Categories

Breaking the Cycle of Summer Learning Loss

Research shows that summer contributes to learning and reading loss for all students.The loss is particularly pronounced in economically disadvantaged students. This is partly due to lack of exposure to print and support for literacy development at home. Also, learning is hindered by greater food insecurity in the summer, when free lunches at school are […]
Categories

Disruptive Inventions – exploring nonverbal strengths in people with dyslexia.

Despite today’s rapid growth of scientific and technological knowledge, truly innovative activity is actually declining. Here, we distinguish between innovations that augment existing streams of knowledge v. innovations that disrupt them. The latter renders the old obsolete and propel science and technology forward in unexpected, new directions. We need disruptive innovations. Humankind faces huge challenges […]
Categories

Love’s Labor Lost

A summer of extra tutoring—all gone. The fancy tablet, the brilliant markers, the tracing of words in sand. All that was taught—all gone. Nothing stuck. Why can’t your child retain any of it? Even how to spell little words like “one” and “two.” Until you know the root cause of this difficulty, all that extra […]
Categories

AI’s New Insights on Dyslexia

Findings about the brain for the educator For the past 100 years, dyslexia was a murky, confounding disorder of the brain. For the one in five people who has it, dyslexia remained chronic and lifelong, impacting learning and reading. There was no way to peer into a dyslexic brain to see underlying problems precisely enough […]
Categories

The Person in the Machine

Much has been said about the lack of accuracy of AI-generated texts. I’ve been asked repeatedly by reporters to comment on the observation that LLM-based AI “lies” and “hallucinates.” We endow machines with human qualities when we use such words. Yet, we cannot help ourselves. When we see or hear language, we instinctively imagine a […]
Categories

How to Think about AI in Education

Since our firm launched the first autonomous AI program in education, educators have asked me for ideas on how they can manage this new wave of change. What AI tools and programs should they use in the classroom? What can they allow in assessments? I tell them to take a step back and look at […]
Categories

The AI Solution to Dyslexia in Prison

Since Dysolve launched an AI program for dyslexia, we’ve been fielding queries from diverse segments of society. One man asked whether his friend could use our web-based program even though he had no Internet access. We suggested various places with free wifi. The man’s response: his friend was in California State Prison. Even before this […]
Categories

5 Things To Know About Your Student With Dyslexia

Our students with dyslexia sometimes wished that they had the courage to tell their teachers some of the things below. The rest we gathered from 3 decades of close interaction with them. 1. Results may not reflect effort. Many of our students used to spend several hours a night on homework, even in primary school. […]
Categories

How Language Affects Mental Health

A pediatrician asked, “Why should we worry about a kid’s reading problem when we have assistive technologies?” My answer at that Grand Rounds still holds today: A reading problem stems from a language problem. Even when the child is not reading, that language problem still affects her daily functions. Think of how much of your […]
Categories

5 Things to Know about Your Patient with Dyslexia

A language disorder like dyslexia can have physical symptoms. Here are some common ones: Headaches. Our students say that their brains are on fire. Because they have difficulty processing language, their brains have to work harder to make sense of input. Very quickly, they face processing overload. Some report recurrent headaches or migraines. The site […]