News related to: learning differences

CHC in the Press: Schwab Learning Center Opens New Dyslexic-Friendly ‘Innovation Lab’

For years, the Schwab Learning Center (SLC) has been a place for Stanford University students with dyslexia, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and other learning differences to embrace their strengths, address challenges and better understand the ways their minds work. Read more ›

Schwab Learning Center at CHC Opening in September 2021

Dr. Rosalie Whitlock, CEO of Children’s Health Council, today announced that the Schwab Learning Center at CHC will open this fall. The Center is supported by a generous endowment gift from The Charles and Helen Schwab Foundation. The program will provide supportive services to university and high school students with learning and attention challenges as well as the mental health issues that often accompany them. Read more ›

Report: Special Education in California an ‘Urgent Priority’

One in eight students in California receives special education services, but the state’s schools are often “ill-equipped” to serve them, and funding for students with disabilities has not “kept pace with district costs,” according to a collection of research papers released Tuesday by Policy Analysis for California Education. Read more ›

California Commission on Teacher Credentialing to Disseminate CA Dyslexia Guidelines to All Educator Prep Programs

California Commission on Teacher Credentialing commissioners will distribute the California Dyslexia Guidelines across the full spectrum of educator preparation programs in California including teacher preparation, induction, administrator preparation, and pupil personnel services programs. Read more ›

October Is International Dyslexia Awareness Month

 International Dyslexia Awareness Month was established by the International Dyslexia Association (IDA) to raise awareness and educate others about dyslexia. Read more ›

Executive Function Deficits in Kindergarten May Predict Academic Difficulties in Primary Grades

New Penn State research suggests that children’s executive function deficits may be an important risk factor for academic difficulties.

Preliminary findings from a three-year National Science Foundation-funded project, recently published in Child Development, show that executive functions in kindergarten predict children’s mathematics, reading and science achievement, as well as their classroom behavior, in second grade. Read more ›

10% of US Children Diagnosed With ADHD, Study Finds

The number of children diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) has reached more than 10 percent, a significant increase during the past 20 years, according to a recent study. Read more ›

How a New Model of Autism Treatment Uses Robots

There are a growing number of assistive therapy (AT) tools to help students with Autism Spectrum Disorder to work independently and navigate classroom routines. Not all AT tools are high-tech: They can be simple, adaptive tools like highlighters and organizers, automatic page-turners, or book holders. They can also be high-tech tools like robots. Read more ›

Study: Students With ADHD Not Helped by Common Test Accommodations

Offering students with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder extended testing time or frequent breaks does not appear to help them perform better on a standardized test than other students with ADHD who do not get such accommodations, says a new study published in Learning Disabilities, a Multidisciplinary Journal

In the study Academic Testing Accommodations for ADHD: Do They Help? researchers examined the accommodations and test results of 96 Maryland students with ADHD in grades 3-8. Read more ›

Disabled Children Face Bullying Throughout School Years

Bullying is a problem that affects almost all students in some ways, but for disabled children it’s a problem that seems to last throughout their school years.

Disabled children, including those with learning disabilities, were about 20 percent more likely to report being bullied than other students in surveys taken at a New England school district. And that difference remained steady from third through 12th grades, the researchers found. Read more ›

Head Start Benefits Children with Disabilities

Young children with multiple disabilities who are enrolled in Head Start have better literacy, reading and math scores than children who aren’t in the federally funded program, indicates a new study by Michigan State University researchers. Read more ›

Digital Tools Aim to Personalize Literacy Instruction

From online news articles written at five different reading levels to algorithms that create personalized vocabulary lists, ed-tech tools are rapidly expanding the ways in which teachers can differentiate their literacy and reading instruction.

Experts say the new technologies have the potential to transform learning, one child at a time.  Bernadette Dwyer a board member of the International Literacy Association says, “The problem up to this point is that when we’ve designed curriculum, we’ve done it with a mythical ‘average student’ in mind, then tried to fix the curriculum after the fact to address the needs of particular children, but digital tools can help us anticipate the needs of children upfront, particularly for struggling readers.” Read more ›

Early Intervention in Dyslexia Can Narrow Achievement Gap

Identifying children with dyslexia as early as first grade could narrow or even close the achievement gap with typical readers, according to a new study by researchers at the University of California, Davis, and Yale University.

The data indicate that it is no longer acceptable to wait until a child is in third grade or later before undertaking efforts to identify or address dyslexia. Read more ›

National Center for Learning Disabilities Releases Student Voices: A Study of Young Adults With Learning and Attention Issues

When it comes to feeling happy and fulfilled, what really matters to young adults with learning and attention issues?

It turns out to have little direct correlation with traditional school work, and everything to do with connections—to a supportive and nurturing family, to friends and the community, and even to themselves, in the form of self-confidence and ease at dealing with emotional problems and making friends. Such youth are “navigators” of their lives, as opposed to being just “copers” or even “strugglers.” Read more ›