Ep. 70 Dyslexia Awareness Month 2023

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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. Hello friends, and welcome to episode number 70. It is a brand new month, it is now October and if you don't already know it, October is dyslexia Awareness Month. I can't wait to bring you all sorts of information about dyslexia that you may not already know. And I would love if you can continue to spread the word about dyslexia. This month, I've created a little goal for myself, which is to do at least 20 posts on social media. In order to share information about dyslexia, I was originally going to commit to 20 videos on social media. But to be perfectly honest, there's a reason I have a podcast and not a YouTube channel. I don't really love being on camera, I do it when I know it's what we need to you know, have a conversation with real people, and be able to give you guys courses online and that kind of thing. But I don't actually enjoy being on video for just day to day life. So I'm going to challenge myself to do a few more live videos for you guys over on my social media platforms at Parnello education on both Instagram and on Facebook. And I really hope that you guys will join me over there on social and share some posts and share them with some friends. Because dyslexia is one of those learning differences that is so deeply misunderstood. And that's basically what today is all about is helping you guys see how much we really need to spread the word about dyslexia. In American culture. Oftentimes, one of the ways that we start small talk kind of conversations is hey, what do you do for a living? So when I tell people, I have my own dyslexia therapy business, I get a few different responses. One that drives me crazy is so is that the one where they like see letters backward. Um, dyslexia is actually not a vision problem. It's actually much more than that. And people with dyslexia can see just fine. The other response I get is, wow, that's really important job that you have. I'm so glad that you help people that is such an important thing that you do. And the other response I get is, hey, guess what? I have dyslexia, I'm so glad that you do what you do. And I wish I had someone like you when I was a kid, or I know someone who has dyslexia is the other response. And I love all of those responses, except for the first one, which is, oh, that same letters backwards right. Now, if you do anything this month, it is you help people in the world know dyslexia is far more than seeing letters backward. And in fact, it has nothing to do with sight at all. It has everything to do with the way your brain processes language. It's about needing something explicitly shown to you, because you won't just pick up the subtle patterns. It's the fact that you can see the big picture, but you might miss some of the little details. It's the fact that sometimes a child can read on grade level and still be dyslexic. It is the fact that sometimes you can have dyslexia and not know it for your entire life until your child gets diagnosed with dyslexia. And you say, wait a minute, I had trouble with all those things, too. When I was a kid, it's understanding that things that were accepted long ago, like just telling a kid they were dumb, are not accepted anymore. And instead, we need to show people they can learn just as well as everyone else. They just have to be taught it in a different way with more explicit instruction. It's understanding that ADHD and dyslexia go hand in hand a lot. It's knowing that you can have five different learning differences and still make it into AP classes and go to an amazing college. It's learning that most teachers are never taught how to help a kid with dyslexia during their teacher prep programs. Did you know I got credentials in both general education and special education. And neither one of them showed me how to teach a kid with dyslexia, how to read, I spent hundreds if not 1000s of hours doing extra research and extra coursework to what added up to be a second master's degree just to learn how to help kids with dyslexia. Because two teaching programs didn't teach me how to do it for dyslexia Awareness month this month. I am dedicating this entire month to helping spread the word about dyslexia in a few different ways. If you would like to join me on this journey this month, make sure you sign up for the dyslexia decoded newsletter at Parnello education.com forward slash email, and I will be having all sorts of things in store for you some special surprises for this month, I will be doing some live versions of some of my workshops. So some of you may have seen the recorded version before but I will be doing them live again this month. Make sure you are on that dyslexia devoted newsletter so that I can send you the links to sign up and register for those free webinars I'll be doing later this month. And then you can keep having access to all of the links that I mentioned in my podcast episodes every week. Pick As I don't know about you, but I definitely listen to my podcasts mostly while I'm driving, and not when I can click on any links to look at anything else later. So make sure you are on the dyslexia devoted newsletter to keep getting all sorts of resources into your inbox every Thursday, I promise I try not to spam you. I try to make sure that we only do one email a week only on Thursdays, unless I have something big coming up like a workshop or a course or something that's launching. And then you might get a couple extra emails that week. But in general, it's just one email a week, I try to keep it short and sweet because I don't know about you, but I don't have a lot of free time in life. I am a busy entrepreneur, which is really funny to use that word. But I figured once four people referenced me as an entrepreneur, I'm allowed to use that word myself now. And I am so glad that I started a business that helps people. It is something that I've really been thinking a lot about this past month. It has been over a year since my business went from being part time to full time. I'm just so happy that each and every day I get to help kids and families feel successful and see that things can get better. Okay, here is what to expect for October 2023. Dyslexia Awareness Month. The first is I will be hosting my masterclass three keys to success with dyslexia. And that one will be a live class for you guys to attend. More info on that in our next episode. Or if you are on my email list, you always get everything first because I send my emails on Thursdays, and my podcast usually comes out by Monday, I have created a goal for myself that I will do 20 posts this month, all about dyslexia awareness, so that you guys can learn more and more about dyslexia, I will be giving a little tidbit each and every day, whether that be a standard little post, or a video, I'll do some mixture of the two. And then I've also put up some resources for you that weren't available. If you missed them before. I just released my spelling booster workshop as an on demand mini course. So if you were one of those people who was interested in my spelling booster workshop before but couldn't attend live, it is now ready to go for you to register for at any time and get the same workshop I gave before. But this one is at your own pace. So you can hit pause, hit rewind, watch part of it one day, watch the rest of it another day, whatever you have time for. And so it's a quick one hour workshop, but it is split up into little sections. So you can just watch a little bit at a time if you are a busy person like me, and only have five or 10 minutes at a time to spare. And then the last resource I have available to you guys is my new parent and educator coaching program, which is you guys can sign up for 30 minute or one hour sessions to get one on one time with me to either go over IEPs or go over reports or talk to me about what's working at your schools and what isn't working and come up with ideas of different strategies you can use. And then I always send you guys extra follow up resources and things like that based on our conversation so that you have something to move forward with. Last week, I had to have a really hard conversation with a parent that I definitely use the word snake oil. And I just keep thinking about that over and over since I have that talk. But I decided being honest with a parent is better than squeezing over something that is a real problem out there. So many places tried to sell families a quick fix that promises them the world. Anytime somebody tells you something is going to make all your problems go away, run fast, very, very far away, I had to have a really brutally honest conversation with a parent that I hope she took it the way that I meant it. But I just hate seeing parents being sold a story on how they can magically make all their problems go away when it's not reality. Instead, it is more important to help parents in the reality of what is the problem and what are some strategies to overcome this problem. Not some magic bullet. There is no magic fix. I can't tell you the number of parents who put their kids in vision therapy because they have dyslexia, when vision is not actually related to dyslexia whatsoever. And in fact, so many characteristics of dyslexia are things that you can discover without ever picking up a book, we really need to stop the madness of these systems that

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have long since been debunked, but people still for some reason, believe it anyway. And then in a separate coaching program meeting I had, one of the phrases that really stood out to me was, I wish somebody had told me this three years ago, I would have done things so much differently. It shows me that what I'm doing is important. And it shows me that what I'm doing is needed. And that while I have no more hours in the day to give a permanent slot to somebody. I do have a few moments in my day where I can squeeze in little meetings here and there whenever I have that extra time available. Or when one of my clients who is a permanent client isn't able to attend their session for the day. Sometimes somebody else can book up that spot for a parent coaching session or an educator coaching session. If you're an educator who really wants to know more about how to help kids with dyslexia like I do. All right. I know I've been kind of all over For the map today, but that's okay. I feel like I'm just so filled with so much excitement and some energy in order to help you guys. Because I have finally figured out a way that I can help a few more of you. Since I was hitting my limit, and it breaks my heart every time I have to send an email to a parent that says I would love to help your child but and that's the rough email to keep sending to people. So I love that I now have a way that I can offer some short term services to people who really just need some direction and to go the right way. Stay tuned for all of the events to come this month, including some live free master classes. And I'm going to be launching the discovering dyslexia course again, it's one of those things you can sign up for at any time. But right this month is when you can join it live when I have a lot more of those live interactive pieces as part of it this month as well. And I can't wait for you guys to learn more and more about dyslexia. And please, please, please spread the word about dyslexia Awareness Month. All right, time to recap my slightly scatterbrained episode for today. The first day is it is dyslexia Awareness Month, and all month long, I will be debunking myths about dyslexia, and teaching things about dyslexia you probably didn't know before. My goal is 20 posts over on my social media pages, so that everyone can learn more about dyslexia and spread awareness of it. So some videos and some little static posts of little quotes in data points and things you may not know. Then the next thing is sign up for the email list Parnell education.com forward slash email to make sure that you get all of the links when I open up with registration for my free master classes this month. If you were somebody who wanted to attend that spelling booster workshop, and you missed the live workshop, I've now made it an on demand mini course same price and everything. And you can watch it on your own time. And so that is at Parnello education.com, forward slash courses. And this week I had a fantastic successful first week of the coaching program that was previously only available to my in person like tutoring kind of clients and now is open to the public. And so that's at Parnello education.com forward slash coaching. So I hope that you enjoyed this little preview of what is to come for dyslexia Awareness Month. I know it's a little scatterbrained with all of the things I've listed out for you today. But remember that dyslexia devoted email list is where you will get all of the links straight to your inbox. You don't have to look up anything later. It just come straight to you every week. I only send them on Thursdays unless I have something really exciting like a course or workshop coming up and then you might get a couple more emails that week. Alright, that's it for today. Thank you so much for joining us and please spread the word about dyslexia all October long. See you next time.

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Thanks for tuning in to today's episode. If you want to learn even more about dyslexia, check out Parnello education.com forward slash courses. See you next time.