Why do kids behave “badly”? (Here, “badly” could mean almost any behavior that most adults find objectionable). Of course, there are multiple reasons. Sometimes they are doing what their peers do – but they have some choice in who their peers are. Other times they are reacting to stress. Nearly all people, kids or adults, […]
My talk at the New Jersey Learning Disability Association – October 19, 2014
October 18, 2014 by
The link has slides from my talk at the LDA of New Jersey Fall2014
“Lazy” is a four letter word. Don’t use it in front of children
October 15, 2014 by 1 Comment
I’ve been called lazy a whole lot in my life, almost always by teachers who had no clue. Sometimes they used the euphemism “does not apply himself”. The best teacher who ever taught me, on the other hand, said I tried harder than almost anyone. But “lazy” is a four letter word. It should never […]
Dreaming small
October 11, 2014 by Leave a Comment
We are often told to dream big, aim high and so on. But what if we don’t? What if we dream small? There is a Calvin and Hobbes cartoon (by the way, this is a great comic) in which Calvin asks Hobbes what he would wish for if he could have anything in the […]
Calming down after a hard NLD day
September 30, 2014 by 2 Comments
When your child comes home from school he may be exhausted. Even if it was just an ordinary day. Even if other kids come home raring to go. Even if she doesn’t appear exhausted. He may be right at the edge of a meltdown. Why? Because all day long he has been stressed. Stressed by […]
I will be speaking at the LDA of NJ conference in October
July 21, 2014 by Leave a Comment
On October 19 the LDA of New Jersey will have a conference. The conference goes all day, from 8 to 4. It will be held at the Livingston Campus Student Center of Rutgers University in Piscataway, NJ. For full directions and registration see www.ldanj.org. I will be speaking from 2:30 to 4. My title is […]
10 things having a learning disability doesn’t change
May 28, 2014 by Leave a Comment
People with learning disabilities have significant challenges in life; I am not one to minimize those. And there are ways we are different from neurotypical people and I don’t want to minimize those, either. But it’s easy to lose sight of the many things that having an LD doesn’t change. Here are some:
Figuring out how we learn best: Don’t change the peg, change the hole!
May 21, 2014 by 1 Comment
There is an old saying that “a square peg won’t fit in a round hole”. Yet much of education, especially for those of us with learning disabilities, seems to consist of trying to force a square peg into a round hole. But can we change the hole?
Disability is not disaster
May 19, 2014 by Leave a Comment
I have written elsewhere that I refer to my condition as a learning disability rather than a difference. I’ve been thinking some more about why there is antipathy towards this; I think some of it is because we tend to hear “disaster” when we hear “disability”.
Diagnosing the dead and famous
May 9, 2014 by 1 Comment
Lots of people try to diagnose the dead and the famous. “Did XXX have YYY?” questions are all over the place, as are more assertive statements that, in fact XXX did have YYY. Given how hard it is to diagnose people, even if the person is not only alive but being seen by a qualified […]
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