Brodie's Story Part 1
"I would never have begun to imagine that he could make progress on the scale that he has. It 's been absolutely incredible".
That's Heather Walker, grandmother of Brodie, an 11 year old severely dyslexic boy, describing the extraordinary improvements that the Fast ForWord program made to his reading.
Auditory Processing Disorder (APD) and Dyslexia are related conditions. LearnFast interviewed Dr Martha Burns, international expert on dyslexia and APD, about how they are connected and how we can treat them.
Key points from the interview included:
How does a parent or teacher decide where to get help for dyslexic children? How do you sort effective treatments from those that make confident claims to cure dyslexia?
LearnFast asked Devon Barnes, speech pathologist and dyslexia specialist for her advice.
Key points from the interview included:
“Dyslexia” is a term used widely, and often not very accurately, to describe a range of reading difficulties. Because parents often struggle to know whether their child’s difficulties with learning to read are related to dyslexia, LearnFast recorded a video interview with speech language pathologist and dyslexia specialist, Devon Barnes and asked her to explain dyslexia.
Interview with Dr Martha Burns, international dyslexia expert
As anyone with a ‘dyslexic’ child, student or family member will probably know, “dyslexia” is a term used widely, and often not very accurately, to describe a range of reading difficulties. To get some clarity about dyslexia, what exactly Dyslexia is, and the issues for parents and teachers of dyslexic children, LearnFast recorded a video interview with Dr Martha Burns, international dyslexia expert.
Key points from the interview included:
The 60 Minutes program on Channel 9 (Australia) on Sunday June 1, 2014 included a segment about the Arrowsmith School, and featured some children from the 35 Australian families currently at the school in Canada.
The Arrowsmith program was developed by Barbara Arrowsmith- Young and uses the principles of brain plasticity to improve the learning abilities of children with a range of learning disabilities including dyslexia.
Families who have gone to the Arrowsmith School report very significant improvements in their children. If your child has a severe learning problem, they may be able to be helped by the Arrowsmith program.
Right now it is necessary for them to go to Canada because there are very few places in Australia and New Zealand where the program is available. Of course this involves considerable cost/financial sacrifice and potential disruption to their families as one parent usually accompanies the child to Canada.
An alternative for families contemplating relocating to Canada for the duration of their child’s attendance at the Arrowsmith School is to consider Fast ForWord, a brain plasticity program that improves learning capacity for all students, including those with severe learning difficulties.
Parents of children with dyslexia can be overwhelmed by conflicting advice about how best to help their children.
Often well meaning friends and others professing to have a “cure” for dyslexia can confuse parents anxious about their child’s inability to read as well as other children of the same age.
Fortunately there is a lot of well conducted science now available to inform us about how to improve the learning outcomes for those with dyslexia. The scientific research is clearly indicating that there is a strong link between many children’s poor auditory processing skills and their struggles with reading, including dyslexia.
