J A N U A R Y 2 0 1 8 I S S U E 2 5

Dyslexic AdvantageN E W S L E T T E R

IN THIS ISSUE:

AUTHOR ILLUSTRATOR PATRICIA POLACCODYSLEXIA IN HIGHER EDUCATIONTAX CHANGES TO KNOW IN 2018WHY FORGETFULNESS CAN BE A SIGNOF HIGH INTELLIGENCE

TEACHING NONSENSE WORDSDYSCALCULIA AND NUMBER SENSEFAVORITE BOOKS FOR DYSLEXIC KIDSART SHAREDYSLEXIA IN THE NEWS

HOCKEY SUPERSTARSBRENT SOPEL STANLEY CUP

Dear Friends, We hope your new year is off to a smooth start. We've been longoverdue in covering some of the amazing athletes who are members of thedyslexic tribe. This issue also covers nonsense words, the new tax laws, and someof the incredible art from young people in this community. Congratulations! Don't forget to submit your creative writing in for the Karina Eide Young WritersAwards 2018. Applications close JAN 21st. Also, thanks to our Premium subscribers and generous donors, we'll be offeringEIGHTEEN College Scholarships in 2018! No minimum GPA is required. Pleasesubmit by MARCH 1st. Thanks to Summit Centers, Parent Footprint, Sonday System / Winsor Learning,Kildonan School, and Churchill School in St. Louis for sponsoring this newsletter.These are amazing strengths-based schools and groups and we are proud to havetheir support. To Gift a Premium Subscription for AllYour Teachers at a school, click HERE. InstitutionalSubscriptions are for Colleges, Literacy, &Tutor Groups. Institutional Subscriberswill also receive PRINT copies of the TechGuide and Schools Issue.

Thank you to volunteers Trish Seres, Leah Pratt, Michelle Williams, and Shelley Wear .Thanks also for the beautiful design work by Lady Grace Belarmino and administrativesupport by Sarah Macapobre. Thanks also to volunteer Board members Tom West, TanyaWojtowych, Joan Bisagno, and Brock Eide.

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Also Recommend a Dyslexia TutorHERE. Is Your College Dyslexia-Friendly?Or Not? Review it HERE.

Refresh your browser ifyou have any trouble withseeing videos. It usuallymeans that you have aslow internet connection.Any questions, contact usHERE. Thanks!!

If you're reading a printcopy of this issue, you canfind the digital copy withall the interactive featureshere: https://joom.ag/wLoL

DOWNLOAD THISNEWSLETTER HERE.

Fernette Eide MD, Editor

To learn more about how toactivate read aloud for ournewsletters, go HERE. The pdfcan be read aloud on an iPhonewith these instructions.

529 PLANS $10,000PRIVATE K-12 TAX-FREE

CONTENTSDYSLEXIC ADVANTAGE ISSUE 25 JANUARY 2018 NEWSLETTER

DYSLEXIADYSLEXIA

andand HOCKEY HOCKEY 4PERCEPTIONS OF DYSLEXIA IN HIGHER

EDUCATION: ARCHEOLOGY

10 FORGETTING ASAN IMPORTANT

PART OFINTELLIGENCE

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529 PLANS $10,000PRIVATE K-12 TAX-FREE

16 UNDERSTANDINGNONSENSEWORDS

18 ARTSHARE

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DYSCALCULIA ANDDYSCALCULIA ANDMATH IN AN INSTANTMATH IN AN INSTANTSPOTLIGHT ONSPOTLIGHT ON

NUMBER SENSENUMBER SENSE

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FROM THE COMMUNITYBOOKS RECOMMENDED

BY YOU

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36 DYSLEXIADYSLEXIANEWSNEWS

4

INSPIRATION

"I know where you are going before you do…. I have thisfine-tuned super focus—that also came from the dyslexia.I wouldn’t be where I am today without it.”

- Brent Sopel, NHL, Stanley Cup Winner

Hockey is a sport that can showcase dyslexic advantages. Brent Sopel knowsthat. His strength in the game is as a shot-blocker. He knows where people aregoing to be (mind reading) before they're there. As a result, he can be severalsteps ahead. We've seen this super power in other areas - such as in professionalsoccer, rugby, or football players, but also outside of sports in careers such asspecial ops or military intelligence or internet security or even corporatenegotiation. By pure physical skills alone, Sopel was not the strongest or fastest skater, but hewas a super hard worker and realized what he could do well. Brent started playing hockey at age two, but it really became important when hewas asked to read in school. He remembered hiding under his desk and lookingaway so he wouldn't be called on. "Reading to me, was just painful. I hated every second of it. Iwould just shut down. It just made no sense..." Like so many, Brent has vivid memories of feeling ashamed trying to read aloudin class. A culminating event happened when he was in the ninth grade and justmade up what the words said because he couldn't read them. Today, he reflectson his experiences and is determined to do what he can to help others -especially as his daughter shares his dyslexia.

DYSLEXIA AND

HOCKEY

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“It really affects your approach to life when you live in fear. Youare always guarded, so you find ways to get around certain things.Of course, I was hiding it. To this day very few people know aboutmy struggle. I didn’t know how to handle it. I have been guardingand blocking my whole life. Deflect and bridge, dodge and block.” Brent went on to graduate from high school and made the NHL one year later. Hewouldn't hear the word "dyslexia" until he was 33 years old and his daughter'sdyslexia was identified. Now he's created the Brent Sopel Foundation which holdsfundraisers where kids can both play alongside Stanley Cup winners and raisemoney for dyslexia groups and therapist training. Although he's now retired frompro hockey, he has found his ability to "see the big picture" and "anticipate playsbefore they unfold on ice" helps his work as a sports commentator.

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INSPIRATION

If you know hockey, you know GordieHowe. Nicknamed, "Mr. Hockey", NHLlegends Gretzky, Lemieux, and Orr allsay that Gordie Howe was the greatesthockey player who ever lived. From USA Today: "He played 26 seasonsin the NHL, and six more in the now-defunct World Hockey Association. Hewas a dominant scorer, second only toWayne Gretzky in goals, and amonstrous physical force. 'We all had so much respect for whatGordie did and what he accomplished,'Gretzky said. 'It's not a bad thing to benamed in the top 100 behind GordieHowe."

Gordie played his first game at 19 and had his first 100-point season after theage of 40. In fact, he was a top-five score for 20 straight seasons - a feat that hasnot been surpassed by any player. He scored his last NHL goal at the age of 52. Mr. Hockey was also dyslexic. He never read a book. Recalling his life, Gordie'sson Murray said: "Because he didn't read, he listened. He was a really amazinglistener. If you ever told him anything, he would remember it because he'd bepaying attention to you. He always said it was way more important to listen thanto talk. He said you learn a lot more that way." Another NHL great, Stanley Cup Coach Jacques Demers only confessed that hewas unable to read or write after he retired as a head coach for 15 years. Only afew people knew about his difficulties and once he became a head coach, gettingsecretaries and media relations to do his correspondence were essential. In fact,his wife Debbie only learned of his secret after pestering him over unwrittenchecks. He felt liberated. Said Jacques, "I've been carrying this all my life. Isucceeded, and I'm telling people, "You're capable of doing something in yourlife."

http://www.winsorlearning.com

CONGRATS AUTHOR-

ILLUSTRATOR

PATRICIAPOLACCO!

Patricia's The JunkyardWonders was recently chosenfor the A Mighty Girl booklist! Based on a event in Patricia'schildhood, young Trisha isdismayed to find that she'sgoing to be in a special class ather new school. Fortunately,she also discovers her teacheris wonderful and herclassmates each have their owntalent and ability. Wow - look at the reviews ofthis book on Amazon! Congratulations Patricia! Patricia only learned that shewas dyslexic at the age of 14.Her insightful teacher alsohelped her to read. She wouldgo to college and even get aPhD in Art History! Now she's abest selling children's bookauthor and illustrator who'spublished over 60 books!

8

INSPIRATION

DONATE TO SUPPORT DYSLEXIC STUDENTSIN HIGHER EDUCATION

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HOW A DYSLEXIC INVENTOR SAVED ANENDANGERED SPECIESCHAT WITH DYSLEXIC KAHOOT CEOWHAT TEST SCORES MEANINFORMAL ASSESSMENTS OF READINGTIPS FROM A MATH COACHYOUNG ADULTS DYSPRAXIA & INDEPENDENCE ...and MORE!

FORGETTING AS AN IMPORTANT PART OF INTELLIGENCE

It's no joke! This viral video shared on our Facebook Feed is making the roundson social media, but the science may be relevant to dyslexia. From the research report: "The predominant focus in the neurobiological study of memory has been onremembering (persistence). However, recent studies have considered theneurobiology of forgetting (transience)...We propose that it is the interactionbetween persistence and transience that allows for intelligent decision-makingin dynamic, noisy environments. Specifically, we argue that transience (1)enhances flexibility, by reducing the influence of outdated information onmemory-guided decision-making, and (2) prevents overfitting to specific pastevents, thereby promoting generalization. According to this view, the goal ofmemory is not the transmission of information through time, per se. Rather, thegoal of memory is to optimize decision-making. As such, transience is asimportant as persistence in mnemonic systems." (Neuron 94:6, 2017)." We'll take a little deeper look in our upcoming Premium issue. : )

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RESEARCH

http://kildonan.org

$10,000 PRIVATEK-12 TAX-FREE

2018 will be a big year for taxchanges. For families with students inprivate school or significant tutoringcosts, contact your advisor or CPA tosee what deductions you may beeligible for. From Investopedia: "529 plans have been expanded.In addition to using them to fundcollege expenses, parents maynow use $10,000 per year from529 accounts tax free to pay forK-12 education tuition andrelated educational materialsand tutoring."

According to My Money Blog, primary and secondary school expenses includeexpenses in public, private, or religious schools. "Put simply, you can now pay forup to $10K a year of private K-12 school through a 529 plan...Around 30 statesoffer an in-state tax benefit on 529 plans. If you are paying for a private schoolanyway, you may be able to grab the tax benefit, and then immediately withdraw(starting in 2018) to pay for K-12 tuition. Some states like Montana andWisconsin specifically disallow this in-and-out practice, but most do not(although they could start.) Of course when it comes to taxes, contact a qualified professional who hasstudied the new changes in the law and other regulations in your state. My understanding is use of 529's for homeschooling costs was removed in thefinal stages of the bill, because of some questions about its inclusion, but again,best to check with a professional.

Previously, tuition for a dyslexia schoolcould be deducted from taxes according toIRS Publication 502, but only if all medicaldeductions are greater that 10% ofadjusted gross income. The expansion of529 plans to K-12 will help some families.

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TAXES

529 PLANS

http://www.churchillstl.org/

UNDERSTANDING NONSENSE WORDS

What's the point? Some parents andteachers find the use of nonsensewords in reading instruction to bemind boggling, but there are goodreasons that nonsense words can bea helpful part of students' readingprogram.

DEFINITION Nonsense words are words that have no meaning. They are frequently used in dyslexia screening tests and reading assessments.

The use of nonsense words have long been helpful in identifying strugglingreaders. When used correctly, it can help identify how well (or not well) a personcan identify the different phonemes or sound components that make up words.The reason phonemic awareness is important for reading is that if real words areused, a person can guess what a word means based on its context in a sentenceor story or by the word shape or memorization having learned the spelling of theword in the past. Why should it matter HOW a person learns to read a word? It matters because the better a child or adult can read a new word on thebasis of phonemic awareness, the more likely they will be able to read newwords they encounter with challenging texts like science or historytextbooks or challenging works in literature. Stealth dyslexics may be ableto get through the early parts of education through making educatedguesses or asking classmates, but over time, their reading vocabulary andfluency may fall further behind to the point that they find themselvesexcluded from higher education or certain careers.

18

READING

WHAT'S THE BEST USE FOR NONSENSE WORDS IN READING INSTRUCTION? From our point of view, the best use of nonsense words in reading instruction iswhen they are use for assessment purposes. A common nonsense word screeneris Scholastic's Nonsense Word Test seen on the opposite page. Brief instructionsfor administering the test can be found HERE. Mistakes that a student makes on these nonsense words can clue a teacher, tutor,or parent in on which phonemes need more work. For older students who arealready decoding, some word part study can help them decode polysyllabicwords. Programs that use Orton-Gillingham language-based multisensory structuredsequential instruction (like Barton, Lindamood Bell LIPS, Wilson) generally usenonsense words in their placements and assessments. CAN THE USE OF NONSENSE WORDS BE HARMFUL FOR STRUGGLING OR EARLYREADERS? Much of the controversy about teaching with nonsense words arises when earlyreaders spend more time 'practicing' reading or writing nonsense words thanlearning real ones. The result can be terrible - greater confusion about whichwords are real and which are not, and trouble unlearning misspellings based onthis nonsense word practice. The fact that many schools have implemented DIBELS or other nonsense word tests in their programs to assessschool - teacher performance can pressure teachersinto giving students more 'practice' with nonsensewords, the result being less quality time readingand listening to books or doing more specificreading intervention. The most common mistake people make withnonsense words is using them for readinginstruction instead of assessment.

19

Recently, schools inthe UK have begunexperiencingbacklash fromnewly institutedtestsof young childrenusing nonsensewords (read moreHERE in the articlethat follows).

20

READING

http://summitcenter.us

THE WRONG WAY TO USE NONSENSE WORDS

"Nonsense words should not be used for decoding instruction. Period...Notever." - Russ Walsh, teacher, literacy specialist, curriculum supervisor, and college instructor "What’s out of place in reading education?... teaching kids to read nonsensewords. Don’t do it." - Tim Shanahan, Director of the University of Illinois at Chicago forLiteracy NONSENSE WORDS SHOULD BE FOR ASSESSMENT, NOT INSTRUCTION.FOR INSTRUCTION, TEACH REAL WORDS AND TEXTS. From Russ on Reading: "Because learning to read is an act of communication and communication onlyhappens with real words. In order to develop skilled decoding abilities, childrenneed to be exposed to lots of real words. Real words have a certain set of finitespelling patterns. Yes, in English this is more complex than in most languagesand this is a source of much difficulty, but still the patterns are there. The humanbrain is a pattern identifying machine. And young minds are particularly adept atintuiting patterns. The detecting of patterns in writing is mediated by the child'soral language. A young developing reader learns that the word "man" begins withthe sound "mmm" and then learns that that sound can be represented by theletter "m." This can only happen through exposure to real words that are in thechild's oral vocabulary. As we expose children to real words, they get more information to store in thepattern detecting parts of their brain. We can expose the children to words inisolation, in real reading contexts, in word families, or as onsets and rimes (sp+ot), but no matter how we are presenting words to children, we must bepresenting real words, so that children can discern the patterns. Of, course wecan also teach those patterns explicitly through word families and spellinginstruction." N.B.:"The onset is the initial consonant or consonant cluster of the word, and therime is the vowel and consonants that follow it. For example, in the word bat,b- isthe onset, and -at is the rime.” - Reading First

22

READING

On the Sea by Julianne, 5.San Antonio TX. First Baptist Academy.Julianne painted this picture with watercolors and used colored pencils for otherdetail. She completed this at school and Iwas actually presented with it by herteacher. She is a treasure to us!

Sunflowers by Griffen, 7.Loves Park, IL. Keith Country Day.We chose to celebrate his manytalents!

Racehorse in the Rain by Brooke, 9.San Antonio, TX. Hardy Oak.Watercolor masterpiece by Brooke!

23

ARTSHARE

Under the Sea by Ashford, 6.Brisbane, Queensland. St. Columbas

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The Bird by Kayla, 9.Prince Albert, Canada. St. AnneThis picture reminded me of bird watching sothat is why I wanted to draw it.

Blue Crab by Adelyn, 11.Alexandria, VA. Lab School.

Lion, by Izzy, 11.Gurney Slade, Somerset.Homeschool. This lion was painted for herDad's birthday & inspired by a visit to thelions at Longleat Safari Park. She found some sticks in the garden to make aframe & tied it up with some raffia.

ARTSHARE

The Frozen Leopard Seal by Ethan, 10.Prince Albert, Canada. St. Anne.I think the leopard seal is kind of neat andit’s cool that it has blubber so it isn’t cold.

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Future of Peace by Isabel, 12.Valley Center, Kansas.This started as a school assignment andended up getting Honorable Mention in the2017 Lion’s Club poster contest. We madethe artwork into printed notecards andposters per request of friends and family.

Field of Tulips by Hunter, 13.Leander, TX. Leander Middle School.A gift for my mom for her 40th birthday. Apainting of a few combined pictures from herbirthday trip to Skagit Valley Tulip Fest inWashington, Seattle.

Winter's Blanket by Patrick, 14.Palmyra, VA. Homeschool.Taken the night of the Leonids Meteorshowers- Dec. 16.

Different Perspective by Nicole, 17.Moodus, CT.I took this photo while on vacation inVermont. This was hanging in a windowand I loved the way the light was goingthrough it. It shows how everything can beseen from a different perspective.

http://winsorlearning.com

If you are curious about your child oryour own level of number sense, checkout the online Flash test from JohnsHopkins University researchers: HERE (hosted on the NYTimes site) You'll see brief flashes of yellow andblue dots and in the brief time allowedasked to choose whether you thoughtthere were more yellow or blue dots (seebelow as an example). * Also performingwell on this task does NOT rule outdyscalculia. This is only one aspect ofmath ability.

DYSCALCULIA AND MATH IN AN INSTANTSPOTLIGHT ON NUMBER SENSE

For people with dyscalculia, 'number sense' or an apparently intuitive sense ofnumber or number quantity may seem magical. How do people just 'know' therelative sizes of numbers? It doesn't seem fair. Whether you have it or you don'tseems to be a pretty good predictor of how well you will fare in math over thecourse of your lifetime. The general trend for everyone is to have number sense improve gradually to apeak of 30 years, but educational researchers are now trying to change thenumber sense foundation that many dyscalculics seem to have been born with inorder to help them reach higher levels of math achievement.

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MATH

“Just as our understanding of phonemic awareness hasrevolutionized the teaching of beginning reading, theinfluence of number sense on early math development andmore complex mathematical thinking carries implicationsfor instruction.” - Gersten & Chard, 2001

From Stanford mathematician Keith Devlin:

"How do you teach number sense? A large body of research has shown that number sense developsgradually, over time, as a result of exploration of numbers, visualizingnumbers in a variety of contexts, and relating to numbers in differentways." Examples from Martha Burns: - Model different methods of computing- Ask students to calculate mentally- Use math talk to crystallize knowledge and identify different strategies for computing- Make day-to-day estimations- Scaffold and support mathematical reasoning- Present problems that have more than one answer. Fortunately there are also free software programs and games that youcan play with dice that can improve number sense and numberflexibility.

If you are number sense impaired, the good news is that it can be taught! If thisfoundational ability is improved, then all the math problem solving that followswill be easier and more intuitive.

28

MATH

From researchers Anna Wilson andStanislaus Dehaene comes the FREEdownloadable software game TheNumber Race which is available forMac, Windows, and any otheroperating system, including LinuxHERE. Read more about the science of thisprogram here. The program isdesigned for children 5-8 years withdyscalculia and available in Englishand Spanish. For older children, the same researchgroup launched the FREE app TheNumber Catcher for iOS which includepractice with addition and subtraction.This app is available in English andFrench.

THE NUMBER RACE

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NATIVE NUMBERS Free. iOS only.

Another FREE numbersense app designed byMIT is Native Numbers.

This app is also adaptive so it adjusts to the levelof the student. From a teacher review: "My students found this app to be very engaging,as a teacher I found this app invaluable in theinformation it shared about my students'understanding of number sense. "

30

MATH

For low tech practice, simple dice gamescan be played to improve number sense,mental math, and flexibility withcomputations. Activites can vary from the simplest suchas Roll, Write, Spelling Tally, Show, to Findthe 10 (or 11 or any other number)activities.

For more about buildingnumber sense throughdice activities: Math Coach Corner Zeno Math Dice Games

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RECOMMENDED BY YOU!What are the best books to read if you're dyslexic? Share your favorites HERE.This list is for all levels and all ages and we'll continue to share them in ournewsletters.

MY UNCLE THE GARDEN GNOMEFrom: A child 6-12 years old"They are interesting. It's about magic andmonsters." "Dad is Senior Bogeyman for the entire eastcoast and Mum is First Assistant tooth Fairy.Only Uncle Gus feels a professional failure -he's just a garden gnome. But when the MostPowerful Witch in the World puts a bad-luckspell on tom, it's Uncle Gus - and tom's friendMog (who's a . well, no one is quite sure whatMog is, but he's large and hairy) - who putthings right"

FANTASTIC MR. FOXFrom: A parent of a child who isdyslexic. "They are funny andawesome!" Someone's been stealing from the threemeanest farmers around, and they knowthe identity of the thief—it's FantasticMr. Fox!

Clicking on the title above will bring you to the first book in the series at Amazon. If youpurchase from the link, a small donation will be given to Dyslexic Advantage. Thesebooks are also available and regular book stores and the public library.

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FROM THE COMMUNITY

https://parentfootprint.com/podcast/

BOOKS RECOMMENDED BY YOU! (continued)

Clarice BeanRead by mom. "Irrepressible, sassy, quirky (andsometimes frenetic), the endearing,utterly entertaining Clarice Bean is thestar of three full-length adventuresfeaturing Lauren Child's wacky wit andeccentric visual energy."

Hey Jack! (series) "One of a series full ofdown-to-earth, real-life, fun and funnystories that childrencan enjoy and relate to.With word art orillustrations on everysecond page, and nohuge blocks of text orintimidating words,they're perfect fornewly independentreaders."

Billie B. Brown (series)Brave, brilliant and bold Billie B. Brown hasstarted ballet classes. She wants to be afamous ballerina, but can she?

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"I have two big regrets in college...number one: notasking for extra time sooner...number two: lettinglabels dictate how I perceived myself..." - Allison Schwartz, Grameen Primacare