Dyslexia Explored

Have you tried studying another language? We all know it can be extremely hard to learn something you are not used to. Now, imagine what a child with dyslexia feels after moving to a country with a very different language. Learning a language is hard enough, but to learn another language while you are still learning to read with dyslexia is daunting. That is what our guest for today has experience...

This week, I had an interesting conversation with Elizabeth Trudeau, a mother of a daughter with dyslexia. Elizabeth wants to share her passion, a project she just completed which initially started when she wanted to help her child understand her dyslexia. She noticed that her child responded greatly to stories about other professionals with dyslexia who have made it through school and life. Seein...

This week, I had a very interesting and musical conversation with Ruth Travers, the founder of Stave House. Ruth has developed a process for children to master music theory through visual and creative language. As we learnt from the previous episode, dyslexia is affecting children to learn and read music just as it is affecting them to read words. Through Ruth’s fun and engaging program, children...

This week, we invited children with dyslexia, parents and educators to ask them about their experiences with learning music. It surprises me that people are amazed when they hear that dyslexia might affect reading music when it definitely affects reading words. In this episode, we want to start a conversation about dyslexia and music because there aren’t many people who are talking about this. The...

We have a very fascinating story we’d like to share this week. It’s about Andrew Nehring who has a photographic memory, excellent auditory memory and dyslexia. It is a very interesting combination because people tend to correlate dyslexia with poor memory. Some of Andrew’s teachers didn’t believe he has dyslexia because he could relay what the teachers told him. In this episode of Dyslexia Explore...

Let’s listen to the story of Lois Letchford, a physical education teacher who became a reading specialist when she discovered her son has dyslexia. She’s written a book called “Reversed: A Memoir”, where she shares her son's story and her own - learning differences. The school diagnostician called her son the worst child he’s ever seen in 20 years of teaching. That fueled her and her son to look f...

Have you ever heard of the job title Head of Happiness? That’s exactly the job title of our guest for today. She’s a stand-up comedian who thought of bringing stand-up comedy into schools to help them with reading and writing. This week I had a very interesting conversation with Stephanie Davies, the founder of Laughology. Stephanie says that her misbehaviour in school was a direct result of her d...

This week, I had a great conversation with Aarian Daniels, a mum who has written a book based on her daughter’s dyslexia struggles. Aarian found out about dyslexia when her youngest daughter was diagnosed and fought the school for her daughter's needs. She recently published her book about their dyslexia journey and how they overcame dyslexia. She also founded an organisation called “Lex Talk Dysl...

This week, I had a great conversation with Mike Guest, a dyslexic, who has been self-employed his whole life. We talked about the dynamic aspect of dyslexia. He’s an established photographer, who’s now moved into water photography. He compares the adaptability of dyslexia to surfing in the water. You have to go with the flow and adjust according to what nature throws at you. He recently posted a f...

This week, we had a great conversation with Cigdem Knebel, a mum who wrote stories for her child with dyslexia. She is now the owner of a publishing company that publishes decodable storybooks for children with dyslexia. It all started when she found out that her son had dyslexia. He was worried and stressed because his peers were reading advanced books while he was still stuck with “baby” books....

This week we are going to talk about designing cars with dyslexia. I sat down with Matthew Head, a dyslexic car designer who started out as a mechanic. He looked for jobs that he thought he could undertake but got rejected for not having an engineering degree. So he went to university and got a Masters's in Mechanical and Electrical Engineering. He is now a Senior Vehicle Design Engineer for a lux...

We have a very special and mind-bending episode this week. It’s all about a man with dyslexia who worked 34 years as a driver for a newspaper company and recently published a book with himself as the main character. Let’s follow the story of Ed Calkins who had troubles with self-confidence all his life. As a hobby, he created fascinating stories with characters based on real-life people and shared...

Karen Font, the host of ‘You Are More Than Your Labels’ podcast, sat down with me and shared her dyslexia story. Just like many of us, Karen Font discovered she has dyslexia later in life. She didn’t know her struggles in school were because of her dyslexia until she was tested. Karen created a podcast, sharing experiences of everyday people with dyslexia. In this episode, we talked about constant...

In podcast episode 99, we discussed the ‘Access to Work’ scheme by the United Kingdom government which grants disabled students/professionals allowance to the workplace. It is the government’s way to get disabled people into work and become a productive member of society. This time we are going to discuss how employers can help their employees have access to this grant, why it is advantageous for...

A lot of dyslexics excel in sports. Some professional athletes even attribute their success to dyslexia. This week we are going to talk about this fascinating subject with Sophia Gomma, a licensed Davis facilitator who helps dyslexic students in school and sports. People with dyslexia are naturally very good at dynamic reasoning which can be very helpful in competitive games.  However, there...

We have a practical but exciting podcast this week. We invited Kerry Pace again as a guest on dyslexia explored. This is part 3 of our series with her. In episode 80, she talks about her dyslexia story and the journey she embarked on which enabled her to tutor university students online, mostly nursing students, with dyslexia. In episode 81, she talks about the importance of learning support throu...

In the Dyslexia Explored Podcast, we usually talk to people with dyslexia and hear about their personal challenges. You might have heard from our previous episodes, we are interested in the challenges that people with dyslexia face and how they overcome them. This week we are going to hear from someone who has written a dyslexia story. Reyna Marder Gentin was a criminal defense attorney who b...

Sarah Kesty is a SPED Teacher and Executive Function coach. She teaches children with learning difficulties to manage their executive function skills. She also has her own podcast called ‘ The Executive Function Podcast ’ where she shares helpful, fun, and effective strategies to support kids with executive function. This week, I had the pleasure of having Sarah Kesty as our guest. Sarah talks abo...

This week we had the opportunity of meeting Dean Bragonier as our podcast guest. He is the founder of Noticeability.org, a non-profit organisation that focuses on introducing middle school-aged children to the cognitive advantages associated with dyslexia. Dean has presented quite a few talks about dyslexia, including a TEDx talk on the true gifts of the dyslexic mind. In this episode, Dean talks...

Dr. Susie Nyman is one of those teachers you’d want your children to have. She is very passionate about how students learn differently using multi-sensory learning. When she was a child she noticed she learnt better using textbooks that incorporated cartoon images.  When she had her son she noticed he couldn't remember his spellings when he wrote on blue paper, so she tried different colored...

One day her daughter came home from school and said they’d been working on the Battle of Hastings. She went on to say that although they’d worked on this topic for weeks she couldn’t remember a single thing and they had an exam next week! That night Bambi Gardiner recreated the Battle of Hastings on her kitchen table. The next morning her daughter remembered most of it! Bambi realised that it's no...

We have a fascinating case study for you about tackling common entrance exams or GCSEs with dyslexia. Denise Goulding, a parent of a child with dyslexia, agreed to share their story about how her daughter managed to get A’s and B’s in her entrance exam. Denise had been with us in the BulletMap Academy for 2 years now and in fact, we already featured her in the podcast a couple of times. You can go...

Stephen Martin thought his dyslexia would just disappear after finishing school. He was diagnosed early in his life and had the same struggles that most kids with dyslexia had. But he recently just realized what dyslexia really means when he talked to a dyslexia practitioner. He then realized all the things and decisions that he had made were, in one way or another, affected by his dyslexia. He’s...

This week, we have an interesting conversation with Harriet Kelsall, one of the most respected designers and business trailblazers in the UK jewellery industry. She was the 2016 HSBC Forward Ladies “Retail Business Woman of the year”, was Everywoman’s “Retail Woman of the Year” in 2011, one of The Institute of Directors magazine’s six “women who have most changed the business world” in 2014 and is...

In this week’s episode, we have a very special guest. She and her husband are very well known in the dyslexia community. Their works have inspired thousands of dyslexics around the world to accept their dyslexia, own it, and be proud of it. We are very fortunate to have Dr. Fernette Eide, the co-author of “The Dyslexia Advantage”, with us on our 90th episode of the podcast. The Dyslexia Explored p...