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For some students, learning math concepts is challenging and accommodating the individual needs with the current classroom curriculum can be difficult.  To make matters worse, by the time many of these students exhibit the required academic underachievement that qualifies them for the needed assistance, many have negative learning experiences associated with mathematics, they struggle with a poor academic self concept, and some are overwhelmed with feelings of helplessness.   What are the Common Difficulties Associated with Math Skills? When a student has difficulty with mathematics, they may struggle with any or all of the following: Memory - remembering concepts learned over time. Sequencing - recalling the required steps to get to an answer. Quantitative Reasoning - understanding the logic behind math concepts. Spatial Skills - understand and remember object’s orientation in space. Visual Processing - making sense of information seen through the eyes. Mental Manipulations -...

This blog shares my most recent video podcast, featuring memory and language expert, Aaron Ralby. It is the sixth of many free video podcasts for Go Dyslexia! This was such an eye opening conversation for me, and I can’t wait to take Aaron’s memory course and integrate these methods into my own life and practice. During the video podcast, Aaron and I discussed memory strategies that can assist individuals with dyslexia learn and master math, reading, languages, word finding, spelling and more. It’s a fascinating discussion that will get you excited about the ways that cognition can be enhanced with strategies that work for individuals with dyslexia. Come learn about fun and memorable memory palaces and a new virtual reality program that can help individuals with dyslexia. What is Linguisticator ? Linguisticator is an online course platform that offers memory and language training. These courses provide systematic, step-by-step guidance on how to use spatial memory techniques to le...

There seems to be a logical assumption that if you get a degree in educational psychology that this would enable you to be an educational therapist. As with many assumptions, this is partially true, but not fully accurate. What is Educational Psychology? Educational psychology is an established branch of psychology that can be traced back to the early 1900s, and many formal institutions of higher education offer advanced degrees in this field of study. educational psychologists study human learning and motivation, and they investigate the cognition of the brain influence of affect, goals, and interest on learning role of assessment in learning psychology of teaching effectiveness of instructional intervention relationship between cognition and technology social psychology of learning organizations methods for conducting educational research These programs offer instruction on how people use emotional, social, and cognitive processes to learn and retain knowledge. They focus on theory a...

I think everyone will agree that no two people have the same strengths and weaknesses. But because we cannot observe each student’s brain behavior, it’s easy to blindly assume that what helps us learn, will help others. In fact, you will often see teachers insist that their students study a certain way, because the teacher knows how much that methods helps themselves. So should teachers step out of their preferred ways of learning and accommodate the unique needs of their students? What are Learning Styles? Learning styles are an individual's unique approach to learning based on strengths, weaknesses, and preferences. Over the past decade there has been a debate about whether teachers should accommodate learning styles in the classroom. Some even purport that learning styles don’t exist altogether. I have been working with children and adults as an educational therapist for over twenty years, and I can assure you that everyone has their own unique ways of processing information and...

This blog shares my most recent video podcast, featuring dyslexia advocate and author, Winston Chen. Winston tells us all about the many benefits of his app Voice Dream Writer for individuals with dyslexia. This is the fifth of many free video podcasts for Go Dyslexia! What is Voice Dream Writer? Voice Dream Writer is an iOS app that can be used on an iPad or iPhone. It is an easy to use writing application that has a number of powerful features. Voice Dream Reader Offers a Number of Helpful Tools: Dictation or Voice to Text : Voice Dream Writer offers voice to text or dictation, so you can speak to your iPad or phone and the words will appear. Proof Reading : Now you can edit your writing by listening to the text spoken aloud. Like a personal proofreader, Voice Dream Writer uses text-to-speech technology, so that awkward sentences, grammatical errors and typos can be easily found. It addition, Voice Dream Writer can read words and sentences as they’re typed or dictated so that errors...

Some students struggle academically for the first time when concepts move from concrete ideas to abstract ways of thinking. This happens because they have weaknesses in higher order language skills.  Higher order language skills, also called higher level language or metalinguistic skills, refers to advanced language processing that is an expected competence in middle school and high school.  It  requires both abstract and deductive verbal reasoning skills as well as  the understanding of advanced vocabulary, and word relationships. What are the Common Difficulties Associated with Higher Order Language Skills? When a student has difficulty with higher order language skills, they may struggle with any of the following: Making connections and associations between words, sentences, or stories  Implied meaning or inferences Social pragmatics skills Oral and written comprehension Writing skills Main ideas and details Jokes, riddles, and humor Writing summaries and par...

Making sense of the complex weave of assistive technology devices and applications for struggling learners can be a confusing and frustrating chore.  This blog talks about 15 different types of assistive technology that can benefit struggling learners with links to my favorite tools.  For a more comprehensive discussion of these technologies CLICK HERE Comprehensive Technologies: Don Johnston Inc. - $. Kurzweil 3000 - $   TextHelp - $ iOS Accessibility - Free ClaroRead - $ Planning, Time Management, and Organization: iStudies Pro - Free/$ - Remember the Milk - Free - RescueTime - $ Strict Workflow  - Free - Wunderlist - Free - Text to Speech: AnyBook Personal Reader - $ Audible.com - $ IntoWords - $ NaturalReaders - Free/$ Project Gutenberg & Librivox - Free Raz-Kids - $ Read & Write for Google Chrome - Free/$ Read OutLoud - $ Snap&Read Universal - $ Voice Dream Reader - Free/$ Voice Typing - Free Speech to Text: Co-writer Universal ...