“C” says /K/: Orton-Gillingham Reading Approach

Recently, I took a 30-hour intensive refresher training in Orton-Gillingham, a preferred method of instruction for people with dyslexia, given by the Institute of Multi-Sensory Education.    The OG multi-sensory approach has a few differences.  First instruction begins with the letter “C ” which says /k/, “O,” and “A”.   The original OG starts with letters …

Dyslexia: Should you tell them?

In the documentary called “Embracing Dyslexia,” a father asked the principal of his child’s school if he should tell his child that the child has dyslexia.  The principal says, “No!” Should you tell children with dyslexia, who are aware of their struggles that they have dyslexia or other language-based learning disabilities? Children know when they are …

7000 students drop out everyday!!

7000 Students drop out of high school every day in New England!! Is that possibly true?  I recently took a trip to NYC and on the ride back I passed a billboard with that statistic. I could not believe it, so I looked it up online. In 2012-13, 85% of Massachusetts students graduated from high …

More Graduating with Learning Disabilities

  The Advocacy Institute has authored a new report for the National Center for Learning Disabilities, Diplomas at Risk: A Critical Look at the Graduation Rate of Students with Learning Disabilities. Children with learning disabilities are now more likely to  graduate from high school which is great news. I  expected to see that Massaschusetts where I …

Conveying Ideas

Schools sometimes make parents believe that speech and language issues disappear by 4th or 5th grade when they no longer want to provide specialized speech and language services; however, that is not true. Language needs increase and change in complexity over time, so in fourth and fifth grade the increase in complex language demands are …