http://www.ldonline.org/ en-us LD OnLine Administrator hourly 1 http://backend.userland.com/rss http://www.ldonline.org/ldnews/Princeton_Group_Says_It%27s_Hard_to_Get_Children%27s_Dyslexia_Treated_or_Even_Recognized Thu, 01 Mar 2012 14:00:10 GMT The group of parents sitting in a board room here were part of a hard-luck fraternity even before they decided to start their new statewide advocacy group, Decoding Dyslexia. They had been meeting for years in local coffee shops to discuss how their children weren't reading anything by first grade, couldn't spell their names, couldn't remember sounds, couldn't match rhyming words, couldn't distinguish left from right, didn't have a dominant left or right hand, couldn't get their shoes on the correct feet let alone tie the laces — and they weren't getting support in their classrooms. And all along they were being told, there is no such thing as dyslexia. http://www.ldonline.org/ldnews/Princeton_Group_Says_It%27s_Hard_to_Get_Children%27s_Dyslexia_Treated_or_Even_Recognized http://www.ldonline.org/ldnews/%248.5_Million_NIH_Grant_May_Help_Decipher_Dyslexia Thu, 01 Mar 2012 14:00:00 GMT If you can read this sentence with ease, consider yourself fortunate: Millions of Americans with dyslexia cannot. In the hope of improving the lives of those struggling readers, a team of experts at Florida State University is working to better understand and diagnose dyslexia and other learning disabilities with a new, $8.5 million grant from the National Institutes of Health. http://www.ldonline.org/ldnews/%248.5_Million_NIH_Grant_May_Help_Decipher_Dyslexia http://www.ldonline.org/ldnews/Obama%27s_Budget_Leaves_Funding_Unclear_for_Disabled_College_Students Thu, 23 Feb 2012 14:00:30 GMT President Obama's budget proposal for fiscal year 2013 may signal a murky future for a fledgling program that helps students with intellectual disabilities go to college and succeed while enrolled. http://www.ldonline.org/ldnews/Obama%27s_Budget_Leaves_Funding_Unclear_for_Disabled_College_Students http://www.ldonline.org/ldnews/When_IEP_Is_a_Four-Letter_Word Thu, 23 Feb 2012 14:00:20 GMT A new study reveals a troubling fact: Parents aren't involved as they should be in planning classroom accommodations. Do schools do enough to loop families in when it's time for special-ed services? http://www.ldonline.org/ldnews/When_IEP_Is_a_Four-Letter_Word http://www.ldonline.org/ldnews/Kalamazoo_Author_Overcomes_Dyslexia_to_Release_Third_Book Thu, 23 Feb 2012 14:00:10 GMT In the small upper-floor room of Kalamazoo author Alice Beard's Northside neighborhood house, copies of her poems, manuscript drafts and other creative works sit stacked on shelves. Beard, who goes by the pen name Alice Renee, has been collecting these works for decades, but despite appearances, the writing didn't come easily to her at first. While growing up, Beard struggled with her schoolwork because of a learning disability and dyslexia, she said. http://www.ldonline.org/ldnews/Kalamazoo_Author_Overcomes_Dyslexia_to_Release_Third_Book http://www.ldonline.org/ldnews/Braille_Under_Siege_As_Blind_Turn_To_Smartphones Thu, 23 Feb 2012 14:00:00 GMT Like a lot of smartphone users, Rolando Terrazas, 19, uses his iPhone for email, text messages and finding a decent coffee shop. But Terrazas' phone also sometimes serves as his eyes: When he waves a bill under its camera, for instance, the phone tells him how much it's worth. Terrazas is blind, and having an app to tell bills apart can be a big help. Terrazas' daily life is full of useful technology like this, but it also has a downside: The more he uses technology, the less he uses Braille, the alphabet of raised dots that the blind read with their fingers. http://www.ldonline.org/ldnews/Braille_Under_Siege_As_Blind_Turn_To_Smartphones http://www.ldonline.org/ldnews/The_Dyslexic_Brain Thu, 16 Feb 2012 14:00:30 GMT For kids with dyslexia, learning to read can be tough going. The disorder afflicts an estimated 15% of Americans. Dyslexics typically have trouble associating letters with sounds and words. Many learn to work around the challenge, but there's an intriguing new twist: some who work with dyslexics believe that the disability may also confer certain advantages. Specifically, anecdotal evidence suggests that dyslexics have sharper peripheral and three dimensional vision. Join the Diane Rehm show for a talk about the special challenges and possible advantages for people with dyslexia. http://www.ldonline.org/ldnews/The_Dyslexic_Brain http://www.ldonline.org/ldnews/Special_Education_Gets_Fresh_Look_in_Minnesota_Schools Thu, 16 Feb 2012 14:00:15 GMT Nancy Cooley has spent 20 years helping struggling young readers build a foundation for academic success. Each day, Cooley works individually with students like Gavin Bass, a Rosemount first-grader, who need extra help mastering specific literacy skills using a program called "Reading Recovery." Interventions like these can help get a student back on course, possibly avoiding a learning-disability classification. Such one-on-one interventions are time-consuming and can be costly, but a growing number of school leaders across the Twin Cities are betting they will pay off academically and financially. http://www.ldonline.org/ldnews/Special_Education_Gets_Fresh_Look_in_Minnesota_Schools http://www.ldonline.org/ldnews/Sticker_Shock%3A_When_Behavior_Therapy_Falls_Apart Thu, 16 Feb 2012 14:00:00 GMT My daughter's sticker chart was designed to motivate and reward good behavior throughout the school day. Instead, it's become a complicated, inconsistent lesson for teachers and parents alike. http://www.ldonline.org/ldnews/Sticker_Shock%3A_When_Behavior_Therapy_Falls_Apart http://www.ldonline.org/ldnews/Opinion%3A_The_Upside_of_Dyslexia Thu, 09 Feb 2012 14:04:19 GMT The word "dyslexia" evokes painful struggles with reading, and indeed this learning disability causes much difficulty for the estimated 15 percent of Americans affected by it. In recent years, dyslexia research has taken a surprising turn: identifying the ways in which people with dyslexia have skills that are superior to those of typical readers. The latest findings on dyslexia are leading to a new way of looking at the condition: not just as an impediment, but as an advantage, especially in certain artistic and scientific fields. http://www.ldonline.org/ldnews/Opinion%3A_The_Upside_of_Dyslexia http://www.ldonline.org/ldnews/Student_with_Learning_Disability_Finds_Her_Niche Thu, 09 Feb 2012 14:03:50 GMT Most days, from the wee hours of the morning until late into the evening, you can find Lynika Strozier in a molecular genetics and cell biology lab at the University of Chicago, poring over a microscope, conducting experiments with cells. To look at Strozier now, you'd never know what she's been through. She will tell you that although the trial-and-error process is the cornerstone of science, it has also been the story of her life. http://www.ldonline.org/ldnews/Student_with_Learning_Disability_Finds_Her_Niche http://www.ldonline.org/ldnews/Can_Brain_Scans_of_Young_Children_Predict_Reading_Problems%3F Thu, 09 Feb 2012 14:03:02 GMT Brain scientists are studying whether they can predict which young children may struggle with reading, in order to provide early help. John Gabrieli at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is leading a study of five-year-olds in about twenty schools in the Boston area. http://www.ldonline.org/ldnews/Can_Brain_Scans_of_Young_Children_Predict_Reading_Problems%3F http://www.ldonline.org/ldnews/Schools_Must_Do_More_to_Involve_Parents%2C_Students_in_IEP_Process Thu, 02 Feb 2012 14:00:30 GMT Parents and students with disabilities aren't as involved in the process of mapping out their goals with schools as much as they should be, although federal law intends for parents and school staff to work together on these plans, a new study finds. http://www.ldonline.org/ldnews/Schools_Must_Do_More_to_Involve_Parents%2C_Students_in_IEP_Process http://www.ldonline.org/ldnews/Help_Your_ADHD_Child_Click_with_Cliques Thu, 02 Feb 2012 14:00:15 GMT Help your ADHD child connect with peers and develop a strong social circle with these four strategies for building lasting friendships. http://www.ldonline.org/ldnews/Help_Your_ADHD_Child_Click_with_Cliques http://www.ldonline.org/ldnews/Workshops_Help_Prepare_Students_with_Learning_Disabilities_for_College Thu, 02 Feb 2012 14:00:00 GMT Something changes when students with disabilities make the transition from high school to college. The burden of education shifts from school to student. That point was made clear for about 500 college-bound seniors with learning disabilities, as the Clark County School District's Student Support Services Division hosted three days of workshops at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, for students from every high school. http://www.ldonline.org/ldnews/Workshops_Help_Prepare_Students_with_Learning_Disabilities_for_College http://www.ldonline.org/ldnews/Brain_Scans_Spot_Early_Signs_of_Dyslexia Thu, 26 Jan 2012 14:00:45 GMT Instead of waiting for a child to experience reading delays, scientists now say they can identify the reading problem even before children start school, long before they become labeled as poor students and begin to lose confidence in themselves. http://www.ldonline.org/ldnews/Brain_Scans_Spot_Early_Signs_of_Dyslexia http://www.ldonline.org/ldnews/Special_Educators_Borrow_from_Brain_Studies Thu, 26 Jan 2012 14:00:30 GMT While some educators remain skeptical, brain research is slowly migrating from the lab into the classroom, both in predicting which students may have learning difficulties and intervening to help students diagnosed with disabilities. http://www.ldonline.org/ldnews/Special_Educators_Borrow_from_Brain_Studies http://www.ldonline.org/ldnews/Apps_for_Children_with_Dyslexia Thu, 26 Jan 2012 14:00:15 GMT The parent of a second grader newly diagnosed with dyslexia wrote me asking if I knew of any apps that might help her son with reading and math. She'd searched and come up with nothing — and so did I, with the same result. I asked Warren Buckleitner, who reviews children's technology for The Times's Gadgetwise blog, what he'd recommend. http://www.ldonline.org/ldnews/Apps_for_Children_with_Dyslexia http://www.ldonline.org/ldnews/Piece_of_My_Heart%3A_Letting_My_ADHD_Son_Make_His_Own_Mistakes Thu, 26 Jan 2012 14:00:00 GMT "What's wrong with you?!" I yell at my 23-year-old ADHD son after a thoughtless incident with a tattoo gun. Then I remember myself at that age... and hope I can survive growing up all over again. http://www.ldonline.org/ldnews/Piece_of_My_Heart%3A_Letting_My_ADHD_Son_Make_His_Own_Mistakes http://www.ldonline.org/ldnews/NIH_Announces_Funding_For_New_Learning_Disabilities_Research_Centers Thu, 19 Jan 2012 14:00:45 GMT Funding for four centers to conduct research on the causes and treatment of learning disabilities in children and adolescents has been provided by the National Institutes of Health. http://www.ldonline.org/ldnews/NIH_Announces_Funding_For_New_Learning_Disabilities_Research_Centers