March 19, 2026

Navigating Dyslexia: Insights for Parents with Russel VanBrocklin

Navigating Dyslexia: Insights for Parents with Russel VanBrocklin

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of ABC's of Parenting Adult Children, host James Moffitt speaks with Russell VanBrocklin, an expert in helping parents navigate the challenges of raising dyslexic children. Russell shares his personal journey with dyslexia and how it shaped his approach to education. He discusses the importance of focusing on a child's specialty, the craft of research, and innovative strategies to foster confidence and engagement in dyslexic learners. The conversation emphasiz...

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Season 2

Send us Fan Mail

In this episode of ABC's of Parenting Adult Children, host James Moffitt speaks with Russell VanBrocklin, an expert in helping parents navigate the challenges of raising dyslexic children. Russell shares his personal journey with dyslexia and how it shaped his approach to education. He discusses the importance of focusing on a child's specialty, the craft of research, and innovative strategies to foster confidence and engagement in dyslexic learners. The conversation emphasizes the need for a tailored approach to education that prioritizes individual strengths and interests, ultimately leading to success in both academic and professional settings.

Keywords

dyslexia, parenting, education, adult children, learning strategies, confidence, specialization, structured literacy, craft of research, engagement


Takeaways

Russell's personal experience with dyslexia informs his approach to education.

Dyslexic students often excel when focusing on their areas of interest.

The craft of research is crucial for academic success.

Engagement in a child's specialty can lead to significant improvements in learning.

Structured literacy methods may not be as effective as tailored approaches.

Parents can play a vital role in their child's educational journey.

Dyslexic students need to be taught from specific to general concepts.

Confidence in dyslexic children can be fostered through targeted strategies.

The importance of passion in learning cannot be overstated.

Older dyslexic students often learn faster than younger ones. 


https://dyslexiaclasses.com/ABCsofParenting


Richard Jones. I am an RN with over 34 years of Nursing Experience, much of that experience working with young adults in the corrections system. 

Hello, James here !

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WEBVTT

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:06.799
I asked them, in your specialty, do you have ideas flying around your head at light speed, but with little to no organization?

00:00:06.959 --> 00:00:11.039
And they answer yes, or if they say no, yes at some point in the past.

00:00:11.199 --> 00:00:15.599
So then I asked them, that's ADD, ADHD, or mild dyslexia.

00:00:15.759 --> 00:00:20.960
And then, and this is especially important for parents who don't want to spend$5,000 on a neural psych evaluation.

00:00:21.120 --> 00:00:25.120
So next thing I ask, fingers, keyboard, fingers, keyboard.

00:00:25.280 --> 00:00:26.320
The idea is in your head.

00:00:26.480 --> 00:00:28.640
You take your fingers, you put it on the keyboard.

00:00:28.800 --> 00:00:31.600
Does the idea fly out of your head, leaving you with an empty brain?

00:00:31.760 --> 00:00:34.399
And for dislike for severe dyslexia, they answer yes.

00:00:34.560 --> 00:00:44.640
So then I tell them, based on those two questions, what we're going to do is we're going to force your brain to organize itself, and we're going to use writing as a measurable output.

00:00:44.799 --> 00:00:49.280
So again, we're going to force the brain to organize itself using writing as a measurable output.

00:00:49.439 --> 00:00:51.280
Is that how you'd like to overcome your concerns?

00:00:51.359 --> 00:00:52.719
And they say yes.

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I'm doing great.

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Thanks for having me.

00:01:35.599 --> 00:01:36.079
Yes, sir.

00:01:36.239 --> 00:01:42.079
Russell's a man whose wisdom is rooted in both life experience and a deep commitment to truth, liberty, and family.

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Hey Russell, do me a favor and introduce yourself to the listening audience.

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My name's Russell Van Brockland.

00:01:48.159 --> 00:01:50.159
I'm also known as the dyslexic professor.

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And when I'm working with parents, especially in this age group, it's normally for two reasons.

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Parents come to me because their child's in college close to failing out or has failed out, or they tend to have issues with getting employment failure to launch after graduation.

00:02:06.480 --> 00:02:09.039
And I tend to help parents with both those things.

00:02:09.520 --> 00:02:10.479
Awesome.

00:02:10.719 --> 00:02:13.120
Well, tell me, uh tell us how you got into this.

00:02:14.240 --> 00:02:19.039
Well, I kind of had my own college problems and failure to launch as well.

00:02:19.280 --> 00:02:24.000
It uh started when I in the late 90s when I did the New York State Assembly internship program.

00:02:24.400 --> 00:02:32.800
Because of my severe dyslexia, I had a first-grade reading and writing issue, so they put me in the pro the majority leaders program and counsel's office with three administrative assistants.

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At the end of it, I gave my research as an oral presentation instead of a written report, which was a typical accommodation for me at the time.

00:02:42.080 --> 00:02:47.840
And they gave me a recommendation of 3.67 for a GPA, A minus for 15 credits.

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Well, SUNY Center at Buffalo said, we don't like those accommodations.

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So here's your 15 credits of F.

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Only time in the history of the program.

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And I said, enough dyslectics aren't going to be going through this discrimination anymore.

00:03:02.560 --> 00:03:04.080
And then I decided to solve it.

00:03:04.319 --> 00:03:04.639
Okay.

00:03:05.520 --> 00:03:06.159
Awesome.

00:03:06.960 --> 00:03:12.639
Well, the next step was I decided to audit law school classes after graduation.

00:03:13.039 --> 00:03:17.199
So I went to law school with a first grade reading and writing ability.

00:03:17.360 --> 00:03:18.879
And people thought I was crazy.

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My second day in contracts, Professor Warner, the dyslexic professor I went to see, he asked me a question, and what they do in law school is they use the Socratic method.

00:03:29.039 --> 00:03:33.680
And they keep asking you questions, even if you don't know the answer, to embarrass you.

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The idea is to train you as quickly as possible to argue any point of law at any time at any of any side.

00:03:40.479 --> 00:03:42.960
Well, I didn't blink like all my classmates.

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I responded exactly everything just slowed down.

00:03:46.560 --> 00:03:48.400
It was the first time in my life this happened.

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And I could see where he was going three, four, five, six steps ahead.

00:03:52.960 --> 00:03:56.080
He knew what I couldn't beat him, he couldn't beat me.

00:03:56.319 --> 00:04:02.080
At the end of 15 minutes of us going back and forth like crazy, he said, Russell, you couldn't be any more correct.

00:04:02.240 --> 00:04:05.439
In the interest of time, I have to move on to the next case.

00:04:05.840 --> 00:04:09.759
All my classmates looked at me with kind of all intrepidation.

00:04:09.919 --> 00:04:18.240
The ones that continued to graduation told me they couldn't do half of what I did that first class and contracts, even after they graduated.

00:04:18.800 --> 00:04:22.000
Then I went on to property where they were giving us quizzes.

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You're supposed to read the question for about three to five minutes and then answer it.

00:04:26.319 --> 00:04:28.319
And I didn't wait three to five seconds.

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I just answered it instantaneously.

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I was the first one done with the highest score.

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I got perfect scores like almost every time.

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That solved the reading.

00:04:36.480 --> 00:04:40.000
Took me another couple of years to solve the writing.

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And then I decided I want to take what I've learned and solve everything.

00:04:46.319 --> 00:04:48.079
And I went to the New York State Senate.

00:04:48.240 --> 00:04:52.560
And after a lot of going back and forth, they decided to fund my research.

00:04:52.800 --> 00:04:56.000
And this is important for parents whose kids are struggling in college.

00:04:56.319 --> 00:05:08.560
Did is we ended up going to a bunch of highly dyslectic, highly intelligent, highly motivated high school juniors and seniors with excellent family support, you know, the ideal the ideal kids.

00:05:08.959 --> 00:05:12.480
And they were writing at the middle school grade level, seventh, eighth grade.

00:05:12.639 --> 00:05:16.560
And I gave them the writing test of entering graduate school students.

00:05:16.639 --> 00:05:19.839
That's the graduate records exam analytical writing assessment.

00:05:20.079 --> 00:05:21.279
How do you think they did on that?

00:05:21.439 --> 00:05:22.560
Probably pretty well.

00:05:22.800 --> 00:05:26.079
Well, they're they have seventh, eighth grade writing skills.

00:05:26.160 --> 00:05:29.519
I gave them a test for entering graduate students and they're in high school.

00:05:29.759 --> 00:05:30.560
Oh, okay.

00:05:30.879 --> 00:05:32.319
How do you think they did?

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Maybe not so well.

00:05:35.040 --> 00:05:35.519
I don't know.

00:05:35.680 --> 00:05:36.160
I don't know.

00:05:36.480 --> 00:05:37.519
Zero percentile.

00:05:37.839 --> 00:05:38.319
Most of them.

00:05:38.399 --> 00:05:40.639
A few scored in the sixth because of analytical skills.

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Spelling and grammar was horrendous.

00:05:43.680 --> 00:05:45.680
The senior professor, her name was Dr.

00:05:45.920 --> 00:05:48.639
Lechka, she was a SUNY distinguished professor in psychology.

00:05:48.800 --> 00:05:52.000
He said these kids will not make it through the first semester of college.

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The writing is just absolutely horrendous.

00:05:55.680 --> 00:05:59.519
So then we took them through one class period a day for the school year.

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Susan Ford was their best special ed teacher.

00:06:02.160 --> 00:06:09.040
And at the end of that, all the students scored in the 30th to 70th percentile of entering graduate school students.

00:06:09.279 --> 00:06:12.319
Their spelling and grammar was clean at the graduate level.

00:06:12.480 --> 00:06:16.079
Susan spent almost no time on spelling and grammar autocorrected.

00:06:16.240 --> 00:06:24.639
They all went to college, they all graduated, no accommodations, and they all got they're all employed immediately on graduation.

00:06:25.040 --> 00:06:27.920
Cost to the state less than$900 a student.

00:06:28.079 --> 00:06:32.079
So that was let me tell you a story.

00:06:33.040 --> 00:06:42.879
So my wife is a special ed teacher, and she's got her bachelor's degree in psychology, and she's got her master's degree in teaching or whatever it is, special education, I guess.

00:06:43.199 --> 00:06:49.600
And uh I remember when she was going to she was taking a lot of online courses, and so she's taking graduate courses.

00:06:51.279 --> 00:06:54.560
And uh she was part of a group of people.

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They had a they had a essay or they had some kind of project they they were they were all supposed to work on.

00:06:59.680 --> 00:07:08.319
And I remember her telling me that that it was scary that these people that already had their bachelor's degrees, they couldn't string a sentence together.

00:07:08.480 --> 00:07:10.480
They couldn't write hardly at all.

00:07:10.560 --> 00:07:13.759
And so she wound up doing the group essay herself.

00:07:13.839 --> 00:07:20.959
She w wound up just doing it herself because because they couldn't they couldn't they couldn't put a simple sentence together.

00:07:21.120 --> 00:07:23.120
And and I've seen that, you know.

00:07:23.279 --> 00:07:33.040
I graduated high school in 1980, and uh I had a very I had a uh when I was in what third, fourth grade, fifth grade maybe, I had an excellent reading teacher.

00:07:33.199 --> 00:07:39.040
And uh so I would like to think that my reading and uh reading comprehension skill levels way up there.

00:07:39.120 --> 00:07:40.560
And uh I write well as well.

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I do, I like to write, and uh I've run across a lot of people that they talk fine, they have a grasp on the English language, but when it comes to writing a simple sentence or putting a uh a story together or something like that, they don't have a clue.

00:07:55.680 --> 00:07:56.800
They don't know how to do it.

00:07:57.040 --> 00:08:04.000
And so that's that's just indicative of the lack of education that we have here in America, especially here in South Carolina.

00:08:04.160 --> 00:08:05.439
I can speak to that.

00:08:06.319 --> 00:08:15.120
Well, what I just told you that, of course, like for your wife to learn that process took less than four hours.

00:08:15.839 --> 00:08:19.680
All right, and at the end, I'm not talking about SATs where they can't write.

00:08:19.759 --> 00:08:21.199
I'm talking about the GRE.

00:08:21.519 --> 00:08:30.639
And I can tell you that, you know, not being able to string a sentence together, this was graded by one of the top living psychologists in New York State very harshly.

00:08:30.879 --> 00:08:37.759
And all those grammar concerns and couldn't write the basics of writing, all that was clean at the entry entering graduate school level.

00:08:38.000 --> 00:08:41.120
Fixed the whole seven, eight grade level increases in one year.

00:08:41.360 --> 00:08:47.360
And I'm about to show you things that's gonna completely change how your wife views dyslexia.

00:08:47.759 --> 00:08:59.039
First thing is in my field, if you're going to claim you're gonna have something radically new that is completely different than an Orton Gillingham multi-century approach, you have to be very cautious.

00:08:59.200 --> 00:09:00.639
Where is this coming from?

00:09:01.039 --> 00:09:03.519
My research is coming from this book.

00:09:03.679 --> 00:09:05.200
Let me see if I can get it in there.

00:09:05.440 --> 00:09:05.759
Okay.

00:09:06.000 --> 00:09:08.080
It's overcoming dyslexia from Yale.

00:09:08.240 --> 00:09:09.360
Are you familiar with it?

00:09:09.679 --> 00:09:10.480
No, uh-uh.

00:09:10.879 --> 00:09:11.200
Okay.

00:09:11.519 --> 00:09:13.519
This is the book in my field.

00:09:13.840 --> 00:09:15.600
And here's dyslexia.

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See if I can Okay.

00:09:17.519 --> 00:09:18.080
That's it.

00:09:18.240 --> 00:09:22.240
Now, I'm not gonna use non-impaired because I find that kind of insulting.

00:09:22.320 --> 00:09:24.080
I'm gonna call that the gen ed brain.

00:09:24.240 --> 00:09:26.240
Look at the back part of the dyslexic brain.

00:09:26.320 --> 00:09:28.399
Do you see how there's almost no neuroactivity?

00:09:29.200 --> 00:09:29.679
Right?

00:09:30.320 --> 00:09:30.639
Okay.

00:09:30.960 --> 00:09:32.399
Now look at the gen ed brain.

00:09:32.480 --> 00:09:33.679
Do you see how it's going crazy?

00:09:33.840 --> 00:09:34.080
Okay.

00:09:34.240 --> 00:09:36.559
Now look at the front end of the dyslexic brain.

00:09:36.639 --> 00:09:38.799
See how it's about two and a half times overactive?

00:09:39.120 --> 00:09:39.440
Okay.

00:09:39.919 --> 00:09:42.080
That is what my research is based on.

00:09:42.320 --> 00:09:44.000
This book came out in 03.

00:09:45.039 --> 00:09:50.320
So what I Yale says is this part of the book deals with two things.

00:09:50.559 --> 00:09:54.240
It deals with articulation followed by word analysis.

00:09:54.399 --> 00:09:59.440
So that first program I said we focused on articulation, very little word analysis.

00:10:00.320 --> 00:10:03.679
But when I presented this in New York City, I thought I was done.

00:10:03.840 --> 00:10:07.679
I said we solved dyslexia for this, the ideal students.

00:10:08.000 --> 00:10:14.080
The college professors came to me and said, Some of your students scored above average on the GRE writing assessment.

00:10:14.399 --> 00:10:15.919
We don't care.

00:10:16.559 --> 00:10:19.279
We want something called the craft of research.

00:10:19.519 --> 00:10:21.120
Are you familiar with that at all?

00:10:21.519 --> 00:10:22.799
No, I'm not.

00:10:23.120 --> 00:10:23.360
Okay.

00:10:23.759 --> 00:10:28.320
Came out in 1995 at the University of Chicago.

00:10:28.799 --> 00:10:34.559
It was based on uh it was teaching their grad students who didn't know how to write advanced research papers.

00:10:34.879 --> 00:10:45.679
And it came out with a concept called context, get everybody on the same page, problem, state the problem, and then come up with a solution where the reader learns something substantive.

00:10:45.919 --> 00:10:52.159
If you can't come up with something substantive, if there's not something at least moderately original, this is what they want as well.

00:10:52.320 --> 00:10:55.919
Even if they're not familiar with the book, they look over, they said, Yeah, that's what I want.

00:10:56.240 --> 00:10:59.679
It's like, okay, so the GRE is not enough.

00:10:59.840 --> 00:11:02.559
I got to show them how to deal, how to deal with this.

00:11:03.120 --> 00:11:06.879
And the university professors exceedingly want this.

00:11:07.039 --> 00:11:10.559
And just to show you how important this was, two examples.

00:11:10.720 --> 00:11:12.879
One in university, one in employment.

00:11:13.039 --> 00:11:19.840
One of my uh one of my she specifically wanted to go to a specific university to work with a specific professor.

00:11:20.080 --> 00:11:26.240
Not as a graduate student, but as an undergrad, which is kind of weird, but I said, okay, that that makes we can do that.

00:11:26.480 --> 00:11:29.759
She walks into her class, into his class the first day.

00:11:29.840 --> 00:11:33.519
And after class, she says, we have this major research paper.

00:11:33.759 --> 00:11:36.320
I do I've learned the craft of research not the best.

00:11:36.559 --> 00:11:37.840
I'm a lot more efficient now.

00:11:38.000 --> 00:11:43.360
And she said, Can you help me go through this so I can apply the craft of research to your paper?

00:11:43.600 --> 00:11:49.200
He calls me up and says, Is a high college freshman doing with the craft of research?

00:11:49.279 --> 00:11:52.240
I have a hard time getting my PhD students doing this.

00:11:52.399 --> 00:11:55.440
I said, Well, we started working on this when she was in seventh grade.

00:11:55.519 --> 00:11:56.720
Now he's completely shocked.

00:11:56.960 --> 00:11:58.559
I said, We're a lot more efficient now.

00:11:58.639 --> 00:12:00.399
I said, Here's her issues with it.

00:12:00.480 --> 00:12:02.320
She's good at this, not good at this.

00:12:02.639 --> 00:12:08.559
He started getting papers from her where she actually, where he actually started learning things from her.

00:12:08.799 --> 00:12:13.279
He's like, I'm learning some minor points from a college freshman.

00:12:13.600 --> 00:12:26.399
So he wanted to work with her because of her reading and writing skills, and not want to work with her because of it, which he said is very rare for an undergrad student.

00:12:26.799 --> 00:12:36.240
Second point on that fact, I had a former client call me last year after he graduated from high from he got a job, and the manager was huge into artificial intelligence.

00:12:36.399 --> 00:12:38.159
He said, I overhired.

00:12:38.399 --> 00:12:42.000
What I'm looking for is ideas from you that we can implement.

00:12:42.240 --> 00:12:44.080
So he calls me up kind of in a panic.

00:12:44.159 --> 00:12:46.159
I said, You've been trained in the craft of research.

00:12:46.240 --> 00:12:48.399
I don't care if you don't know much about AI.

00:12:48.639 --> 00:12:51.600
Talk to it, work with it, do the context, problem solution.

00:12:51.759 --> 00:12:54.720
He does the context, comes back after he did the problem.

00:12:54.879 --> 00:12:55.679
I hate this.

00:12:55.840 --> 00:12:58.559
I said, Well, welcome to the adult world.

00:12:58.879 --> 00:13:03.519
He finishes up with the solution and he turns it into a five-paragraph essay.

00:13:03.679 --> 00:13:06.000
The boss is literally going over one after the other.

00:13:06.159 --> 00:13:08.559
I can't use this, I can't use this, I can't use this.

00:13:08.799 --> 00:13:10.720
Comes to his, that's a good idea.

00:13:10.799 --> 00:13:11.759
We can use that.

00:13:12.000 --> 00:13:13.440
Guess who got to keep his job?

00:13:13.679 --> 00:13:14.240
He did.

00:13:14.480 --> 00:13:15.039
Yeah.

00:13:15.360 --> 00:13:20.080
So what is the craft of research and how to connect it to this?

00:13:20.240 --> 00:13:22.879
So again, I'm just going to keep coming back to the science.

00:13:23.039 --> 00:13:29.840
So that overactive front part of the brain, what I did is that's articulation and word analysis.

00:13:30.080 --> 00:13:34.320
I switched it over to word analysis followed by articulation.

00:13:35.039 --> 00:13:41.759
And then when it comes time to the context, that is your basic uh five questions.

00:13:42.159 --> 00:13:44.799
So your basic who, what, when, where, how, why.

00:13:44.879 --> 00:13:45.519
I'm sorry, six.

00:13:45.679 --> 00:13:47.360
Who, what, when, where, how, why.

00:13:47.600 --> 00:13:52.000
I purposely put why at the end, because normally that's the most complicated one.

00:13:52.399 --> 00:14:03.120
When we're dealing in the academic setting, I make sure that each time we're in a paragraph for a paper, and your your wife's a special ed teacher, so she she can verify this.

00:14:03.360 --> 00:14:10.000
If you have a quote per paragraph, at least one sentence, and then you discuss that quote.

00:14:10.320 --> 00:14:16.159
Can you see how that makes a paper what's a lot of students call it a non-BS paper?

00:14:16.399 --> 00:14:22.159
It's not where you just write anything that you think sounds good, but each paragraph having a quote makes it a real paper.

00:14:22.559 --> 00:14:22.879
Okay.

00:14:23.360 --> 00:14:23.679
Okay.

00:14:24.399 --> 00:14:33.200
When they get out of college, I drop the quote and I say, focus on what you're trying to get everybody on the same page.

00:14:33.519 --> 00:14:40.320
Go and research this and find quotes or studies that back up whatever you're trying to work on.

00:14:40.639 --> 00:14:48.320
Really do your research and put that all into find out what the major points are and then answer the who, what, when, were, how, why.

00:14:48.399 --> 00:14:51.279
And you that might go on for pages.

00:14:51.440 --> 00:14:54.240
That's the context it's giving everybody on the same page.

00:14:54.399 --> 00:14:59.919
Then what we do to try to come up with solutions, there's two levels.

00:15:00.159 --> 00:15:14.320
The obvious solution that they expect you to come up with, you know, for everyday business problems, or if you're answering an email, and what we do is we I have them work with the artificial intelligence to reduce that to a single medium to long sentence.

00:15:15.279 --> 00:15:23.200
Then we we reduce that to a problem statement that's a short to medium-length sentence, and then we reduce that to a universal theme.

00:15:24.000 --> 00:15:41.600
And then what I have them do for obvious questions that need to be answered is I have them take the context sentence and look through the universal theme as a lens, and then we come up with some rather obvious answers that are very specific.

00:15:41.759 --> 00:15:56.879
This is these are solutions you would expect a well-read student to come up with in the academia, or if you're out in the workforce, you know, you have a problem, you come up with a context, you go through that process, and you look at the universal theme and you run it through that as a lens.

00:15:57.120 --> 00:16:02.080
And the solutions that come out are obvious ones that you can apply immediately.

00:16:02.240 --> 00:16:08.480
And once you get used to using artificial intelligence, you can do these in emails in less than a minute or two.

00:16:09.120 --> 00:16:11.360
And they're concrete solutions.

00:16:11.600 --> 00:16:22.559
If you're looking for something innovative, that takes a bit longer to explain, but typically when they're starting out their careers, they just want basic, well-thought-out solutions.

00:16:22.720 --> 00:16:24.240
And that that takes care of it.

00:16:24.399 --> 00:16:31.840
And when parents approach me, they say, well, this sounds okay, that kind of makes sense, but how do I get my child to buy in?

00:16:32.000 --> 00:16:44.879
So have you ever found that when you're dealing with um a kid 18 through their 20s, when there's a problem, getting them to actually buy into a solution tends to be a bit of a problem?

00:16:45.519 --> 00:16:46.159
Yeah.

00:16:46.559 --> 00:16:46.879
Okay.

00:16:47.279 --> 00:16:48.960
How do you normally deal with that?

00:16:49.279 --> 00:16:50.320
Well, that's a good question.

00:16:50.559 --> 00:16:57.440
You obviously you have to communicate and you have to try to find out where the resistance is coming from.

00:16:57.600 --> 00:17:06.000
Sometimes, you know, fear is fear of the unknown, you know, or where they don't feel adequate enough to come to a solution.

00:17:06.480 --> 00:17:10.880
When you're dealing with dyslectic students, it's uh it's a bit more complicated.

00:17:11.039 --> 00:17:19.519
What that model that I was telling you about, um it's going from word analysis followed by articulation, that's step three of the model.

00:17:19.759 --> 00:17:35.359
The first thing that you have to realize, especially when you're dealing with academic issues in college, is for an intervention period to help them learn how to do context and at least problem, is you need to focus on their speciality, their area of extreme interest and ability.

00:17:35.839 --> 00:17:39.920
So this also works for gen ed kids, but it's it's absolutely critical for dyslexic.

00:17:40.000 --> 00:17:45.039
So let's just run through this with a child that you know well.

00:17:45.279 --> 00:17:49.200
And let's just call him John Doe or her Jane Doe to protect their privacy.

00:17:49.440 --> 00:17:54.160
Can you think of a specific case where the child was having a lot of trouble in college?

00:17:54.480 --> 00:17:55.200
No, not really.

00:17:55.359 --> 00:17:58.240
You're you're you're kind of going over my head here.

00:17:58.559 --> 00:17:58.880
Okay.

00:17:59.039 --> 00:17:59.440
All right.

00:17:59.599 --> 00:18:06.640
So um can you imagine any child that your wife worked with worked with that you knew who was having trouble in school?

00:18:06.880 --> 00:18:08.000
No, I'm sorry.

00:18:08.319 --> 00:18:08.640
Okay.

00:18:08.960 --> 00:18:16.480
All right, so uh just to give you an example of what we do here is you go to your child and you say, It's a Saturday morning.

00:18:16.720 --> 00:18:18.720
You can do whatever you want.

00:18:19.119 --> 00:18:19.920
What is it?

00:18:20.079 --> 00:18:24.400
That's their specialty, that's their area of extreme interest and ability.

00:18:24.720 --> 00:18:29.519
By far the most popular one when I do this is this guy.

00:18:29.680 --> 00:18:31.839
This is Disney's biography.

00:18:32.160 --> 00:18:35.359
And reason being is have have you ever been to Disney World?

00:18:35.680 --> 00:18:36.319
Yes.

00:18:36.960 --> 00:18:40.640
Do you do you find it's uh they say it's the most magical place in the world.

00:18:40.799 --> 00:18:43.599
Do you find that you under you see that at all?

00:18:43.680 --> 00:21:53.580
Or we we had a child that um uh uh had cancer, and uh Make a Wish Foundation uh sent her to sent the whole family to Disney World down in Orlando, Florida.

00:21:53.820 --> 00:22:00.620
And uh to me, of course, our the our our situation was really unique.

00:22:00.779 --> 00:22:11.420
And um uh so as a parent of a child with cancer, I was not I wasn't that impressed with Disney World, honestly.

00:22:11.580 --> 00:22:23.180
But but I know children probably don't have the same bias as I have, and and were they they look at that environment through a different set of eyes, right?

00:22:23.420 --> 00:22:33.580
And uh it I can see where to them, especially my daughter Jessica, where that it was magical and it was, you know, huge blessing for her to experience that.

00:22:33.900 --> 00:22:36.940
I'm sorry to hear about it about uh what happened to her.

00:22:37.259 --> 00:22:43.900
Yeah, to me as an adult, uh I mean that that whole theme park is designed for families, right?

00:22:43.980 --> 00:22:47.580
And it's it's designed to separate you from your money, you know.

00:22:47.980 --> 00:22:53.180
They're very good at that, but from what allowed that to happen.

00:22:53.420 --> 00:22:57.340
Okay, again, I'm coming back to this massive biography.

00:22:57.580 --> 00:23:00.060
There are two universal themes that deal with that.

00:23:00.220 --> 00:23:02.299
One is obvious and about 10% of the value.

00:23:02.460 --> 00:23:04.700
The second one is very hard to find.

00:23:04.779 --> 00:23:07.100
I've never had a parent finding that book.

00:23:07.259 --> 00:23:14.060
But I've had, for this one example, that 12-year-old daughter who went and said, Mom, dad, here it is.

00:23:14.220 --> 00:23:16.299
And they said I couldn't believe they missed it.

00:23:16.539 --> 00:23:19.660
And then I asked, Did I do my job for reading?

00:23:19.980 --> 00:23:23.340
Your child found something you couldn't, and she's 12.

00:23:23.580 --> 00:23:26.380
Yeah, she's been she was working on it for about two years.

00:23:26.700 --> 00:23:36.460
So what I'm saying with that is if you focus on their speciality, because she really loved Disney World, she wanted to understand the magic.

00:23:36.539 --> 00:23:41.980
What was and going through his biography, she figured out what it was.

00:23:42.140 --> 00:23:47.660
And the work I had her do, she said, if I had to do anything else outside of this, she wouldn't have done it.

00:23:47.820 --> 00:23:50.940
So another example of why the speciality is so important.

00:23:51.100 --> 00:23:53.420
Did you ever watch the original Fast and Furious?

00:23:53.660 --> 00:23:54.380
Probably.

00:23:54.620 --> 00:23:54.940
Okay.

00:23:55.180 --> 00:24:07.580
Do you remember the scene when Paul Walker's there he got a car that looked like it came from the junkyard, they're remodeling it, and he's dealing with this computer technical genius, and he asked them, he asked, Well, how are you not at MIT?

00:24:07.980 --> 00:24:13.500
And the the the smart kid said, Well, I got that ADD you know, kind of like dyslexia thing.

00:24:13.660 --> 00:24:17.180
He said, I can do this, but I can't do other things.

00:24:17.900 --> 00:24:31.180
So, especially if your child is having trouble in college, the huge solution to break that down is number one, have them take a semester or two where they're just focusing on their speciality.

00:24:31.340 --> 00:24:32.779
Things they want to take.

00:24:33.019 --> 00:24:34.460
That's a big help.

00:24:34.779 --> 00:24:40.299
Next thing, the way that they're learning, this is what I learned from a senior dyslectic professors.

00:24:40.460 --> 00:24:48.460
Most of them, I did, I I asked a lot of them, did a survey, and I found a lot of them were STEM science, technology, engineering, math.

00:24:48.620 --> 00:24:51.980
And they were taking like philosophy classes, art history.

00:24:52.060 --> 00:24:53.100
I said, good for you.

00:24:53.180 --> 00:24:55.980
And they said, No, we didn't like those classes.

00:24:56.140 --> 00:24:56.940
I didn't like those classes.

00:24:57.259 --> 00:24:58.620
I said, well, why did you take them?

00:24:58.779 --> 00:24:59.500
You didn't have to.

00:24:59.660 --> 00:25:05.259
Because they taught not from the general to the specific, but from the specific to the general.

00:25:05.420 --> 00:25:10.299
And from that, I came up with two questions that gets the dyslectic student on board.

00:25:10.460 --> 00:25:18.140
I asked them, in your specialty, do you have ideas flying around your head at light speed, but with little to no organization?

00:25:18.299 --> 00:25:22.700
And they answer yes, or if they say no, yes at some point in the past.

00:25:23.259 --> 00:25:28.060
So then I asked them, that's ADD, ADHD, or mild dyslexia.

00:25:28.299 --> 00:25:33.820
And then, and this is especially important for parents who don't want to spend$5,000 on a neuropsych evaluation.

00:25:34.060 --> 00:25:38.140
So next thing I ask, fingers, keyboard, fingers, keyboard.

00:25:38.299 --> 00:25:39.500
The idea is in your head.

00:25:39.660 --> 00:25:41.900
You take your fingers, you put it on the keyboard.

00:25:42.060 --> 00:25:45.100
Does the idea fly out of your head, leaving you with an empty brain?

00:25:45.259 --> 00:25:48.539
And for dislike for severe dyslexia, they answer yes.

00:25:48.779 --> 00:26:00.299
So then I tell them, based on those two questions, what we're going to do is we're going to force your brain to organize itself, and we're going to use writing as a measurable output.

00:26:00.539 --> 00:26:05.180
So again, we're going to force the brain to organize itself using writing as a measurable output.

00:26:05.340 --> 00:26:07.180
Is that how you'd like to overcome your concerns?

00:26:07.340 --> 00:26:08.460
And they say yes.

00:26:08.620 --> 00:26:12.620
And I have them select an audio book, and then we get a printed book.

00:26:12.779 --> 00:26:17.660
And then just for example, this is my biggest one that people are interested in.

00:26:17.980 --> 00:26:23.100
And parents will say, But my child won't do the work.

00:26:24.380 --> 00:26:26.779
We're in their speciality.

00:26:26.860 --> 00:26:31.100
And here's just to show you how motivated these kids can get.

00:26:31.420 --> 00:26:32.620
This is Casey's book.

00:26:32.860 --> 00:26:34.860
Oh, 900 pages won the Pulitzer.

00:26:35.580 --> 00:26:38.940
Took her six months to learn every word in that book.

00:26:39.580 --> 00:26:43.100
Every definite You could ask her page 362.

00:26:43.259 --> 00:26:45.180
Here's the word, what's the dictionary definition?

00:26:45.340 --> 00:26:45.740
She would tell you.

00:26:45.820 --> 00:26:46.860
It took her six months.

00:26:47.340 --> 00:26:50.060
I never saw it before, I'll never see it again that fast.

00:26:50.700 --> 00:26:52.220
How old do you think Casey was?

00:26:52.380 --> 00:26:53.019
Twelve.

00:26:53.420 --> 00:26:53.740
Ten.

00:26:54.460 --> 00:26:54.700
Ten.

00:26:55.180 --> 00:26:55.660
Wow.

00:26:56.140 --> 00:26:56.620
Yeah.

00:26:56.860 --> 00:26:59.660
I worked with her 15 minutes a week.

00:27:00.380 --> 00:27:01.340
She was in her room.

00:27:01.500 --> 00:27:05.980
Two, three, four hours a night, six, seven nights a week, all day during the summer.

00:27:06.460 --> 00:27:10.380
Going through a simple process that I gave her because she wanted to do reading first.

00:27:10.620 --> 00:27:11.820
I do writing first.

00:27:11.900 --> 00:27:14.940
I tell my students, if you can write it, you can read it.

00:27:15.259 --> 00:27:16.779
And she knew every word.

00:27:16.940 --> 00:27:19.100
So she knew every word of the book.

00:27:19.259 --> 00:27:26.299
She got a call from the school when her mother got a call in the fall of the school when she, you know, we were nearing the end of that.

00:27:26.460 --> 00:27:28.779
She was in a silent reading class.

00:27:29.019 --> 00:27:35.340
Her classmates came over, picked up her book, asked what it was, and they couldn't get past the first paragraph.

00:27:35.660 --> 00:27:38.299
She told them what every word they asked questionable.

00:27:38.620 --> 00:27:39.580
What's the definition of this?

00:27:39.660 --> 00:27:40.539
She told them.

00:27:40.779 --> 00:27:42.220
Teacher calls her mom.

00:27:42.460 --> 00:27:44.700
I thought your daughter had a severe reading problem.

00:27:44.779 --> 00:27:47.019
She's the best reader in the class by grade levels.

00:27:47.180 --> 00:27:47.980
What's going on?

00:27:48.220 --> 00:27:52.620
She asked me, I said, What do you think she's been doing in her room all night?

00:27:52.940 --> 00:27:54.220
Night in, night out.

00:27:54.380 --> 00:27:59.660
And she was we worked with her for another couple of years and she was ready for college at the end of eighth grade.

00:27:59.900 --> 00:28:06.140
So when people say they can't they can't this can't be done, it absolutely can be done.

00:28:06.380 --> 00:28:12.299
If a 10-year-old and 10-year-old or 11-year-old can do it, your kids in college can do it as well.

00:28:12.539 --> 00:28:14.539
I know some adults that can't do that.

00:28:15.259 --> 00:28:17.259
Yeah, I've run into quite a few.

00:28:17.420 --> 00:28:20.539
I have run into adults who have master's degrees.

00:28:20.700 --> 00:28:24.460
As I said, I love using this as an example.

00:28:24.620 --> 00:28:29.100
What's the second, what's the second and most important universal theme for Disney Magic?

00:28:29.259 --> 00:28:31.420
And none of the parents could ever have done it.

00:28:31.580 --> 00:28:33.500
I had doctors, lawyers.

00:28:33.660 --> 00:28:37.500
I mean, they're you they're listening to the audiobook as they're going to work and back.

00:28:37.580 --> 00:28:38.700
I have their kids pointed out.

00:28:38.940 --> 00:28:40.380
Pretty much answers the question.

00:28:40.539 --> 00:28:42.380
I said, reading words is one thing.

00:28:42.539 --> 00:28:46.539
Comprehending what you're they're saying in an involved book is quite another.

00:28:46.700 --> 00:28:49.580
And your middle school child just outdid you.

00:28:50.220 --> 00:28:51.500
Did I do my job?

00:28:51.660 --> 00:28:56.620
And they they a lot of times the parents just laugh and say, I can't believe my kid out outdid me.

00:28:56.779 --> 00:28:59.740
I said, Well, wait until she's in grad school.

00:28:59.820 --> 00:29:02.700
Then you'll see really what it's like for her to outdo her.

00:29:02.940 --> 00:29:10.140
That original program I told you about, uh, I had to get it approved by Professor James Collins at SUNY Center of Buffalo.

00:29:10.220 --> 00:29:15.500
He had a million and a half dollar grant from the federal government, wrote a book called Strategies for Struggling Writers.

00:29:15.740 --> 00:29:19.340
Guess how long it took me to get the approval since I first approached him?

00:29:19.500 --> 00:29:20.140
I don't know.

00:29:20.620 --> 00:29:21.420
Good weeks.

00:29:21.740 --> 00:29:22.539
A little under.

00:29:23.019 --> 00:29:23.500
Wow.

00:29:23.660 --> 00:29:25.019
I was told it was going to take years.

00:29:25.259 --> 00:29:27.660
Graduate school dyslexics excel.

00:29:28.299 --> 00:29:36.060
Because we're in our specialty, in our area of extreme interest and ability, and all they care about is the generation of ideas.

00:29:37.100 --> 00:29:37.580
All right.

00:29:37.740 --> 00:29:38.700
That's all they care about.

00:29:38.779 --> 00:29:40.140
It's the currency of the realm.

00:29:40.220 --> 00:29:41.580
And we excel at that.

00:29:41.740 --> 00:29:45.340
And that's the first time when we can really, really specialize.

00:29:45.500 --> 00:29:47.019
That's what it comes down to.

00:29:47.259 --> 00:29:51.580
And when you're when the parents ask, well, how can we deal with this?

00:29:51.900 --> 00:29:58.220
Because going to the top dyslectic college in America, it's called Landmark College.

00:29:58.299 --> 00:29:59.660
It's up in Vermont.

00:29:59.820 --> 00:30:01.980
And they are a fantastic college.

00:30:02.220 --> 00:30:05.420
You send your child there, they do solve the problems.

00:30:06.060 --> 00:30:09.500
It's also one of the most expensive private schools in the United States.

00:30:09.740 --> 00:30:11.420
It's house money.

00:30:11.900 --> 00:30:16.779
And what I tell parents is they can teach their parents teach their kids at home.

00:30:17.019 --> 00:30:18.620
And that's what we show them how to do.

00:30:18.779 --> 00:30:22.299
We start off with context, problem solution.

00:30:22.460 --> 00:30:25.900
And here's the difference thing with the approach that I'm working with.

00:30:26.060 --> 00:30:29.420
The best approach traditionally is called Orton Gillingham, multi-sensory.

00:30:29.500 --> 00:30:31.820
The older the child is, the longer it takes.

00:30:31.900 --> 00:30:45.100
So once you haven't fixed dyslexia by fourth grade or fifth grade, it's you're in a private dyslectic school for four to five years, and they generally run around$60,000,$80,000 a year.

00:30:45.420 --> 00:30:46.060
Wow.

00:30:46.380 --> 00:30:47.019
Yeah.

00:30:47.340 --> 00:30:51.100
That's and the longer you wait, the longer it takes.

00:30:51.420 --> 00:30:56.140
With my approach, the older the child is, the quicker they learn.

00:30:56.460 --> 00:30:58.860
I go to where they need to end up.

00:30:59.100 --> 00:31:00.860
I don't start off at the beginning.

00:31:00.940 --> 00:31:03.500
I show I bring them immediately to where they need to be.

00:31:03.740 --> 00:31:08.220
So the older the kids will go through the process so much faster.

00:31:08.460 --> 00:31:11.660
So if you're in college, I've done this numerous times.

00:31:11.900 --> 00:31:17.100
If you're looking to be enter a community college, it's what I like to call head and hands.

00:31:17.660 --> 00:31:20.460
These are not our grandfather's manufacturing jobs.

00:31:20.620 --> 00:31:28.779
You really do need an associate's degree to work to work with the machines who do the manufacturing, or you're an electrician, a plumber going into nursing.

00:31:29.019 --> 00:31:33.980
You do auto mechanics, you need to be able to work with your head and your hands.

00:31:34.140 --> 00:31:38.940
So we go through context and problem, and that'll get you through a community college.

00:31:39.340 --> 00:31:45.100
If you're going into a four-year school, we have to do context, problem, and solution so you can come up with something original.

00:31:45.340 --> 00:31:50.380
Here's the problem with a big part of failure to launch nowadays.

00:31:50.539 --> 00:31:53.100
And it really hit just this year.

00:31:53.180 --> 00:31:55.820
I'm sure you're familiar with the artificial intelligence.

00:31:56.060 --> 00:32:07.100
They have the guy who's the CEO of Anthropics believes in five years, we're going to have a 10 to 20% unemployment rate with half the kids graduating from college not getting jobs.

00:32:07.500 --> 00:32:19.500
And I can tell you that a lot I've met so many kids who graduate this year, not dyslectic, top universities with degrees in engineering, you know, real solid degrees, they can't get a job.

00:32:20.140 --> 00:32:30.460
So if you can't show up and provide instantaneous solutions, which is what the craft of brain research shows you how to do, you're not going to do very well.

00:32:30.620 --> 00:32:33.580
If you can, you don't know anything about artificial intelligence.

00:32:33.740 --> 00:32:39.420
What I try to tell parents is every time they come out with a new AI model, they want you to relearn prompt engineering.

00:32:39.580 --> 00:32:45.259
Now they just came out with Agent from OpenAI, ChatGPT, and now that goes and does things for you.

00:32:45.420 --> 00:32:46.620
You have to manage it.

00:32:46.779 --> 00:32:48.060
Don't need to keep doing that.

00:32:48.140 --> 00:32:54.060
If you know the craft of research, all three parts, we show you how to prompt engineer your child's brain.

00:32:54.539 --> 00:33:07.420
So they, even if they know nothing about artificial intelligence, they can just sit down and immediately communicate with it, speak to it, type to it, and immediately start managing it, guiding it, and getting results within hours.

00:33:07.580 --> 00:33:09.820
I've seen that happen every time.

00:33:10.060 --> 00:33:13.660
The child's not happy about it, but they know how to do it.

00:33:14.060 --> 00:33:24.860
They can do that, they can provide, they can guide it, they're gonna be on one side, they're gonna be so much more valuable, so much more productive, and they'll be compensated at a much higher rate.

00:33:25.100 --> 00:33:29.500
They can't, they're gonna be on the other side, and that's looking more and more ugly.

00:33:30.299 --> 00:33:30.620
Right.

00:33:30.860 --> 00:33:40.860
So the the simple solution for parents, now that you understand this, is what we do is we have parents, we meet with them at a weekly webinar, and we just walk you through the process.

00:33:41.180 --> 00:33:43.019
It's not difficult to teach.

00:33:43.100 --> 00:33:57.340
I've had AP English young ladies who are as young as 14 learn this process and take elementary school kids and get them up to reading and writing skills, not as quickly as parents can, but usually about 30 to 40 percent more time.

00:33:57.980 --> 00:34:01.180
And just dissolve, it's not that complicated to do.

00:34:01.259 --> 00:34:03.340
And that's simply how you how you get past it.

00:34:03.580 --> 00:34:03.900
Okay.

00:34:05.100 --> 00:34:12.860
So we if we have parents that are listening that have a child that is dyslexic, and again, I have to say that you're the expert at this.

00:34:12.940 --> 00:34:19.739
I'm you know, I know I know, you know, everything I know about dyslexia, you can fit on the top of my finger here, right?

00:34:20.219 --> 00:34:32.699
So I don't I don't really I guess I don't really under I don't know how to ask an intelligent question here other than I know who my listening audience is, and let's say I have par a parent that would that has a child that's dyslexic.

00:34:32.940 --> 00:34:34.139
Where where do they start?

00:34:34.460 --> 00:34:39.739
I mean the first thing is um I'm assuming that they're in some sort of college.

00:34:39.900 --> 00:34:47.820
So what I would recommend is your child is probably spiraling to fail out of college or getting close to it.

00:34:48.139 --> 00:34:58.619
I would say the next semester, find out what the speciality is, set them up for 12 credits in that area, and then just give them a semester of them doing whatever they like.

00:34:58.940 --> 00:35:03.739
So for example, I had one kid who was really he's really interested in American history.

00:35:03.900 --> 00:35:06.779
He was majoring in something else, but he loved American history.

00:35:06.860 --> 00:35:11.980
He just knew he wanted to get a job afterwards, and American history wasn't going to do it.

00:35:12.219 --> 00:35:16.299
So I we gave him a semester, 12 credits of just doing that.

00:35:16.539 --> 00:35:24.139
And then I started, I showed the mom, it's I hate to say this, but it's like 90% moms most of the time.

00:35:24.539 --> 00:35:39.579
I should I showed her how to do context and problems, and she worked with him through Zoom and walked him through the process, and he picked that up within a semester to say, college kids pick this up so much faster than high school kids.

00:35:40.059 --> 00:35:42.619
And he had his semester, he got a chance to work with it.

00:35:42.860 --> 00:35:45.900
Next semester, he went back into his major, he was getting a 3.0.

00:35:45.980 --> 00:35:47.420
It's a complete turnaround.

00:35:47.739 --> 00:35:52.219
He ended up graduating, got a good job, and success story.

00:35:52.619 --> 00:35:55.179
So I've seen that happen so many times.

00:35:55.259 --> 00:36:10.059
Or another time, it's a failure to launch because they got their degree, maybe even a master's degree, but when they go out into the workforce, they now expect students to be able to be productive like the day you walk in, like the minute you walk in.

00:36:10.139 --> 00:36:11.259
Here's something, go do it.

00:36:11.420 --> 00:36:14.219
And they just couldn't keep up with the reading and writing issues.

00:36:14.539 --> 00:36:19.099
So I said, okay, we're going to go and take three to six months.

00:36:19.259 --> 00:36:21.980
We're going to go through the context problem issue.

00:36:22.139 --> 00:36:27.900
Sometimes we would spend another six months and go through the solution and show the parents how to do this.

00:36:27.980 --> 00:36:31.659
They work with they work with a child, they go back, they walk in.

00:36:32.219 --> 00:36:35.500
Here's the folder, give me an immediate response, and then they can.

00:36:35.659 --> 00:36:53.259
So it's simply taking the skills required in the craft of research and teaching it to your dyslectic child in a way that maximizes their understanding, focusing on their speciality, teaching from the specific to the general, and then word analysis followed by articulation, and then you're you're golden.

00:36:53.340 --> 00:36:54.779
That's how our brain is being works.

00:36:55.019 --> 00:36:58.940
How do you differentiate between structured literacy and generic methods?

00:36:59.340 --> 00:37:03.820
Structured literacy is another way of Orton Gillingham.

00:37:04.619 --> 00:37:06.940
It's a multi-sensory structur.

00:37:07.019 --> 00:37:07.739
That's where it comes from.

00:37:07.819 --> 00:37:09.019
So let me ask you a question.

00:37:09.259 --> 00:37:14.059
When you were when you were working, what was your for your career, what did you do predominantly?

00:37:14.379 --> 00:37:14.940
IT.

00:37:16.059 --> 00:37:16.379
Okay.

00:37:17.339 --> 00:37:24.859
Did things change that much since when you uh since when you were a kid until you retired from that?

00:37:25.419 --> 00:37:26.460
Absolutely.

00:37:26.779 --> 00:37:27.099
Okay.

00:37:27.339 --> 00:37:29.819
And the structured literacy, it hasn't changed much.

00:37:29.980 --> 00:37:30.299
Okay.

00:37:30.859 --> 00:37:35.899
So again, would I go back to Can you define what structured literacy is?

00:37:36.139 --> 00:37:37.099
Is that.

00:37:37.419 --> 00:37:42.699
Structured literacy is another way of saying Orton Gillingham multisensory.

00:37:42.859 --> 00:37:43.419
So what Dr.

00:37:43.500 --> 00:37:52.219
Orton found, remember, he passed away in 48, is that to overcome dyslexia you use multi-senses, seeing, touching, hearing.

00:37:52.539 --> 00:37:52.859
All right.

00:37:53.179 --> 00:37:57.419
Let me give you an example of how uh going past that.

00:37:57.579 --> 00:38:03.019
So let's say, could you imagine a student who's writing essentially randomly placed misspelled words.

00:38:03.099 --> 00:38:05.259
They can't even write a basic three-word sentence.

00:38:06.059 --> 00:38:06.299
Sure.

00:38:06.460 --> 00:38:08.219
I know adults who can't do that.

00:38:08.539 --> 00:38:08.859
Okay.

00:38:09.019 --> 00:38:11.500
Well, I'm going to show you how to fix that in about five minutes.

00:38:11.899 --> 00:38:12.139
All right.

00:38:12.379 --> 00:38:19.739
Orton Gillingham would take you about, it's two years to learn, structured literacy,$11,000 in a non-for-profit.

00:38:19.899 --> 00:38:21.339
It would take you weeks to learn this.

00:38:21.500 --> 00:38:23.259
So I'm going to show you how to do it in five minutes.

00:38:23.339 --> 00:38:26.379
So let's call, I'm just going to use an example I use all the time.

00:38:26.539 --> 00:38:27.579
Her name is Sarah.

00:38:27.739 --> 00:38:29.019
She's 10 years old.

00:38:29.179 --> 00:38:31.019
Her favorite thing in the world is swimming.

00:38:31.259 --> 00:38:34.779
Swimming swims, she's on the swim team, swims every chance you get.

00:38:35.179 --> 00:38:42.859
So what we have you do is we have you type out, not handwrite, type out on a keyboard, not an iPad, not an iPhone, a real keyboard, usually a laptop.

00:38:43.179 --> 00:38:46.139
Hero plus sign, what are we talking about?

00:38:46.779 --> 00:38:48.219
Replace hero with Sarah.

00:38:48.379 --> 00:38:50.539
Sarah plus sign, what are we talking about?

00:38:50.699 --> 00:38:52.779
We replace what are we talking about with swimming?

00:38:52.940 --> 00:38:54.379
Sarah plus sign swimming.

00:38:54.619 --> 00:38:55.579
See how we got there?

00:38:55.739 --> 00:38:56.059
Okay.

00:38:56.299 --> 00:38:57.579
Now here's my question.

00:38:57.739 --> 00:39:01.579
90% of special ed teachers, when I do this at major conferences, get it wrong.

00:39:02.059 --> 00:39:04.699
Because they don't follow exactly what I'm saying.

00:39:05.099 --> 00:39:06.059
Here's my question.

00:39:06.219 --> 00:39:07.739
You have to follow it exactly.

00:39:08.059 --> 00:39:11.339
Does Sarah like or dislike swimming?

00:39:11.579 --> 00:39:12.460
She likes.

00:39:12.859 --> 00:39:13.179
Okay.

00:39:13.500 --> 00:39:15.500
Replace that word with a plus sign.

00:39:15.659 --> 00:39:16.940
What's the three-word sentence?

00:39:17.179 --> 00:39:18.539
Sarah likes swimming.

00:39:18.940 --> 00:39:20.460
Yes, but that's not what I asked.

00:39:20.619 --> 00:39:23.419
I asked, does Sarah like or disliked swimming?

00:39:23.579 --> 00:39:29.419
You automatically added the yes and you replaced it, and we got Sarah likes swimming.

00:39:29.659 --> 00:39:32.539
But Sarah would say like because that's what I asked her.

00:39:32.619 --> 00:39:34.539
She doesn't know how to add the S.

00:39:35.419 --> 00:39:36.699
Sarah likes swimming.

00:39:37.099 --> 00:39:37.419
Right.

00:39:37.980 --> 00:39:40.699
Yeah, you automatically add that because you you know how to do it.

00:39:40.779 --> 00:39:41.579
You're educated.

00:39:41.739 --> 00:39:42.779
She can't.

00:39:43.019 --> 00:39:43.339
Right.

00:39:43.419 --> 00:39:43.739
Okay.

00:39:44.059 --> 00:39:55.579
So structured literacy is literally a multi-sensory approach on how to use seeing, touching, hearing, all the senses and all these other ideas on how to get Sarah to add the letter S.

00:39:55.659 --> 00:39:57.899
And it's complicated as all heck.

00:39:58.299 --> 00:40:00.619
We need a much more simplified approach.

00:40:00.779 --> 00:40:05.659
And my one caveat is I expect the child to be able to speak proper English.

00:40:05.899 --> 00:40:09.099
If the parents speak proper English, generally you find the children do as well.

00:40:09.259 --> 00:40:13.899
So with that caveat, I'll ask Sarah, do you like or dislike swimming?

00:40:14.059 --> 00:40:15.899
Like, okay, replace the plus sign.

00:40:16.059 --> 00:40:17.339
Sarah likes swimming.

00:40:17.579 --> 00:40:19.339
But how do we get her to add the yes?

00:40:19.500 --> 00:40:21.579
I would ask Sarah to read it out loud.

00:40:21.819 --> 00:40:25.339
Then I would ask her, does it sound generally correct?

00:40:25.579 --> 00:40:26.940
She will say, no.

00:40:27.179 --> 00:40:28.460
And I'll say, fix it.

00:40:28.619 --> 00:40:29.419
So she fixes it.

00:40:29.500 --> 00:40:30.460
Sarah likes swimming.

00:40:31.179 --> 00:40:32.299
That's one part.

00:40:32.539 --> 00:40:39.500
The second part is I want you to imagine we do that, you know, with 10 likes and 10 dislikes.

00:40:39.659 --> 00:40:42.460
Then we go on to reason, and we start off with reason one.

00:40:42.859 --> 00:40:45.419
Sarah likes swimming because it's fun.

00:40:46.139 --> 00:40:50.299
But she's starting to probably make a lot of spelling mistakes or grammar mistakes.

00:40:50.379 --> 00:40:56.460
So what we do is we tell the child before you put down the period, you can ask any question.

00:40:56.699 --> 00:41:01.339
Once you drop the period, if you make a mistake, you gotta retype the entire sentence.

00:41:01.579 --> 00:41:05.500
That's a spelling mistake or a major, and I mean major grammatical mistake.

00:41:05.739 --> 00:41:09.339
Or before the period, you can just ask, did I spell swimming correctly?

00:41:09.500 --> 00:41:12.299
And we'll tell you, and you then you just have to retype that word.

00:41:12.539 --> 00:41:13.500
What do the kids do?

00:41:13.579 --> 00:41:14.940
They drop the period.

00:41:15.179 --> 00:41:18.539
So then they say, Oh, I gotta rewrite the entire sentence.

00:41:18.619 --> 00:41:19.739
I say one of two things.

00:41:19.899 --> 00:41:22.379
You made a silly mistake or a silly error.

00:41:22.619 --> 00:41:23.659
One of those two.

00:41:24.059 --> 00:41:25.259
They're the least offensive.

00:41:25.339 --> 00:41:29.659
So as she's going through this, she's like, I'm not gonna make that mistake, like misspelling swimming.

00:41:29.899 --> 00:41:32.779
Seven times down, she's still misspelling the word.

00:41:32.940 --> 00:41:34.379
I'm not gonna make that mistake.

00:41:34.539 --> 00:41:42.779
And she hyper concentrates more and more to where it's the concentration you'd see like chess masters at the World Championship.

00:41:42.859 --> 00:41:46.059
And she's hyper concentrating, and that's where the magic happens.

00:41:46.299 --> 00:41:52.539
So sometime between number three or number 12, she finally gets it right, and you can move on.

00:41:52.859 --> 00:42:00.379
And you're gonna find her keep making that mistake, hyper concentrating to avoid to, because she has to retype the whole thing.

00:42:00.539 --> 00:42:03.899
She keeps dropping the period until it eventually corrects itself.

00:42:04.059 --> 00:42:11.500
And as you do that through reason one, we do that 20 times, reason one and reason two 20 times, reason one, reason two, and reason three twenty times.

00:42:11.739 --> 00:42:20.699
By the time you get done with 86 sentences correctly, we have now taken that child from writing at the kindergarten level to end of second grade, beginning third grade.

00:42:20.940 --> 00:42:27.659
I really wish I wish my wife was on this on this interview because she probably would understand a lot of what you're saying.

00:42:28.059 --> 00:42:30.379
Well, do you see how simple what I just told you was?

00:42:30.619 --> 00:42:31.579
Yeah, absolutely.

00:42:31.819 --> 00:42:32.139
Okay.

00:42:32.379 --> 00:42:41.419
Now, for your wife as a special ed teacher, the way that she was trained, yeah, she can take a kid from kindergarten or beginning first grade to the end of second, beginning third grade.

00:42:41.579 --> 00:42:42.539
Of course she can.

00:42:42.779 --> 00:42:45.500
It's going to take a lot longer using the other methods.

00:42:45.579 --> 00:42:48.779
So, structured literacy, this is the exact opposite.

00:42:49.019 --> 00:42:57.099
Because what I'm doing is, again, I am focusing on the front part of the brain, and I'm not trying to focus on what's going on in the back.

00:42:57.500 --> 00:42:59.899
That's really oversimplifying neuroactivity.

00:43:00.139 --> 00:43:04.139
But there we just brought it, we just had a multiple grade level improvement.

00:43:04.219 --> 00:43:07.099
And for a young kid, that might take a couple of weeks.

00:43:07.179 --> 00:43:10.379
I had I had some students take two months to go through that.

00:43:10.699 --> 00:43:12.859
Because, you know, they're seven.

00:43:13.339 --> 00:43:13.899
All right.

00:43:14.139 --> 00:43:21.179
But if I have a kid in college age who can't do that, they'll go through that drastically faster.

00:43:21.339 --> 00:43:24.059
I had one kid who had just horrendous writing.

00:43:24.219 --> 00:43:25.659
He was through that in three days.

00:43:25.819 --> 00:43:27.819
The older you are, the quicker you go through it.

00:43:27.980 --> 00:43:33.259
So it's that we just continue with that type of process through the solution.

00:43:33.739 --> 00:43:46.219
It's all very for me to teach your wife how to take a kid from I can't write a basic sentence all the way through, let's say, eighth grade level writing, I can do that within six hours.

00:43:46.379 --> 00:43:47.339
It's that simple.

00:43:47.579 --> 00:43:49.980
Not weeks, not months, a day.

00:43:50.139 --> 00:43:53.500
Parents take a little longer, and that's why we have a weekly webinar for them.

00:43:53.739 --> 00:43:55.099
Parents can do this.

00:43:55.339 --> 00:43:56.059
You can do this.

00:43:56.219 --> 00:43:57.980
This is not that complicated.

00:43:58.779 --> 00:44:00.940
And you try it, things aren't working out.

00:44:01.099 --> 00:44:04.460
We meet every, you know, we meet every week and you ask me what's going on.

00:44:04.619 --> 00:44:07.899
Okay, here's the problem you're having, here's how you here's how you fix it.

00:44:08.539 --> 00:44:09.739
And then you just keep going.

00:44:09.899 --> 00:44:12.059
And it's it's again, it's it's not that hard to do.

00:44:12.299 --> 00:44:14.539
If you know what you're doing, it's not that hard to do.

00:44:14.859 --> 00:44:17.179
As I said, I just went through it really fast.

00:44:17.259 --> 00:44:22.779
If you went back and replayed that a couple of times, ask a few questions, you could start doing it as well.

00:44:22.859 --> 00:44:27.899
It's it's really I've had 14-year-old AP English girls do this very successfully.

00:44:28.219 --> 00:44:32.219
So can you share the key steps to fostering confidence in dyslexic children?

00:44:32.539 --> 00:44:36.299
Well, first thing that you need to do is to two primary things.

00:44:36.460 --> 00:44:52.699
Get them within their specialty for at least a semester, okay, or if they've already graduated, find out what their specialty is and work with them to overcome their concerns in that area, and stop trying to teach these kids from the general to the specific.

00:44:53.099 --> 00:44:55.980
You have to teach them from the specific to the general.

00:44:56.139 --> 00:45:07.899
So, for example, if you were to ask very standard civil rights question in history, what effect did Martin Luther King's famous I Have a Dream Speech have the 1960 civil rights movement?

00:45:08.139 --> 00:45:11.259
The dyslectic has no idea what to do.

00:45:11.659 --> 00:45:17.819
I mean, where do we, because we're thinking so fast, so chaotically, there's nothing to latch on to.

00:45:17.980 --> 00:45:25.980
But if we ask the dyslectic student, what personally compelled Martin Luther King to want to give his famous I Have a Dream speech?

00:45:26.219 --> 00:45:28.460
Well, that's something we can bite into.

00:45:28.539 --> 00:45:37.339
It's a very specific point, and we can go through his biography, you know, appropriate journal articles, find out what that is, and then ask questions, what's the next question?

00:45:37.500 --> 00:45:38.539
What's the next question?

00:45:38.619 --> 00:45:43.179
It forces us to think in a linear, step-by-step manner.

00:45:43.419 --> 00:45:49.099
And all I do is I show students how to practice that so many times that it becomes part of them.

00:45:49.259 --> 00:45:56.219
We organize the chaos, and then the spelling, grammar, and all those issues tend to self-correct in a huge way.

00:45:56.539 --> 00:45:56.859
Awesome.

00:45:57.019 --> 00:46:00.059
So how do you view the role of passion in dyslexic learning?

00:46:00.379 --> 00:46:07.659
When if a dyslectic is outside their speciality, even with the most motivated kid in the world, you're you're you're down 50%.

00:46:08.139 --> 00:46:10.059
Most students, you're down 75, 80%.

00:46:10.539 --> 00:46:12.379
You're literally shooting yourself in the foot.

00:46:12.539 --> 00:46:18.539
So if they're not in their specialty, in their area of extreme interest and ability, it's pretty much a lost cause.

00:46:18.859 --> 00:46:22.699
Even with a most motivated kid, they're still going to underperform hugely.

00:46:22.940 --> 00:46:27.419
Find out a combination of what they're interested in.

00:46:27.579 --> 00:46:38.139
Maybe it's not the what they're most interested in, but what they're they at least have some interest in and help them find a college major in future employment based on that.

00:46:38.940 --> 00:46:43.659
So if for example, you were in IT, why did you go into it?

00:46:43.899 --> 00:46:46.460
Why not somet something else?

00:46:47.419 --> 00:46:56.940
Well, I actually uh tr transitioned from law enforcement to uh IT, and I did that because my wife and I got married in May of 1990, and she wasn't real thick.

00:46:57.339 --> 00:47:02.699
thrilled with me working at night and wondering if I was gonna come home in one piece in the morning, right?

00:47:03.019 --> 00:47:12.619
And so I I uh it's a long story, but I I got into IT uh and um I I just like fixing things.

00:47:12.779 --> 00:47:18.779
I like I like fixing solving problems so that so that people can do their jobs, right?

00:47:18.940 --> 00:47:21.419
You know, and we're talking about you were very good at it.

00:47:21.659 --> 00:47:28.940
Now what is something that is um you would expect for intellectual work that you're just horrible at?

00:47:29.179 --> 00:47:29.980
Me personally?

00:47:30.219 --> 00:47:36.379
Yes something that you're just absolutely just horrible at Well I suck at math.

00:47:36.539 --> 00:47:37.419
Does that count?

00:47:37.739 --> 00:47:50.539
Okay so imagine that your future employment you know let's go back to when you're married and you're you were told well congratulations you're gonna become a math professor if you can't do that you're unemployed.

00:47:50.699 --> 00:47:55.819
How do you think that would make you feel I I would have been like oh shit I guess I'm unemployed.

00:47:56.139 --> 00:48:07.659
That's dyslexia okay that it it's that's essentially what our system requires students to become well rounded educationally before they can specialize.

00:48:07.899 --> 00:48:22.859
So let let me ask this let's go back to your wife she went into special education now she was able to become well rounded she she learned what she was supposed to as an undergrad but if she was dyslectic she would have just wanted to become a special ed teacher.

00:48:23.019 --> 00:48:39.259
She wouldn't have wanted to do done all the other stuff and she somehow would have gotten through it all right but once she was in grad school do you think her professors cared at all if she could do a calculus problem they could care less.

00:48:39.579 --> 00:48:47.980
We are a society of specialists you were in law enforcement very specialized you were in IT very specialized.

00:48:48.219 --> 00:48:54.299
Nobody cared about your ability if you could read Shakespeare in IT they just don't care.

00:48:54.460 --> 00:48:54.779
Okay?

00:48:55.099 --> 00:49:03.099
So what we need to do with the dyslectic is it's like telling you you're gonna be a math professor and you're just like well I'm gonna be unemployed.

00:49:03.259 --> 00:49:06.299
That's exactly what it feels like to be a dyslectic.

00:49:06.699 --> 00:49:22.219
So how do we break this cycle that just hasn't stopped since the kid was in first grade what you have to do is focus on their speciality for a semester or if they're out of college find something they're really interested in maybe take some additional training courses in it.

00:49:22.299 --> 00:49:28.299
You can go to there's a there's a place called Udemy U D E M Y trains you in just about anything out there.

00:49:28.460 --> 00:49:30.699
Maybe take some of those classes at home.

00:49:30.940 --> 00:49:42.779
All right focus on their speciality learn from the specific to the general and let me show you how to do context through problem and they'll be fine it really comes down to being that simple.

00:49:43.019 --> 00:49:48.219
Hey let me share this website that you said you wanted me to share while we were talking it's uh getting there.

00:49:48.379 --> 00:49:48.699
There we go.

00:49:48.940 --> 00:50:02.619
Yeah we gave you a customized link to that so what happens is if parents have a concern kind of discusses what we discussed in the podcast today the three reasons your child's dyslexia education isn't working and how to fix it.

00:50:02.940 --> 00:50:15.980
And you just answer though fill out the form we set up a 15 minute conversation and all I do is ask those two questions to your dyslectic child and ask is this how they'd like to overcome their concerns.

00:50:16.299 --> 00:50:30.619
And the vast majority of the time it's yes and then it's simply a matter of arranging for me to invite the parents into the process and the key thing is to make things affordable we show the parents how to do this themselves.

00:50:30.859 --> 00:50:49.419
You're not spending$150 to$300 an hour for an Orton Gillingham certified tutor who by the way I'm not joking Upper Eastside family I saw this so many times they would start working with a child in when they're in sixth grade and then when they're in their master's program they're still working with them.

00:50:49.579 --> 00:50:59.259
Stuff hasn't changed a lot since the 1950s I got you so if I show that so if I show that link that you sent me an email in my show notes they can get to it.

00:50:59.579 --> 00:51:10.779
Yeah they just click on that and fill the form out and we're here and we're here to help you get right back to you you set up a convenient time and we go through we just show you how to do all this in 15 minutes.

00:51:11.099 --> 00:51:12.299
That's awesome.

00:51:12.539 --> 00:51:17.739
Well Russell I appreciate you being on the podcast episode today shared a lot of good information.

00:51:17.899 --> 00:51:25.659
Some of it went right over my head but hopefully the listening audience uh will pick up on a lot of that or at least contact you and go from there.

00:51:26.379 --> 00:51:28.059
So well thanks for having me.

00:51:28.299 --> 00:51:33.019
Yeah so that's gonna that's going to wrap up this episode of ABC's parenting adult children.

00:51:33.099 --> 00:51:38.379
I hope today's conversation gave you some encouragement and practical steps you can try in your own family.

00:51:38.619 --> 00:51:46.699
If you found this helpful would you do me a favor, hit that subscribe button share this episode with a friend who's also navigating the parenting journey and leave a quick review.

00:51:46.779 --> 00:51:48.859
It really helps others find this podcast.

00:51:49.019 --> 00:52:03.899
I'd also love to hear your stories how are you working through these challenges with your adult children send me an email at talkpac at proton.me that's talkpac at proton dot me or connect with me on social media links are in the show notes.

00:52:04.139 --> 00:52:10.539
Next week we're going to talk with Rick and Clancy Denton with the loud quiet empty nest podcast it's going to be a good one.

00:52:10.779 --> 00:52:14.779
Thanks for listening and remember parenting doesn't stop when they turn 18.

00:52:14.859 --> 00:52:16.139
It just changes shape.

00:52:16.299 --> 00:52:20.859
And thanks for the privilege of your time and Russell again thank you again for being here.

00:52:21.179 --> 00:52:22.619
Thanks for having me.

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Please tune in next week for another episode of our podcast on parenting adult children