Percy Jackson - Getting Kids to Read

Creator of Percy Jackson Offers Tips for Getting Dyslexic Kids to Read

Rick Riordan created his book series to help his son battle learning disabilities.

When author Rick Riordan’s son Haley was 7, he hated school. Haley had attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and dyslexia. Reading and learning were serious challenges for him. Riordan relates that Haley used to hide under the family’s dining-room table to get out of doing his homework or to avoid reading.

Royal Blood

Percy Jackson - Image via Wikipedia

Riordan loved books and was desperate that Haley should love them, too. That’s why he started writing the Percy Jackson series, which began as Haley’s bedtime stories. Riordan gave Percy the same learning disabilities as Haley: ADHD and dyslexia; but the author depicted the learning deficits as indications of royal Olympian blood, medical conditions found only in demigods.

Today, Haley is 16 years-old. He walked into his father’s office not long ago, announcing that he’d just completed a 600-page manuscript. That would be a stunning accomplishment for any 16 year-old, but coming from Haley, the announcement was proof positive that the boy had turned the tide against dyslexia and had come to love the printed word. Riordan had won and Haley was the benefactor.

Long Journey

Over the course of the past nine years, Riordan’s protagonist became the main character of a five-book series. As Percy rose to stardom, Haley was taking his own journey. He came out from under the dining room table and instead of avoiding books, became an avid reader.

As Riordan looks back and reflects upon the success of the Percy Jackson series and Haley’s embrace of books and writing, he decided to share what he has learned about the process of turning children into bookworms. It boils down to four essential factors:

1. Provide an example. If you don’t take the time to read, it’s a good bet your children won’t, either. If your kids see you reading, they’ll follow your good example. Make reading a part of your family’s daily schedule. Declare the hour of 7-8 PM family reading hour. Have general book discussions. Discuss what makes a book or an author great.

Image via Wikipedia

2. Find books your children will want to read. A series is good because it will leave your child wanting to read more. Don’t worry about the caliber of the books your child seems to prefer. The main thing is to build a foundation—you want to get your child reading for pleasure. Make friends with the librarian at your local children's library and pick her brains about books your child might enjoy.

3. Think about your child’s reading environment. In general, you should offer your child a place to read where he won’t be distracted by noise. On the other hand, some children with ADHD find that fiddling makes it easier to concentrate. If squeezing a stress ball, for instance, makes it easier for your child to read, by all means, have him squeeze away.

4. Stay positive about the future. Children with ADHD and dyslexia can grow up to become successful. More millionaires than not have dyslexia. Adults with ADHD have the gift of hyperfocus and can stay focused on problems for as long as necessary, something the rest of us find difficult. People with learning disabilities have to learn to think outside the box because they have learning differences. As a result, they become excellent at problem-solving. The main thing is to get our kids through school so that they become free to find their niche.

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• Kids With ADHD Often Have Other Problems (webmd.com)
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Internet Addiction

Plugged In 24/7

Is your child’s internet usage increasing as his grades (and personal hygiene) slip? Could it be he has an Internet addiction?

Kids are digital natives, born into the world of ever-evolving technology. Kids’ lives exist online as much or more than they do in reality. Digital natives can’t conceive of a world without cellphones, iPods, and the Internet. That’s why it should come as no surprise to hear that some teens report spending 7-14 hours a day plugged into their computers—way beyond the recommended Canadian guideline of two hours max.

Addicted

Still, Facebook can be a good thing, insomuch as it fosters social interaction. The problems begin when teens go out on a limb and engage in risky behavior just so they’ll have a cool status update for their “walls.” That’s when you know things are getting out of hand. Recent studies tell us that the more time a teen spends on social networking venues, the higher the level of his narcissism climbs. That should send parental alarm bells a ’ringing.

One U.S. health-care advocacy group, the Kaiser Family Foundation, issued a report stating that kids aged 8-18 spend more time facing their computer monitors, game and television screens, than they spend on any other activity except for sleep. The report says that kids access technology on an average of 10 hours and 45 minutes a day. This certainly is a contrast to the recommendations of the Canadian Pediatric Society that this same age group spend no more than two hours a day parked in front of a screen.

Susan Lambert, president of the British Columbia Teachers Federation, was shocked to hear that many teens are spending over 10 hours a day on computers. Lambert asks, "If you were spending an average of 10 hours and 45 minutes a day doing any single thing, wouldn't we be concerned?"

Addicted to the Internet

ADHD Link

One expert has noticed a link between Internet overuse and certain disorders, in particular ADHD and depression. Dr. Susan Baer, of the BC Children’s Hospital, where she is a child and adolescent psychiatrist in the neuropsychiatry and mood and anxiety disorders clinic, conducted a study on the topic and found that teens with behavioral and emotional difficulties were spending most of their free time in front of monitors and screens, averaging 7 hours a day on gaming stations, televisions, and computers.

But Baer also discovered that kids who spent lots of time on computers or at gaming stations but did not manifest addictive behaviors were not among those with a coexisting link to depression. "This was surprising to us and suggests that even though terms such as Internet addiction are controversial, there is a real difference between youth who are simply filling their free time with the computer, and youth whose use is more driven and problematic," said Baer.

Addiction Symptoms

Consult your physician if your child:

* Loses interest in academic achievement

* Feels angry and frustrated when denied access

* Feels depression and anxiety—longs to return when away from the computer

* Has sleep difficulties and changes in sleep patterns

* Neglects personal hygiene

* Neglects important responsibilities

* Spends less time with loves ones and friends

* Loses real friends while increasing virtual friends

Related articles

• Social Network Addiction - A Scientific No Man's Land? (brainblogger.com)
• Do You Have Digital Natives at Your Organization? (hubspot.com)
• Video Games, ADHD and Time Management (psychcentral.com)

The Problem With Reading

Read To Learn

No one doubts that reading is an important skill to acquire. It seems obvious: we've got to learn how to read, otherwise, how will we read to learn? More to the point, what happens to the children who finds it hard to read? Are they doomed to be poor learners?

Adult Illiteracy

The rate of adult illiteracy has burgeoned to the point where it can no longer be ignored. That's why, in 1992, the United States government underwrote the National Adult Literacy Survey to the tune of $14 million to try to get a handle on the scale of the pervasiveness of literacy issues among adult Americans. The results were shocking: though most of those surveyed had graduated high school, 96% of them could not read, write, or do arithmetic on a level high enough to continue on to college. Worse yet, a full 25% just couldn't read at all.

No Change

A subsequent 2003 study, this time named the National Assessment of Adult Literacy, showed no significant change from the 1992 study in reading comprehension levels. Adults were still having the same difficulties in reading and understanding text, a decade later.

Equal Opportunity

The most remarkable thing about the study is that reading difficulties are an equal opportunity disaster. Difficulties in reading don't just happen to people from disadvantaged homes. Most of these people go to decent schools, have stable homes, and have average or even above average IQ scores. However, they are struggling to figure out reading , and some of them never do.

Common Issues

Kids who have trouble learning to read have a lot of issues in common. They have a tendency to transpose letters and words, or leave them out altogether. They lose their place on the page, cannot retain much of what they have just read, and do not understand the sense of the words they do manage to read. When these symptoms occur in clusters, kids are said to have a learning disability (LD) known as dyslexia.

Some Statistics

According to the International Dyslexia Association, a minimum of one in ten otherwise normal people has severe dyslexia. The National Center for Learning Disabilities states that 15 million American adults and children have learning disabilities. Some estimates state that 70%-80% of children with learning disabilities suffer from dyslexia.

The Upshot

The upshot? People with poor literacy skills are our co-workers, friends, family, and children and their numbers are too big to ignore. It's time to accommodate those among us with reading difficulties.

Related articles

• The Brain as Crystal Ball (community.cognibeat.com)
• Math Dyslexia (community.cognibeat.com)
• John Zickerfoose's Inspiring Struggle Against Dyslexia, Illiteracy (huffingtonpost.com)

Gov. Christie's Vision

New Jersey Governor Calls for Change

Gov. Chris Christie has announced that he wants to change the system so that New Jersey teachers will have their performance reviewed every five years.

Last Thursday, on January 13, 2011, Chris Christie took the podium at a town hall meeting in Paramus N.J. to make the suggestion that teachers should be hired on the basis of five-year contracts. This would give schools the chance to review a teacher’s performance before choosing to renew contracts. Earlier in the week, the Republican governor had called for ending automatic tenure for teachers.

Enough Time

Governor Chris Christie, Photo Courtesy: CHRIS FAYTOK/The Star-Ledger

Christie feels that while teachers need to have enough time to get hands-on experience and learn how to teach the current system just makes it too hard to get rid of

poor teachers. Right now, the idea of having five-year teaching contracts is still just an idea. Christie’s office has yet to make an official proposal. The controversial governor, who is known to speak his mind, has not yet provided details on just how he will accomplish the abolition of teacher tenure. Furthermore, the teacher’s union has promised him a rousing fight.

The governor of New Jersey didn’t stop with teacher tenure when throwing out his creative ideas for improving the educational system, but also said he’s looking into a plan for the development of schools that would specialize in educating children with autism. These schools would be set up in each of 21 counties in New Jersey, if Christie has his way. During his speech at the town hall meeting, the governor said that his plan would provide a cost-effective alternative for those districts that were attempting to develop their own curriculums for educating special children.

Governor Christie of New Jersey Photo Courtesy: NYdailynews.com

“Visionary Concept”

Linda Meyer, the director of Autism New Jersey made a statement to the media to the effect that Christie is sincere about trying to provide both equality and access to education for every sector of society. She called his concepts, “visionary,” but other people are less convinced that the governor’s idea is such a good one. The director of one private school for children with autism said that the idea would put schools like his, which rely on referrals from the public school districts, out of business.

During the past ten years, the neurological disorder known as autism, which impairs social interaction, has proven a serious challenge that has driven New Jersey special education costs to an annual $3 billion. The number of students with autism has doubled over the past decade, to almost 12,000 students in the Garden State.

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Doctors with Attention Deficit

Students Claim ADHD to Get Drugs

Students who want to try ADHD medication for recreational purposes or to boost their grades find it all too easy to convince physicians they have ADHD

Though the U.S. government defines Adderall as a Schedule 2 drug, getting doctors to prescribe Adderall is a snap for college students looking for an easy way to ace their exams. One University of Massachusetts student reporter decided to interview her fellow students to investigate the matter. During one such interview, a fellow student claimed she held her primary health care doctor in the palm of her hand when she begged him to refer her to a psychiatrist who offers evaluations for attention deficit disorder (ADD).

Image via Wikipedia

Transparent Questions

During the psychiatrist’s assessment, the student responded to a series of transparent questions like, “Do you have a hard time concentrating or focusing?” The student said it took no mental gymnastics to figure out what responses would generate a diagnosis of ADD so that she would be entitled to the drugs she sought. However, the student was canny enough to only posit a certain number of symptoms so that she wouldn’t be too obvious in her quest to be diagnosed with a disorder she didn’t have.

The upshot was that the unwitting psychiatrist found she had nine out of nine signs of ADD without the addition of the nine signs that would have added the “H” of hyperactivity to the diagnosis (ADHD). Less than 30 minutes after the examination began, the student had a prescription for Adderall in her hot little hand.

Little Uniformity

The reporter discovered that there is little uniformity in the diagnostic criteria used by physicians to diagnose ADD. Therefore, speaking of a “test for ADD” is misleading. Of the three students the reporter interviewed, two answered a series of questions or were asked to describe their symptoms while the third student was given a more complex diagnostic test.

In the case of the student described above, there was some “prepping” of the patient: the psychiatrist told her that ADD has nine symptoms and that if someone had a certain number of these symptoms, they can be prescribed medications to help them concentrate.

Image via Wikipedia

The student who received the most rigorous testing was also diagnosed with ADD and given Concerta, a medication similar to Adderall.

The upshot is that a student need not undergo a standard test in order to get a prescription for Adderall, which is an amphetamine. It’s more about finding the doctor who doesn’t mind writing out a script for the student who complains of ADD/ADHD symptoms. In every case, the goal is a legal method for procuring drugs that can be used to help students stay awake for all-night cramming during the final exams period.

Diane Fedorchak, director of Brief Alcohol Screening and Intervention for College Students (BASICS), says that only some 5% of the study body suffers from ADHD while another 8% of U of M students report using stimulants like Ritalin, Adderall, or Concerta during the past 30 days without benefit of a prescription.

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