Dyslexia Explored

In today’s episode of Dyslexia Explored, host Darius Namdaran warmly sits down with Arran Smith, the visionary founder of the UK’s Dyslexia Show, an event that stands at the forefront of dyslexia and neurodiversity advocacy. Arran, who himself has navigated the challenges of dyslexia, shares his compelling journey from concept to realization of the UK's primary exhibition dedicated to dyslexia...

In this inspiring episode of Dyslexia Explored, host Darius Namdaran invites listeners to delve into the remarkable story of Susan Ibitz, a testament to overcoming dyslexia's challenges. This episode is a valuable resource for parents, educators, and tutors seeking insights into dyslexia's complexities. Susan candidly shares her tumultuous journey, including the pivotal moment of being dis...

In this episode, Darius Namdaran, invites you to delve into the unique and often overlooked perspective of adults learning to read with dyslexia. We're joined by the inspiring Jamecia Blount, a documentary TV producer and executive producer of the acclaimed music documentary series "Unsung," who discovered her dyslexia in adulthood. Jamecia's story is not just about challenges, b...

Welcome to another episode of Dyslexia Explored, your go-to podcast for insights into dyslexia and executive function. This time, we're thrilled to feature Aly Young, the visionary owner of Dyslexia Reading Center and Learning Lab. She's here to demystify the Barton Reading and Spelling System, an acclaimed instructional method tailored for children with dyslexia and ADHD. Join us as we dive deep...

In this episode of Dyslexia Explored, we delve into the captivating journey of 16-year-old actor Liam Nicolosi. Not just a rising actor with a Netflix show under his belt, Liam opens up about embracing his dyslexia and how it has shaped him both personally and professionally. The episode offers a blend of inspiration and practical insights, touching on Liam’s challenges, rewards, and his advice fo...

Welcome to another inspiring episode of the Dyslexia Explored, where we delve into dyslexia and social entrepreneurship. We are thrilled to host our special guests, Shelley Gregory-Jones from Allia, a prominent fund dedicated to social entrepreneurship, and Marina Pritchard, the program coordinator fostering social entrepreneurship at Allia. Join us as we unravel the nexus between dyslexia, entrep...

Welcome to a fresh episode of Dyslexia Explored, where our host, Darius Namdaran, engages in a riveting conversation with multi-talented Sarah Ann Macklin. Together, they navigate the intriguing interplay between dyslexia and diet, challenging you to reconsider the impacts of dyslexia on everyday life. In the spotlight is Sarah Ann's captivating journey: from discovering her dyslexia at 23 to her...

🎙️ Welcome to a brand new episode of Dyslexia Explored, where we delve into the fascinating world of dyslexia and its impact on everyday lives. Today, our host Darius Namdaran is thrilled to introduce Rebecca Kamen, a former professor, visiting scholar, and artist in residence at the University of Pennsylvania. Once seen as "not college material," Rebecca has transformed her narrative into one of...

Welcome to Dyslexia Explored, the podcast that delves into the fascinating world of dyslexia and the inspiring stories of those who've overcome their struggles. In this episode, we sit down with Matt Bird, a dyslexic entrepreneur who went from feeling "stupid" at school to achieving incredible success in his adult life. Matt has written 19 books, built multiple businesses, and runs a global founda...

What is the Dyslexic Advantage? Discover insights from authors Dr. Brock and Dr. Fernette Eide. If you haven't read the Dyslexic Advantage book yet, it's a must-read as it has significantly shifted the global mindset about dyslexia. In Episode 90 of the podcast, we were honored to have Dr. Fernette Eide discuss the origins of the book. Now, we are excited to have both Drs. Brock and Fernette Eide...

Have you ever experienced rejection? It's not a pleasant feeling, but our guest for today has persevered despite being rejected by publishers 95 times. Join us this week as we discuss determination and dyslexia with Abi Elphinstone, the author of The Dream Snatcher Series and The Unmapped Chronicles. Abi grew up in Scotland, spending her weekends building dens in the woods, hiding in treehouses, a...

This week, we'll learn more about the benefits of webbing and mind mapping for children with specialized learning needs. During my recent conversation with a multisensory coach, she shared how she tutors children with dyslexia, ADHD, and other learning disabilities, which, interestingly, is a lot similar to my approach. Our guest for this week runs a reading coaching service called EBL Coaching, w...

Do you consider yourself a visual thinker? When Temple was interviewing people about how they think, she was shocked to know that some people are not thinking in pictures. She thought everybody thinks in pictures. I got the honour to talk to Temple Grandin, who is an autistic author, professor, inventor, and many more. She did not talk until she was 3 years old. Fortunately, she had a speech thera...

I had an interesting conversation with one of the ambassadors for the British Dyslexia Association (BDA) about his start-up business journey and how dyslexia somewhat paved the way for creating a sustainable clothing company. As a leader in the dyslexia community, Jake seeks to challenge people's notions about dyslexia and enable neurodivergent individuals to showcase their talents. Jake hopes tha...

If you’ve ever tried teaching your child to read, you’ll know that it's not as easy as it looks, especially for a child with a learning difference. I had a great conversation with Nora Chahbazi, the founder of Evidence-Based Literacy Instruction or EBLI. She has been training and coaching teachers, parents, and educators for over 20 years to help them teach students how to read. Nora shares her ex...

Do you constantly receive ideas and inspiration from various sources? Do you start countless hobbies or artistic pursuits with crazy ideas on a whim? You might be hypercreative. I had a very interesting conversation with Karen Daniels about hypercreativity. Karen has a Masters's degree in Education Psychology. She has also written 9 books of both fiction and non-fiction. She does content writing a...

This week, I had an interesting conversation with Sanjay Kapoor, a director for proposals for a huge company in the US. He just recently discovered that he has dyslexia and ADHD by looking at materials from Made by Dyslexia and other dyslexia organizations. He also listened to several podcasts where he found us and reached out to us. Listen to the episode and learn how Sanjay discovered his dyslex...

This week I had an interesting conversation with R.S. Mellette, a scriptwriter and author with dyslexia. He was the script coordinator for Xena the Warrior Princess, Nutty Professor 2 and Blue Crush. Mellette has also worked and blogged for the film festival Dances With Films as well as the novelist collective, From The Write Angle, and he is on the board of the L.A. region of the Society of Child...

This week, I sat down with not just one but two educational diagnosticians. Dr. Abbey Weinstein and Lauri Peterson assess people with specific learning difficulties in the US. As of today, they have tested more than 1200 people with SPLD both adult and children. Combined, they have over 40 years of experience in identifying people with dyslexia and ADHD. In this episode, we are going to explore mo...

Cheryl Isaacs is a Chartered/Registered Occupational Psychologist, Author and accredited Executive Coach with over 20 years of experience within the areas of neurodiversity assessment, cognitive ability and attainment assessment, workplace behavioural training and psychometric profiling. To date, Cheryl has worked with over five thousand clients. Cheryl is the Director of OPM Consulting Ltd which...

This week, I sat down with Avi Warshavsky, the Founder and CEO of MindCET. They gather groups of entrepreneurs in an incubator environment and help them establish their businesses. He’s also the founder of Global Education Technology Startups Awards or GESAwards, one of the biggest awarding bodies for Ed-Tech Startups in the world. He is also the father of 5 children and 4 of them have dyslexia. A...

Ash Voisine was a business and entrepreneurship graduate but when a teacher of her child admitted that they can’t help the child, she decided to homeschool her kids. She looked for other ways to teach with programs like the Orton-Gillingham system. She’s now finishing her master’s degree in special education. This week, we talked to Ash Voisine about how she found out she’s dyslexic when she was s...

Children with dyslexia often have brilliant and incredible stories to share in their heads but always struggle to get them out and put them into words. A lot of the time, their imagination and creativity go beyond what was required in the question and they get so overwhelmed halfway that they ended up leaving it unfinished. Going off-topic is a common occurrence and the lack of cohesiveness forces...

This week, we had a lovely conversation with Katrina Cochrane, the head of education and policy for the British Dyslexia Association. Katrina has had a wide range of knowledge regarding dyslexia for the past few decades but we focused on what’s happening with dyslexia in the workplace. As dyspraxic herself, Katrina was exposed to the struggles and confusion of neurodiverse workers in the workplace...

This week, I have invited Lois Letchford, a returning guest here in Dyslexia Explored, to talk about her recently published research paper through the International Literacy Association titled “Moving beyond Decoding: Teaching Pronoun Resolution to Develop Reading Comprehension”. In her paper, Lois Letchford and her co-author, Timothy Rasinski, identified that less proficient readers like people w...