have some right-left 0:09:12.867,0:09:16.008 confusion. This is an example of writing 0:09:16.008,0:09:18.632 of a student who was told to write lower 0:09:18.632,0:09:20.220 case letters. They had a lot of 0:09:20.220,0:09:22.893 intrusions, had difficulty knowing what 0:09:22.893,0:09:26.109 direction to write the letters. At the 0:09:26.109,0:09:27.974 same time, in the early elementary 0:09:27.974,0:09:29.860 years, these students may actually be 0:09:29.860,0:09:32.069 very socially adept, they may show 0:09:32.069,0:09:33.471 themselves to be excellent problem 0:09:33.471,0:09:36.868 solvers, be fantastic, for instance, at 0:09:36.868,0:09:41.437 real life problem-solving, asking good 0:09:41.437,0:09:44.315 questions, and, for instance, show 0:09:44.315,0:09:46.484 themselves in science experiments in 0:09:46.484,0:09:49.400 class. Some of these students are very 0:09:49.400,0:09:51.270 expressive non-verbally, they might be 0:09:51.270,0:09:54.330 wonderful builders, great with Legos, 0:09:54.330,0:09:57.097 K'nex, things like that, or-- are very 0:09:57.097,0:09:59.238 artistic. These students are often 0:09:59.238,0:10:01.633 creative. They have lots of ideas, and 0:10:01.633,0:10:04.702 they may hide their difficulties. 0:10:11.602,0:10:16.464 In late elementary school, the 0:10:16.464,0:10:18.916 difficulties change a little bit. You 0:10:18.916,0:10:20.779 still have some reading difficulties, of 0:10:20.779,0:10:23.637 course, but writing also takes on greater 0:10:23.637,0:10:26.338 importance. Examples here: this is a 0:10:26.338,0:10:28.476 student who wrote, "I thought I could 0:10:28.476,0:10:30.985 climb the mountain." This student had a 0:10:30.985,0:10:33.190 great deal of auditory processing 0:10:33.190,0:10:35.767 difficulties, and as a result, "could", 0:10:35.767,0:10:40.228 "croud", was not very clearly heard, and 0:10:40.228,0:10:44.609 as a result, an astute observer could 0:10:44.609,0:10:46.600 pick up the writing difficulties were 0:10:46.600,0:10:48.572 really a reflection of auditory 0:10:48.572,0:10:51.373 processing difficulties that the student 0:10:51.373,0:10:54.217 was having. The challenges that late 0:10:54.217,0:10:57.097 elementary school students face include 0:10:57.097,0:11:00.362 spelling problems, they have often weaker 0:11:00.362,0:11:02.400 visual word form, grammatical 0:11:02.400,0:11:04.412 difficulties; writing in general may be 0:11:04.412,0:11:06.573 disorganized and slow, it may be hard to 0:11:06.573,0:11:09.929 get ideas down onto paper. Word finding 0:11:09.929,0:11:12.149 is another issue. Some of these students 0:11:12.149,0:11:15.563 have actually vivid sensory perceptions 0:11:15.563,0:11:18.111 and visual imagery, and it's hard for them 0:11:18.111,0:11:22.540 to translate these perceptions into words. 0:11:22.540,0:11:24.959 Rote memory also comes online as late 0:11:24.959,0:11:26.543 elementary school students are expected 0:11:26.543,0:11:29.441 to have more facts at their disposal, 0:11:29.441,0:11:32.740 especially if the memorization involves 0:11:32.740,0:11:35.440 lists of information that are not linked 0:11:35.440,0:11:37.575 by a story: for example, things like state 0:11:37.575,0:11:40.304 capitals. It can seem almost impossible to 0:11:40.304,0:11:43.574 some students.At the same time, we also 0:11:43.574,0:11:47.060 start seeing some real wonderful spatial 0:11:47.060,0:11:49.099 talents in students in the late elementary 0:11:49.099,0:11:51.384 school years. The science and math 0:11:51.384,0:11:55.167 students also become prominent, and some 0:11:55.167,0:11:57.451 students find they really excel in sports 0:11:57.451,0:12:01.540 and take on leadership positions. These 0:12:01.540,0:12:03.498 are students who are often socially adept. 0:12:03.498,0:12:05.699 There is strong empathy. They are great 0:12:05.699,0:12:08.304 team players. And the arts, as mentioned, 0:12:08.304,0:12:10.689 also, clusters of strengths that we see 0:12:10.689,0:12:12.239 in students. 0:12:15.349,0:12:17.503 In the Middle and High School years` 0:12:17.503,0:12:20.122 what is particularly a challenge is the 0:12:20.122,0:12:23.000 quantity of reading and writing. It's at 0:12:23.000,0:12:26.277 this time where students have to write a 0:12:26.277,0:12:30.467 great deal more than previously. The 0:12:30.467,0:12:33.008 misunderstanding of syntax, the structure 0:12:33.008,0:12:36.749 of sentences, and limitations in 0:12:36.749,0:12:41.023 vocabulary really can make schooling 0:12:41.023,0:12:44.005 difficult. Standardized tests may also be 0:12:44.005,0:12:45.636 difficult. Students may actually follow 0:12:45.636,0:12:48.695 quite well in the classroom, but then be 0:12:48.695,0:12:50.496 presented with information that is out of 0:12:50.496,0:12:52.730 context, like in a standardized exam, and 0:12:52.730,0:12:56.774 more subtle weaknesses than reading really 0:12:56.774,0:13:00.130 come to bear. As a result, standardized 0:13:00.130,0:13:03.220 test performance may be far below what a 0:13:03.220,0:13:06.254 student is doing in the regular classroom. 0:13:06.254,0:13:08.604 Other issues that are important for 0:13:08.604,0:13:10.432 middle and high school and college 0:13:10.432,0:13:12.691 students, things like the speed of being 0:13:12.691,0:13:14.709 able to complete work, misreading question 0:13:14.709,0:13:17.864 prompts. Foreign Language can be a 0:13:17.864,0:13:20.703 strength or a weakness for Dyslexic 0:13:20.703,0:13:23.174 students. The most typical pattern is that 0:13:23.174,0:13:27.739 students may actually fare fairly well by 0:13:27.739,0:13:30.193 listening and doing the conversational 0:13:30.193,0:13:32.574 aspects of language, but as Foreign 0:13:32.574,0:13:35.460 Language progresses in the school system, 0:13:35.460,0:13:37.776 and more conjugation and rote memory 0:13:37.776,0:13:39.675 rules of language and grammar are 0:13:39.675,0:13:42.475 required, then students have difficulty, 0:13:42.475,0:13:44.809 If that is a significant issue, or 0:13:44.809,0:13:47.351 students have fairly severe auditory 0:13:47.351,0:13:48.940 processing difficulties, they really have 0:13:48.940,0:13:52.172 trouble hearing the sounds, then we 0:13:52.172,0:13:54.270 usually support and recommend a Foreign 0:13:54.270,0:13:57.730 Language waiver. Middle, high school, 0:13:57.730,0:14:00.730 and college are also the time where word 0:14:00.730,0:14:02.771 heavy subjects like science, social 0:14:02.771,0:14:05.528 studies can also cause trouble for 0:14:05.528,0:14:07.403 students. The important thing I want to 0:14:07.403,0:14:09.807 mention here is that there is often a 0:14:09.807,0:14:11.807 discrepancy. Dyslexic students are often 0:14:11.807,0:14:14.367 quite strong with science, and scientific 0:14:14.367,0:14:17.598 thinking. It's only in that middle stage 0:14:17.598,0:14:20.172 where a lot of science vocabulary is 0:14:20.172,0:14:22.664 presented, where a student may suddenly 0:14:22.664,0:14:25.309 feel that they are not good at science. 0:14:25.309,0:14:27.257 It's important to look out for that, 0:14:27.257,0:14:29.618 because these students often just need 0:14:29.618,0:14:32.168 more encouragement, they might need more 0:14:32.168,0:14:35.690 repetition, and even some tutoring. But 0:14:35.690,0:14:38.268 often if they can get through this period 0:14:38.268,0:14:40.135 of time where the vocabulary and the 0:14:40.135,0:14:44.703 technical language of science is mastered, 0:14:44.703,0:14:46.735 and gapped to the point where you actually 0:14:46.735,0:14:48.795 have to think and critically analyze 0:14:48.795,0:14:51.099 observations, that's where Dyslexic 0:14:51.099,0:14:53.132 Students can really excel and do fantastic 0:14:53.132,0:14:59.636 work, even breakthrough work in research. 0:14:59.636,0:15:01.867 Organization is also a typical issue at 0:15:01.867,0:15:06.363 this age. That occurs for a number of 0:15:06.363,0:15:09.080 reasons. Sometimes the organizational 0:15:09.080,0:15:13.703 difficulties reflect inter-connected and 0:15:13.703,0:15:17.701 immersive thinking style, as a result, it 0:15:17.701,0:15:21.668 is hard to prioritize information and to 0:15:21.668,0:15:25.013 "chunk" it, categorize what they know, 0:15:25.013,0:15:29.403 and then put it in a sequence. I think in 0:15:29.403,0:15:31.322 another webinar what I might do is -- 0:15:31.322,0:15:33.768 we can talk more about the executive 0:15:33.768,0:15:35.568 function organizational aspects of 0:15:35.568,0:15:39.733 Dyslexia. At the same time that we talk 0:15:39.733,0:15:41.334 about the challenges that occur at this 0:15:41.334,0:15:44.202 age, it's often really exciting to see 0:15:44.202,0:15:47.589 these students really start breaking out 0:15:47.589,0:15:49.397 of the pack in terms of their higher 0:15:49.397,0:15:52.765 order thinking. Often, students will 0:15:52.765,0:15:57.475 surprise their teachers with really 0:15:57.475,0:16:01.620 striking insights, different perspectives 0:16:01.620,0:16:06.269 on themes, or questions that are presented 0:16:06.269,0:16:09.809 in the classroom. Students can thrive in 0:16:09.809,0:16:12.033 project based learning and the arts, 0:16:12.033,0:16:14.867 verbal talents are often also noted at 0:16:14.867,0:16:18.101 this age. Some Dyslexic students actually 0:16:18.101,0:16:22.199 have a wonderful span, being able to keep 0:16:22.199,0:16:24.478 information in, and as a result they can 0:16:24.478,0:16:28.133 excel in things such as Drama or Debate, 0:16:28.133,0:16:30.533 because they can keep in long arguments 0:16:30.533,0:16:33.035 and what people have said, in their memory 0:16:33.035,0:16:35.799 banks, and then be able to analyze it and, 0:16:35.799,0:16:38.433 for instance, to counter arguments when 0:16:38.433,0:16:43.631 presenting in that kind of forum. 0:16:43.631,0:16:47.534 Leadership, also, is a very common talent 0:16:47.534,0:16:50.064 cluster among Dyslexic students. Often, 0:16:50.064,0:16:54.763 if a parents says, "I don't know what kind 0:16:54.763,0:16:57.766 of talent my student has, maybe there is 0:16:57.766,0:17:02.233 no specific talent or creative drive. If 0:17:02.233,0:17:04.635 we ask more questions, what we find out 0:17:04.635,0:17:08.633 is that these students, their strength may 0:17:08.633,0:17:12.808 be social. It's not that they prefer to be 0:17:12.808,0:17:16.943 in the science lab, or prefer to be doing 0:17:16.943,0:17:19.534 math equations, or physics; these students 0:17:19.534,0:17:22.068 really may seem to have no particular 0:17:22.068,0:17:25.904 special talents or gifts, but it's their 0:17:25.904,0:17:28.267 gift is actually social. What they really 0:17:28.267,0:17:31.831 are is making friends all over the school 0:17:31.831,0:17:34.235 with different ages, and that's going to 0:17:34.235,0:17:37.531 be a great talent in practically any 0:17:37.531,0:17:39.469 profession. 0:17:39.469,0:17:41.464 I also want to mention a bit about stealth 0:17:41.464,0:17:44.510 Dyslexics there. Stealth Dyslexics often 0:17:44.510,0:17:47.502 fly under the radar of 0:17:47.502,0:17:52.264 detection. Stealth Dyslexia in younger 0:17:52.264,0:17:55.037 children is usually seen in a setting of 0:17:55.037,0:17:57.769 gifted children who may be able to 0:17:57.769,0:18:00.000 compensate for some of their weaknesses 0:18:00.000,0:18:02.304 but, as Dyslexia evolves in older 0:18:02.304,0:18:05.568 students, often they can crack the code 0:18:05.568,0:18:08.400 of reading for comprehension purposes. 0:18:08.400,0:18:10.097 They can often read silently with good 0:18:10.097,0:18:13.611 comprehension, but their challenges come 0:18:13.611,0:18:18.707 out more with oral reading accuracy, and 0:18:18.707,0:18:21.466 with speed of processing, and with 0:18:21.466,0:18:24.634 writing. Organizational issues also 0:18:24.634,0:18:26.513 contribute to some of the writing 0:18:26.513,0:18:29.290 difficulties with Stealth Dyslexia. It's 0:18:29.290,0:18:31.468 another big topic, to talk about Stealth 0:18:31.468,0:18:35.970 Dyslexia, so maybe we can put that off 0:18:35.970,0:18:39.402 for another webinar if there is interest. 0:18:41.652,0:18:45.001 College and the Workplace: this is really 0:18:45.001,0:18:48.304 a new field, a lot...a new area. 0:18:48.304,0:18:51.537 There has been a lot of discussion about 0:18:51.537,0:18:54.865 the early years of Dyslexia, but, I think 0:18:54.865,0:19:00.229 it is going to be really an explosion of 0:19:00.229,0:19:02.961 understanding about Dyslexia in the 0:19:02.961,0:19:06.194 workplace in the coming decade. As much 0:19:06.194,0:19:08.429 in, for college, it is the quantity of 0:19:08.429,0:19:09.907 reading and writing that can be 0:19:09.907,0:19:11.901 particularly tough, we typically see 0:19:11.901,0:19:13.356 students in the first two years of college 0:19:13.356,0:19:15.168 have their greatest struggles. Sometimes 0:19:15.168,0:19:17.341 students will try a little bit of college, 0:19:17.341,0:19:19.433 really have trouble, and then have to 0:19:19.433,0:19:22.633 step out, try again, and then over the 0:19:22.633,0:19:26.134 course of some time, the brain matures 0:19:26.134,0:19:28.164 a little bit more, and then they can 0:19:28.164,0:19:31.353 actually balance schooling when they are 0:19:31.353,0:19:33.369 a little bit older. Another thing that we 0:19:33.369,0:19:35.404 see is that, although the first 2 years are 0:19:35.404,0:19:37.200 the toughest because there is a lot of 0:19:37.200,0:19:39.166 required reading, and a lot more rote 0:19:39.166,0:19:41.833 information...Dyslexic students, if they 0:19:41.833,0:19:46.068 can "push their way through" those first 2 0:19:46.068,0:19:49.968 years, they may really find the upper two 0:19:49.968,0:19:53.553 years quite a bit easier as they are used 0:19:53.553,0:19:57.998 to deep thinking, and analysis, and the 0:19:57.998,0:20:01.137 thinking part of college, where they work, 0:20:01.137,0:20:03.979 is not hard for most Dyslexic students. 0:20:03.979,0:20:07.267 It's really just the rote memorization 0:20:07.267,0:20:09.499 work that is required in the early years, 0:20:09.499,0:20:11.835 and the sheer quantity of books that need 0:20:11.835,0:20:13.067 to be read. 0:20:13.067,0:20:15.366 Time management: a big issue for many 0:20:15.366,0:20:17.268 students in the college years. Getting 0:20:17.268,0:20:18.772 through their major requirements, that's 0:20:18.772,0:20:21.471 often, as I said, the worst part. If you 0:20:21.471,0:20:25.433 can request reduced courseload, that's 0:20:25.433,0:20:27.801 very helpful for many students. Many 0:20:27.801,0:20:30.034 students also find they need to break 0:20:30.034,0:20:33.035 out their school schedule so that they 0:20:33.035,0:20:35.997 take some classes over summer. 0:20:35.997,0:20:38.100 In the workplace, the things that are the 0:20:38.100,0:20:41.073 most difficult for young Dyslexics are 0:20:41.073,0:20:46.738 tasks that require repetitive, and say for 0:20:46.738,0:20:50.744 instance, data entry, clerical tasks, 0:20:50.744,0:20:54.935 that's kind of like that fine detail that 0:20:54.935,0:20:59.267 is difficult for many Dyslexics. Filling 0:20:59.267,0:21:01.466 out forms, because information is not 0:21:01.466,0:21:05.532 contextual...questions that also rise, 0:21:05.532,0:21:08.839 should I disclose my Dyslexia in the 0:21:08.839,0:21:11.934 workplace? It can really be an important 0:21:11.934,0:21:14.635 issue for many people. 0:21:14.635,0:21:16.438 So at the same time there are really 0:21:16.438,0:21:18.632 significant challenges at the college 0:21:18.632,0:21:22.594 level and in the workplace, as said, 0:21:22.594,0:21:25.303 in higher education, and in careers, this 0:21:25.303,0:21:27.931 is often where Dyslexics shine because 0:21:27.931,0:21:30.983 they are fantastic problem solvers, 0:21:30.983,0:21:33.442 whether it's people problems, system 0:21:33.442,0:21:36.433 problems, or technical problems. Dyslexic 0:21:36.433,0:21:38.278 strengths often involve strategic 0:21:38.278,0:21:41.300 thinking, many Dyslexics are strong with 0:21:41.300,0:21:45.935 empathy and seem particularly good at team 0:21:45.935,0:21:49.074 building. Dynamic Reasoning, which is one 0:21:49.074,0:21:51.429 of the mind strengths, is something that 0:21:51.429,0:21:55.402 we also seem to see more often sort of 0:21:55.402,0:21:58.661 "turning on" in the college graduate 0:21:58.661,0:22:01.272 school or workplace years. Being able to 0:22:01.272,0:22:03.629 spot trends and predict what's going to 0:22:03.629,0:22:05.400 happen, which is important for so many 0:22:05.400,0:22:07.765 different cutting edge careers. 0:22:07.765,0:22:10.791 Entrepreneurship, Dyslexics, as many of 0:22:10.791,0:22:12.698 you many know, really excel as 0:22:12.698,0:22:16.506 entrepreneurs. They make up 35-40% of the 0:22:16.506,0:22:18.633 successful entrepreneurs here in the 0:22:18.633,0:22:21.396 United States. So, really highly 0:22:21.396,0:22:23.907 over-represented among successful 0:22:23.907,0:22:27.029 entrepreneurs compared to the general 0:22:27.029,0:22:29.289 population. 0:22:30.799,0:22:32.913 And what about older Dyslexic adults? 0:22:32.913,0:22:36.526 It's important to be aware if either you 0:22:36.526,0:22:40.742 or a friend or family member is suspected 0:22:40.742,0:22:43.359 to have Dyslexia,that...if you are over 0:22:43.359,0:22:45.889 the age of 40, the chances are, you were 0:22:45.889,0:22:50.370 never formally identified. Part of that 0:22:50.370,0:22:53.359 reason is because at that time the 0:22:53.359,0:22:56.228 federal legislation actually hadn't taken 0:22:56.228,0:23:00.396 place, so there was no pressure to 0:23:00.396,0:23:03.462 identify Dyslexia, it wasn't identified 0:23:03.462,0:23:06.832 in the school system yet. Really, the 0:23:06.832,0:23:08.967 legislation only took effect for people 0:23:08.967,0:23:12.818 who are now younger than the age of 40. 0:23:12.818,0:23:17.903 Many older Dyslexic adults got by-- 0:23:17.903,0:23:19.796 succeeded--with personal strengths, 0:23:19.796,0:23:22.200 with people talents, as mentioned before, 0:23:22.200,0:23:24.542 strategic thinking and problems solving, 0:23:24.542,0:23:26.236 and they found that "real life" was easier 0:23:26.236,0:23:30.754 than school. When we polled our community 0:23:30.754,0:23:32.759 here at Dyslexic Advantage, many people 0:23:32.759,0:23:34.267 said that people supports were very 0:23:34.267,0:23:37.136 important, technology less so, but, that 0:23:37.136,0:23:40.442 soon will be changing. In answer to the 0:23:40.442,0:23:42.736 question, "Am I still Dyslexic?"---yes, 0:23:42.736,0:23:44.772 you are! It's a brain wiring difference. 0:23:44.772,0:23:47.359 Most Dylsexic adults are able to read and 0:23:47.359,0:23:49.613 understand, but their reading may be slow, 0:23:49.613,0:23:51.973 and writing and spelling even more 0:23:51.973,0:23:54.095 challenging than reading...that's what 0:23:54.095,0:23:55.886 most people tell us. 0:23:57.676,0:24:00.693 In answer to the question about the brain 0:24:00.693,0:24:03.377 science of Dyslexia, "Are Dyslexic brains 0:24:03.377,0:24:06.192 different?"---Yes, they are. Here is an 0:24:06.192,0:24:09.471 example from Manuel Casanova, a 0:24:09.471,0:24:14.088 neuroscientist here represented the 0:24:14.088,0:24:17.108 different brain volumes in Dyslexics versus 0:24:17.108,0:24:21.578 non-Dyslexics in terms of color. There 0:24:21.578,0:24:23.596 were larger right hemispheric brain 0:24:23.596,0:24:26.239 volumes among Dyslexics compared to 0:24:26.239,0:24:31.764 non-Dyslexics. Some of that....I think 0:24:31.764,0:24:34.076 this might be helpful in giving you an 0:24:34.076,0:24:37.332 idea of what the differences are. If you 0:24:37.332,0:24:38.866 process more information in the right 0:24:38.866,0:24:40.733 hemisphere, versus the left hemisphere, 0:24:40.733,0:24:45.836 this is an example from some really 0:24:45.836,0:24:47.757 fascinating split brain studies from 0:24:47.757,0:24:53.008 Sperry and Gazzaniga. These experiments 0:24:53.008,0:24:54.975 were not done on Dyslexic or non-Dyslexic 0:24:54.975,0:24:59.094 subjects...they were not done on Dyslexic 0:24:59.094,0:25:04.079 subjects. Instead,patients who were under 0:25:04.079,0:25:06.931 going a procedure which actually split the 0:25:06.931,0:25:10.402 hemispheres. So what it told us was what 0:25:10.402,0:25:12.499 do the respective hemispheres do when they 0:25:12.499,0:25:16.127 process language. For example, when one 0:25:16.127,0:25:18.271 of these split-brained patients were 0:25:18.271,0:25:23.498 flashed the word "knight" on a screen, if 0:25:23.498,0:25:27.575 it was flashed on the screen in a way that 0:25:27.575,0:25:31.115 the left hemisphere saw the word, then the 0:25:31.115,0:25:34.171 person said, "It says knight." But 0:25:34.171,0:25:36.392 interestingly, if it was flashed on the 0:25:36.392,0:25:38.676 screen so that the right hemisphere saw 0:25:38.676,0:25:42.830 the word, the person said this, " I have a 0:25:42.830,0:25:45.406 picture in my mind, but I can't say it. 0:25:45.406,0:25:48.002 Two fighters in a ring, ancient, using 0:25:48.002,0:25:50.075 uniforms and helmets on horses, trying 0:25:50.075,0:25:53.532 to knock each other off....knights?" What 0:25:53.532,0:25:58.304 this reflects is, although language is 0:25:58.304,0:26:00.336 really represented on both sides of the 0:26:00.336,0:26:02.726 brain, depending on whether you have more 0:26:02.726,0:26:05.666 left sided processing or right sided 0:26:05.666,0:26:08.099 processing, how that information is 0:26:08.099,0:26:12.739 organized, stored ,and expressed is very 0:26:12.739,0:26:15.529 different. On the left hemisphere, the 0:26:15.529,0:26:17.445 language centers tend to focus on 0:26:17.445,0:26:21.063 specific, exact information. In the right 0:26:21.063,0:26:24.512 hemisphere, it's more associational. So 0:26:24.512,0:26:27.036 there are these complex images and stories 0:26:27.036,0:26:30.406 associated with a word. As a result, when 0:26:30.406,0:26:32.732 students are say, in their middle or their 0:26:32.732,0:26:34.599 high school years, and you know they know 0:26:34.599,0:26:37.262 so much information. You've asked them to 0:26:37.262,0:26:40.763 write about it. Sometimes what you see is 0:26:40.763,0:26:44.992 really this kind of "complex perception" 0:26:44.992,0:26:47.942 that is really hard to put into words. 0:26:47.942,0:26:49.802 These are students, if you question them, 0:26:49.802,0:26:51.861 they know a lot about the topic, and yet 0:26:51.861,0:26:53.374 there are very few words they have written 0:26:53.374,0:26:56.975 on the page. Again, I think it's just a 0:26:56.975,0:27:02.466 great example that really can inform more 0:27:02.466,0:27:04.130 understanding of why writing is so 0:27:04.130,0:27:07.301 difficult for many students. There are 0:27:07.301,0:27:09.508 specific ways to actually encourage 0:27:09.508,0:27:12.336 elaboration. Translate pictures into words, 0:27:12.336,0:27:14.542 for instance, that particularly can work 0:27:14.542,0:27:18.316 well with many Dyslexic students. 0:27:20.406,0:27:25.196 So, I think we'll probably have a special 0:27:25.196,0:27:28.257 session on some of the brain research 0:27:28.257,0:27:30.312 studies in Dyslexia, because it's 0:27:30.312,0:27:33.961 fascinating and I think a lot of you would 0:27:33.961,0:27:39.133 have great discussion of some of the 0:27:39.133,0:27:43.740 observations. We really want to encourage 0:27:43.740,0:27:47.850 more sharing between Dyslexic populations 0:27:47.850,0:27:51.262 and the researchers who are trying to 0:27:51.262,0:27:53.271 study Dyslexia. I think it is very 0:27:53.271,0:27:56.130 important, and will help things all the 0:27:56.130,0:28:00.262 way around. A theory or a model that is 0:28:00.262,0:28:02.400 helpful to think about, what the balance 0:28:02.400,0:28:06.076 is in Dyslexia is this fine detail and big 0:28:06.076,0:28:10.426 picture aspect of Dyslexia. Dyslexia as 0:28:10.426,0:28:15.330 a trade-off is a trade-off for more big 0:28:15.330,0:28:18.331 picture thinking at the expense of fine 0:28:18.331,0:28:21.003 detail. Here we have a quote form Manuel 0:28:21.003,0:28:24.463 Casanova, he said, "Dyslexia is a pattern 0:28:24.463,0:28:26.398 of connectivity that favors longer 0:28:26.398,0:28:28.192 connections at the expense of shorter 0:28:28.192,0:28:31.126 ones, as measured by spaces between cell 0:28:31.126,0:28:33.666 minicolumns. This pattern of connectivity 0:28:33.666,0:28:36.167 may yield a greater capacity for abstract, 0:28:36.167,0:28:38.758 'visionary' thinking". 0:28:38.758,0:28:42.476 What Dr. Casanova has found is that if 0:28:42.476,0:28:45.592 white matter connections are measured in 0:28:45.652,0:28:48.431 Dyslexics versus non-Dyslexics, there are 0:28:48.431,0:28:53.866 clear differences. In fact, the pattern 0:28:53.866,0:28:56.701 between these connections looks like 0:28:56.701,0:29:00.727 there is kind of extremes, where, if there 0:29:00.727,0:29:03.165 is a normal distribution in the middle, 0:29:03.165,0:29:05.960 at one extreme favoring the fine detail 0:29:05.960,0:29:09.571 are autistic individuals. And at the other 0:29:09.571,0:29:12.396 end, favoring big picture, are Dyslexic 0:29:12.396,0:29:15.956 individuals. The picture over here on the 0:29:15.956,0:29:19.905 left, shows this trade-off between autism 0:29:19.905,0:29:23.235 and Dyslexia. Here, Dyslexia patterns 0:29:23.235,0:29:25.671 with these long projectios and pathways 0:29:25.671,0:29:27.699 in the frame, favor these top-down 0:29:27.699,0:29:29.726 cognitive style. What is the big picture? 0:29:29.726,0:29:31.904 What is the information we need to know. 0:29:31.904,0:29:33.976 What's the context. It tends to be more 0:29:33.976,0:29:37.527 holistic and gestault in terms of 0:29:37.527,0:29:42.936 processing, and good synthesizing that 0:29:42.936,0:29:45.353 comes as a result of this. 0:29:46.653,0:29:49.139 If you look at the fine detal/ big picture 0:29:49.139,0:29:54.697 trade-off, in other practical clinical 0:29:54.697,0:29:57.871 academic situations, the fine detail 0:29:57.871,0:30:00.401 picture are things like specific facts 0:30:00.401,0:30:01.841 where you are trying to master knowledge 0:30:01.841,0:30:03.637 in isolation. You are trying to learn 0:30:03.637,0:30:07.103 rules and procedures and information 0:30:07.103,0:30:08.768 that is supposed to be predictable, 0:30:08.768,0:30:14.215 orderly, and for instance, rote. At the 0:30:14.215,0:30:18.357 other end, the Dyslexic style is more big 0:30:18.357,0:30:22.466 picture. It's "gist". It's conceptual. 0:30:22.466,0:30:25.964 This kind of pattern works well for best 0:30:25.964,0:30:28.978 fit; looking at themes , patterns ,and 0:30:28.978,0:30:31.706 stories; information that is personal and 0:30:31.706,0:30:34.564 presented in context, and has associations 0:30:34.564,0:30:37.721 and relationships. You can imagine that 0:30:37.721,0:30:40.131 this kind of big picture style is so 0:30:40.131,0:30:42.039 helpful in many disciplines, 0:30:42.039,0:30:44.786 where you are trying to look at real-life 0:30:44.786,0:30:49.599 trends or real-life problems. You can also 0:30:49.599,0:30:53.169 imagine that in early elementary school, 0:30:53.169,0:30:57.334 where fine detail and rules and procedures 0:30:57.334,0:31:00.159 are being mastered, that's a particular 0:31:00.159,0:31:03.936 time that is difficult for many Dyslexics. 0:31:03.936,0:31:06.161 Going back to big picture: experiences, 0:31:06.161,0:31:10.545 kinesthetic learning, also contribute to 0:31:10.545,0:31:12.301 this big picture understanding of 0:31:12.301,0:31:15.606 information. Big Picture thinking is often 0:31:15.606,0:31:18.276 non-sequential, it can be messy because 0:31:18.276,0:31:20.006 you are really looking at the "best fit", 0:31:20.006,0:31:22.373 it doesn't have to be exact. Surprise and 0:31:22.373,0:31:24.539 Novelty are often really important for 0:31:24.539,0:31:27.336 Big Picture because it might cause you to 0:31:27.336,0:31:31.269 completely re-set your picture and your 0:31:31.269,0:31:34.129 perspective. This pattern is thought to be 0:31:34.129,0:31:37.708 more intuitive, rather than explicit. 0:31:40.668,0:31:43.956 If you look at this trade-off between Fine 0:31:43.956,0:31:47.099 Detail and Big Picture, the short 0:31:47.099,0:31:48.836 connection type processes in the brain 0:31:48.836,0:31:50.305 are things like Phonological 0:31:50.305,0:31:52.232 discrimination. What is the difference 0:31:52.232,0:31:55.639 between "ba" and "da"? Was it "bat" or 0:31:55.639,0:32:01.406 "dat"? Reading has a lot of fine detail 0:32:01.406,0:32:03.699 associated with it. Is there an "s" on the 0:32:03.699,0:32:05.797 end of the word or is there not? Again, 0:32:05.797,0:32:08.309 rote memory, information that could be 0:32:08.309,0:32:10.533 quickly processed and more automatic. 0:32:10.533,0:32:14.206 On the other side, the kinds of tasks that 0:32:14.206,0:32:16.336 are important for long connections in the 0:32:16.336,0:32:18.612 brain are things like analogical thinking; 0:32:18.612,0:32:23.336 how is this like that? Spatial reasoning, 0:32:23.336,0:32:27.336 which requires often different...how 0:32:27.336,0:32:29.957 would that object be rotated in space? 0:32:29.957,0:32:31.794 Engineers are very good at things like 0:32:31.794,0:32:34.638 that. Mental Simulation, again, not 0:32:34.638,0:32:38.026 exact but actually approximate. Big 0:32:38.026,0:32:40.932 picture processes are often slower, and 0:32:40.932,0:32:45.628 as mentioned, less automatic. 0:32:45.628,0:32:46.969 If you look at the fine detail challenges 0:32:46.969,0:32:49.362 in younger students, what are the sorts of 0:32:49.362,0:32:53.062 things that you'd see? -- Is that the 0:32:53.062,0:32:58.476 letter 'b' or 'd'? Did you say 'wold' or 0:32:58.476,0:33:02.973 'world'? Was 4 plus 4 eight, or seven, or 0:33:02.973,0:33:06.405 six? --These pieces of information are 0:33:06.405,0:33:09.569 very exact and specific short connection 0:33:09.569,0:33:14.774 type of tasks. Letter recognition, sound 0:33:14.774,0:33:16.995 discrimination, fact retrievals, 0:33:16.995,0:33:21.532 sequencing. What are the fine detail 0:33:21.532,0:33:23.674 challenges that older students face? 0:33:23.674,0:33:25.311 Things like homonyms-- was that 'hear', 0:33:25.311,0:33:29.759 or 'here'? Choosed or chose? You'll hear 0:33:29.759,0:33:30.962 students say, "I know what that means, 0:33:30.962,0:33:32.623 but I can't explain why, or I can't 0:33:32.623,0:33:38.602 pronounce it. Was that punctuation rules 0:33:38.602,0:33:41.300 that's a fine detail? Was it studies with 0:33:41.300,0:33:44.240 an apostrophe 's' or with an '-ies'?" 0:33:47.800,0:33:51.035 Examples of fine detail challenges have 0:33:51.035,0:33:53.804 been studied in brain systems. These are 0:33:53.804,0:33:56.097 from fMRI studies. A famous study by 0:33:56.097,0:33:59.972 John Gabrieli at Stanford, and what it 0:33:59.972,0:34:01.523 shows you is that in typically reading 0:34:01.523,0:34:03.465 children, when they were listening to a 0:34:03.465,0:34:05.930 rhyme, there is activation in these two 0:34:05.930,0:34:10.099 circles. When Dyslexic students were 0:34:10.099,0:34:11.252 given the same rhymes--this was an 0:34:11.252,0:34:13.100 interesting study because the students 0:34:13.100,0:34:15.698 didn't have to make a decision about 0:34:15.698,0:34:16.901 anything, they were just listening to 0:34:16.901,0:34:19.450 rhyming words in the scanner. You can 0:34:19.450,0:34:22.364 see, it is much less of a match betwe4en 0:34:22.364,0:34:24.899 those. But when students were remediated, 0:34:24.899,0:34:27.463 with a variety of methods--some was 0:34:27.463,0:34:29.603 auditory training, another was a 0:34:29.603,0:34:33.932 phonological method--that, improvement in 0:34:33.932,0:34:36.298 that sound discrimination could be seen on 0:34:36.298,0:34:38.196 an fMRI, and that correlated with the 0:34:38.196,0:34:41.229 tests that they gave the children. It's 0:34:41.229,0:34:44.212 important to note that these kinds of 0:34:44.212,0:34:49.259 tests are not useful for diagnosis, at 0:34:49.259,0:34:50.648 that point there is a lot of individual 0:34:50.648,0:34:53.095 variations. Mostly what can be gleaned, 0:34:53.095,0:34:54.828 at least at this point in time, come from 0:34:54.828,0:34:58.769 groups of students with controls, rather 0:34:58.769,0:35:02.595 than relying on a single person or so. 0:35:02.595,0:35:04.544 It's not as if you could go and have a 0:35:04.544,0:35:06.771 scan and find out that you are Dyslexic. 0:35:06.771,0:35:09.266 It's still a clinical diagnosis or 0:35:09.266,0:35:10.775 identification. 0:35:10.775,0:35:12.169 Another thing I wanted to mention here, 0:35:12.169,0:35:13.833 because we talked a bit about Stealth 0:35:13.833,0:35:15.967 Dyslexia. This is some fascinating work 0:35:15.967,0:35:19.828 from Fumiko Hoeft. What she found when 0:35:19.828,0:35:22.639 she studied Stealth Dyslexics was that 0:35:22.639,0:35:26.782 there was more brain grey matter seen in 0:35:26.782,0:35:29.594 Stealth Dyslexics, as well as more 0:35:29.594,0:35:32.733 activation in areas associated with 0:35:32.733,0:35:35.326 contextual learning. So, these are 0:35:35.326,0:35:38.030 students who had trouble with single word 0:35:38.030,0:35:40.406 reading, but were actually quite strong in 0:35:40.406,0:35:45.206 reading words within a story or a context. 0:35:45.206,0:35:47.764 The interesting part about this is that 0:35:47.764,0:35:51.196 the extra brain grey matter in these 0:35:51.196,0:35:53.773 context areas is consistent with the 0:35:53.773,0:35:58.601 strength that certainly we see among 0:35:58.601,0:36:02.472 Stealth Dyslexics, about contextual 0:36:02.472,0:36:07.792 learning, and being able to function well 0:36:07.792,0:36:10.311 in applied problem solving. 0:36:14.301,0:36:17.651 In fact, these slides were taken from 0:36:17.671,0:36:20.167 Dr. Hoefts presentation at our conference 0:36:20.167,0:36:23.163 on Dyslexia and Talent, she challenged 0:36:23.163,0:36:25.936 the concept of Dyslexia being deficit, 0:36:25.936,0:36:30.370 only, as she presented her work. I highly 0:36:30.370,0:36:32.530 recommend checking out the videos from our 0:36:32.530,0:36:35.230 conference on our You-tube channel, 0:36:35.230,0:36:44.028 youtube.com/dyslexicadvantage. Her talk 0:36:44.028,0:36:48.947 there showed that Stealth Dyslexics, as 0:36:48.947,0:36:51.532 much, have that contextual top-down 0:36:51.532,0:36:55.936 processing, being able to use brain 0:36:55.936,0:37:01.668 pathways in order to do decoding and 0:37:01.668,0:37:05.066 problem solving. She also presented and 0:37:05.066,0:37:07.904 showed us some work from Ken Pugh at the 0:37:07.904,0:37:10.669 Haskins Lab at Yale that showed that 0:37:10.669,0:37:12.666 there seems to be a trade off between 0:37:12.666,0:37:15.936 reading and visual spatial processing 0:37:15.936,0:37:19.199 ability. In fact, from that work, it looks 0:37:19.199,0:37:23.396 like the weaker the reading ability, the 0:37:23.396,0:37:26.100 stronger the visual spatial talent. Sort 0:37:26.100,0:37:31.666 of a fascinating result. It was building 0:37:31.666,0:37:33.700 on some previous work that showed that 0:37:33.700,0:37:36.567 Dyslexics outperformed non-Dyslexics in 0:37:36.567,0:37:40.613 terms of spatial rotation and problem 0:37:40.613,0:37:44.602 solving types of work. That might account 0:37:44.602,0:37:47.934 for why Dyslexics are over-represented in 0:37:47.934,0:37:50.309 fields such as engineering and 0:37:50.309,0:37:52.900 architecture. So what she put in her slide 0:37:52.900,0:37:56.001 is that these kinds of data challenge 0:37:56.001,0:38:00.036 accounts suggesting that Dyslexia is a 0:38:00.036,0:38:03.191 deficit. It is not, it's a trade off. You 0:38:03.191,0:38:05.995 can't just look at weaknesses associated 0:38:05.995,0:38:09.166 with Dyslexia, the whole picture is a 0:38:09.166,0:38:12.829 trade off. Some abilities are very strong, 0:38:12.829,0:38:14.790 or even above average, while other things 0:38:14.790,0:38:19.206 are the more traditional Dyslexia related 0:38:19.206,0:38:22.136 challenges with reading and writing. 0:38:22.136,0:38:26.171 I did want to mention some of the Dyslexic 0:38:26.171,0:38:29.540 strength literature here. Some examples, 0:38:29.540,0:38:31.997 Dyslexics, as I mentioned, outperform 0:38:31.997,0:38:34.416 non-Dyslexics on a variety of tasks. Here, 0:38:34.416,0:38:40.379 some in a previous study, if you do these 0:38:40.379,0:38:43.970 spatial puzzles here on the left, Dyslexics 0:38:43.970,0:38:46.286 are better than non-Dyslexics at these 0:38:46.286,0:38:49.189 things. On creative insight problems, it 0:38:49.189,0:38:51.739 shows that more problems were correctly 0:38:51.739,0:38:54.410 solved by the Dyslexic group compared to 0:38:54.410,0:38:56.994 the non-Dyslexic group. As mentioned, 0:38:56.994,0:38:58.627 Dylsexics are over-represented in schools 0:38:58.627,0:39:00.471 of art and engineering in surveys that 0:39:00.471,0:39:04.440 have been done, as well as surveys of 0:39:04.440,0:39:06.481 successful entrepreneurs. 0:39:09.541,0:39:12.158 These are some of the data that we've had 0:39:12.158,0:39:15.100 from our clinic. These are WISC scores, 0:39:15.100,0:39:17.193 here are various measurements on the 0:39:17.193,0:39:20.462 WIAT, for those of you who know about the 0:39:20.462,0:39:23.073 technical aspects of these tests. So, if 0:39:23.073,0:39:26.342 100 is the average, I think what I really 0:39:26.342,0:39:30.131 wanted to show you here is that there are 0:39:30.131,0:39:32.466 some areas that are below average, below 0:39:32.466,0:39:35.666 the line at 100 of things like working 0:39:35.666,0:39:38.502 memory, processing speed, sentence 0:39:38.502,0:39:40.634 repetition. Here are things like oral 0:39:40.634,0:39:45.274 reading accuracy, and math facts fluency. 0:39:45.274,0:39:47.603 At the same time, there's some 0:39:47.603,0:39:49.864 spectacularly high scores as well of 0:39:49.864,0:39:52.693 things like verbal reasoning ability, 0:39:52.693,0:39:56.806 oral word fluency, reading comprehension 0:39:56.806,0:40:02.065 can be very strong among some Stealth 0:40:02.065,0:40:04.429 Dyslexics, and things like that. Math 0:40:04.429,0:40:07.032 problem solving can also be in the average 0:40:07.032,0:40:10.036 range or very high amongst some clusters 0:40:10.036,0:40:13.016 of students. The main point getting across 0:40:13.016,0:40:16.769 here, Dyslexics are not a flat line. They 0:40:16.769,0:40:18.606 don't have even abilities. They are 0:40:18.606,0:40:21.866 lop-sided in this way, but it's also a 0:40:21.866,0:40:24.627 huge mistake to believe that Dyslexia is 0:40:24.627,0:40:27.306 weakness only. It's also accompanied by 0:40:27.306,0:40:30.666 some pretty impressive strengths. If we 0:40:30.666,0:40:32.880 are not looking for them, we need to be. 0:40:35.770,0:40:38.386 This just reinforces that the up-side 0:40:38.386,0:40:41.068 conceptual ability typically far exceeds 0:40:41.068,0:40:44.017 academic achievement. Often, what we've 0:40:44.017,0:40:48.090 seen when we spend time with these students 0:40:48.090,0:40:50.876 is that they really have extraordinary 0:40:50.876,0:40:53.341 conceptual ability, often 1grade, 2 grades, 0:40:53.341,0:40:56.086 sometimes even more above their grade. 0:40:56.086,0:40:58.192 It's something to be looked for because it 0:40:58.192,0:41:00.936 can be very frustrating, not only to have 0:41:00.936,0:41:03.165 to spend extra time with the basic rote 0:41:03.165,0:41:07.670 aspects of schooling, but to not be fed 0:41:07.670,0:41:09.613 for their advanced conceptual ability can 0:41:09.613,0:41:14.441 be a recipe for problems, because then 0:41:14.441,0:41:17.137 school really doesn't hold any excitement 0:41:17.137,0:41:21.305 or joy for them. It's not uncommon, for 0:41:21.305,0:41:23.367 instance,where we've had students who 0:41:23.367,0:41:26.537 were placed in gifted classrooms, but with 0:41:26.537,0:41:28.233 accommodations to support them for 0:41:28.233,0:41:31.604 reading and writing. That's why we like the 0:41:31.604,0:41:33.401 comprehensive testing--you have to look 0:41:33.401,0:41:35.495 for the strengths as well as the 0:41:35.495,0:41:37.033 challenges if you are going to be doing a 0:41:37.033,0:41:40.300 good assessment for Dyslexia. 0:41:40.300,0:41:42.981 So, maybe that's a good segway into the 0:41:42.981,0:41:46.934 next and final part of this talk, Dyslexic 0:41:46.934,0:41:51.999 talents in children. There are a wide 0:41:51.999,0:41:53.767 range of talents that we see among these 0:41:53.767,0:41:55.232 students, things like spatial problem 0:41:55.232,0:41:57.099 solving, this is a fantastic maze birthday 0:41:57.099,0:41:59.509 card that an 8 year old happened to bring 0:41:59.509,0:42:01.866 with him, and he showed me actually how it 0:42:01.866,0:42:04.735 could be solved. Often students really 0:42:04.735,0:42:06.453 excel or are precocious at hands on 0:42:06.453,0:42:11.068 projects. They may have unusual 0:42:11.068,0:42:13.868 perspectives. Here is an example of a 0:42:13.868,0:42:17.699 drawing of a bike from Michael Critchley's 0:42:17.699,0:42:20.359 work, a 9 year old was spontaneously 0:42:20.359,0:42:23.710 drawing a bike from an aerial view. 0:42:23.710,0:42:25.440 Spatial talents can also present in the 0:42:25.440,0:42:27.996 kinds of things they do. We've had a 0:42:27.996,0:42:32.536 number of soccer goalies, hockey goalies, 0:42:32.536,0:42:40.331 who are Dyslexic. Some of that may be just 0:42:40.331,0:42:46.239 pure athletic ability, but many cases, I 0:42:46.239,0:42:49.576 think it's spatial, and it's being able to 0:42:49.576,0:42:51.735 ...a little bit of dynamic reasoning, to 0:42:51.735,0:42:54.066 see how people are moving, and to know 0:42:54.066,0:42:56.482 where the ball is going to go next. We've 0:42:56.482,0:42:59.476 also had a number of accomplished sailors 0:42:59.476,0:43:01.342 among our student group, we have parents, 0:43:01.342,0:43:06.192 also, who are very good at navigation, 0:43:06.192,0:43:08.997 sailing. This is another kind of complex 0:43:08.997,0:43:11.759 system where Dyslexics can excel at, 0:43:11.759,0:43:14.428 factoring in things like the weather, 0:43:14.428,0:43:16.996 wind, the current, and being able to know 0:43:16.996,0:43:21.642 where you are and where you'll be. 0:43:24.582,0:43:26.794 At the same time, the talents in Dyslexic 0:43:26.794,0:43:29.525 children aren't limited to just spatial 0:43:29.525,0:43:32.360 abilities. Some students are extremely 0:43:32.360,0:43:34.905 verbally gifted. They can be wonderful 0:43:34.905,0:43:38.066 storytellers, have advanced conceptual 0:43:38.066,0:43:41.072 reasoning as I mentioned, great verbal 0:43:41.072,0:43:43.573 reasoning...walking arguments, in fact. 0:43:43.573,0:43:45.807 Some of these students, you can see, they 0:43:45.807,0:43:48.307 are socially perceptive. We also see 0:43:48.307,0:43:50.703 students who have particularly strong 0:43:50.703,0:43:55.672 math and science abilities. One of the 0:43:55.672,0:43:57.909 questions we were asked in the live 0:43:57.909,0:43:59.466 webinar was a question about dynamic 0:43:59.466,0:44:01.515 reasoning, and when does that present? 0:44:01.515,0:44:03.118 Although that's typically an older 0:44:03.118,0:44:05.683 presenting gift among Dyslexic students, 0:44:05.683,0:44:08.341 we also can see that among students who 0:44:08.341,0:44:11.537 really thrive with for instance, video 0:44:11.537,0:44:14.159 gaming or imagining video gaming. This is 0:44:14.159,0:44:16.343 a drawing that one student brought in to 0:44:16.343,0:44:19.068 us about how he would plan a game, and 0:44:19.068,0:44:21.639 what you can see is it is a very complex 0:44:21.639,0:44:24.399 diagram. It had a lot of feedback loops, 0:44:24.399,0:44:26.184 --if this happened, this would go to 0:44:26.184,0:44:29.086 here--and students really love the 0:44:29.086,0:44:31.767 complexity of systems like this. Sometimes 0:44:31.767,0:44:34.245 gaming at this age may be the best way to 0:44:34.245,0:44:37.614 kind of analyze things like that. Older 0:44:37.614,0:44:39.671 students can get involved in things like 0:44:39.671,0:44:42.121 Game Theory, or Economics, but in the 0:44:42.121,0:44:46.571 early ages -- maybe video gaming or 0:44:46.571,0:44:51.699 imaginary worlds or fantasy may satisfy 0:44:51.699,0:44:56.341 that craving for complexity. Dyslexic 0:44:56.341,0:44:58.606 students we often find, are very 0:44:58.606,0:45:00.935 metacognitive. There is a study of college 0:45:00.935,0:45:02.866 students that found Dyslexic students had 0:45:02.866,0:45:05.666 stronger metacognitive abilities than 0:45:05.666,0:45:08.199 non-Dyslexic students, maybe because they 0:45:08.199,0:45:10.402 had a harder time with rote memory. They 0:45:10.402,0:45:12.502 are often extremely analytical. When we 0:45:12.502,0:45:14.399 did a survey at Dyslexic Advantage dot 0:45:14.399,0:45:17.062 com, I think the analytical strength was 0:45:17.062,0:45:18.968 among the highest that people reported 0:45:18.968,0:45:21.733 of their talents that they seemed to use 0:45:21.733,0:45:24.135 commonly in their workplace and their 0:45:24.135,0:45:25.261 jobs. 0:45:28.451,0:45:31.161 When we surveyed the talents in our 0:45:31.161,0:45:34.006 parents that we saw for the students in 0:45:34.006,0:45:37.831 our clinic, we had probably an unusual 0:45:37.831,0:45:41.830 cluster of parent careers, because we 0:45:41.830,0:45:46.326 are near Microsoft and Boeing, but, 43% 0:45:46.326,0:45:48.364 of the parents from out clinic were in 0:45:48.364,0:45:50.359 engineering, computers, science, or 0:45:50.359,0:45:52.329 economics. Twenty-five percent were in 0:45:52.329,0:45:54.081 business, upper management, or sales. 0:45:54.081,0:45:57.861 Other occupations included pilot,coaches, 0:45:57.861,0:46:00.736 counselors, and veterinarians. There were 0:46:00.736,0:46:04.204 strengths that build on personal 0:46:04.204,0:46:06.570 communication, empathy, but also things 0:46:06.570,0:46:08.674 like problem solving and spatial 0:46:08.674,0:46:15.198 visualization and reasoning. This is just 0:46:15.198,0:46:17.709 a little pie chart looking at the 0:46:17.709,0:46:20.494 different kinds of careers that we found 0:46:20.494,0:46:23.876 when we polled individuals from our 0:46:23.876,0:46:25.963 community. 0:46:30.343,0:46:33.064 Okay, this brings me to Dyslexic Mind 0:46:33.064,0:46:35.771 Strengths and I'll come into a close here. 0:46:35.771,0:46:38.396 MIND is an acronym that we use that 0:46:38.396,0:46:40.299 stands for Material Reasoning, 0:46:40.299,0:46:42.136 Interconnected Reasoning, Narrative 0:46:42.136,0:46:43.971 Reasoning, and Dynamic Reasoning. These 0:46:43.971,0:46:46.715 are brain-based mechanisms that contribute 0:46:46.715,0:46:48.600 to Dyslexic strengths. 0:46:54.850,0:46:57.842 Material Reasoning is an ability to 0:46:57.842,0:46:59.872 reason about the physical characteristics 0:46:59.872,0:47:02.273 of objects in a material universe, largely 0:47:02.273,0:47:04.466 spatial reasoning ability. Material 0:47:04.466,0:47:07.096 reasoners are often able to, for instance, 0:47:07.096,0:47:10.531 figure out how things work, gears, 0:47:10.531,0:47:13.996 pulleys, for example. This is a drawing 0:47:13.996,0:47:17.072 from a great little builder in our clinic. 0:47:17.072,0:47:18.818 At 6 years old, he was already drawing 0:47:18.818,0:47:22.132 ships in cross-section from an aerial 0:47:22.132,0:47:25.568 view. This child's understanding of what 0:47:25.568,0:47:28.970 a boat is certainly better than a standard 0:47:28.970,0:47:31.536 six year old who doesn't have that strong 0:47:31.536,0:47:35.854 physical knowledge of what things are. 0:47:38.124,0:47:39.771 The "I" stands for Interconnected 0:47:39.771,0:47:41.872 Reasoning, and that's an ability to spot 0:47:41.872,0:47:43.469 connections or relationships between 0:47:43.469,0:47:45.878 different objects, concepts, or points 0:47:45.878,0:47:48.785 of view. An ability to connect diverse 0:47:48.785,0:47:50.871 perspectives, or see things from different 0:47:50.871,0:47:53.737 points of view can be used in all kinds of 0:47:53.737,0:47:58.676 situations, from things like the work 0:47:58.676,0:48:00.401 place, working in businesses, 0:48:00.401,0:48:05.729 corporations, to writing novels, or...in 0:48:05.729,0:48:07.430 the military, being able to see a 0:48:07.430,0:48:11.507 battlefield from different perspectives. 0:48:11.507,0:48:15.698 This is really an incredible strength, but 0:48:15.698,0:48:19.170 it can also be a challenge when students 0:48:19.170,0:48:21.432 are younger, and they have trouble picking 0:48:21.432,0:48:24.792 one, or narrowing what they want to say 0:48:24.792,0:48:28.170 in a paper. Interconnected Reasoning 0:48:28.170,0:48:32.803 allows individuals to unite information, 0:48:32.803,0:48:34.333 to assume a global or "big picture" 0:48:34.333,0:48:36.860 perspective, and to also determine large 0:48:36.860,0:48:39.472 scale features like gist -- what's the 0:48:39.472,0:48:43.861 "gist" of the situation, or context. 0:48:45.031,0:48:46.925 N stands for Narrative Reasoning, and 0:48:46.925,0:48:49.570 that's an ability to create stories by 0:48:49.570,0:48:51.591 connecting a series of mental scenes from 0:48:51.591,0:48:53.735 past personal experience, as well as a 0:48:53.735,0:48:56.170 tendency to use stories to recall the 0:48:56.170,0:48:58.944 past, understand the present, and imagine 0:48:58.944,0:49:04.176 the future. We have a lot of gifted 0:49:04.176,0:49:08.404 storytellers in our clinic. We've seen 0:49:08.404,0:49:11.526 that in adults with Dyslexia that 0:49:11.526,0:49:14.903 storytelling ability can be great for all 0:49:14.903,0:49:17.241 kinds of occupations, not just writing, 0:49:17.241,0:49:20.009 but also communicating a vision in a 0:49:20.009,0:49:23.727 workplace as a business leader or, for 0:49:23.727,0:49:28.371 instance, in the courtroom with a lawyer, 0:49:28.371,0:49:30.159 who can communicate and really connect 0:49:30.159,0:49:33.066 to the jury. So, Narrative Reasoning is 0:49:33.066,0:49:37.104 really a fascinating strength associated 0:49:37.104,0:49:40.740 with Dyslexia. Many students are able to 0:49:40.740,0:49:44.031 use stories to really boost their memory 0:49:44.031,0:49:48.173 for information in the classroom. 0:49:48.173,0:49:50.140 Which brings us to the last Mind Strength, 0:49:50.140,0:49:52.867 Dynamic Reasoning. That's an ability to 0:49:52.867,0:49:55.566 recombine the elements of the past to 0:49:55.566,0:49:58.099 predict or simulate future outcomes. 0:49:58.099,0:50:00.130 Dynamic Reasoning really builds on 0:50:00.130,0:50:04.086 pattern recognition. It often involves 0:50:04.086,0:50:06.812 personal rather than abstract memory. 0:50:06.812,0:50:09.572 It can be great for highly changeable or 0:50:09.572,0:50:11.568 ambiguous situations, where there is 0:50:11.568,0:50:14.939 incomplete knowledge. Cutting edge fields, 0:50:14.939,0:50:18.104 finance...if suddenly you have a crash of 0:50:18.104,0:50:20.291 a stock market, what is going to happen 0:50:20.291,0:50:22.079 next? It's not ever happened before like 0:50:22.079,0:50:25.967 this...A lot of Dyslexic dynamic reasoners 0:50:25.967,0:50:29.634 really excel in times like this because 0:50:29.634,0:50:32.806 they are trend spotters, pattern people, 0:50:32.806,0:50:36.212 they look at best fit, and so, it doesn't 0:50:36.212,0:50:38.235 matter if it hasn't happened before, they 0:50:38.235,0:50:39.499 will make a good prediction for the 0:50:39.499,0:50:42.635 future. As mentioned, Dynamic Reasoning 0:50:42.635,0:50:45.233 uses these "best fit" cognitive processes 0:50:45.233,0:50:47.092 rather than rule-based, deductive, or 0:50:47.092,0:50:50.103 formulaic thinking. Rather , Dynamic 0:50:50.103,0:50:52.630 Reasoners used cases and examples. They 0:50:52.630,0:50:54.812 like to connect the dots in order to 0:50:54.812,0:50:57.424 predict what is going to happen next. 0:50:57.424,0:51:00.460 Particularly good for areas that are 0:51:00.460,0:51:02.866 completely new, as mentioned, new 0:51:02.866,0:51:04.860 domains of knowledge... A very famous 0:51:04.860,0:51:07.320 highly successful Dyslexic researchers in 0:51:07.320,0:51:10.064 all kinds of fields, and inventors, also 0:51:10.064,0:51:14.787 in business and finance, as mentioned. 0:51:19.557,0:51:21.938 I just want to talk a bit--I'm just about 0:51:21.938,0:51:23.898 to close--about some of the trade-offs 0:51:23.898,0:51:25.640 that happen in memory, based on the 0:51:25.640,0:51:28.363 Dyslexic processing style. As mentioned, 0:51:28.363,0:51:30.742 rote memory is a relative weakness for 0:51:30.742,0:51:35.066 many Dyslexics. It's non-contextual, it's 0:51:35.066,0:51:36.960 generalized (generic), like a dictionary 0:51:36.960,0:51:41.426 definition. The strength side of memory 0:51:41.426,0:51:43.427 for many Dyslexics is personal memory, 0:51:43.427,0:51:45.996 it's like an episode, scene-based. It 0:51:45.996,0:51:48.758 occurs at a specific time and place, and 0:51:48.758,0:51:53.561 often uses cases and examples with 0:51:53.561,0:51:58.355 connection of these, in order to create a 0:51:58.355,0:51:59.727 big picture. 0:52:01.517,0:52:05.372 Why Dyslexic Strengths matter? There has 0:52:05.372,0:52:07.041 been a lot of controversy and discussion 0:52:07.041,0:52:11.304 about whether it's important to address 0:52:11.304,0:52:13.640 strengths associated with Dyslexic 0:52:13.640,0:52:15.666 students. We think it is absolutely 0:52:15.666,0:52:19.916 essential. This is another student in 0:52:19.916,0:52:25.381 our clinic. This is percentile, now, and 0:52:25.381,0:52:29.574 the average range is at the 50 percentile 0:52:29.574,0:52:33.738 mark. If a student has this kind of oral 0:52:33.738,0:52:37.571 expression, listening comprehension, but 0:52:37.571,0:52:41.726 down here visual matching, or math facts, 0:52:41.726,0:52:45.532 fluency; looking at the whole picture is 0:52:45.532,0:52:47.764 really essential for understanding the 0:52:47.764,0:52:50.265 pressure points that a student is feelilng 0:52:50.265,0:52:52.830 in school. How to optimize and have 0:52:52.830,0:52:55.466 challenge in the areas where they are 0:52:55.466,0:52:58.638 actually thriving at, but also support and 0:52:58.638,0:53:00.909 reasonable expectations for their 0:53:00.909,0:53:03.987 weaknesses. Understanding, for instance, 0:53:03.987,0:53:07.105 visual matching is a sub-test which can 0:53:07.105,0:53:10.196 be associated with these so-called 0:53:10.196,0:53:12.001 "careless mistakes" that happen with 0:53:12.001,0:53:15.666 mathematics. There is often a little 0:53:15.666,0:53:18.912 drift that can occur for many Dyslexics. 0:53:18.912,0:53:20.803 They'll look at numbers, then they'll look 0:53:20.803,0:53:24.069 again, and the numbers may switch place. 0:53:24.789,0:53:27.364 They are called careless mistakes, but 0:53:27.364,0:53:28.866 they aren't really careless, they are 0:53:28.866,0:53:31.174 perceptual mistakes. Understanding this 0:53:31.174,0:53:33.876 extra difficulty, rather than give them 0:53:33.876,0:53:38.517 more and more rote problems to solve, it's 0:53:38.517,0:53:40.188 good to really see the whole pictureof 0:53:40.188,0:53:42.959 things, and be able to assign fewer 0:53:42.959,0:53:45.980 problems. Also, projects that will appeal 0:53:45.980,0:53:47.956 to the areas of their strength, and the 0:53:47.956,0:53:51.196 modes that they learn fast in. 0:53:51.196,0:53:56.123 Dyslexics often have extreme discrepancies 0:53:56.123,0:53:57.936 between their different cognitive 0:53:57.936,0:54:01.765 abilities. Failure to recognize that can 0:54:01.765,0:54:03.406 really take a toll on their esteem and 0:54:03.406,0:54:04.963 emotional health. It's very important, 0:54:04.963,0:54:07.366 what the environment is, as I mentioned, 0:54:07.366,0:54:12.766 what the expectations should be. On the 0:54:12.766,0:54:16.508 positive side, recognizing student's 0:54:16.508,0:54:19.862 strengths, really have powerful effects 0:54:19.862,0:54:22.598 on these students' futures. We've had so 0:54:22.598,0:54:24.360 many students come back to us, and tell 0:54:24.360,0:54:28.908 us, just understanding their situation, 0:54:28.908,0:54:31.923 seeing what they were good at, getting 0:54:31.923,0:54:34.476 the whole picture of what they were facing 0:54:34.476,0:54:37.406 was very empowering, very encouraging. 0:54:37.406,0:54:39.176 And what we've talked to highly 0:54:39.176,0:54:41.645 accomplished individuals as adults, they 0:54:41.645,0:54:44.327 often said, "Having my mom or dad really 0:54:44.327,0:54:47.880 believe in me, understand me, or a teacher 0:54:47.880,0:54:50.929 who encouraged me, recognized that my 0:54:50.929,0:54:53.329 ideas were really good, really helped 0:54:53.329,0:54:55.243 carry me through a difficult time, and a 0:54:55.243,0:54:57.305 time I really needed to put in a lot of 0:54:57.305,0:55:01.039 extra work compared to my peers." 0:55:01.969,0:55:06.662 I wanted to share this brain study. It is 0:55:06.662,0:55:11.418 really fascinating. In this test, subjects 0:55:11.418,0:55:13.458 were asked to silently generate the verb 0:55:13.458,0:55:16.872 associated with a noun. For example, if 0:55:16.872,0:55:20.606 they were given the example of a boat, 0:55:20.606,0:55:23.006 what would you expect the boat to do? 0:55:23.006,0:55:25.396 It would be sailing, Just thinking of 0:55:25.396,0:55:29.091 sailing, and not even saying anything, the 0:55:29.091,0:55:31.905 red brain, these are cross-sections from 0:55:31.905,0:55:34.739 the base of the brain, up to the top. The 0:55:34.739,0:55:36.911 red parts are all the different parts of 0:55:36.911,0:55:38.523 the brain that 0:55:38.523,0:55:40.336 non-Dyslexics used when they were thinking 0:55:40.336,0:55:44.470 of that. The blue parts were all the parts 0:55:44.470,0:55:46.445 where Dyslexics subjects were using, so 0:55:46.445,0:55:48.700 completely different areas of 0:55:48.700,0:55:51.306 the brain to process things. Just 0:55:51.306,0:55:53.430 understanding how different Dyslexic 0:55:53.430,0:55:56.653 processing is from non-Dyslexics, really 0:55:56.653,0:56:01.470 can help us understand why there can be 0:56:01.470,0:56:03.972 a disconnect in the classroom, why many 0:56:03.972,0:56:07.245 Dyslexics are not well understood, and 0:56:07.245,0:56:10.705 why we need to work and do more research, 0:56:10.705,0:56:15.792 and more policies that improve our 0:56:15.792,0:56:19.978 understanding of how to optimize work 0:56:19.978,0:56:21.826 places and classrooms for Dyslexic 0:56:21.826,0:56:23.720 people. 0:56:25.740,0:56:28.469 What next? Dyslexic [Advantage] is now a 0:56:28.469,0:56:32.452 501c3 organization. We hope that you will 0:56:32.452,0:56:35.095 watch and share videos from the conference 0:56:35.095,0:56:40.700 conference. This is the youtube url-- 0:56:40.700,0:56:45.245 youtube.com/dyslexicadvantage . We hope 0:56:45.245,0:56:48.936 you really consider making a donation to 0:56:48.936,0:56:50.466 the Webinar series, we'd like to continue 0:56:50.466,0:56:55.006 to do these, and be able to create a 0:56:55.006,0:56:58.565 library that can help more individuals. 0:56:59.625,0:57:02.795 The focus of our group is to look at 0:57:02.795,0:57:06.228 reframing Dyslexia. Too often right now, 0:57:06.228,0:57:08.769 Dyslexia is thought to be a stigma, and 0:57:08.769,0:57:10.704 many people believe that Dyslexics are 0:57:10.704,0:57:14.606 low potential people. For that reason, we 0:57:14.606,0:57:16.608 need to speak out more. A lot of people 0:57:16.608,0:57:21.774 need to make steps to educate their peers, 0:57:21.774,0:57:25.191 and friend and family members about the 0:57:25.191,0:57:27.845 high potential associated with Dyslexia, 0:57:27.845,0:57:31.540 and the talent side. Our goal is to 0:57:31.540,0:57:33.326 identify and help more students and 0:57:33.326,0:57:36.534 adults to share more of the research and 0:57:36.534,0:57:39.829 applications of strength based focus, so 0:57:39.829,0:57:41.131 that we can help our students in 0:57:41.131,0:57:44.039 classrooms, and more employees and 0:57:44.039,0:57:49.034 workplaces. Education, of course, extends 0:57:49.034,0:57:51.441 to parents, teachers, and non-Dyslexics, 0:57:51.441,0:57:53.931 and what we'd like to do, is improve 0:57:53.931,0:57:55.889 awareness all the way around about the 0:57:55.889,0:57:58.499 talent side of Dyslexia, and help build 0:57:58.499,0:58:00.625 our community, so it's better 0:58:00.625,0:58:03.673 opportunities for everyone. So, thank 0:58:03.673,0:58:07.223 you very much for joining us, and please 0:58:07.223,0:58:10.331 get in touch with us so if we can help 0:58:10.331,0:58:12.289 more, if you've got ideas for future 0:58:12.289,0:58:15.458 webinars, or if we can answer some 0:58:15.458,0:58:18.947 questions. Thank you!