Over the summer I signed up for The Dyslexia Training Institutes Virtual Dyslexia Conference. This was a conference that from the get go I was planning on attending but once I saw the speakers I was definitely in. Some of the topics included Dyscalculia (math learning disability), AT (assistive technology), SWI (structured word inquiry) and of course Dyslexia. One other session was about Executive Function and was being presented by Dr. Jennifer Petrich.

​The beginning and end of the school year is always very busy for me because of IEP meetings but at a couple meetings at the end of the school year the term Executive Function was mentioned. I will be honest and the first time I heard it mentioned by a school psychologist I had never heard of it but of course wrote myself a note to learn about it. I did a little research on it but not enough to say it made any impact on me so when I saw this session was recorded I made sure to make time for it.

​This was an hour and half session that took me over 3 hours to watch because I had to keep pausing it. Every so often Dr. Petrich would say something about executive function that hit home so hard it was like a punch to my stomach so I would hit pause and cry for a few minutes. This continued a couple more times until it was finally over and then I immediately went and ordered the two books that Dr. Petrich recommended. I was like a kid at Christmas when they arrived.

​I was so taken back by this topic because a lot of what she was saying was describing my own daughter.

​So now you may be asking, "what is Executive Function?"

​Executive skills allow us to organize our behavior over time and override immediate demands in favor of longer-term goals. Through the use of these skills we can plan and organize activities, sustain attention, and persist to complete a task. Executive skills enable us to manage our emotions and monitor our thoughts in order to work more efficiently and effectively.

​That is taken from one of the books I mentioned above. Page 1, Chapter 1 from Executive Skills in Children and Adolescents A Practical Guide to Assessment and Intervention, written by Peg Dawson and Richard Guare. Executive Skills include:

• Planning
• Organization
• Time Management
• Working Memory
• Metacognition
• Response Inhibition
• Emotional Control
• Sustained Attention
• Task Initiation
• Flexibility
• ​Goal Directed Persistence

​As I was learning about what each of these cognitive skills do I started to realize that these explain a lot of what was going on with my daughter, and not just in school, these effect a lot of areas of her life and it breaks my heart to know that she has been struggling with this for years and no one knew what this was.

​I know my daughter dealt with a very low working memory score when she was tested back when she was in 2nd grade. At the time her working memory score was removed from her over all IQ score because it was so low and it brought her overall IQ down quite a bit. I was told that her working memory score wouldn't mean that much, that she would just have trouble remembering multi-step directions, not a big deal. Sadly, that is not the case, working memory IS a big deal.

​So why is working memory such a big deal? Here is a short list of activities that are influenced by working memory capacity (copied from Essentials of Working Memory Assessment and Intervention by Milton Dehn):

• ​Keeping up with the flow of a conversation and remembering what one was going to say.
• ​Noticing errors that are contained in a written sentence one just produced.
• ​Keeping track of one's place while counting.
• Being able to take detailed notes while listening at the same time.
• ​Remembering multistep directions that were just presented or read.
• ​Completing a task in a time-efficient manner.
• ​Coping with distractions while thinking.
• ​Comprehending what is being said or read.
• ​Remembering what one was going to do next.
• Keeping track of subproducts while doing mental arithmetic.
• ​Being able to switch between mental tasks.
• ​Being able to reason, such as comparing and contrasting two concepts.
• ​Integrating visual and auditory information.
• ​Efficiently memorizing information.
• ​Consciously retrieving a name or word that does not come immediately.

​Problems include forgetfulness, inattentiveness, difficulty following directions, difficulty completing tasks, difficulty communicating, and various types of learning disorders.

​What I didn't know was that other areas that she was struggling with along with the working memory, planning, organization, time management, emotional control, all had a name, Executive Function.

​I am still learning a lot about this, still reading many articles written about it, but I wanted to let you all know about a webinar with Dr. Petrich in a few weeks. Here is the link to register. It is on September 27th starting at 7 CST. Consider watching.

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"I wish my parents had you when I was in school." I hear that phrase a lot and everytime it breaks my heart. That is right up there with, "I wish I knew what dyslexia really was when I first started teaching". I wish both of those things too.

​Yesterday my new furniture was delivered to the office and one of the two delivery guys saw my name plate outside my door so he asked me, "What does The Dyslexia Spot do?" I told him I do mostly advocacy work for kids in school, and explained what that involved, and told him I also did tutoring, screening and consultancy work. He asked me a few other questions and then talked to me about Albert Einstein and some other famous dyslexics. I was wondering what made him so curious about my business and then he started talking about school when he was growing up and how he was called lazy, and how stupid he felt, and then said those 11 words, I wish my parents had you when I was in school. My heart started to break. Stories like that are all too common and I know each one of you reading can relate. The good news is, things are changing. Teachers come up to me often and ask me how they can learn more about dyslexia and that is a big first step.

​One of my major resolutions for 2017 is to hold more teacher trainings. My new office has a great new training area so be on the look out for those and some parent trainings as well.

​Hopefully together, no other generation ever needs to say, I was told I was lazy and I felt stupid ever again.

I hope 2017 is starting off great for all of you.

​I have a big announcement to make myself, The Dyslexia Spot has a brand new office. The location is 9111 Cross Park Dr, Suite D-260. Right now it is by appointment only but you can contact me at anytime by hitting the contact button above.

​Look for more updates in the near future, as I try to get myself completely moved in.

I am not sure if I have mentioned Gina Cooke or Pete Bowers by name before and if I haven't, shame on me. These two people are amazing gems and today I got to meet them both. IDA-IN had a structured word inquiry conference today and when I saw info about this awhile back I immediately looked up how far Fort Wayne was from me and I decided almost immediately that it wasn't too far to meet two people that have pretty much changed my way of thinking.

​Awhile back I saw this article on the Dyslexia Training Institutes blog and it really made me think about my daughter. No doubt Orton-Gillingham is good for reading, but OG was not helping my daughter and after reading that article I started thinking maybe this SWI would. (I posted about my daughter and my first experiences with this here.)

​Today was the conference and I was as blown away as I expected to be. Just being in the same room with them was worth the price of admission. I will post a couple pictures I took but I want to be sure to share some links to their blogs.

​Gina's Lexinar Educator Exchange site. Click on her Lexinars and sign up for them, I have already taken 3 and they are worth it. Also, click on her store. Her cards are really the best.

​Pete's website is called Word Works and it is also full of knowledge and good stuff. Click on the links and learn.

​Another really great site is Michel Rameau's called Real Spelling. Watch the video's, they are worth the time.

Week three of school starts today and let me explain what happened.

​Last night my daughter begged me to let her skip school today. I asked her why didn't she want to go and her response was "I just don't want to." This morning I woke her up and the crying started almost immediately, her ankle from a softball injury has been hurting her again, and then she was just stressed about school. Stressed to the maximum level. She is 10.

​Let me say that we transferred her to a new school this year. Still a public school and still a school within the same district but a different school. She has a new teacher, new principal, new case manager and a new Assistive Technology aide. She told me Friday that she loves this new school. She loves her teacher, her new case manager, and just everything else about this school, so why the stress and tears?

Because school is hard for her.

​Try to imagine going into an environment every single day for 7 hours where you know you are going to struggle. Where everything about the day is going to be hard for you. My daughter is dyslexic so not only does she struggle in the main 4 classes but lunch, she can't remember her lunch number so she is afraid to buy herself an ice cream because she is in "5th grade and should know her number by now." In gym where following all the rules of a game is hard to remember. Music, where reading is hard for her. And I send her there every single day. We all send our babies, every single day.

​We have a great team in place for her this year but she is behind. Even if she had the greatest IEP ever written, she would still struggle every day. I have said this so many times on here, early intervention! Early intervention is key.

​I know my daughter is not the only one who has to be brave every day when they enter the building, and I think we are slowly getting to the point where we are catching and helping these kids but in the mean time, our kids are dealing with a lot of stress. What is the answer?

​I am sending out hugs to all of you parents that sit in the quiet dark room and silently cry because I know how hard this is for you too.

"What we have helps 98% of the students."
​"But what about the 2%? What do we do when we have exhausted everything?"
"We find something else."

​My daughter is falling into that 2%. My daughter is a sad little girl. Thank goodness she has softball that makes her happy because anything to do with school, she becomes sad. I was recently talking to a friend and I made the comment, if I could go back to when she was in Kindergarten, back when she knew she was smart, I would in heartbeat. I would go back smarter and wiser and have the tools to help get her what she needs.

​Sadly, I can't. None of us can. All we can do is the best we can and get them what they need to be able to navigate through school.

​I am a big advocate for teacher training. I have said so many times, all it takes is one teacher, one teacher who understands dyslexia and can accommodate and listen, one teacher and it makes a huge difference for a student. What I have also learned though is to truly understand you need to experience it. You need to have a child that struggles everyday. See that sadness when they don't understand something the "traditional" way, but also see that excitement and glow when your child gets it!

​You all already know this but I am a huge fan and supporter of Kelli Sandman-Hurley and Tracy Block-Zaretsky at the Dyslexia Training Institute. They have an amazing dyslexia for a day simulation that I have witnessed first hand and it works. I wish all training included these simulations, because even just one makes a huge difference for teachers.

​I have done Orton-Gillingham training and I have been trained in RAVE-O which is by MaryAnn Wolf. I am a few weeks away from being trained in structured word inquiry as well. I am hoping to come up with something that I can do to help my daughter, the 2%, using all of these, because I think that is what she needs.

​I want to end this blog with two stories of my daughter and the glow she got when I explained something to her and she got it!

​1. I went through the consonant and vowel cards with her on the first day we were working together. She got to the J card and she hesitated. I knew she struggled with that sound because her case manager told me, she just had a hard time remembering the sound that J makes. I said to her, "What is my name?"

"Jennifer"
​"What letter does Jennifer start with?"
"J"

​And I saw the glow. Just like that, she made the connection. The next day we got to the J card and she hesitated for a second but I could see her mind thinking (Jennifer.../j/) and she said /j/.

​2. I have been trying to come up with ways to teach sight words, not just memorize, my daughter has a working memory deficit so memorizing is not easy for her, so that is why I am taking the word structure class. I asked her, "how do you spell does?"

​"d-u-s"
​"Do you know that the base word for does is do?"
​"ok"
​"How do you spell do?"
"D-O"
​"ok, so if DO is spelled D-O and DO is the base word for DOES, what do you think you add the end of DO to make it DOES, remembering that DO ends in a vowel."
"ES"
​"Right! So how do you spell DOES?"
"D-O-E-S"

​And there was the light bulb and glow again.

Today, as I do every Sunday, I sat down at my desk and started working on my lesson plans for all the students I tutor. I LOVE writing lesson plans. It reminds me of when I was in college and could not wait to become a teacher. Sadly that never paned out for me but honestly I believe everything happens for a reason and even though it is 20 someish years later I am doing exactly what I was meant to do and I love it.

​Anyway, while I am doing my Orton-Gillingham lessons and my two RAVE-O lesson plans for the week I got to thinking about word structure again. Unless you are new to my blog you already know how much I love Kelli Sandman Hurley from the Dyslexia Training Institute and I have been going back and forth about her word structure class. I want to take it so badly, and I will probably end up signing up, even though one week I will be out of town, but it got me researching again.

​I try to always read the DTI blog whenever I can and today in doing my research I was led there once again and found this blog titled Structured Word Inquiry and OG. It is an article by Gina Cooke who I have not heard of and boy oh boy am I forever glad I found her now.

Her website is LEX Linguist-Educator Exchange and she has just been added to my ever growing list of people I want to meet someday.

​Here is the bottom line...teaching kids a word is spelled the way it is because "English is weird" is unacceptable. Teaching a student why a word is spelled a certain way allows them to "get it" and spell it right.

​Because...spelling DOES matter!

A few months back my husband came into my office and asked me if I remembered the Gow School. I am originally from Buffalo NY, I grew up in a town called Elma and the next town over is called South Wales and that is where the Gow School is located. I remembered the school but like when I was a kid I never knew what that school was, just that it was a private boys school. My husband said, "did you know that it is a dyslexia school?" No, I did not. My heart skipped a beat and I got very excited. I googled the school and started reading their website and I was getting goosebumps. I then went on twitter and started following them. My husband suggested I ask for a tour but I was hesitant to do that because I knew my kids wouldn't be going there and I didn't want to waste anyone's time.

​Fast forward a couple weeks and someone who maintains the twitter account had posted a congrats to one of their students about getting accepted to Syracuse University. I liked the status, because that IS indeed awesome and that night not only did the school follow me back but I received a dm (direct message). After a few messages I was invited to see the school.

​Last week I finally got back to Buffalo and I experienced a day I will never forget. I will share their website with you shortly but the website does not do this school justice. I was blown away. I met with Mr. Matt Fisher and he sat with me and explained the philosophy of the school, about Mr. Gow and why he started the school. He showed me the cards they use for their Reconstructive Language program and then I received a tour of the campus.

​Our first stop was the original building on the campus and what I saw inside there was something that still at this moment when I think about it I get goosebumps again. I wish I had a picture to share because to me this was the most amazing photo, it was a picture of Peter Gow and Dr, Samuel Orton. Next to the picture was a handwritten letter from Anna Gillingham Yes, Dr. Orton and Anna Gillingham of Orton-Gillingham. I stood there in awe. Read here about Peter Gow. From there I was shown more of the classroom buildings and an amazing robotics lab.

​There were so many signs all around the school about RAN, which is what I am very interested in, and I am hoping to read more about their research soon, but this picture caught my eye and I want to share because it is so true. If I could I would also add, brave.


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At lunch I got to eat with two boys who were in their first year at Gow. I asked them what they loved most about the school. The one student answered first and the second was quick to agree. He said to me, and I am paraphrasing a little, "I like how the teachers here really do understand my learning differences. In public school the teachers didn't understand but here they do and they really care." If I could have one wish granted it would be for all teachers to be trained and to REALLY understand how a dyslexic student learns, and how they feel in school. Our students work so hard and feel like no one understands but these kids, they do feel understood.

I could go on and on about this school and honestly I have been afraid to write about my experience because I know I can't do it justice but for the rest of my life I will remember that day. To know that a school like this exists just makes me feel so good.

​One last thing, they have what seems like an AWESOME summer program. You can find out more here. If you can, check it out.

I know I have a lot of readers from outside Knox County TN but I just wanted to blog about an experience I was given yesterday within Knox County Schools.

​As most of you know, Orton Gillingham is the method of reading that has research based proof that helps dyslexic students how to read and spell. There are many programs out there that are based off of Orton-Gillingham and when done with fidelity they work within our small group RTI setting or within special education.

​A few weeks ago I was able to sit in on a Language Live intervention class done with 8th graders and I was blown away by what I was seeing. I will admit I was a skeptic when it came to Language Live but I am now going to say I am a believer in what this program can, and is, doing in our middle schools. Again, when done with fidelity.

​Awhile back now I had heard about a professional development class that was being offered within Knox County School called year-long reading. It is based on Louisa Moats and her research so right from that information I knew this would be a good thing. Louisa Moats has done a lot of research on reading, writing and spelling. Just do a google search on her name and you will find many of her articles and her books that she has written on this topic.

​Yesterday I was given the opportunity to sit in on the training that was offered for teachers in grades 3-5 and I  was blown away. (KCS is also doing this for K-2 and for middle and high.) I am so impressed with what Knox County is doing with our general ed ELA (English Language Arts) curriculum. Every single teacher should be in this training because sadly our colleges and universities are not teaching this, the science behind reading.

​There is a lot of literature out there in regards to our brains and how we have to be taught to read. We were never meant to be readers so we need to teach our brains how to read. I'm not telling any of you anything you don't already know but it makes me so happy to know that at least Knox County Schools is teaching our teachers this information.