There’s been a lot of buzz in the literacy world about the importance of orthographic mapping. We hear this term often, but what does it actually mean?

It’s the most wonderful time of the year!

Would you like to inject a little bit of learning into your holiday festivities? Here’s a great list of free activities that you and your children can enjoy together this holiday season.

Enter to WIN!

Letter tiles are a key component of the All About Reading and All About Spelling programs. This month we want to give one random winner the chance to try our Letter Tiles App for FREE! But we’re not just giving away the app…we’re throwing in a free tablet, too!

Have you ever heard of a Christmas book Advent calendar? It’s so simple and yet so fun. And best of all, it’s the perfect way to incorporate read-aloud time into your family’s holiday traditions.

Are you looking for Thanksgiving picture books to share with your children this holiday season? Here is a lovely selection that will demonstrate gratitude, show kindheartedness, and explain the rich traditions of Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving is just around the corner and that usually means a smorgasbord of tasty treats shared with family and friends around the table! Cook up a bit of extra holiday fun with this delicious Thanksgiving-themed word scramble activity! Ready to dig in?

If there’s a chill in the air and the trees are spinning a tapestry of reds and golds, it must be autumn! And that means it’s time to grab your little ones, cuddle up on the couch, and read a few of my favorite picture books for fall.

Enter to win!

This month you can enter to win the All About Spelling level of your choice. If you haven’t used AAS before, we’ll also include a Letter Tiles and a Spelling Review Box to make sure you’ve got everything you need to succeed!

Continue reading…

Robin E. Williams homeschooled her five children (four with dyslexia). She has counseled others on homeschooling for over 15 years and has worked in customer service for All About Learning Press for a decade.

So you have discovered that your child has dyslexia. You may be concerned and anxious over what this means for your child, or you may be relieved to now have a cause for all the difficulties he has been experiencing. Regardless of how you are feeling, however, you need to let your child know.

In Part 1 of A Parent’s Guide to the Neuroscience of Dyslexia, we discussed the parts of the brain responsible for language development and reading processes, how neurotypical children learn to read, and the neurological impact of dyslexia on language and reading skills. We discussed the fact that for most dyslexic learners, it’s as if their brains take the longer, more scenic mountain roads instead of the faster, more direct interstates when reading and spelling.

If you are a parent of a child who has dyslexia, you probably know how overwhelming and confusing it can be to learn about dyslexia. To complicate matters, even though dyslexia has been identified and studied for nearly 150 years,¹ there are still so many misconceptions about it that persist today, making it difficult to make an informed decision about your child’s education.

Robin E. Williams

The term “dyslexia” was first used over 140 years ago, with the symptoms having been well documented even before that. It’s not new, and with the estimate being 5-10% of the population have dyslexia, you almost assuredly know people who are living with this challenge.