Students with Learning disabilities headed to college:

check out these tips from an article in US News

http://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/articles/2010/12/02/8-steps-for-learning-disabled-students-who-want-to-go-to-college

ADDITUDE MAGAZINE web address:  www.additudemag.com

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New Brain Findings On Dyslexic Children: Good Readers Learn From Repeating Auditory Signals, Poor Readers Do Not.

ScienceDaily (Nov. 12, 2009) — The vast majority of school-aged children can focus on the voice of a teacher amid the cacophony of the typical classroom thanks to a brain that automatically focuses on relevant, predictable and repeating auditory information, according to new research from Northwestern University.

But for children with developmental dyslexia, the teacher's voice may get lost in the background noise of banging lockers, whispering children, playground screams and scraping chairs, the researchers say. Their study appears in the Nov. 12 issue of Neuron.

Recent scientific studies suggest that children with developmental dyslexia -- a neurological disorder affecting reading and spelling skills in 5 to 10 percent of school aged children -- have difficulties separating relevant auditory information from competing noise

http://www.sciencedaily.com

Subscribe to U.S. News & World Report.: www.usnews.com

2 articles of interest:  December 1, 2009

(1) The Lure of an ADHD Treatment Minus the Meds
BYLINE: Megan Johnson
HIGHLIGHT: Neurofeedback therapy is costly and not yet proven, but evidence of success is building


U.S. News & World Report December 1, 2009
(2) Four Free Ways to Help Manage ADHD Safely
BYLINE: Megan Johnson
Most ADHD therapies are costly. The following no-drug approaches might help and cost nothing.

Reading practice improves part of brain that's critical for learning
Students who practice reading can improve their brains -- especially the white matter portion essential to learning, according to research by scientists at the Center for Cognitive Brain Imaging at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. Researchers scanned students' brains, then enrolled struggling readers in an intensive reading program. Researchers scanned those students' brains again after 100 hours of reading practice and found the training improved "not just their reading ability, but the tissues in their brain." Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (12/10  go to the site:          http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09344/1019898-115.stm

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Writing Skill & Testing Written Expression

 Children who have difficulty writing are at a disadvantage in their schoolwork. Children with disabilities are at risk for writing failure.

It is important to monitor writing skill using written language testing. Caution! All tests of written expression are not created equal. Small differences between tests can result in large differences in scores.

go to www.wrightslaw.com - type in Writing Skills and Testing Written Expression for the full article