The Gift of Dyslexia sources:

50% of successful suicides for children 15 years of age and under had a learning disability:
Understanding Children's Hearts and Minds: Emotional Functioning and Learning Disabilities
By: Jean Cheng Gorman (1999),  http://www.ldonline.org/article/6292/

80% of children with a Learning disability actually have dyslexia.[1]
Pediatric Clinic North Am. 2007 Jun;54(3):609-23, viii.,Management of dyslexia, its rationale, and underlying neurobiology. Shaywitz SE, Gruen JR, Shaywitz BA. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17543912

Up to 50% of juveniles who are incarcerated have learning disabilities.
Transitioning Students into a Facility: Comprehensive Assessment at Entry, By Angeline Spain and Regina Waugh http://www.neglected-delinquent.org/nd/resources/spotlight/spotlight200503a.asp#1

Up to 600 words per minute. Some researchers have actually suggested that listening may occur at a rate of 1,000 to 3,000 words per minute. - Communicating Effectively, (10th Edition) by Richard L. Weaver II and Saundra Hybels,Chapter 5, page 132

35% of Entrepreneurs in the United States are dyslectic
New Research Reveals Many Entrepreneurs Are Dyslexic, Posting Date: January 23, 2008
http://www.amanet.org/training/articles/New-Research-Reveals-Many-Entrepreneurs-Are-Dyslexic.aspx

Steve Jobs and his gift of dyslexia: The Guardian
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/jun/24/dyslexia-not-a-disability-gift

Neurobiology of Learning Disorders by Drs. Brock and Fernette Eide on Oct 16, 2012

Drs. Fernette and Brock Eide and their talk to the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry in San Francisco, CA. Latest updates in research-based understanding of learning disabilities and learning differences. Topics covered include: co-morbidity of LD, prevalence, neuropsychological testing, fMRI, auditory and visual processing, development, dyslexia, dysgraphia, dyscalculia, and ADD / ADHD, reward and motivation, creativity, gifted, neurodiversity. 

For more information about dyslexia, join our community at: http://dyslexicadvantage.com

A Mother and Son Talk About Bookshare

Listen to the mother and then just do it. Eccl 9:10 Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might.....

Guest column: FCAT fails to allow dyslexics, disabled to use technology

Published: June 3, 2012
Click here to listen to the commentary.

By Davis W. Graham — Commentary (Bradenton.com)

As a person with the gift of Dyslexia, today I am thriving with text-to-speech technology that enables me to read at 340 to 510 words per minute. Not all the population has the ability to access such "free" tools.

Over and over again I hear stories of people who have dyslexia and other print "disabilities" and are still struggling. Their lives, like mine, could be changed with such Tools of Engagement.

Then I began to hear of lives and families who have been devastated by the FCAT and the lack of accommodations for those with print disabilities.

Did you know a child with the gift of dyslexia is not permitted to have assistive technology to help them in the reading portion of the FCAT?

High failure rate

The recently posted scores on the 10th-grade reading test show 81 percent of kids with disabilities failed. It is suspected that means about 80 percent of the students with specific learning disabilities failing -- compared to 73 percent last year.

Once they fail this test, they are then set on a path of lifelong struggles centered on this one failure, one of which I have endured.

The cost of funding this failure is enormous. We have increased populations in juvenile detention. Some 30 to 50 percent of juvenile detainees have a reading disability.

Even if the person is not in a correctional facility, the knowledge of failure can lead to addictions which numb the present to forget the past. The list goes on.

Our test-based education system not being held to American Disabilities Act standards is blatant discrimination. ADA is required in almost every other facet in our lives.

This is the beginning of a child's life in the education system and hence begins an intelligent life being measured and changed by a discriminatory test.

It is said there is a 16-year-old who is still in middle school because of failure to pass the FCAT. If not for a counselor's intervention, a woman who has been sight impaired since age 13 would not have been allowed to graduate from high school because she did not pass FCAT -- even though she was in the top 10 percent of her class.

Technology bridges gap

People with dyslexia or other print disability are living in a technical dream-come-true world which can equip the 10 to 20 percent of those who have dyslexia with tools such as Balabolka, Readplease, Xmind (note taking tool), Read2Go and Bookshare.org -- which will change their future outlook.

This technology has bridged the gap, but for this technology not to be allowed in today's educational journey -- such as the FCAT -- then our education system is living in a two-faced world.

When a building is built today, it is required by law to have ADA-compliant restrooms. A person in a building that does not have an ADA restroom may be put at a temporary disadvantage. Because the FCAT does not accommodate a person with a print disability, that mars the person and family for life.

We are on the edge of the digital age where we can power up all students by advocating technology, but as it stands we are asking students in some academic settings to "power down."

Davis W. Graham, is the executive director and CFO of Manatee Diagnostic Center in Bradenton.

Read more here: http://www.bradenton.com/2012/06/03/4061085/guest-column-fcat-fails-to-allow.html#storylink=misearch#storylink=cpy#storylink=cpy

If we change Education in a way which a person with the Gift of Dyslexia can learn then we have changed a Nation.

Diamonds In The Rough 2011(Click Here)

Technology to Help Struggling Students (Click to listen)

Technology to Help Struggling Students

by Heidi Silver-Pacuilla and Steve Fleischman
Feb 2006 | Vol 63 | No. 5

Helping Struggling Students Pages 84 - 85


Many technology features that were originally developed to help people with specific sensory impairments are now widely in use. We have begun to take for granted the ability to zoom in on small print or to have written text speak to us. Closed captioning of video programs, originally developed to support viewers who are hard of hearing, also has mainstream uses, allowing us to “tune in” to a program across a noisy room by reading the captions.
Such accessibility features, particularly text-to-speech and speech recognition, are increasingly available in educational technologies as well. Although schools commonly use them to support students with sensory impairments and learning disabilities, these features can help a broad range of students. Research is beginning to show the benefits of giving all students access to these capabilities.
What We Know

Research in psychology has shown the power of simultaneous, multiple modes of input to gain and hold a person's attention and to improve memory. Lewandowski and Montali (1996) conducted a study that compared the learning of poor readers and skilled readers who were both taught through a text-to-speech application with simultaneous on-screen highlighting of the spoken word. This study showed that experiencing the text bimodally (visually and aurally) enabled poor readers to perform as well as skilled readers in word recognition and retention. Research by Allinder, Dunse, Brunken, and Obermiller-Krolikowski (2001) and Meyer and Felton (1999) confirms that highlighting text as it is spoken can help learners pay attention and remember more.
Text-to-speech also relieves the burden of decoding for struggling readers, allowing them to focus on comprehension (Wise, Ring, & Olson, 2000) and improving their endurance in completing reading assignments (Hecker, Burns, Elkind, Elkind, & Katz, 2002). Research has also shown that students with learning disabilities identify and correct more errors in their compositions when they use text-to-speech for proofreading (Higgins & Raskind, 1995).
The inverse of text-to-speech is speech recognition, in which the technology takes spoken words and translates them into type. Speech recognition provides access to computers not only for users who have physical disabilities, but also for those who have constraints related to fatigue, poor handwriting, spatial organization, or spelling. Speech recognition also provides immediate constructive feedback, as users see their own words transformed into written text with correct formatting and grammar (Silver-Pacuilla, in press).
Early research conducted with previous versions of the technology, which had considerable problems with accuracy, indicated that the strategic use of speech recognition improved users' literacy skills (Higgins & Raskind, 2000). The researchers attributed these benefits to the heightened, strategic engagement with print and language that users experience while dictating and correcting errors.
A third technology application that has received research attention is computer-based graphic organizers. These tools facilitate brainstorming, concept mapping, and outlining in much the same way that teacher-led instruction does, but with the advantages of providing word processing and text-to-speech support and the ability to rearrange elements or switch between outline and map view. In one study (Sturm & Rankin-Erickson, 2002), middle school students with and without disabilities were taught concept-mapping strategies and then were asked to write descriptive essays using either no map, a hand-drawn map, or a computer-drawn map. Students who constructed concept maps during the prewriting stage—either by hand or with the computer—produced significantly more sophisticated and complete essays. Students who used computer-based mapping also reported a more positive attitude toward the writing process.
What You Can Do

Educators should not hesitate to integrate technology features into instruction for students who struggle with academic tasks. These approaches can support learning by building literacy and language skills and independence.
Text-to-speech. You can use text-to-speech to increase the amount of reading that struggling readers do. For early readers and young English language learners, use digital storybooks as a fun and interactive way to engage with books. Encourage older readers to use text-to-speech to access motivating, content-specific texts on the Internet. For students who struggle to read classic literature, consider downloading the texts as e-books that students can read with text-to-speech. Much e-book software includes annotation, highlighting, and linked dictionary tools to facilitate studying. To help with writing, have students proofread their compositions as the software reads them aloud. You can install free, downloadable text-to-speech programs or find this feature bundled in many operating systems and stand-alone applications.
Speech recognition. Use speech recognition technology to help struggling writers and spellers get their ideas on paper. The immediacy of the dictation process reinforces the vocabulary and use of writing conventions and punctuation. Special programs can help struggling math students dictate and organize mathematical expressions. If you haven't tried speech recognition software lately, you'll find vastly improved capabilities, reduced training requirements, and better microphones available at very reasonable costs.
Graphic organizers. Many teachers now use graphic organizers to tap into students' visual and spatial abilities, strengthening the connection between these ways of knowing and academic tasks. You can use computer-based graphic organizers with whole-class instruction to show the connections among big ideas in the content areas, as well as to demonstrate writing and reading comprehension strategies. Encourage your students to try using graphic organizer programs for annotations during reading or prewriting brainstorming. The ability of most of the software packages to switch between map and outline views supports students' progress through the writing stages.
E-Resources. Today's Internet contains a plethora of reference and resource material. Encourage all your students to use these resources, which provide “just in time” and “just in case” support to help address vocabulary and background knowledge gaps. For English language learners or students struggling with reading and writing, provide extra training in using e-resources with text-to-speech software. Such support will give these students access to the same powerful knowledge base that their peers enjoy.
Technology to Help Struggling Students

by Heidi Silver-Pacuilla and Steve Fleischman
Feb 2006 | Vol 63 | No. 5

Helping Struggling Students Pages 84 - 85

Educators Take Note

Accessibility features in common technology applications can help struggling students make important connections—to the content, among ideas, among their own sensory modes of learning, and between their digital competencies and the curriculum. These technologies, however, will not automatically create success straight out of the box. Educators need to strategically integrate these features into sound pedagogy to help struggling learners achieve both academic and technological success.

Returning to the scene of failure. (click to listen)

Recently, I viewed the HBO Documentary, Journey into Dyslexia, it was a good view of all the aspects of the Gift, and it gave to most of our peers an understanding of the "Mysterious Gift of our Intelligence", but as for the person with dyslexia we were left with a "nowhere to go from here" feeling.

For me the person who has the Gift of Dyslexia I can tell you once you overcome the failure, there are still calluses  to the world of the written word which need to be conquered and  I still feel alone in the closed door world in which I live, but have not yet mastered.

The written world is like embarking on a new wilderness and I come across a guide who knows all of the trails and sources of water and danger. Turn this new world of reading with "assistive technology" and I now have my guide, but to get there is painful.  Why because as Ron Davis's book The Gift of Dyslexia states, a person with dyslexia "to read seems life-threatening".  Or another way to put it, is now that I have mastered my current environment, why return to the scene of my tragic accident of failure in consuming the written word.  Internally you state, "I will have nothing to do with it, it is too emotional", but yet I still feel so left out and in the dark when it comes to the written word.

So we are caught in this closed loop of failure, if we continue on in our now well padded "Pseudocompetence" world I become harden to life. Life goes on and the once mastered skills come boredom, and I slip in to self condemnation.

My life was changed to a new life of beginnings, for me it was starting with going to church with the high school guidance counselor who told me I would never make it in college, I forgave him, and when I forgave him I forgave myself, one callus gone. Then a contract comes across my desk and I find Readplease (2001) on line, I use Readplease to read the contract in an hour, it was 30 pages, another callus gone.  Then a librarian encourages me to become a member of Bookshare.org (2007) I read for the first time a book which I choose "The Preacher and the Presidents" and I'm starting to feel alive and look for another book. Before I know it, the life to the once closed door community opens and then I internally start to change.  It is truly a freeing experience, it is life changing, because I was headed back to the life of failure because I "can't" read.

So for me a person with the Mysterious Gift of Intelligence", Dyslexia, I am now in a new wilderness world with an expert guide and the Frontier of exploration is on.

Pseudocompetence (click to read)

 As a person with the Gift of Dyslexia before fully mastering the tools which I now use on a hourly and daily basis, I use to call  Pseudocompetence, "survival".  If I saw an article which I thought would be pertinent to my need to know knowledge, I would show the article to someone and tell them "here read this article I think you would be interested in the topic".  Then later on I would ask them what they thought of the article and then gleam what I could from them without ever reading the article.  But over a period of time what built up is the knowledge the data base I have in my head is totally dependent on others accomplishing what I can't do on my own.  Then once I master this ability my heart is harden to someone else proposing something to me which I should know but it is too much to pick up a book or article and read it to gain the knowledge I need to understand.  Then my sights became more and more narrow.

So now jump forward, Bookshare.org comes into my life from a librarian who advocated me to become a member and today I can read the Wall Street Journal on the way to work for today (not to mention Europe's WSJ, and Asia) or read any New York bestsellers or most books mentioned at conferences.  These tools or the "dyslexic's eyeglasses" which enable me to read have changed my world.  One day I was reflecting with one of my friends, and I was telling him how now with all the right tools I can read almost anything I want and how confident it made me feel, in addition it allowed me to contribute to my work, family life, parenting......  Then he said something which took me time to understand.  He said Davis you know reading has also made you a better Receiver." 

A "Receiver" , I pondered and then it became clear, my defensiveness and at times almost anger has vanished on new subjects.  Why because if I don't know lets take some parenting skills, I can read about it, or develop a new idea then I can read about it.  My knowledge base now comes from my efforts not someone else's, the knowledge gained by reading goes thru my filters, which is the way God created me to be, and why I am where I am, because someone saw those talents.

So now let's jump back to the reason for this List Serv.  You all have students who struggle (as I have and failed)  and as a teacher or advocate you want to make their life better by enabling them to read.  Well all I can offer is my knowledge of the tools I use on a daily basis, which I discovered from my failure and my way to survive in a "real world", 'assistive technology' has contributed to my drive and I want to pass it on to you as an LD Veteran.