![Episode 103 Dyslexia Devoted Episode 103 Dyslexia Devoted](https://www.parnelloeducation.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Episode-103-Dyslexia-Devoted-300x300.png)
In This Episode:
Welcome to Episode 103 of Dyslexia Devoted and today we’re talking about struggles with language.
Shownotes: parnelloeducation.com/episode103
This Episode's Topics:
- Subtle differences - big meaning changes
- What is language based learning difference?
- How can we help?
Resources Mentioned in this Episode:
Connect with Lisa Parnello:
Speaker 1
00:04
Hello and welcome to Dyslexia Devoted, the podcast dedicated to building awareness, understanding and strategies to help those with dyslexia. I'm your host, Lisa Parnello, dyslexia therapist and founder of Parnello Education Services. Join me as we dive into today's episode of Dyslexia Devoted.
Speaker 2
00:23
Hello and happy summer break because I think pretty much all of you guys are on summer break by now, at least if you are in the United States. I realize that different countries actually have different breaks because summer falls in a completely different month like December if you were down in a different hemisphere. But for us in the U.S.
Speaker 2
00:39
It is officially summer break for pretty much all of my students. I've just started summer program And it's been so fun working with a bunch of new kids and new families and getting to know them and helping kids that I otherwise don't have time to see during the school year while my normal clients are out on their own vacations. I just got back from a wonderful vacation last week, And that is actually the inspiration for this week's episode. Episode number 103 of Dyslexia Devoted is all about language-based learning differences.
Speaker 2
01:11
When I first started working with kids with dyslexia, that was not actually a term I had ever used, like ever. In the public school system, a lot of times they just say a specific learning disability, and that's actually not specific whatsoever, and they don't actually even give it a name in most public school settings. So when I got into working in a private schools that were all for kids with language-based learning differences, I didn't even know what that meant. And this week's was really inspired by my vacation that I just had, because I spent far too much time thinking about language and screwing up language.
Speaker 2
01:43
So I just got back from Sicily, and so it's a trip I've been wanting to do for a decade and it's really difficult to figure out how to get there from the West Coast because there are not really like flights that go all the way there and so this trip I've been really excited to take and I've practiced Italian over the years but I am by no means fluent whatsoever, but I can do basic things like order at a restaurant and say please and thank you and ask some basic questions and how much things cost and whatever. So I can function without looking like a complete dumb American tourist the entire time, except in the moment where I definitely, definitely did. And I realized it later when it was too late to fix the problem. So I went to a museum and I was looking around and it was really interesting and I liked it and it was air conditioned.
Speaker 2
02:28
So that's a win because If you've ever been to Italy, a lot of things are not air-conditioned. Museums, on the other hand, they need to keep things temperature controlled. So I've learned that's a great place to go on a very hot day. And I felt like for the price of the ticket, it seemed like the museum was done like earlier than it should have been.
Speaker 2
02:45
Like I Felt like I ran out of rooms. I was like where else could I go like this seems like the ticket price usually would Represent a larger museum than this and I was walking around I started to go toward the exit And then all of a sudden 1 of the guys stopped me and it's Sicily so there's not a lot of English And so he was asking me a question and then he asked if I'd gone to the other floors and if I'd been to the other parts of it. And I went, oh, the other floors? Oh, I didn't know there were other ones.
Speaker 2
03:11
Okay, thank you. And he showed me where to go. And then later on I realized I definitely did not say other floors. I definitely said other plates because in Italian piatti and piano sound very similar, but they definitely mean very different things.
Speaker 2
03:28
So I said, oh, otra piatti? Oh, okay. I actually should have said, o tra piani, which means different floors. So it's 1 of those ones where it makes me think of when the kids are reading and they say, oh, that's close enough.
Speaker 2
03:42
It's the same thing. It's really, really not the same thing At all. Subtle differences in sounds within a language can completely change what you are saying. So what I thought I was saying was, oh, there's other floors, great.
Speaker 2
03:55
I understood what he meant. Like I knew what he was telling me. But I responded back very wrongly and said, oh, there's other plates. Great.
Speaker 2
04:03
Got it. Cool. I'll go check them out. Yeah, I'm sure he was laughing at me.
Speaker 2
04:08
He was very polite about it and didn't laugh in my face. I feel like he probably should have. I earned it. But it's 1 of those moments that made me realize why languages are so hard for kids, especially if they have a language-based learning difference.
Speaker 2
04:21
Because to them, a lot of times words sound very much the same. And I've actually started keeping like a little note list of some of the words I've heard some of the kids mix up. And I have a couple favorites. 1 is the kid who said terrorist instead of a terrace.
Speaker 2
04:37
Obviously 1 inflicts a lot of harm and 1 is a pleasant patio. Another example is a kid said fatal instead of fetal, which those are 2 very different things. 1 means a baby about to be born and 1 means something died. Literal opposites.
Speaker 2
04:52
And another kiddo mistook waterboard versus whiteboard. And trying to explain what waterboarding is because the child was old enough to understand that it is a form of torture, they were not a small child. And versus whiteboard, which is a very innocuous object that you write on, can sound so similar, but boy are those meanings so very different. These are all examples of language-based learning differences when our brains get confused with how language works.
Speaker 2
05:23
So language-based learning differences is an all-encompassing term sort of for a type of learning difference. If someone has a language-based learning difference, it has to do with how their brain processes language. And this is also to help people understand that dyslexia is not seeing letters backward. There's nothing wrong with somebody's vision and how they see anything at all.
Speaker 2
05:44
It is all about how their brain processes language, both in verbal and written form. There are some other kinds of language based learning differences as well, such as dyscalculia, which is when it's the language of math. Math has its own language. There are its own terms and there's its own structure on how we word verbal sentences to represent the letters or numbers that are on a page, because yes, letters are in math.
Speaker 2
06:08
And then there's auditory processing disorder, which is how the brain processes language that it hears. And so There's nothing wrong with their hearing, but it doesn't quite enter through into their brain the way that it should. And generally there are language processing disorders. And those are where students really have a hard time, or adults actually, because these learning differences are not something that just go away as soon as you grow up, and how they process language and understand what somebody is talking about.
Speaker 2
06:36
There is 1 student that 1 day she was making noises and grunting at me and I was like, dude, I need words, kid. And she's like, I'm over words. I'm done with them. Too many words.
Speaker 2
06:47
And that was her way of expressing her language-based learning differences, that there were too many words. Her brain doesn't think in words sometimes, and she doesn't have a way to express what she wants in words easily. To understand a language-based learning difference, I feel like my trip helped me see that it's when you have to think 10 times harder to say what you want to say. You know what you want to say, but it doesn't come out the way you mean for it to.
Speaker 2
07:15
Either you say it the wrong way or you have to talk like a toddler because you have this more complicated idea in your head but you can't express it verbally. And then you generally sound like you're dumb when really you are very smart inside your own head, you just can't communicate it to somebody else. And it really limits what kind of information that you can give to somebody else to show what you know or to ask questions or to receive information from them. And I want you to think about what it would be like if you got dropped in a foreign country and everyone around you was talking with all these words and you only caught about 1 tenth of them and then you were expected to process and understand and do something back.
Speaker 2
07:54
You have this idea of like, oh, they say this and then I say that. But life doesn't run on a script. You can teach them all you want of when somebody does this you do that, but people don't always follow that plan. Sometimes something goes off the plan.
Speaker 2
08:09
I was actually really excited when things went off the plan when I tried to order a granita, which is like a frozen slushy ice cream thing in Italy and I really wanted to try the almond flavor So I went up and I very proudly said what I wanted. I ordered it properly and even then the guy goes Nope, sorry can't have that 1. We're out of it. Your choices are, you know, coffee or lemon or strawberry.
Speaker 2
08:33
And I was really excited that I could figure out what he said and give him a proper answer back of making a different choice. But if somebody had thrown me in that exact situation 5 years ago, I wouldn't have any idea how to process what that person had said and how to answer them back. And that's just ordering ice cream. That's not even like doing homework.
Speaker 2
08:54
That is not following directions in class for this new science concept you've never heard of before. I know my ice cream flavors and I very much know which ones I do and don't like. Versus, if you put me into an Italian science class, I'd be screwed. I couldn't do anything.
Speaker 2
09:10
So to understand a language-based learning difference, think about all the things we use language for. We use it to communicate. We use it to order things. We use it to learn things.
Speaker 2
09:21
We use it to ask for help. We use language to just follow directions of any variety. And language takes over a large part of our life. So if you think about a kid with a learning difference who has a language-based learning difference, think about all the ways that words are involved.
Speaker 2
09:39
So we might think about dyslexia as a reading struggle, but there's an awful lot of words in math too. And Math has its own language that does not follow the same rules. Think about the word sum. It means 2 very different things depending on if you're talking about adding things up or if you're talking about how you have some cupcakes for a birthday.
Speaker 2
09:57
Those have 2 different meanings and 2 different spellings. And being able to help a child who has a language-based learning difference takes you coming from a place of realizing how much we use language. How many words do we use all the time? And sometimes it's about simplifying the language.
Speaker 2
10:14
There's 1 of the kids who said they stopped paying attention to their math teacher because they use too many words. And instead they just bring me their math homework because I can tell them how to do it with less words. And that is a pretty good way of summing it up. We often talk a lot, like way, way a lot, especially if you're a teacher.
Speaker 2
10:31
We often talk way too much as teachers. That is 1 thing I've learned through instructional coaching is how much teachers talk and how much kids don't talk. And after a while kids start tuning out and it gets to be too much. They can't process that much language, especially those with learning differences.
Speaker 2
10:46
So it is 1 where if we can figure out how we can communicate with less words, and that can really help get through to some kids. If you can break it down to its simplest form, if you were speaking a different language, how would you have to communicate this in its most basic form of words and gestures so that you get the idea across to the person that you're trying to communicate with. All right, that is it for today. I'm so happy to be back with you guys and I've got all sorts of inspiring new ideas since I had far too much time to myself because I could only talk like a two-year-old in Italy.
Speaker 2
11:20
And so it gave me lots of time to regenerate some new ideas and take some relaxing adventures and check out some cool stuff. And it's always nice to take a break and come back nice and fresh, which I think is what summer is all about. So take a minute to go enjoy some peace and fun and exploration to open your mind to some new ideas and be ready to start fresh. I'll see you next time.
Speaker 2
11:49
Thanks for tuning in to today's episode. If you want to learn even more about dyslexia, check out parnelloeducation.com forward slash courses. See you next time.