America’s Spelling Crisis: Why Spellcheck Can’t Save Your Child

Key Takeaways:

  • Learning to spell builds the linguistic foundation children need for reading, writing, and lifelong communication
  • Technology tools like spellcheck and ChatGPT mask learning difficulties and can delay diagnosis of dyslexia
  • Experts recommend 20 minutes of daily spelling instruction using science-based curricula, not just memorization

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Is It Time to See Dyslexia as a Superpower?

A new film reframes dyslexia as a distinct cognitive style with its own set of strengths.

Doctors Fernette and Brock Eide, psychologists who’ve studied dyslexia for decades, have come to believe that dyslexia is “not a disease, but a gift.”

As they put it, “Dyslexic minds are not disabled. They’re specialized. They’re wired to learn best through direct experience, not through print or rote repetition.”

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Developmental language disorder can have life-long effects – and it’s easily missed in multilingual children

developmental language disorder (DLD), a condition that severely impairs a child’s ability to learn, use and understand spoken language.

Such challenges are increasingly common for parents and teachers. In England, for example, around 21% of schoolchildren are growing up with a first language other than English. While most children’s language development – whether monolingual or multilingual – is typical, the average classroom includes two DLD-affected children. DLD’s prevalence, roughly 8%, is similar worldwide, from China to Mexico.

Even so, DLD remains under-recognised and under-served – especially compared to other developmental conditions, such as dyslexia, autism or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

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Make team-based learning work for neurodivergent students

Team-based learning in science education improves academic outcomes and develops crucial workplace skills. However, it presents challenges for those with autism, ADHD, dyslexia or any other form of neurodiversity. 

Many neurodivergent individuals find group work and processing information quickly difficult, and get distracted easily.

This kind of learning is challenging for them because it requires them to manage their time effectively and work with their classmates to complete activities in often overstimulating environments. Before class, they must review pre-learning materials. They then complete a closed-book quiz on the material – both individually and as a group in class. As a team, they must then work on exercises that apply knowledge to real-world scenarios

We spoke to neurodivergent bioscience and pharmacy students to find out what we could do to support them. Here are five tips based on our conversations.

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