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