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Showing posts from December, 2018

100 Powerful Learning Specialist and Educational Therapy Materials

This week I wanted to tell you about my online store, Good Sensory Learning. I’m Dr. Erica Warren, and I established this site so I could share all the materials that I have created over the last 20+ years as a learning specialist and educational therapist. When I first began my private practice, Learning to Learn, I had great difficulty finding fun and multisensory materials for my students that were effective and engaging. So back in 2005, I made it my mission to design and distribute high-end, remedial products as well as memorable, motivating lessons that bring delight to learning. If you would like to try a free sampling of my activities , CLICK HERE . How Are the Products Organized at Good Sensory Learning? You can download my Free Printable Catalog or you can browse the site using the grey “search all products” bar in the top right of any page with keywords such as dyslexia, working memory, and executive functioning. What’s more, drop down menus in the red banner allow you t...

5 Reasons Why Dyslexics Should Avoid a Foreign Language

Foreign language courses are mandatory for graduation in many high schools and colleges, however, for some students with language-based learning disabilities such as dyslexia, this requirement may feel insurmountable. Luckily, schools and even Ivy League colleges, such as Dartmouth, are now granting students with well-documented learning disabilities waivers of foreign language requirements. Laws such as the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 have now paved the way to reasonable accommodations and substitution courses that have widened the route to graduation. 5 Reasons Dyslexic Students Should Avoid Traditional Foreign Languages Dyslexia is a language-based learning disability , and learning a foreign language presents the same difficulties with decoding, spelling, and writing as with the English language. Foreign language teachers are not trained to identify and accommodate the diverse learning needs of students with learning disabilities. Most schools and colle...

How to Assess a Student's Reading Needs

Over the years, when I have worked with struggling readers, I have found that they all come with knowledge as well as knowledge gaps.  In fact, each student presents their own unique patchwork of knowns and unknowns.  I believe that it is my job to quickly evaluate, uncover, and fill the pits an pockets so I can forge a strong foundation and play catchup to a forward bounding curriculum. Why Should I Assess the Reading Needs of a Struggling Reader? I have found that no two students have the same strengths and weaknesses.  Likewise, struggling readers, even those that come with diagnoses such as dyslexia, all come with a different knowledge base and areas that require instruction and remediation.  Unfortunately, many reading programs make all participants go through a lengthy process from square one and progress can be slow and time-consuming.  In contrast, evaluating foundational reading skills at the beginning of any program can uncover acco...