My heart sinks when I see how polarizing topics in education have become, as well as the tendency for people to have “all or nothing” thinking. I’ve seen an increasing amount of activities pitted against each other as if doing one means we can’t ALSO do the other: 👉Standardized testing vs. real-world observations/stakeholder interviews. 👉Year-round…
Category: Dyslexia
EP 159: Comorbidities and Differential Diagnosis (ADHD, DLD, Dyslexia)
When kids need support with language, reading/writing, and executive functioning, they often have multiple diagnoses. This makes both treatment planning, diagnosis, and determining eligibility for educational programming complicated; especially when it comes to legal guidelines as well as state and local policies. That’s why in episode 159 of De Facto Leaders, I’m sharing a Q…
EP 155: Becoming a literacy leader and advocating for the right to read (with Brianna Guild)
Related service providers are often considered subject matter experts. Our role is to support other members of multidisciplinary teams like teachers, parents and administrators. But many clinicians I’ve talked to started their careers feeling like a “jack of all trades, master of none”. Some feel that graduate school was all theory and no practice. Others…
EP 149: Audiobooks, homework research, and the “read for 20 minutes” rule
If the schools are devoting time and money to improving reading instruction, how should the rest of the day look for kids as it pertains to literacy? Should parents be working with kids at home? If so, how much? What about reading? Can we use apps to help build language skills? How about audiobooks? A…
EP 141: No, kids do not learn to read and write naturally (with Melanie Brethour)
Skeptics of the Science of Reading claim that the current push for evidence-based reading instruction is just another pendulum swing. Yet if you look at the research, we haven’t so much been “swinging” as much as we’ve been building, evolving, and expanding on what we know about how we learn to read. Even though the…
EP 71: DLD, CAPD, dyslexia, and hyperlexia and supporting literacy
Therapists and educators supporting K-12 literacy have a lot of diagnoses and labels to navigate, and some of them are controversial. In some debates, the diagnosis itself is in question; Central Auditory Processing Disorder being one example. With hyperlexia, some people suggest that there is a certain way hyperlexic people need to learn to read;…
EP 70: How to make syntax instruction useful for the real world
Schools often get criticized for not teaching enough “real world” skills to kids, and there’s a lot of truth to that statement. Most of the therapists I work with are worried that what they do in therapy isn’t functional enough to transfer to day-to-day skills; and this is a legitimate concern. A lot of the…
EP 043: Supporting reading comprehension: What parents and professionals need to know
Reading comprehension is one of the most important skills for academic success. It’s a skill that can help us to continue to learn new information throughout our lives. On the other hand, kids who struggle to understand what they read are at a disadvantage when it comes to getting in school and beyond. When I…
EP 029: Literacy skills and technology: The pros and cons
In episode 29 of the Are they 18 yet?™ podcast, I did part 3 of a 3-part series on literacy (you can find parts 1 and 2 in episode 27 and episode 28.) Since the influx of technology, a lot of us are left wondering how this will impact our children’s learning; especially their reading and writing…
EP 019: How to support your dyslexic child (with Nicole Holcomb)
In this episode, I had the opportunity to talk with Nicole Holcomb from Dyslexia Mom Life. Nicole is a lawyer, and educator (she’s worked as a teacher, school counselor, and school administrator); but most importantly, she’s a mom of a dyslexic daughter and the host of the Dyslexia Mom Life podcast where she provides information and support for…