Dyslexia Coach

22/11/2025

Strategies to support ADHD well-being without meds. 🧠

What do you do to support your physical and mental well-being?

19/11/2025

“Mental Stamina Requires Exercise.”

One non-negotiable in my classroom is a daily 20-minute period of silence. It might involve reading, writing, or something else entirely—but the key is focus.

My students know that every class period includes this dedicated time.

This past semester, my students' test scores showed tremendous growth, and I firmly believe that this daily habit of intentional focus has been the biggest contributor.

Here are some of my 20-minute FOCUS activities:

Focused Silence: https://briantolentino.com/classroom-activity-20-minutes-of-focused-silence/

Focus Activities: https://briantolentino.com/focus-activities/

This Transformed My Classroom: https://youtu.be/BvhlDLoKrCE?si=VjUFbXc6RhIuR_Nc

19/11/2025

https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1BeE8GtEGL/?mibextid=wwXIfr

18/11/2025

Here’s the thing….dyslexics are experts at coming up with solutions or mental tricks to solve their confusions they have around their letters and words.

The more creative they are the more creative their learning solutions will be.

A trick only has to work once before it gets embedded into a brain pattern of survival.

But what happens when the trick or solution doesn’t work?

This is why teaching a dyslexic to rely on spelling rules or the different blend combinations doesn’t work.

It just creates more confusion. In essence -we are making them more dyslexic. Which means more confused.

When they look at every word-they slow down to work out the sound combination within the word or individual sound/s, then their brain computes whether it looks similar to a group of words that they have a visual memory of from the past from words that look the same or share the same blend or sound similar.

They can do this with nearly every word they read or write.

They can be experts at knowing their individual sounds and blends/learn their spelling rules and yet still be poor readers and writers.

I get exhausted just from watching them apply their solutions to their learning problems.

I ask myself-if they are applying these evidence based methods to their learning struggles -why do they still have learning problems at Highschool/University and in the Work Place.

Its not through lack of trying, poor teaching or poor parenting.

If we force the dyslexic in a way that is not suited to their thinking style -they will become more confused and frustrated.

They often go under the radar and the cracks don’t begin to appear until they are in Year 10.

That’s when the student begins to fall apart. When the parent rings up asking for a dyslexia diagnosis.

Thinking a formal diagnosis will help so that their child can get extra time in exams/tests and accommodations.

Yes-it buys them some time. But it doesnt correct the dyslexia disorientations. It does not train the dyslexic how to recognise a dyslexic confusion and how to master their reading and writing so that they don’t need to rely on sounding out, rules, or other people doing it for them.

It just leads to avoidance.

Eventually the same patterns repeat themselves at University, in the Workplace -impacting on self esteem and relationships.

All learning problems stem from “disorientation.”

Learn more about this by reading or listening to “The Gift of Dyslexia” by Ron Davis.

Or book in a Consultation with me or with a Dyslexia Coach.💚

17/11/2025

“Calming ideas for ADHD”

15/11/2025

14/11/2025

Happens to the dyslexic brain as well.
😊😊😊

12/11/2025

“The Reading Brain”

11/11/2025

Dyslexia isn’t just seeing letter reversals such as b and d. It’s not always seeing letters or words moving on the page.

It is a perceptual problem where the information to the brain that is being interpreted via the sensory systems is getting mixed up and muddled.

Did you know that the visual system/auditory system and vestibular system share similar pathways in the brain.

If one of the systems is out of sync-then they are all out of sync.

That’s why learning methods that involve repetition/rote learning and memorisation usually fail.

Dyslexia or a learning problem isn’t linear. Learning to read and write is not just learning the sounds of letters and blends.

Don’t go down the garden path without exploring your options.

image shared from Dyslexia Inspired

11/11/2025

Have you ever noticed that your child can memorize facts, talk endlessly about one topic, or get lost in details—but struggles with empathy, social cues, or emotional regulation? That’s often a clue that one side of the brain—the right hemisphere—isn’t keeping up with the left. At Brain Co...

09/11/2025

“Cognitive -Distortions,” negatively influence how you view events, situations, others, and yourself.

09/11/2025

“Teaching is the original act of believing in people.”-Alaina Clark