Indice dei contenuti per March 2023 in Dystinct Magazine

These are words of wisdom shared by William Jack, the dyslexic entrepreneur whose ingenious concept of robotic pizza vending machines won the Business Innovation award at the Pizza, Pasta and Italian Food Association awards held in 2022. These lines are a powerful reminder highlighting the importance of understanding and supporting individuals with learning disabilities. As parents and educators, it is crucial to recognize that dyslexia is a learning difference and not a character flaw or a result of laziness. By embracing dyslexia as a unique and valuable part of our collective human experience, we can help individuals build confidence and self-esteem, which are essential for success in all areas of life. Therefore, it is crucial to create a supportive and inclusive environment for individuals with dyslexia at schools, workplaces, and…

How did your teacher and classmates respond to your essay? My English teacher said she really liked my essay. I also shared it with my teachers from Y5, Y6 and Y8. They were really proud of me and agreed with what I said about teachers needing to know about dyslexia and other SLDs. My friends in my class know I have dyslexia, and they help me. Tell us more about yourself. I have a 7-year-old cat called Kai. I am a Scout and will go to Venturers soon. I also do free running, which is a combination of parkour and gymnastics. I love online gaming, Dungeons and Dragons, Minecraft, and Lego. I like anime and manga. I create and draw my own characters and give them backstories. I started doing…

When Mila Smith was diagnosed with dyslexia at the age of seven, she found her challenges with learning and dealing with the unsupportive school system incredibly frustrating. During this difficult time, her mum Lindsay Smith stepped in to help Mila see that she was more than her struggles with learning. Lindsay encouraged Mila to focus on all the things that made her extraordinary and unique. Together, they created a list of Mila's strengths which sparked the idea for her very own book, "This is Mila". By the time Mila was just eight years old, she had begun writing it, and by the time she reached double digits, she had already achieved the impressive feat of becoming a self-published author. Today, Mila is an eleven-year-old residing in Port of Spain, Trinidad…

Success in school and in life depends as much on our executive functioning as on our academic ability and knowledge of different subjects and skills. Good executive functions are vital to both children and adults for navigating our daily lives. Executive functions develop slowly throughout childhood, and research has shown that they may not be fully developed until around the age of 25. However, they do not always develop evenly, and for people with a learning difference, like dyslexia or ADHD, some areas can be underdeveloped. This can be confusing for both parents and teachers when a bright student struggles with organisational skills, emotions, or just remembering where they left their coat! So, what are executive functions? There are thought to be eight key areas: Impulse control Emotional control Flexible…

A STRENGTHS-BASED APPROACH NEURODIVERSITY NEEDS TO BE ACKNOWLEDGED, EMBRACED AND CELEBRATED. SADLY, FOR FAR TOO LONG, DYSLEXIA AND OTHER NEURODIVERSE LEARNING DIFFERENCES HAVE BEEN VIEWED THROUGH A NEGATIVE LENS BY OUR EDUCATION SYSTEM AND SOCIETY. Historically, society and our education system have valued conventional academic success above all else. This system dates back to the Industrial Revolution, with children sorted 'according to their date of manufacture,' progressing through a very linear, standardised model of education. Students whose brain wiring enables them to be good at reading, writing, spelling and maths succeed in this system, as these are the conventional academic markers of success. However, around 20% of students are likely to disengage in this system as it is not geared to their strengths and does not necessarily value them. Indeed,…

Ingenious and groundbreaking, the robotic pizza vending machine company Pizza Rebellion has taken Sussex by storm. Despite facing stiff competition, Pizza Rebellion emerged victorious in the Business Innovation category at the Pizza, Pasta and Italian Food Association awards held in 2022, solidifying their position as a game-changer in the industry. The brain behind this innovative business is dyslexic entrepreneur William Jack. Born to Canadian and British parents in Sydney, Australia, in the mid-70s, William recollects that he was "a kid of the world". His family frequently travelled between Montreal, where his father's family lived, the UK, where his mother's family was, and Sydney, where he attended school. William's love for food was sparked by the summer holidays spent with his grandparents in the UK. "I was a city boy, and…

Illustrator Hamish D'Alton Age 10 Dyslexia Edinburgh, Scotland Likes: Playing basketball, rugby, hockey, cricket, lego and art. Dislikes: Maths and long car journeys. Illustrator Rowenn Lehman Age 7 Dyslexia Fort Wayne, IN USA Rowenn is a seven-year-old budding artist. She is currently a first grader who is well on her way to becoming a proficient reader. She is credited with having a caring heart that loves to help others in the classroom. She loves art class and drawing animals, especially tigers! Her favorite book is When the Crayons Quit, and if she is allowed to choose what's for dinner, she will choose tacos! Illustrator Indiana D'Alton Age 13 Dyslexia Edinburgh, Scotland Likes: Netball, basketball, art & design, playing guitar, eating ice cream. Dislikes: Maths word problems Illustrator Tyler Walsh Age…

Ali* is a 2nd grade student with dyslexia. She has been diagnosed recently, and her learning needs are still being fully understood by her family, psychologist, speech pathologist, and classroom teachers. She is about 18 months behind her peers in reading and spelling. Despite trying her very best, she still has a steep learning curve ahead of her. Five years ago, my instinct would have pushed me towards "yes!"— individualised, and specialist support would be the best way to teach Ali. Today, however, I argue for the exact opposite. As the classroom teacher, I am wondering how do I best teach her English. Should I group her with the handful of classmates who also have below-expectation literacy skills and take her out of the general instruction with typically performing peers?…

Nine-year-old Nolan Courchaine from Indiana, USA, is an inspiring young boy with a passion for adventure and fun, infectiously encouraging those around him to embrace the joys of life. According to his mother, Keatha Courchaine, Nolan is a perpetually happy child who finds joy in every aspect of life, including his passion for sports and making people smile. Every season presents a new opportunity for Nolan, from running cross country and playing football in the fall to hockey in the winter and shooting sports and running in the spring. When not participating in sports, he spends his time outdoors with his pet corgi Rosie and his brother and best friend, Palmer He also loves to fish and even caught a small shark in the Florida Keys last year. Keatha first…

Imagine in year 9 you're terrible at reading and spelling, but you love to write stories, so when you show someone one of your stories, and they have no idea what you have written because you have spelt because as "becos", fight as "fite", and said as "sed" etc. There are a lot of learning differences, such as dyslexia, ADHD, dysgraphia, dyscalculia, and dyspraxia. A child can have one or more of these learning differences. Children should be tested for learning differences so they can have the help they need to be successful. A lot of people say that children, mostly boys, that struggle to read and spell or do math will come right and are just taking a bit longer to learn. The Ministry of Education has only recently…

stories Anyone who has invested time and effort into helping children who struggle with reading has a story. Most of them start with the teacher or educational professional witnessing the pain of a struggling student that believes their struggle is because they're dumb and unable to learn. These stories often continue with hope as the student receives intervention, makes progress, and starts to read. However, that is not the end of those stories. It's only the beginning. Many of these students who have made progress after years of phonics-based interventions find themselves starting to struggle again as they move into higher grades and on to more sophisticated written language. The reading specialists, resources teachers, and academic therapists we talk to say that they're not sure how to help these students.…

According to the 2022 National Assessment for Academic Progress (NAEP), over 65% of our nation's 4th graders are failing to become proficient in reading. Data collected revealed that these students do not show a solid competency of grade level reading skills, and they fail to understand how to apply foundational reading knowledge to analyze and problem-solve on real world reading and writing tasks. Generally speaking, current instructional practices are failing our students. This situation is especially frustrating because additional research suggests that over 93% of all students CAN learn to read proficiently regardless of their background if their reading instruction is grounded in systematic, evidence-based practices which align with how the brain actually processes and stores information into memory when learning to read and write (DeHaene, 2009; Lyon, 2002; Moats,…

WHAT DEFINES A GREAT STORY? A catchy title, exciting plot line, and memorable characters in conflict contribute to the most notable of narratives. But would you believe that some fascinating stories are told through thoughtfully arranged picture frames of whimsical sketches and photo-realistic paintings? Could these be great stories too? And more importantly, is this visual storytelling considered reading? Wordless picture books are books that tell a story without words. Through innovative and creative format display, a wordless picture book author invites the reader to utilize their imagination and wonder to infer the events unfolding with each turn of the page. There exists a creative variety of art expressions among these types of books. Some authors opt for black-and-white sketches, some for mixed media, and others for realistic art. Each…