Are you looking at your child's handwriting and wondering why they cannot start each sentence from the left-hand margin when writing a line of text? Does your child's writing move further away from the margin with every sentence so the page looks like a triangle of text?

While issues with handwriting are certainly considered when it comes to diagnosing dyslexia, they are not actually key indicators themselves. Letter or number reversals can occur for a number of different reasons, and concerned parents should look elsewhere for signs of dyslexia in their children.

When we talk about the possibility of AI 'curing' dyslexia, what we really mean is to ask if it can be a useful tool in overcoming these challenges.

When Miriam, a mother of four, called me, she was at the end of her tether: her 4-year-old could not speak. She had already waited a year for her doctor to refer her to a speech and language therapist and, despite pinning all her hopes on this, she was deeply disappointed when no tangible progress seemed to come from it

MANY individuals with dyslexia often continue to struggle because of a weak working memory, even long after good literacy skills have been established. So, in a busy work environment that is increasingly flooded with information, professionals need to stay on track, prioritise activities and overcome the constant distractions that slow productivity.

The problem lies with the child’s psychological makeup … reversing this problem is relatively straightforward and sometimes can take as little as three weeks

Research has revealed that the pandemic significantly impacted children entering the reception year in 2020/21

Sometimes you might hear that “your brain is a muscle”. Well its not. It is much more advanced than just a muscle, and completely useless at lifting heavy objects off the ground.

There are some similarities though, especially when it comes to training.

Try calculating 13 times 6 mentally – really, go ahead and try! Most people will begin by calculating 10×6, and put that result (60) to the side, then calculate 3 × 6 (18), and then add the two together (78).

When I first started writing, I was incredibly nervous and worried. What if nobody read my posts or those that did thought they were not worthy of their time. I was full of self-doubt and fear. The fear was paralysing, and it took hours and days to write anything, the wastepaper bin was always full.

A few years back summer of 2021, we are all glued to our TV sets watching the Tokyo Olympics. Nothing was more amusing than seeing Olympic Gold Medalist Tom Daley's knitting. Tom was seen showing off his work to the cameras as he knitted a pouch for his pending medal. So charming – we all went “ahhhh!”. 

Neural pathways are routes created in the brain for information, thoughts, and responses to stimuli. However, thinking and talking are formed way later than physical movement. Babies can’t speak, but they certainly can learn to move, grasping and crawling long before they start to talk. The neural channels we create for movement activities are used later for thoughts and cognitive processes. 

If you are here reading this blog post, you may be searching for information on the duration of the SSP programme. You may also need clarification on the program's number of modules. If you have completed the SSP programme before, you may find that the number of modules have increased, and want to……

Poor emotional regulation can obstruct progress, stopping us from achieving our goals. Most adults will find a way to regulate their emotions for the majority of the time, but children need to learn how to navigate their emotional states as they grow…Most of the time, this is all perfectly normal and you will find a way to address it naturally as your child develops

Whether or not we are as adept at balancing as The Cat in the Hat, we could all do with better balance. Good balance makes it easier to move and helps prevent injury…It is interesting to note that in China, the average number of falls among the elderly is significantly lower than in Western countries.

A rainy day in London last December 2022 reminded me of the journey I took to get where I am now in a very unexpected way….My worries just kept on snowballing out of control. I was terrible at spelling. I knew it, my assistant knew it, and the whole architecture studio I worked in knew 'spelling' was not my thing. I was a designer, not a wordsmith.

We cannot expect parents to be with their children every waking hour. There are always important chores, such as cooking or laundry, and many parents have to juggle all this with work. Modern life is very demanding. Children are starting nursery without…….

As a Neurocognitive Therapist, I work with all sorts of curious learning glitches. One that seems to be cropping up more and more in recent years is not being able to read the time. Children, who otherwise have the reasonable ability, are stumped at telling the time from an analogue clock!

When someone has poor vision, an optician help corrects their focusing ability so they can compensate for this particular deficiency.…..When spelling, you need to pay particular attention to the letter configuration - especially when the word being spelt is not phonetically obvious and you need to memorize the order of letters. All of these skills require correct eye-tracking.

On one of my re-reads of this book, I was on holiday in a small Indian village.  As I was reading, I was also watching the children of the village play in their extended family setting environments…….. Sadly, this story is not one that had a happy ending, but it is one that teaches us an important lesson. Fortunately, laws have changed since then and children can no longer be left alone like this.