"I certainly still lie awake some nights worrying that I am in denial, that Simon has some gross deficiency not yet identified, and I am did him great a disservice. I worry constantly that I should limit his reading and solitary time and push him into sports and classes and social activities. But just when I am about to write that check for ice hockey classes I touch base with my instinctive sense of my son, this imaginative, overly verbose happy creature, and decide not to risk ironing out his uniqueness.  Until we can figure out more creative ways to educate and encourage introspective boys who are neither high achievers nor troublemakers—boys “in the middle,” like Simon–I will keep holding my ground, my breath and my tongue, and shoo away the well-intentioned label makers who cross our path."

"Biological determinism is one of psychology’s ugliest evasions, removing the poetic human from any issue."

"As we as a society become desperate financially, and more regulated and conformist, our ideals of competence become more misleading and cruel, making people feel like losers. There might be more to our distractions than we realized we knew. We might need to be irresponsible. But to follow a distraction requires independence and disobedience; there will be anxiety in not completing something, in looking away, or in not looking where others prefer you to. This may be why most art is either collaborative — the cinema, pop, theater, opera — or is made by individual artists supporting one another in various forms of loose arrangement, where people might find the solidarity and backing they need."

"This film reveals that dyslexia is a neurological issue, not a character flaw. It explains that the struggle with the written word is not an indication of one’s ability to think, to create, or to solve problems – all valuable skills in the world outside the classroom. This film also reveals that some of our greatest leaders in Business, Law, Politics and Medicine are dyslexics who succeeded in spite of their learning challenges.

The film also shares some of the more practical - and occasionally humorous - tips on how to deal with dyslexia on a daily basis. Hopefully, this film will help dyslexics and their families realize that the challenges of early education will be behind them one day, and that the future can -and should - be brighter for dyslexics."

"Given that dyslexia is universally referred to as a “learning disability,” the latter experiment is especially remarkable: in some situations, it turns out, those with dyslexia are actually the superior learners…

Whatever special abilities dyslexia may bestow, difficulty with reading still imposes a handicap. Glib talk about appreciating dyslexia as a “gift” is unhelpful at best and patronizing at worst. But identifying the distinctive aptitudes of those with dyslexia will permit us to understand this condition more completely, and perhaps orient their education in a direction that not only remediates weaknesses, but builds on strengths."

[Letters in response: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/13/opinion/the-reality-of-dyslexia-millions-struggle.html ]

"So, if you’re an app developer and you fancy looking at this more, maybe we should have a chat? Better yet, if you actually know something about dyslexia and can put my armchair/googled understanding straight that would also be much appreciated.

In the meantime, there are things that can be done to test this further and craft something at home. In an hour or so over the weekend I’d managed to create Josh another book with a similar layout approach using Proboscis’ self-publishing system bookleteer.com, some text from Project Gutenberg, a font made from my own handwriting (made using Fontifier a few years ago) and some help from a certain Mr Kipling.

We can view the online version with an iPad or on a laptop, and after some quick folding I’ll be giving him the paper copy later today (PDF link – A3 format).

If he thinks there’s any discernible difference I think it’ll be worth pursuing further…"

"This got me to thinking – can I do something similar on the Kindle? A brief google indicated it was impossible to change fonts or underline things throughout without hacking the device -which I could do, but it would have all the usual warrantee problems, and I risked ‘bricking’ Mark’s Kindle which would certainly be an ‘Epic Fail’ – This is a shame. With very little extra R&D; Amazon (and the other ebook reader manufacturers) could make these devices increasingly more useful for folks with Dyslexia.

So I resorted to a lower tech solution. I had a bunch of old OHP (remember them?) printable slides in my drawer, so with rather of a lot of trial and error, managed to make an overlay for the Kindle and attach it with a bit of accurately placed sellotape. Beforehand Mark set it up with his favourite font and line spacing. It’s not a long term fix, more a prototype to see if the idea works – click on the first pic to see the results up close."

“Americans all think this way, they all think in disability…Native Americans have no term for disability, there is only a term for ability. It’s such an odd culture to be in where we spend so much time & resources talking about disability. It’s a negative focus. How about if we look at this differently: what if dyslexia is an advanced form of evolution?”"<br />
<br />
"Harford: “I’m not saying we can’t solve complicated problems in a complicated world. We clearly can. But the way we solve them is with humility. To abandon the God complex & actually use a problem solving technique that works. We have a problem solving technique that works. . . . trial and error.”"<br />
<br />
What’s the best way to educate kids? The search for the answer to this question only leads to more questions: Who are the kids? Where are they from? How old are they? What do they love to do? What is their home situation?…Human beings are complicated. There is no one mass answer to this question. There is only a mass of answers."

"font…especially designed for people w/ dyslexia. When they use this, they make less errors when they are reading. It makes reading easier for them. It takes less effort.<br />
<br />
The font Dyslexia is used by several schools, universities, speech therapists & remedial teachers. In an independent research of University of Twente has been proven that the font Dyslexia improves the reading results.<br />
<br />
Research:<br />
<br />
The study at University of Twente showed people w/ dyslexia made fewer reading errors when they use the dyslexia font instead of…standard font.<br />
<br />
The people w/ dyslexia made fewer errors, than normal readers, on EMT w/ the font “Dyslexia”. This is an indication that reading with the font “Dyslexia” decreases<br />
the amount of reading errors.<br />
<br />
This study was performed with 21 people with dyslexia. The text was at university level. The research was done by using standard lists w/ words of the EMT list & Klepel list."<br />
<br />
[Video also here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLtYFcHx7ec ]

No awards for delivery, but there is some great content here. Brock and Fernette Eide are the bloggers behind Eide Neurolearning Blog [ http://eideneurolearningblog.blogspot.com/ ] and The Dyslexic Advantage [ http://dyslexicadvantage.com/ ]. Love their work.

And crows! Can't go wrong with crows!

"Yaacov Hecht born 1958 in Hadera…Israeli educator & worldwide pioneer of democratic education.<br />
<br />
As a dyslexic youth, Hecht encountered many challenges in the public education system which led him to develop his strengths through sports & youth leadership. During his university studies, & following several years of experience in youth movements & visit to Summerhill School, Hecht created core group which in 1987 founded the Democratic School of Hadera…first alternative school in the world named a “Democratic School”…served as its principal for the first ten years…<br />
<br />
Today the Institute for Democratic Education (IDE) also operates the Incubator for Entrepreneurship in Democratic Education, coordinates the regional program: “The City as a Democratic Learning System” in more than 20 residential areas; heads the Academic Department of Democratic Education at Hakibbutzim College in Tel Aviv, and supports the establishment of institutes for democratic education in several countries…"

"RFB&D is a national nonprofit with the largest digital textbook library of accessible educational materials."

"Mark Twain:<br />
<br />
"As I have said before, I never had any large respect for good spelling. That is my feeling yet. Before the spelling book came with its arbitrary forms, men unconsciously revealed shades of their characters, and also added enlightening shades of expression to what they wrote by their spelling, and so it is possible that the spelling book has been a doubtful benevolence to us."<br />
<br />
He leads up to this conclusion with a curious theory of orthographico-genetic determinism, illustrated from personal experience:<br />
<br />
"The ability to spell is a natural gift. The person not born with it can never become perfect in it. I was always able to spell correctly. My wife, and her sister, Mrs. Crane, were always bad spellers. Once when Clara was a little chap, her mother was away from home for a few days, and Clara wrote her a small letter every day. When her mother returned, she praised Clara's letters. Then she said, "But in one of them, Clara, you spelled a word wrong.""

"Quick Tips for Helping Visual Thinkers w/ Writing…<br />
<br />
2. Elaborate - Recognize that what you frequently need to do is help w/ elaboration… <br />
<br />
3. Audience - Remember your audience - what haven't you told them?… <br />
<br />
4. Mindmap, then Sequence. Because visual thinkers may be in their story, they aren't thinking about a conventional introduction, middle, & end. Instead they may write like a web, relating characters and events, but not forming a logical narrative.<br />
<br />
5. Visual Modes of Expression & Dialogue: Use visual modes of expression like film, drawing, & diagramming…<br />
<br />
6. Be Patient: Young visual thinkers are classic late bloomers. Yes, there are ways to help, but it's also a good idea to understand big picture view of their growth & development"

"As I sit on the board of Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic, I have been thinking about the different ways people learn. RFB&D gives students the tools to learn by listening. We call that a disability. I think it may soon be seen as an advantage.<br />
<br />
A group of Danish academics say we are passing through the other side of what they wonderfully call the Gutenberg Parenthesis, leaving the structured, serial, permanent, authored, controlled era of text & returning, perhaps, to what came before the press: a time when communication and content cross, when process dominates product, when knowledge is distributed by people passing it around, when we remix it along the way, when we are more oral & aural.<br />
<br />
That’s what makes me think that RFB&D’s clients may end up w/ a leg up. They understand better than the textually oriented among us how to learn through hearing. Rather than being seen as the people who need extra help, perhaps they will be in the position to give the rest of us help."

"Our premise is this: regardless of particular methods of instruction, the better educators and parents understand the challenges involved in learning to read the better they can help children through those challenges. Thus, the mission of the Children of the Code Project is to help educators, parents, and all who care for children develop a deeper first-person understanding of the challenges involved in learning to read."

"...One study of 65 subjects suggests that creativity prefers to take a slower, more meandering path than intelligence. 'The brain appears to be an efficient superhighway that gets you from Point A to Point B” when it comes to intelligence, Dr. (Rex) Jung explained. “But in the regions of the brain related to creativity, there appears to be lots of little side roads with interesting detours, and meandering little byways.'"

"Spelling is an integral part of the writing process. Confidence in spelling often has a profound effect on a writer's self-image. With Ghotit, you can write confidently, continuing to misspell as you always have, but with the confidence that Ghotit is there with you to review your writing and offer the right spelling text corrections.<br />
<br />
Ghotit intelligent, context spell checker is the original spell checker developed by dyslexics for dyslexics"

"Oliver Sacks, the famous neuroscientist and author, can’t recognize faces. Neither can Chuck Close, the great artist known for his enormous paintings of … that’s right, faces.

"Rote memory and auditory verbal memory are especially difficult for many children and adults with dyslexia, but tweaking subjects with humor or emotional content may suddenly turn an impossible-to-learn subject doable."

"The reason we found this interesting, is because not uncommonly we see very different conceptual thinking and memory styles among the students. A common pattern among our gifted dyslexic students who are strong spatial thinkers (high spatial reasoning, love to build, hands-on learners) is their preference for autobiographical / personal memory. They have vivid memories for personal experiences, but may need many repetitions for dry information that is master by rote repetition...

"many of these cognitive systems don't come on online until later in childhood, & sometimes not fully into early 20's. Some implications for educational programming are obvious—are some educational expectations developmentally appropriate? Are teachers sensitive to individual differences in neurodevelopment & can they modify educational expectations appropriately? ...developmental truth seems to be that brain processes important for math problem solving take time to develop:...

"A dozen years later, out of high school and having returned home from an adventure in Alaska, Andy realized what he needed to do: he was going to be an elementary school teacher. His childhood experience remains a vivid memory."

"So why I had found it easier to read from my iPhone? First, an ordinary page of text is split into about four pages. The spacing seems generous and because of this I don't get lost on the page. Second, the handset's brightness makes it easier to take in words. "Many dyslexics have problems with 'crowding', where they're distracted by the words surrounding the word they're trying to read," says John Stein, Professor of Neuroscience at Oxford University and chair of the Dyslexia Research Trust. "When reading text on a small phone, you're reducing the crowding effect.""

Chapter 8: Connecting Early Language and Literacy to Later Reading (Dis)Abilities: Evidence, Theory, and Practice

"In this era of information overload, the experience of being stressed, forgetful and overwhelmed means your mind is perfectly normal. Douglas Merrill, author of the new book Getting Organized in the Google Era, writes about his own struggle with dyslexia, and how that forced him to develop techniques for remembering information."

"Viewed across a broader range of activities and over their entire lifespan, most dyslexic individuals not only cease to appear disabled, but they actually appear remarkably capable—even specially advantaged. This dyslexic advantage is clearly apparent in studies showing that dyslexic individuals are represented in at least twice their incidence in the population in such complex fields as engineering, astrophysics, art, computer graphics, and entrepreneurship. It's also apparent in the fact that dyslexic individuals often rank among the most eminent and creative persons in their professions. Findings like these do more than cast doubt on the simplistic equation "dyslexia equals disability"—they completely destroy it.

"Classroom and Test Accommodations: In the classroom, more attention should be paid to print size and spacing in daily classroom (worksheets, handouts) and testing materials (as many as 1 in 5 students are dyslexic), and print size and spacing should be considered when purchasing books for students.

"Another question we posed was 'do you use mind maps for mathematics?' and this also produced a very marked difference in response between the dyslexic and non-dyslexic students. NONE (my caps) of the non-dyslexic students used mind maps and many could not comprehend how they might be used for mathematics and asked if this was possible, whereas seven of the dyslexic students drew mind maps for themselves and made comments such as 'they are an invaluable part of my learning process', or 'they are essential for revision'."... "some 24% of dyslexic university students had chosen design schools while on the other hand avoiding further education or training that would require extensive essay writing...sought to examine whether any differences could be seen between dyslexics and non-dyslexics drawing pictures to represent conceptual terms. The dyslexic group were quicker at drawing pictures, had higher rates of using divergent symbols to represent opposing concepts"

"...because you can’t actually write well, and you don’t do well on tests, the way you make up for things, and the way you get by and don’t get failed is you learn people skills. You learn how to suck up to your teacher. You learn how to verbalize in class, because you can’t write or read. And you learn ways around all the obstacles while the other kids just tend to go along with the conveyor belt. And the conveyor belt doesn’t work for us. You’ve got to find different ways to do things...."

"Contrary to popular belief, some very smart, accomplished people cannot read well. This unexpected difficulty in reading in relation to intelligence, education and professional status is called dyslexia, and researchers at Yale School of Medicine and University of California Davis, have presented new data that explain how otherwise bright and intelligent people struggle to read.

"What’s true is that I am Chilean, and I am also a lot of other things. And having arrived at this point, I must abandon Jarry and Bolivar and try to remember the writer who said that the homeland of a writer is his tongue."

"what could possibly be good about Comic Sans...irregular forms made it one of the easiest typefaces for dyslexics to read...also liked how it undermined the authority — and changed the meaning — of texts set in it."

"New research by US and Chinese scientists challenges our interpretation of how it is possible to be dyslexic in one language but not another. It shows that readers of Chinese use a different part of their brains to readers of English."

"report found 35% of entrepreneurs surveyed identified themselves as dyslexic...also dyslexics more likely than nondyslexics to delegate authority, excel in oral communication & problem solving, 2X as likely to own 2 or more businesses"

"More than 100 years after 'word blindness' was first discovered, thousands of children with great potential are still marginalised by an education system unable to cope with a common but silent disorder. Simon Garfield investigates the symptoms, treatmen

font to help dyslexics