Jul 13, 2012 | DM News Blog
Let’s play guess who! “Known for being especially cool and for his catchphrases “Eyyyy!” and “Whoa!”, his coolness gave him special powers, such as making machinery function by pounding his fist, or getting the attention of girls by snapping...
Jul 6, 2012 | DM News Blog
It’s Factoid Fridays time again! Did you know that the most common letters in English are: R S T L N E. Our US readers may be familiar with the show Wheel of Fortune. In the final bonus round, the letters R S T L N and E are given as ‘freebies’ to fill in the blanks...
Jul 3, 2012 | DM News Blog
We quite often get asked by parents about whether they should get their child analysed by an educational psychologist, because the school has said that they are different to the norm in some way. It is often a question of how they interact with other children. All I...
Jun 29, 2012 | DM News Blog
“The way I write, the way I see the world, is part and parcel of my dyslexia…” These are the words of Benjamin Zephaniah, who alongside being a hugely successful novelist and playwright, is one of Britain’s most celebrated poets. Try as you might you will struggle to...
Jun 28, 2012 | DM News Blog
I want to share a great little article on this: http://www.teachpreschool.org/2012/05/helping-young-children-develop-self-control/ The key to what she is saying is that self-control is an activity, not a passive state. It takes effort to control yourself and it is...
Jun 22, 2012 | DM News Blog
Have you seen this fun description of all the phrases that we owe to Shakespeare’s plays? http://www.englishmuse.com/2011/09/phrases-we-owe-to-shakespeare.html “Knock knock! Who’s there?” “Set your teeth on edge” “Heart of gold” “Good riddance” “Fight fire with fire”...
Jun 21, 2012 | DM News Blog
Everyone is aware that stress is bad for us in lots of ways, but did you know that it can cause your brain to physically shrink? Studies have shown that the volume of the Hippocampus can reduce following high levels of stress due to the fact that neurones are being...
Jun 19, 2012 | DM News Blog
In recent years the popularity of digital brain training devices has rocketed. Dementia and Alzheimer’s disease are affecting more and more people each year. Accordingly there is increasing demand for better awareness and scientific understanding of the causes and...
Jun 15, 2012 | DM News Blog
Did you know that Nelson Rockefeller was dyslexic? Rockefeller (1908-1979) was Vice President of the United States under Gerald Ford and also Governor of New York. He once delivered a special television address called “The Puzzle Children”, which was hosted on PBS by...
Jun 12, 2012 | DM News Blog
Here is a nice little reminder of the things it is so easy to do, without meaning to really do harm: http://ht.ly/8yvaB The brutal reality is that children do feel constantly judged and compared, even if you do everything perfectly. Middle children in particular tend...
Jun 8, 2012 | DM News Blog
It’s Factoid Fridays time! Did you know that widow is the only female form in the English language that is shorter than its corresponding male term (widower)? Go...
Jun 1, 2012 | DM News Blog
Muhammad Ali is known as ‘The Greatest’ for his domination of men’s boxing in the 1960s and 1970s. But did you know that he struggled with dyslexia as a child? He struggled to read throughout his education, graduating high school with a D-minus average grade. He even...
May 29, 2012 | DM News Blog
Children tend to come out of school ravenous and thirsty. And it’s just so easy for them to reach for the biscuit tin and the sugary drinks. But pretty soon that sugar high will be replaced by an even deeper low and they’ll be whining for more biscuits. Then tea...
May 25, 2012 | DM News Blog
It’s Factoid Friday time! Did you know that the combination “ough” can be pronounced in nine different ways? The following sentence contains them all: “A rough-coated, dough-faced, thoughtful ploughman strode through the streets of Scarborough; after falling...
May 24, 2012 | DM News Blog
There is a slow, seismic shift happening in the education world that is long overdue. The past can be summed up by this great cartoon: In the old days some people were successful in school, but others failed, despite great potential. You were then referred to as being...
May 23, 2012 | DM News Blog
There are times when a good tutor can make a big difference to a child. If there is something the child does not quite understand, a few minutes with a tutor can potentially change that. But how do you find one? Here is a site that has been set up to help with that:...
May 22, 2012 | DM News Blog
Here is an interesting article bringing up the issue of how to play with your child: http://www.education.com/magazine/article/9-reasons-let-your-kids-lose/ I agree with some of what they are saying, but not all! For years you can only play with your child by holding...
May 18, 2012 | DM News Blog
Did you know that the famous actress and comedienne Whoopi Goldberg is dyslexic? Whoopi is one of only ten people to win an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar AND Tony Award, and yet as a child she was taunted for her difficulty in school, called ‘stupid’ by her peers. She struggled...
May 17, 2012 | DM News Blog
There is clearly no better option than a perfectly balanced diet. But frankly, who has that? The reality is that a modern diet will often have deficiencies for a whole host of possible reasons, such as farming techniques, soil deficiencies, food processing...
May 15, 2012 | DM News Blog
I have come to think that this is perhaps the most critical part of all parenting. Get this right and much of the rest will fall into place. Get it wrong and you can permanently damage your child’s life prospects. And I don’t write that lightly. Praise is clearly an...
