New Book: Learning to Slow Down and Pay Attention

Learning to Slow Down and Pay Attention
A book for Kids about ADHD
by Kathleen Nadeau and Ellen Dixon

This short paperback book was created to be read by parents to children ages 6 through 11 who have AD/HD, need to understand it better, and need age-appropriate tips for:

* Remembering stuff
* Getting ready in the morning
* Staying focused
* Asking for help

and much more.

This newly revised third edition also has practical tips for parents with a list of excellent resources.

It is published by Magination Press, through The American Psychological Association. You can read part of the book online by going to:
www.apa.org/pubs/magination/441A149.aspx

MUST READ book for parents!

If you are looking for a book on dyslexia - look no further!

Overcoming Dyslexia by Sally Shaywitz is an excellent resource to find out more about the research behind dyslexia, how to get a diagnosis, the best instruction, and how to help as a parent. Sally Shaywitz is a neuroscientist from Yale University who has been studying dyslexia for years. This book is outstanding!

Warning Signs of Dyslexia

If you notice that your child is having a difficult time with learning to read, spell, write, and/or master math skills, dyslexia might be the cause. There are different types of learning disabilities so it is important to know the warning signs of dyslexia. Keep in mind, individuals with dyslexia can learn and are often very bright. They just require a specialized way of learning.

Warning Signs

There are many warning signs of dyslexia and many of us have one or two of them. This does not mean that everyone has dyslexia. Individuals with dyslexia have several of these characteristics that do not go away over time and can interfere with their learning.

Pre-School/Kindergarten:

• Delayed speech (not speaking any words by first birthday, sometimes not even until after two or three)
• Mixing up sounds in words (aminal for animal)
• Early stuttering
• Chronic ear infections
• Confusion over left vs. right, over vs. under, before vs. after, and other directionality words
• Difficulty mastering tying shoes
• Late establishing a dominant hand
• Difficulty learning to rhyme - they can tell you a rhyming word for cat (after age four and a half)
• Difficulty learning the names of the letters or sounds in the alphabet
• Trouble with articulating R's and L's as well as M's and N's

Reading & Spelling

• Can read a word on one page, can't on the next page
• Knows phonics but still can't sound out word
• Slow and inaccurate reading of single words in isolation (no story line or pictures to provide clues)
• Slow and choppy when reading aloud
• Directionality confusion: b-d, b-p, n-u, m-w
• Substitutes similar-looking words, even if it changes the meaning of the sentence (house for horse, sunrise for surprise)
• When reading a story, substitutes a word that means the same thing but doesn't look similar (trip for journey, fast for speed)
• Misreads, omits, or even adds on small functional words (an, a, from, the to, were)
• Leaves off suffixes (need for needed, late for lately)

A big warning sign is related to Spelling!

• Their spelling is often far worse than their reading!
• They have difficulty with vowel sounds and often leave them out
• With a lot of effort, they can memorize the Monday spelling list in order to pass the test on Friday - but they can't remember the same words hours later when writing them in a their own work.
• Misspells high frequency sight words (what, where, were, does, because)

Other Common Warning Signs:

• Difficulty memorizing non-meaningful facts (multiplication tables, the alphabet, days of the week, months of the year)
• Telling time on a clock with hands (due to directionality difficulties)
• Extremely messy bedrooms, backpacks, desks, lockers, purses - People with dyslexia have hard time organizing their belongings.
• Math difficulties (memorizing addition, subtraction, multiplication tables, remembering a sequence of steps in long division, reading word problems, staring a math problem on the wrong side, showing their work)
• Quality of their written work does not match their ability to tell you what they know.
• Poor, nearly illegible handwriting

Summary:

If your child has several of these warning signs, he or she may need to be evaluated for dyslexia.

Tax Benefits for Families with LD Children

Now is a perfect time to read more about possible tax benefits that your family might qualify for by clicking here

Nobel Prize Winner has Dyslexia

Excerpt of an article by Val Willingham, CNN Medical Producer

published December 7, 2009
on www.CNN.com

Molecular biologist Carol Greider, 48, is the youngest of the three researchers awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine in October.

Born into a family of scientists -- her mother was a biologist; her father was a physicist -- Greider knew her passion was in the lab. Despite the reading, spelling, and writing frustrations caused by her dyslexia, she excelled in science.

Greider, 48, along with her mentor Dr. Elizabeth Blackburn from the University of California, San Francisco, and Harvard scientist Dr. Jack Szostak, were given the Novel Prize for their work with telomeres, which are the bits of repeating DNA at the end of our chromosomes. Telomeres protect the chromosomes, much like the plastic tips on shoelaces keep lace from fraying.

The research team was also recognized for its discovery of telomerase, which is the enzyme that causes the chromosome ends to stay intact when they divide. Understanding telomerase is important when looking for clues about aging and cures for degenerative diseases and cancer.

To read the entire article, go to:
www.dys-add.com/NobelPrizeMedicine.pdf

Dyslexia and IQ not related

Dyslexia and IQ not related article from Psychology & Sociology:

http://esciencenews.com/articles/2009/12/17/dyslexia.defined.new.yale.study.uncouples.reading.and.iq.over.time?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+eScienceNews%2Fpopular+%28e!+Science+News+-+Popular%29

Reading Practice Can Strengthen Brain "Highways"

The journal Neuron recently published this article about intensive reading programs.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=121253104