Dyslexia comes in many forms.  Let's take two students:

Matthew is a smart struggling student.  Matt has an above average IQ, and he is a logical, sequential and auditory learner.  His challenge is he never mastered the sound symbol connection.

Michael is an equally smart student with an above average IQ.  Michael learners best when he sees and experiences information.

Matthew is a left-brained learner.  From our experience, phonics-based programs work well for Matthew and students like him.

For Michael and students like him, we ask different questions.  Specifically:

• Does your child remember places visited, even from years ago?
• Does your child learn best when they see and experience information?
• Does your child amaze you with what they remember, when they saw and experienced things?
• Does your child skip words and lines when reading?
• Does your child have difficulty paying attention to that which is boring or frustrating?

Michael's mom was shocked. She answered yes to all five questions.  Her question was, "How do you know my child so well without even meeting him?"

My name is Mira Halpert.  I have a Masters Degree in Education from the University of Michigan. I also have two children, who were diagnosed with Dyslexia and a Learning Disability.

Most of the Symptoms of Dyslexia I read were about phonics and phonemic awareness and reversals. For 7 years we struggled with Dyslexia and Learning Disabilities. Then I cam across the works of Jeffrey Freed, Ron Davis and Dr. Linda Silverman, and realized my daughter was a right-brained learner -- or she had what I now call Right-Brained Dyslexia.

With what has become known as the 3D Learner Program ®, my daughter improved her reading comprehension 4.2 grade levels in 7 months.  After helping over 1200 students, I realize:

• Left-brained programs work for left-brained learners
• Right-brained programs work for right-brained learners
• Most schools and psychologists do not differentiate their suggestions by how a child learns, and if your child is a right-brained learner

1. Most Dyslexia Tests focus on Dyslexia, Learning Disabilities and ADHD (Attention Deficit Disorder) and miss the how the right-brained learner learns and the tracking issues, which plague 72% of our clients.
2. Most Dyslexia Programs assume the child has already mastered sight-word vocabulary and pattern recognition and miss these two key issues that often impact the right-brained learner.  Sight words are words like why, what, if, however and but, that do not generate a picture and pattern recognition, refers to the challenge of not recognizing words the child has previously "learned".   As Dr. Silverman wrote in her book Upside Down Brilliance: “Phonics instruction does not need to be eliminated altogether, but sight word vocabulary needs to be built first.  Then whole words or syllables can be compared and the pattern recognition capacities of the visual-spatial learner can be brought to bear”.
3. Right-brained learners often lose interest in phonics-based programs -- that are boring and do not address their core issues.
4. Left-brained programs often do not address the attention challenges that are often present in the right-brained learner.  Even worse, ADHD Medication is often presented as the only option -- when there are options like the Interactive Metronome (R), Brain  Gym (R) and Biofeedback that address ADHD and attention challenges.