Many people have heard of dyslexia, but fewer are actually aware of how this condition manifests and what signs to look out for before taking your child to receive an assessment. In short, dyslexia is a learning disorder characterized by difficulties with reading, spelling, and decoding words. As a result, it can also impact speech development. While dyslexia primarily impacts reading and writing skills, it can also cause a multitude of speech-related challenges, including articulation difficulties, phonological processing issues, and verbal fluency problems. Recognizing these impacts and impl ..read more

Everyone intuitively seems to know that getting outside helps boost their mood, especially in the good weather. But recent studies have shown that spending time outdoors can have extremely powerful and transformative effects on children’s cognitive function and mental health. It also encourages social-emotional learning, something that students with learning disabilities tend to struggle with, especially those with autism and ADHD. Outdoor education offers a unique and enriching learning experience that complements traditional academic instruction, particularly for students with learning disab ..read more

Parental involvement is crucial for fostering a healthy academic and social environment, but for students with learning disabilities, a consistent dialogue between parents, students, and educators is even more crucial—arguably the cornerstone of success. No one knows kids better than their parents, and special education schools are more likely to welcome parental insights to guide the individualized educational approach that distinguishes our facilities from public schools. Research consistently underscores the significance of parental involvement in enhancing the educational outcomes of stude ..read more

It seems as though nowadays, everyone is talking about ADHD: whether it’s the self-diagnosis community on social media or studies about adult ADHD diagnoses, it has never been discussed with as much fervor as it has the past few years. According to one article by the BBC, the flood of ADHD misinformation on TikTok has been highly controversial and worrisome to clinicians, some of whom feel that the misinformation is perpetuating harmful stereotypes and leading many to believe that normal quirks are symptoms of a more serious disorder. Proponents of “ADHDTok” disagree, believing that the widesp ..read more

Traditional education is a great fit for many children, but for students with learning differences, including ADD/ADHD, dyscalculia, and Central Auditory Processing Disorder, it can be a chaotic and frustrating environment in which to learn. Large class sizes, a lack of individuation, and a one-size-fits-all curriculum are not conducive to all students. Furthermore, the sensory overload common to the typical school classroom can be distracting for student with learning differences. Why LMA? It’s true that public education has become more welcoming to students with learning differences over the ..read more

For students with learning differences like ADHD or dyslexia the traditional classroom rarely provides the resources they need to succeed. Student-centered learning, on the other hand, is a tailored approach that puts each individual child in the driver’s seat of their own education—and prepares them for a lifetime of academic and social achievement that would be impossible without the right resources. Lake Michigan Academy is what happens when a team of highly specialized teachers with knowledge in a variety of learning differences come together to provide a specialized approach to learning f ..read more

Unlike its inverse (dyslexia), dyscalculia is not commonly discussed amongst educators and very rarely represented in media. The result is that this condition remains notoriously misunderstood. Myths and stereotypes abound, with plenty of people mistakenly believing that it is simply “math dyslexia,” or while the reality is more complex. For a child with dyscalculia, math is not just boring: it is fundamentally confusing. They find it difficult to comprehend complex concepts such as large numbers, algebra, and sequences, leading to challenges with more advanced mathematical problems in the lat ..read more

Although it wasn’t always so, dyslexia is now quite commonly understood to educators and clinicians. Students presenting with symptoms of dyslexia might struggle with learning guilt and feel insecure about their reading comprehension issues, but most special education schools provide resources that empower and inform both students and their parents. On the other hand, dyslexia’s inverse, dyscalculia, sometimes known as “math dyslexia,” is much less understood. We have a considerable way to go before it becomes de-stigmatized and normalized in classrooms across America. But what is it, and how ..read more

If you have a child with learning difficulties, you’re probably aware by now that there are a lot of acronyms. ADHD, CAPD, LD—and the list goes on! If you struggle to memorize what they all mean, don’t worry: there are often many similarities between the represented disorders, too. This might be discouraging to you, or it might help you keep track of the different disorders we typically work with here at Lake Michigan Academy and in other special education schools. Regardless, we often encounter parents making the transition from traditional to alternative education who have many questions abo ..read more

Learning differences such as dyslexia and ADHD, despite being incredibly common amongst American children, can be frustrating. For a bright, motivated student who has fallen behind academically, learning guilt can cause a sharp decline in self-esteem and an increase in co-morbidities, including depression, anxiety, speech and language problems, and behavioral issues. While dyslexic students and those with ADD symptoms benefit from a variety of academic accommodations, from individualized education plans (IEPs) to voice-to-print technology, the most important advantage that students with learni ..read more