Dyscastia
A podcast for parents and educators about the best way to support kids living with learning difficulties.
Hosted by specialist teacher Michael Shanahan, Dyscastia takes a positive, respectful look at supporting students living with dyslexia, dysgraphia, dyscalculia and associated neurodivergences such as autism and ADHD. Each episode focuses on practical, realistic strategies for reducing barriers to learning and building safe, supportive environments where students can achieve success.
Conversations draw on Michael’s teaching experience and lived experience of ADHD, dyslexia, and dysgraphia, along with the perspectives of parents, educators, allied health professionals, and students themselves — all working toward the shared goal of supporting every child to feel understood and supported at school and beyond.
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Episodes
Friday Dec 31, 2021
Friday Dec 31, 2021
In this episode, Michael and Bill do their very best to arm parents and educators with information about dyslexia and dysgraphia so they can better spot a good intervention and avoid precious time and money on unproven and disproved treatments.
Dyslexia and dysgraphia – huge enough on their own and often live together in one brain making life doubly hard for people. There’s just so much misleading information out there about these Specific Learning Difficulties. It was just the other day Bill gave some advice to a very grateful tradesperson about not paying a nutritionist who had claimed that a change in his son’s diet could help his dyslexia! Until you understand the core difficulty of any SLD, you are vulnerable to all sorts of snake oil and quackery. What a minefield for parents.
Friday Dec 31, 2021
Friday Dec 31, 2021
In this episode, Michael and Bill delve into what Specific Learning Difficulties are and the advantages vs the disadvantages of using terms like learning difference, disability or disorder to describe them.
So what do we call it when a person can’t learn to do something like reading, writing or maths as easily as what is considered normal?
It’s a touchy subject and to be honest, it probably depends on the context you’re in when talking about it and whom you're talking to. Sometimes our context is trying to get funding schools to better support kids at school, sometimes it’s raising awareness in the community about learning problems and the long term impact they have on students. In these contexts, we want to talk in a way that underlines the functional severity of these difficulties and the lasting impact they have on young people (especially if not dealt with and properly resourced). So, in those contexts, we might use terms like disability or disorder. Then there’s the toughest context – a child who needs their difficulty explained to them, carefully, in a way that doesn’t talk down to them or minimise the problems they experience, but at the same time doesn’t crush their soul. In this context, we may tread too lightly and talk about brains working differently and put too little attention on the very real hardships the child experiences every day at school.
It’s tough and it deserves exploring because regardless of the context there’s just so much at stake. So let’s go there!