March 28, 2024 • 35 mins
Dyslexia is not a sign of low intelligence & Dr. Kelli Cole wants Amy (and everyone else listening) to know that. With Amy's recent diagnosis, Dr. Kelli also wants to encourage any dyslexic adults to know that it’s never too late to get help/intervention.
Amy & Dr. Kelli cover:
- Dyslexia, dysgraphia & dyscalculia
- Myths of dyslexia
- Adult dyslexia, and what signs to look out for
- Where to get tested, and how to find resources
- Brain exercises (Brain Gym)
- Brain foods
- 4 Things Gratitude...Dyslexia Edition (Dr. Kelli shares 4 things she's thankful for and her gratitude is beneficial to you, because they're resources you can check out for more information. She shares a show, a book, a food and an instagram follow (all related to dyslexia!)
About Dr. Kelli Cole:
Bachelor's Degree - Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX
Doctorate of Education - Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX
CERI - International Dyslexia Association
Knowledge Charged - Her business in Fort Smith, AR that she began 7 years ago.
Website: www.knowledgecharged.com
Instagram: @knowledgecharged
Resources:
Online dyslexia program called Dyslexia Gold
Movie: Embracing Dyslexia
Books for kids with dyslexia and siblings of those that have dyslexia:
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
Good level, okay level cast up road thing little food
for yourself life. Oh it's pretty bad.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Hey, it's pretty beautiful than beautiful for.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
That for a little more than it's exciting, course said,
he can your kick in with four.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Thing with Amy Brown, Happy Thursday.
Speaker 3 (00:33):
Four Things Amy Here and Well, I recently learned that
I'm dyslexic. So here I am at forty three years old,
processing this new information all while also at forty three,
I've decided to get off two medications at one for
my ADHD and one for depression. I've been taking these
meds for about three years now, and I just have
(00:56):
not been feeling myself lately. So alongside my nurse practitioner
and I guess myself, this is just a personal choice
that I talked to her about. We've decided to clear
the slate and see what's going on. As I'm also
perimenopausal and recently learned that I have extremely low testosterone
at the moment, probably just because of aging and who
(01:18):
knows what else, but that causes multiple issues, including brain fog.
And I share these things because they're related to today's episode. Now,
there's no shame in my dyslexia, My perimenopause, my low tee,
my ADHD, my meds or lack thereof. I'm thankful for
all of it. I'm just sort of rolling with things
(01:40):
at the moment, and I'm still not feeling totally back
to myself. But I was particularly off when I recorded
this dyslexia chat with doctor Kelly Cole the other day,
and part of me just wanted to scratch it and
re record with her, but obviously I wanted to respect
her time. And then I thought, well, I'm just going
to leave as it is because it's real and it
(02:03):
was me in the moment and kind of what was
going on with me. And I really hope to get
my testosterone up to lose some of my brain fogs soon,
and also really ready for my body to be adjusted
from no adderall and no antidepressant. But I just got
to be patient. And I'm grateful for doctor Kelly's patients
with me. I'm grateful for her expertise and her guidance
(02:28):
as well, and I hope that our talk is helpful
for you, and in one way or another, I know
a huge takeaway for anyone dyslexic or not will be
the brain exercises and the Brain Food Talk. I will
say that since we recorded this, I've been doing the
brain exercises also known as brain Jim. You'll hear her
(02:49):
talk about it. You can just search them up on YouTube,
and they have helped me a lot this week. I've
been doing them before work and certain techniques while I'm
at work, and I can see a difference already. Doctor
Kelly has her bachelor's degree from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas.
She's got her Doctorate of Education from SMU as well,
(03:12):
and she is CERI certified. That's the International Dyslexia Association.
And here's our chat, all right, Miss Kelly, thank you
so much for coming on, especially after joining us on
the Bobby Bone Show and administering the test and helping
me try to figure out what has been going on
(03:34):
probably since I was in elementary school, junior high, high school,
and finally having an answer to.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
Maybe why school was so difficult for me.
Speaker 3 (03:42):
And I'm forty three, just turned forty three last week,
and so for kids to be taken in and get tested,
it's like, oh, okay, you're a child, now, let's put
in a plan and get you some help.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
But for an adult.
Speaker 3 (03:56):
What would you say to them if they're saying, Oh,
it's too late for me to get help for something
like that, because I'm all in, I'm going to get
the help I need. But Eddie on the Bobby Bone
Show is like, Eh, I don't want to worry about that.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
It is not too late, and you will be so
shocked how it affects you that you don't realize and
if you get that help, Like if you're bad at
time management, if you have trouble with reading comprehension, it's
not that you can't read, but you don't realize how
hard your brain is working to read, and by the
(04:31):
time you get done with the paragraph, you've forgotten.
Speaker 3 (04:33):
Where you start in regards to that, I want to
start with, like, what is dyslexia? Because I didn't think
I ever fell into this category because I am able
to read. I knew that words phonetically were difficult for me,
and I would skip over some and yeah, I would
read and forget everything that I read and I'd have
to read it over and over and over.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
But I always thought that was my ADHD.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
And so what is dyslexia, Well, dyslexi it does run
very close with ADHD as well. So dyslexia is your
neuro pathways in your brain, basically, how you are bringing
sounds in, how you process those sounds, how you retain information.
All of those pathways relate to dyslexia. Now, yes, sometimes
(05:20):
you confuse these letters that look familiar, and that is
part that's called a surface dyslexia. I've had kids that
I will say, write a sentence and they will write
it completely backwards, mirror writing. That's what people think of
with dyslexia. But what it is is I have a
(05:42):
certain child that I'll say, okay, the word is get
and he'll say kt. I'm like, no, it's a gu
not a cup. But he knows. He believes that he
is saying that gus sound with all of his heart.
He believes it, and it's just not processing his brain
the way it needs to process. And a lot of
(06:03):
that is phonemic awareness, and that's a huge part phonological awareness.
How is your brain interpreting what you're told? Are you
being able to keep in all your tolls? My son,
before he started dyslexia help retained forty seven percent of
a conversation. Now he retains eighty eight percent of a conversation,
(06:24):
and this was listening to college professors anything. He was
so low in what he could remember in grasp.
Speaker 3 (06:32):
Well, that's what I'm most looking forward to, is helping
me out in reading comprehension, retaining conversations that I've had.
And again I think I associated that with and it
may be my ADHD as well, but my brain just
being a bunch of different places at once. And I
went ahead and did some further testing with you after
the show, and I don't mind you sharing a good
(06:55):
permission to talk about whatever. But we had just done
a segment on the show too where I am practicing golf.
So I went to the driving range and I am
right handed, but my golf swing is so much more
comfortable when I'm on my left side. And when I
was a kid playing softball, same thing. I would bat
right handed, but my coaches would sometimes switch hit me
(07:18):
because I was able to comfortably bat on the left side.
And in tennis, my backhand is so much stronger than
my forehand, and all of that is the left side
for me, and it really is what feels the best.
And so your theory was potentially with me when I
was younger, I should be left handed, but I was
sort of encouraged and forced to be right handed, and
(07:41):
that crossed the wires in my brain.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
And that's where my dyslexia could be rooted from.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
Which is crossing the midline. So if you raise your
right arm and then march with your left foot, that's
using both sides of your brain, and that's called crossing midline.
Any kind of exercises like that are so good for
people with dyslexia. I used to have one of those
(08:08):
ski machines. I would make my son do it every
morning because it would just get his thoughts going. He
had trouble riding a bike. He couldn't use both sides
of his brain at once. And the first doctor I
ever took him to that once we started getting diagnosis
and help, they said, let me check and see if
(08:28):
he was supposed to be left handed. Now Braden was not,
but a friend was. And that was his problem is
he was simply made to be left handed and it
crossed wires because teachers were like, no, you're going to
write with your right hand, and they corrected him. Those
pathways in your brain are so complex.
Speaker 3 (08:48):
Okay, well, who knows if that's actually what happened with me.
But it is an interesting theory. And whatever the case
the type of DYSLEXI I have, I don't know you
may be able to share more because I haven't gotten
the full print out, but I am excited to get
help and work through it and just better myself in
whatever way possible. So my hope would be if any
(09:11):
other adults are finding this out for themselves, whether it's
dyslexia or something else, or there's dyscalcula, dysgraphia, whatever it is,
that you would know it's not too late.
Speaker 1 (09:22):
It is never too late. The oldest person I've taught
to read so far is thirty four, but that's just
who this happened to come to me. And when she
came to me, she did not even know her letters
at all. And she's spent about three years with me,
and now she's in nursing school.
Speaker 3 (09:41):
That's amazing. What about dyscalcula and dysgraphia can you define
those as well?
Speaker 1 (09:46):
Okay, so dysgraphia is more like in my head, I
know how to the spell milk am i olka, but
when I go to write it, I can't get that
from my brain. To my hand. It's usually messy handwriting.
A lot of times you use a capital and then
a lower case, a capital and a lower case, and
(10:08):
I guess I can share this. That's something Eddie did
on his spelling test. Is halfway in the middle of
the word, there'd be a capital letter out of nowhere.
That's a dysgraphia side. Some people just do that, but
it could be dysgraphia. It'sys calcula. I don't want to
say it's the math form of dyslexia, but that is
kind of what it's called. And it's all under that umbrella.
(10:30):
And a lot of times you just don't understand the
math concepts. It makes no sense to you whatsoever. Square roots.
You just can't get your head around percentages. They did
a Harvard study on multiplication facts with dyslexics and they
were almost impossible to memorize, like a part of their
(10:50):
brain was physically not able to memorize. My son made
an A and college algebra. Yet if you say, Braden,
what's eight times four, He's going to go eight and
eight is sixteen, sixteen and sixteen is thirty two. That's
how he figures it out.
Speaker 3 (11:06):
Okay, I just did that in my head as well,
except for the first number that came to my brain
after I did sixteen plus sixteen was thirty four, and
I know it's thirty two, but that was my quick way.
I have to be really patient and I'll with myself
and I'll get there. But it is not memorized and quick.
A few I have memorized, like four times four sixteen
and seven times seven is forty nine. There's some that
(11:29):
I have memorized, but I do not have them all,
whereas most of my friends they memorize the entire times tables.
Speaker 1 (11:35):
Yes, and I memorized mine. And so when I was
trying to do this with my son, I was going crazy.
So what works for him is to have a rhyme
or a song in his head. They actually sell CDs
of the entire You can do country multiplication, rock multiplication,
and you learn them as a song because it sticks
(11:58):
with your brain. Anything when you're just like exits, graphic
doesn't matter. The more senses that you engage, the more
you're going to learn and be able to retain.
Speaker 3 (12:08):
So for me, if I'm trying to retain a page
in a book that I've read, or I'm trying to
remember and soak up a conversation that I'm having with someone.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
What is something I can do?
Speaker 1 (12:19):
So, for example, my son, when he's talking to you,
sometimes you'll see him doing something with his hand. He's
kind of mentally counting things that you're saying. But when
he's like, oh, I'm going to remember this, going to
remember this, and just because his hand made that movement,
it's going to be able to retain easier. When I'm
(12:40):
teaching spelling, I don't have them write down their spelling words.
I have a whole table pull of tiles, and they
pull down the tile to spell the word. Because that
literally pulling that letter down. They're going to remember how
to spell milk because oh yeah, I found that M
and then I found that I. Things like that with
(13:02):
using color overlays engages a different part of your brain.
Using a reading guide like these that are clear or
colored in the center and putting it on your page
is going to help you retain.
Speaker 2 (13:16):
If someone were to want to find that on Amazon
or whatever, what do they search for.
Speaker 1 (13:21):
They're reading highlighters, okay, and it's.
Speaker 3 (13:23):
Not a highlighter like a marker at all. So make
sure you don't get that kind of highlighter, but it's
specifically a reading highlighter.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
Yes, and you can get them clear if the colors
don't work for you. But I've had kids that the
letters move when they're trying to read, and then you'll
put a color over it and it calms that part
of the brain and they can their words aren't moving anymore.
There's a lot of things that you can do to
find your learning style, and that's a big help for
(13:52):
a lot of people. How do you learn best? Do
you learn auditorily, visually? Hands on? Most dyslexic are hands on.
There's so much help out there now that wasn't there
five six years ago.
Speaker 3 (14:06):
I want to talk about a myth of dyslexia, and
that is that it's a sign of low intelligence, which.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
Is the furthest thing from the truth. A lot of
your millionaires, a lot of Hollywood actors, changing Tatum, different things,
are dyslexic, and they will talk about having to reread
a script and reread a script. But these are successful people,
These are very smart people. Albert Einstein, they said he
was dyslexic. I saw a stat that's like seven out
(14:37):
of ten millionaires, and I don't know how scientifically proven
it was. We're dyslexic, and you had her on your
show from Shark Tank. I was fascinated with her talking
about her dyslexia. And I had always told entrepreneurship is
a great way for dyslexics to go because they think
(14:57):
so out of the box, has nothing to do with
intelligence at all.
Speaker 3 (15:02):
That was Barbara Corcoran, by the way, and yeah, it
was it was cool to hear her say that, especially
right after we had been diagnosed with it. And it's
a spectrum and you should get tested if you think
you have it or you know. You even said some
adults come in to get their kids tested and they
don't even know that they have it, but then they
start to get curious. And for me, I think I
(15:23):
always had a curiosity, but I would have never gotten
tested because I just didn't put enough eggs in that
basket that it could actually be dyslexia. But that's also
because I had a misunderstanding of what dyslexia actually is.
And I also have a question about it being hereditary.
Does it often come from someone in our family? I
(15:54):
also have a question about it being hereditary. Does it
often come from someone in our family.
Speaker 1 (16:01):
It does. It can skip generation, but like if you
were to have a biological child, they would have a
fifty percent more likelihood of having dyslexia.
Speaker 3 (16:10):
All right, Well, quick question about that, because if I
was meant to be left handed and I was encouraged
to be right, and that crossed the wires in my brain,
because dyslexia of its hereditary, is it just because my
brain was susceptible to that? Like if I didn't have
dyslexia in my family somewhere, which my sister and I
have a theory that it was potentially our dad, and
(16:30):
I wish he was alive so.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
That I could have him get tested. But he hated
to read.
Speaker 3 (16:35):
He did not have dyscalcula because he was really great
at math, but he was left handed and he was
very creative.
Speaker 1 (16:42):
And they're doing studies now like high school football players,
they are finding that there can be a concussion related dyslexia,
new studies that have just come out. I've been reading
it just because it's fascinating to me that a brain
injury can actually cause it.
Speaker 3 (17:00):
Well, I was getting some neurofeedback done a year and
a half ago. Is when I started maybe two years ago.
And she did a little scan over on my brain
and she said, the front part of my brain, I
guess had an injury of sorts, and your brain doesn't
know the difference between an emotional trauma and a physical trauma,
so all she could see was that there was trauma
(17:20):
to the brain right there. And she asked me if
I had ever hit my head as a kid or anything,
and I told her about a time that I was
playing hide and seek and I slid headfirst into my parents'
bed because the bed was base and I was about
to get tagged, and so I slid and my arms
went straight under on the carpet through the bed, but
then my head hit the bedpost and I had to
(17:44):
get stitches, and it's right there, and she goes, that's
right when your ADD could have come into action. And
I thought, what, I hit my head as a kid,
and that could be my ADD Like I thought that
was something you were just born with. But she said, yeah,
I know that trauma to your head could have been
the culprit.
Speaker 1 (18:04):
Well, and my son had brain surgery because he battled
brain cancer. So that was one thing that was really
hard for us to separate Okay, what is medical, what's educational?
What is from surgery is what is not. That's one
of the reasons it took us so long to be
able to find help for him.
Speaker 3 (18:22):
Well, what signs can parents look for, Like if they're thinking, well,
maybe I should get my kid tested or maybe I
should get myself tested. What are signs people can look for.
Speaker 1 (18:32):
There's different signs for different ages. So for the young ones,
if they are having a really hard time rhyming, that's
usually a flag because having trouble rhyming is the number
one thing for younger kids that you see and then
you're riding your b's and d's backwards, those kind of things.
But that can be natural until about seven. Mirror writing
(18:57):
a complete sentence forwards or backwards. That's a huge flag,
and some kids realize that it's cool trick and they
don't want to switch it. Just realizing that I am
not remembering things and it's not an age related thing.
It's like, I read that whole paragraph, I can't remember
what I was even looking for in it. Reluctance to
(19:21):
read is always a big sign inability to rhyme, to
change up your fanetics, your words, kind of like the
test that we did after the Bobby Bones show where
I had you switching around and taking parts of words out.
Speaker 2 (19:38):
Let's do an example of that and I'll do it, okay.
Speaker 1 (19:41):
So the word toast replaced the first sound with.
Speaker 2 (19:46):
A c post post.
Speaker 1 (19:49):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (19:50):
I think that's a good example, and then we did
the syllable one.
Speaker 1 (19:53):
Yes. That was why I called in. Was Eddie talking
about the cabbage because he couldn't figure out why they
were saying it had so many sounds. So cabbage is cut,
but uh, cabbage, it has five distinct sounds. It has
(20:13):
more letters than that, and it has less syllables than that,
but those are the phonys.
Speaker 3 (20:20):
And that was what he saw on TikTok Yes, okay,
let's run through that one. Give me a word and
I'll do the letter sounds okay.
Speaker 1 (20:27):
So through the the root.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
I feel like that one's a little tricky. It is
is it three?
Speaker 1 (20:35):
Because it's the that's one sound.
Speaker 2 (20:38):
Mm hmm er.
Speaker 1 (20:41):
Ooh.
Speaker 2 (20:43):
So through got it? It gets a little tricky.
Speaker 3 (20:47):
But we did a lot of those and from the
results of my test, and this is something I did
one on one with you after the show, like a
week or two after what did that show you about
what I had going on?
Speaker 1 (21:00):
It showed me that you have a double deficit, which
you have a phonological processing. You can process your sounds,
but it does take you a little bit to be
able to manipulate them. And it probably affects you more
with your reading and comprehending because you don't realize how
(21:20):
hard you're working with your brain to get all those
phonetics out into all of that.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
Yeah, I think that's what was so hard for me
to understand.
Speaker 3 (21:28):
I'm like, well, I get that we figured out how
to survive, or somehow my brain figured out how to work.
I finished school, I finished college. I've always wondered how
quite honestly, and retaining information was always so difficult for me.
Speaker 2 (21:45):
But I'm thinking, like, well, how in the world did
I teach myself to read?
Speaker 3 (21:49):
But the best way I was describing it to someone
else the other day was that traditional teaching, the way
I grew up and the way I was taught. Like
everybody else in my room, they were being taught from
going to point A to point B, the way we
were being taught. Most people in my class, point A
to B made sense, and they went with one line
point A to B, and they got there and I
(22:11):
was learning the same way they were, but in order
to get to B, I was having to go zig
zag zigzag, and then I made it to B, and
so I'm able to get there. But you're right, my
brain is having to work hard, and that's why it's
so frustrating.
Speaker 1 (22:27):
I usually draw out a picture of two brains when
I have a little kid, especially that i'm explaining to.
But it even helps parents, and I'm like, exactly what
you said, going from point A to point B straight
line learned to read. I have one of each kid.
My daughter never had a problem. She was reading by
four years old. Now my son, he will still get
(22:49):
to B, but we kind of like to take d
tour and maybe if you do a few loops and
then we get there, so he gets to the same place.
But it took Kim so much more work to get there.
And some days he'll still say he's twenty four. Now
he'll say I'm having a Kirby brain day. And I
don't know the scientific reason, but some days are harder
(23:12):
than others.
Speaker 3 (23:14):
Well, my theory, my v how much sleep you got
or how how rested your brain is what you've been
maybe feeding your brain right.
Speaker 1 (23:24):
The first thing I say to parents is are you
open to diet changes for your child? I think red
food dye is a huge trigger for some dyslexic kids.
When I removed gluten from my son's diet, his comprehension improved.
Will it for everybody? I don't know. I read Wheat Brain.
I was totally in it, and that's why we did it.
Speaker 3 (23:47):
So red dye number six, did you say? I feel
like I see that in like Dorito's.
Speaker 1 (23:54):
It's in a lot of things, and I've seen it
for ADHD and stuff too. To eliminate your food dies
because of the reactions your brain has to them.
Speaker 2 (24:05):
Oh gosh, okay.
Speaker 3 (24:06):
So, being in eating disorder recovery, I try not to
limit what I'm going to eat. But thankfully, since i've
been in recovery a few years now, I'm to a
place where I can do it if I know it's
for my health. Like I'm making a decision for my brain.
I'm not limiting something or cutting it out because it's
(24:28):
quote unquote bad because food doesn't have a moral value.
But this is interesting information, and I want to be
sensitive to anybody else listening like, don't use anything you're
hearing as an excuse to cut something out if it's
not for the proper reason, right, But obviously the food dies.
Speaker 2 (24:47):
I think we all could realize they're bad for us.
Speaker 3 (24:49):
But for me, I just all foods are on the
table and then it's like the pendulum swings and then
it's it's leveled out to where I can make a
decision for my brain health and the health of my body.
And it's really interesting, like I'm going to go look
in my pantry and see what I have in there
that has the food dies and just see if I
(25:09):
cut him out. And I had allowed gluten back into
my diet as well, because it's something that I also
restricted for different reasons, and I thought, well, if i'm
society says we need to be gluten free, then I'm
going to do that. And I was just really strict
about it and it was exhausting. And so now I
didn't think I was having any type of reaction to gluten,
you know, maybe because my face wasn't getting puffy or
(25:31):
I wasn't breaking out. But what if it is causing
days where I've got more of that brain fog or
I can't retain information or my ADHD is worse.
Speaker 1 (25:42):
It made a huge difference. My son, we took him
off gluten around age ten. He did not have celiac,
but he was just gluten intolerant. But we tried it
again and he was like, this makes me feel horrible.
I can't focus, I can't thank and so he put
himself back and he does not do gluten. He will
(26:04):
not cheat, even when I'm like, that's okay, because he
knows now. But you would be surprised how many foods
affect your brain. And I always tell parents, give it
a good three weeks, just try and see if you
see a difference. Yes, it is harder to buy organic
candy with more natural food dyes than it is to
(26:27):
buy a bag of skittles. But they do have them
that use natural food dyes. They're called Giggles, and you
can buy them at Target and things, and that takes
away that food dye. So if you can just try
it and see if it makes a difference, in two weeks,
you'll know if that's a big difference or not.
Speaker 2 (26:45):
I've actually had Giggles and they're not terrible.
Speaker 3 (26:47):
I mean, I get it, They're no skittle, but that's
because what we grew up on, and I think I'm
even interested to see about removing the die from my
kids too, but also explaining to them I don't want
to take away something that they love, also giving them
some power to also decide for themselves, like, hey, look,
here's the research behind this, and why don't you read
about it and tell me what your thoughts are. And
(27:10):
then ultimately I'm the one buying things, but.
Speaker 2 (27:13):
I think skills.
Speaker 3 (27:14):
I know they had to completely go in and redo
their ingredient makeup because in California they were illegal. There
was an article the other day about the same thing
was happening with flaming hot Cheetos.
Speaker 2 (27:25):
There was a bill being put on the floor.
Speaker 3 (27:28):
Or whatever it's called to make the flame and hot
cheetos illegal in California. So there's a reason why some
of this stuff is happening. And of course they're yummy
foods that we all like and they're from our childhood too,
Like I love a flame in hot cheeto.
Speaker 1 (27:43):
It's just amazing. What will affect your brain you're learning,
I mean, just things like putting that exercise in the
morning and okay, I'm not going to have you know,
crystal light or gatorade that has that food coloring in
it make us a big difference with kids with learning
this abilities.
Speaker 3 (28:01):
Thank you for that information. What about where people should
get tested? Maybe they're curious right now? How do they
find the right place? What about where people should get tested?
(28:22):
Maybe they're curious right now? How do they find the
right place?
Speaker 1 (28:25):
A lot of people will say they'll do a dyslexic screener,
and that is perfectly acceptable. What I have an issue
with is how much they charge for that and they
can't give a diagnosis. I know someone locally that does
screeners for six hundred dollars, But if she sends that
(28:46):
screener to a school, a school won't accept it because
it's not a diagnosis. So if you're going to have
a diagnosis, it has to be from a doctorate. It
has to That's the only way a school will accept it. It.
A full psychic valve from a psychiatrist is a great
way to get tested, and that will test for your
(29:07):
ADHD everything else. But just be wary of screeners where
it says screener because it's not a diagnosis.
Speaker 3 (29:18):
Basically, okay, and you have a doctorate, I know you
and I did some stuff on Zoom. Do you do
it on Zoom with people across the country or you
prefer to have them in house when they're in Arkansas.
Speaker 1 (29:28):
I prefer in house. But like after I was on
the Bobby Bone Show, I got a call from the
lady out in California and she was like, literally, I
know my daughter needs help, but it is two hundred
and fifty dollars for one session with a dyslexic therapist
and she couldn't do that. So there is an online
(29:49):
I haven't personally used it, but it's very close to
what I do that I recommended to almost everybody from
the show that heard me on Bobby Bone and didn't
live around here. It's called Dyslexic Gold and it's out
of the UK and it uses those phonemic concepts.
Speaker 3 (30:09):
Can you say the website one more time? And I'm
going to link it in the show notes.
Speaker 1 (30:12):
It's dyslexia Gold dot UK and it is a monthly
subscription site. But it's just very similar with the games
and the things they use for kids that I would
do in my office.
Speaker 2 (30:25):
I may even go on there if there's brain games.
Speaker 1 (30:29):
Yeah, I don't know what age it goes up to
or if they have stuff or older. I have not
looked at it except for the beginning stages of it.
But if you can't afford a dyslexic therapist, or there's
another one for kids called NeSSI that is geared toward dyslexics,
(30:50):
and those are just monthly subscriptions. I believe the Dyslexic
gold is thirty nine to ninety nine a month or something,
but that's much cheaper than one on one.
Speaker 3 (31:01):
Well, miss Kelly, let's close with Four Things Gratitude and
we'll do a dyslexia version of Four Things Gratitude, which
we'll hopefully also be informative for people, like if there's
a TV show, a movie or documentary that is supportive
of dyslexia, a book, a food or drink, and an
Instagram follow.
Speaker 1 (31:21):
Okay, so movie embracing dyslexia. It can be on your
streaming sides. But that's what it's called, is embracing dyslexia.
Speaker 3 (31:30):
Okay, so we're thankful for embracing dyslexia. Okay, I'm writing
it down because I want to go watch it too.
Speaker 1 (31:36):
I found it fascinating. Now book for kids or even
adult I enjoyed it was Fish in a Tree because
it's all about a little girl who is totally lost
in her third grade class and can't read. Her brother's
dropped out of high school. But then a substitute teacher
comes in and he sees what's wrong. It's probably for
(32:02):
high schoolers, but it's just a great book to read
with your kids for the understanding of dyslexia and that
it's not an intelligence thing. Henry Winkler has a set
of books for dyslexia because he's dyslexic. He actually paid
for a dyslexic font So his books are Here's.
Speaker 2 (32:20):
Hank, Here's Hank. Okay.
Speaker 3 (32:24):
And what about food, drink or anything in that category.
I know we touched on a little bit, but any
of that that you're thankful for, that that we can
maybe implement.
Speaker 1 (32:32):
I make my son eat beats. It's good for your brain,
roast them, do whatever. I think that's the best brain food,
one of them. Avocados are great.
Speaker 3 (32:44):
What about beat juice? Yes, if you like it, okay,
so if people want to try it. I enjoy beat
juice with lemon and ginger and super yummy. And that's
fresh juice like there's nothing else added to it. Some
grocery stores will have like a juicing section and you
can go over and just say, hey, I'd like beats
(33:05):
with a little bit of lemon and ginger and it's
really good.
Speaker 1 (33:08):
I'll have to try that. I roast mine in the oven,
just a little bit of olive oil and salt in
my funnel eedle.
Speaker 2 (33:15):
Okay, what about an instagram follow.
Speaker 1 (33:17):
Succeed with dyslikes yah is the name of it. There
are so many good ones on there, and especially if
parents are starting this journey and they're needing help with
like IEPs and getting their kids help in the school,
that's a great place to start.
Speaker 3 (33:33):
Well in your Instagram is knowledge charged, and then your
website is knowledge charged dot com, so people can go
check out information and contact you maybe DM you reach
out about questions they may have, or if they're in Arkansas,
they can come and see you. But if not, thank
you for you know, answering those that have reached out
(33:53):
to you to say like, hey, I feel like something's up,
but I don't have the finances to do this or that,
and you know, just even having you as a resource
in that way is so amazing and taking the time
to talk through some of this with me and for
others to hear it, and even the further testing that
you did with me. And I'm very excited to get
(34:15):
some intervention and see what it does for me. How
how long until I start to see results?
Speaker 2 (34:22):
Do you think?
Speaker 1 (34:23):
Oh? It depends on what kind of intervention you do,
how often you do it. With my son, we did
three days a week, thirty minutes to forty five minutes
a time, and I would say it was a good
probably five or six months, but then we saw amazing results.
And even now he's still continuing to do not as
(34:46):
much intervention, but like every two weeks, I'll say, let's
do a disleke see adrill. Let's do you know, like
the circling the backwards letters. It takes three to five
minutes to do at home. Do it once a week.
Speaker 3 (34:59):
You know.
Speaker 1 (34:59):
There's all kinds of dyslexia drills that you can download
for free. Just type in dyslexia drills and you'll come
up with your own little things that help you too.
And I think I recommended a couple of books. There
are so many good books out there. There's one called
The Gift of dyslexia that talks about why it is
(35:21):
a gift.
Speaker 2 (35:22):
Yes, you sent that one to me, the gift one.
Speaker 3 (35:24):
And then also I ordered the adult side of Dyslexia.
So if anybody has any questions, you can hit up
Miss Kelly or do some research on your own. And
if you're feeling like this might be helpful to some
form of intervention. I hope that you're able to get it,
and I hope that you're having a day that you
need to have. Thank you so much, Miss Kelly. All right, bye, bye, y'all,
Good level, okay level cast up road thing little food
for yourself life. Oh it's pretty bad.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Hey, it's pretty beautiful than beautiful for.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
That for a little more than it's exciting, course said,
he can your kick in with four.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Thing with Amy Brown, Happy Thursday.
Speaker 3 (00:33):
Four Things Amy Here and Well, I recently learned that
I'm dyslexic. So here I am at forty three years old,
processing this new information all while also at forty three,
I've decided to get off two medications at one for
my ADHD and one for depression. I've been taking these
meds for about three years now, and I just have
(00:56):
not been feeling myself lately. So alongside my nurse practitioner
and I guess myself, this is just a personal choice
that I talked to her about. We've decided to clear
the slate and see what's going on. As I'm also
perimenopausal and recently learned that I have extremely low testosterone
at the moment, probably just because of aging and who
(01:18):
knows what else, but that causes multiple issues, including brain fog.
And I share these things because they're related to today's episode. Now,
there's no shame in my dyslexia, My perimenopause, my low tee,
my ADHD, my meds or lack thereof. I'm thankful for
all of it. I'm just sort of rolling with things
(01:40):
at the moment, and I'm still not feeling totally back
to myself. But I was particularly off when I recorded
this dyslexia chat with doctor Kelly Cole the other day,
and part of me just wanted to scratch it and
re record with her, but obviously I wanted to respect
her time. And then I thought, well, I'm just going
to leave as it is because it's real and it
(02:03):
was me in the moment and kind of what was
going on with me. And I really hope to get
my testosterone up to lose some of my brain fogs soon,
and also really ready for my body to be adjusted
from no adderall and no antidepressant. But I just got
to be patient. And I'm grateful for doctor Kelly's patients
with me. I'm grateful for her expertise and her guidance
(02:28):
as well, and I hope that our talk is helpful
for you, and in one way or another, I know
a huge takeaway for anyone dyslexic or not will be
the brain exercises and the Brain Food Talk. I will
say that since we recorded this, I've been doing the
brain exercises also known as brain Jim. You'll hear her
(02:49):
talk about it. You can just search them up on YouTube,
and they have helped me a lot this week. I've
been doing them before work and certain techniques while I'm
at work, and I can see a difference already. Doctor
Kelly has her bachelor's degree from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas.
She's got her Doctorate of Education from SMU as well,
(03:12):
and she is CERI certified. That's the International Dyslexia Association.
And here's our chat, all right, Miss Kelly, thank you
so much for coming on, especially after joining us on
the Bobby Bone Show and administering the test and helping
me try to figure out what has been going on
(03:34):
probably since I was in elementary school, junior high, high school,
and finally having an answer to.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
Maybe why school was so difficult for me.
Speaker 3 (03:42):
And I'm forty three, just turned forty three last week,
and so for kids to be taken in and get tested,
it's like, oh, okay, you're a child, now, let's put
in a plan and get you some help.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
But for an adult.
Speaker 3 (03:56):
What would you say to them if they're saying, Oh,
it's too late for me to get help for something
like that, because I'm all in, I'm going to get
the help I need. But Eddie on the Bobby Bone
Show is like, Eh, I don't want to worry about that.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
It is not too late, and you will be so
shocked how it affects you that you don't realize and
if you get that help, Like if you're bad at
time management, if you have trouble with reading comprehension, it's
not that you can't read, but you don't realize how
hard your brain is working to read, and by the
(04:31):
time you get done with the paragraph, you've forgotten.
Speaker 3 (04:33):
Where you start in regards to that, I want to
start with, like, what is dyslexia? Because I didn't think
I ever fell into this category because I am able
to read. I knew that words phonetically were difficult for me,
and I would skip over some and yeah, I would
read and forget everything that I read and I'd have
to read it over and over and over.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
But I always thought that was my ADHD.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
And so what is dyslexia, Well, dyslexi it does run
very close with ADHD as well. So dyslexia is your
neuro pathways in your brain, basically, how you are bringing
sounds in, how you process those sounds, how you retain information.
All of those pathways relate to dyslexia. Now, yes, sometimes
(05:20):
you confuse these letters that look familiar, and that is
part that's called a surface dyslexia. I've had kids that
I will say, write a sentence and they will write
it completely backwards, mirror writing. That's what people think of
with dyslexia. But what it is is I have a
(05:42):
certain child that I'll say, okay, the word is get
and he'll say kt. I'm like, no, it's a gu
not a cup. But he knows. He believes that he
is saying that gus sound with all of his heart.
He believes it, and it's just not processing his brain
the way it needs to process. And a lot of
(06:03):
that is phonemic awareness, and that's a huge part phonological awareness.
How is your brain interpreting what you're told? Are you
being able to keep in all your tolls? My son,
before he started dyslexia help retained forty seven percent of
a conversation. Now he retains eighty eight percent of a conversation,
(06:24):
and this was listening to college professors anything. He was
so low in what he could remember in grasp.
Speaker 3 (06:32):
Well, that's what I'm most looking forward to, is helping
me out in reading comprehension, retaining conversations that I've had.
And again I think I associated that with and it
may be my ADHD as well, but my brain just
being a bunch of different places at once. And I
went ahead and did some further testing with you after
the show, and I don't mind you sharing a good
(06:55):
permission to talk about whatever. But we had just done
a segment on the show too where I am practicing golf.
So I went to the driving range and I am
right handed, but my golf swing is so much more
comfortable when I'm on my left side. And when I
was a kid playing softball, same thing. I would bat
right handed, but my coaches would sometimes switch hit me
(07:18):
because I was able to comfortably bat on the left side.
And in tennis, my backhand is so much stronger than
my forehand, and all of that is the left side
for me, and it really is what feels the best.
And so your theory was potentially with me when I
was younger, I should be left handed, but I was
sort of encouraged and forced to be right handed, and
(07:41):
that crossed the wires in my brain.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
And that's where my dyslexia could be rooted from.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
Which is crossing the midline. So if you raise your
right arm and then march with your left foot, that's
using both sides of your brain, and that's called crossing midline.
Any kind of exercises like that are so good for
people with dyslexia. I used to have one of those
(08:08):
ski machines. I would make my son do it every
morning because it would just get his thoughts going. He
had trouble riding a bike. He couldn't use both sides
of his brain at once. And the first doctor I
ever took him to that once we started getting diagnosis
and help, they said, let me check and see if
(08:28):
he was supposed to be left handed. Now Braden was not,
but a friend was. And that was his problem is
he was simply made to be left handed and it
crossed wires because teachers were like, no, you're going to
write with your right hand, and they corrected him. Those
pathways in your brain are so complex.
Speaker 3 (08:48):
Okay, well, who knows if that's actually what happened with me.
But it is an interesting theory. And whatever the case
the type of DYSLEXI I have, I don't know you
may be able to share more because I haven't gotten
the full print out, but I am excited to get
help and work through it and just better myself in
whatever way possible. So my hope would be if any
(09:11):
other adults are finding this out for themselves, whether it's
dyslexia or something else, or there's dyscalcula, dysgraphia, whatever it is,
that you would know it's not too late.
Speaker 1 (09:22):
It is never too late. The oldest person I've taught
to read so far is thirty four, but that's just
who this happened to come to me. And when she
came to me, she did not even know her letters
at all. And she's spent about three years with me,
and now she's in nursing school.
Speaker 3 (09:41):
That's amazing. What about dyscalcula and dysgraphia can you define
those as well?
Speaker 1 (09:46):
Okay, so dysgraphia is more like in my head, I
know how to the spell milk am i olka, but
when I go to write it, I can't get that
from my brain. To my hand. It's usually messy handwriting.
A lot of times you use a capital and then
a lower case, a capital and a lower case, and
(10:08):
I guess I can share this. That's something Eddie did
on his spelling test. Is halfway in the middle of
the word, there'd be a capital letter out of nowhere.
That's a dysgraphia side. Some people just do that, but
it could be dysgraphia. It'sys calcula. I don't want to
say it's the math form of dyslexia, but that is
kind of what it's called. And it's all under that umbrella.
(10:30):
And a lot of times you just don't understand the
math concepts. It makes no sense to you whatsoever. Square roots.
You just can't get your head around percentages. They did
a Harvard study on multiplication facts with dyslexics and they
were almost impossible to memorize, like a part of their
(10:50):
brain was physically not able to memorize. My son made
an A and college algebra. Yet if you say, Braden,
what's eight times four, He's going to go eight and
eight is sixteen, sixteen and sixteen is thirty two. That's
how he figures it out.
Speaker 3 (11:06):
Okay, I just did that in my head as well,
except for the first number that came to my brain
after I did sixteen plus sixteen was thirty four, and
I know it's thirty two, but that was my quick way.
I have to be really patient and I'll with myself
and I'll get there. But it is not memorized and quick.
A few I have memorized, like four times four sixteen
and seven times seven is forty nine. There's some that
(11:29):
I have memorized, but I do not have them all,
whereas most of my friends they memorize the entire times tables.
Speaker 1 (11:35):
Yes, and I memorized mine. And so when I was
trying to do this with my son, I was going crazy.
So what works for him is to have a rhyme
or a song in his head. They actually sell CDs
of the entire You can do country multiplication, rock multiplication,
and you learn them as a song because it sticks
(11:58):
with your brain. Anything when you're just like exits, graphic
doesn't matter. The more senses that you engage, the more
you're going to learn and be able to retain.
Speaker 3 (12:08):
So for me, if I'm trying to retain a page
in a book that I've read, or I'm trying to
remember and soak up a conversation that I'm having with someone.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
What is something I can do?
Speaker 1 (12:19):
So, for example, my son, when he's talking to you,
sometimes you'll see him doing something with his hand. He's
kind of mentally counting things that you're saying. But when
he's like, oh, I'm going to remember this, going to
remember this, and just because his hand made that movement,
it's going to be able to retain easier. When I'm
(12:40):
teaching spelling, I don't have them write down their spelling words.
I have a whole table pull of tiles, and they
pull down the tile to spell the word. Because that
literally pulling that letter down. They're going to remember how
to spell milk because oh yeah, I found that M
and then I found that I. Things like that with
(13:02):
using color overlays engages a different part of your brain.
Using a reading guide like these that are clear or
colored in the center and putting it on your page
is going to help you retain.
Speaker 2 (13:16):
If someone were to want to find that on Amazon
or whatever, what do they search for.
Speaker 1 (13:21):
They're reading highlighters, okay, and it's.
Speaker 3 (13:23):
Not a highlighter like a marker at all. So make
sure you don't get that kind of highlighter, but it's
specifically a reading highlighter.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
Yes, and you can get them clear if the colors
don't work for you. But I've had kids that the
letters move when they're trying to read, and then you'll
put a color over it and it calms that part
of the brain and they can their words aren't moving anymore.
There's a lot of things that you can do to
find your learning style, and that's a big help for
(13:52):
a lot of people. How do you learn best? Do
you learn auditorily, visually? Hands on? Most dyslexic are hands on.
There's so much help out there now that wasn't there
five six years ago.
Speaker 3 (14:06):
I want to talk about a myth of dyslexia, and
that is that it's a sign of low intelligence, which.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
Is the furthest thing from the truth. A lot of
your millionaires, a lot of Hollywood actors, changing Tatum, different things,
are dyslexic, and they will talk about having to reread
a script and reread a script. But these are successful people,
These are very smart people. Albert Einstein, they said he
was dyslexic. I saw a stat that's like seven out
(14:37):
of ten millionaires, and I don't know how scientifically proven
it was. We're dyslexic, and you had her on your
show from Shark Tank. I was fascinated with her talking
about her dyslexia. And I had always told entrepreneurship is
a great way for dyslexics to go because they think
(14:57):
so out of the box, has nothing to do with
intelligence at all.
Speaker 3 (15:02):
That was Barbara Corcoran, by the way, and yeah, it
was it was cool to hear her say that, especially
right after we had been diagnosed with it. And it's
a spectrum and you should get tested if you think
you have it or you know. You even said some
adults come in to get their kids tested and they
don't even know that they have it, but then they
start to get curious. And for me, I think I
(15:23):
always had a curiosity, but I would have never gotten
tested because I just didn't put enough eggs in that
basket that it could actually be dyslexia. But that's also
because I had a misunderstanding of what dyslexia actually is.
And I also have a question about it being hereditary.
Does it often come from someone in our family? I
(15:54):
also have a question about it being hereditary. Does it
often come from someone in our family.
Speaker 1 (16:01):
It does. It can skip generation, but like if you
were to have a biological child, they would have a
fifty percent more likelihood of having dyslexia.
Speaker 3 (16:10):
All right, Well, quick question about that, because if I
was meant to be left handed and I was encouraged
to be right, and that crossed the wires in my brain,
because dyslexia of its hereditary, is it just because my
brain was susceptible to that? Like if I didn't have
dyslexia in my family somewhere, which my sister and I
have a theory that it was potentially our dad, and
(16:30):
I wish he was alive so.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
That I could have him get tested. But he hated
to read.
Speaker 3 (16:35):
He did not have dyscalcula because he was really great
at math, but he was left handed and he was
very creative.
Speaker 1 (16:42):
And they're doing studies now like high school football players,
they are finding that there can be a concussion related dyslexia,
new studies that have just come out. I've been reading
it just because it's fascinating to me that a brain
injury can actually cause it.
Speaker 3 (17:00):
Well, I was getting some neurofeedback done a year and
a half ago. Is when I started maybe two years ago.
And she did a little scan over on my brain
and she said, the front part of my brain, I
guess had an injury of sorts, and your brain doesn't
know the difference between an emotional trauma and a physical trauma,
so all she could see was that there was trauma
(17:20):
to the brain right there. And she asked me if
I had ever hit my head as a kid or anything,
and I told her about a time that I was
playing hide and seek and I slid headfirst into my parents'
bed because the bed was base and I was about
to get tagged, and so I slid and my arms
went straight under on the carpet through the bed, but
then my head hit the bedpost and I had to
(17:44):
get stitches, and it's right there, and she goes, that's
right when your ADD could have come into action. And
I thought, what, I hit my head as a kid,
and that could be my ADD Like I thought that
was something you were just born with. But she said, yeah,
I know that trauma to your head could have been
the culprit.
Speaker 1 (18:04):
Well, and my son had brain surgery because he battled
brain cancer. So that was one thing that was really
hard for us to separate Okay, what is medical, what's educational?
What is from surgery is what is not. That's one
of the reasons it took us so long to be
able to find help for him.
Speaker 3 (18:22):
Well, what signs can parents look for, Like if they're thinking, well,
maybe I should get my kid tested or maybe I
should get myself tested. What are signs people can look for.
Speaker 1 (18:32):
There's different signs for different ages. So for the young ones,
if they are having a really hard time rhyming, that's
usually a flag because having trouble rhyming is the number
one thing for younger kids that you see and then
you're riding your b's and d's backwards, those kind of things.
But that can be natural until about seven. Mirror writing
(18:57):
a complete sentence forwards or backwards. That's a huge flag,
and some kids realize that it's cool trick and they
don't want to switch it. Just realizing that I am
not remembering things and it's not an age related thing.
It's like, I read that whole paragraph, I can't remember
what I was even looking for in it. Reluctance to
(19:21):
read is always a big sign inability to rhyme, to
change up your fanetics, your words, kind of like the
test that we did after the Bobby Bones show where
I had you switching around and taking parts of words out.
Speaker 2 (19:38):
Let's do an example of that and I'll do it, okay.
Speaker 1 (19:41):
So the word toast replaced the first sound with.
Speaker 2 (19:46):
A c post post.
Speaker 1 (19:49):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (19:50):
I think that's a good example, and then we did
the syllable one.
Speaker 1 (19:53):
Yes. That was why I called in. Was Eddie talking
about the cabbage because he couldn't figure out why they
were saying it had so many sounds. So cabbage is cut,
but uh, cabbage, it has five distinct sounds. It has
(20:13):
more letters than that, and it has less syllables than that,
but those are the phonys.
Speaker 3 (20:20):
And that was what he saw on TikTok Yes, okay,
let's run through that one. Give me a word and
I'll do the letter sounds okay.
Speaker 1 (20:27):
So through the the root.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
I feel like that one's a little tricky. It is
is it three?
Speaker 1 (20:35):
Because it's the that's one sound.
Speaker 2 (20:38):
Mm hmm er.
Speaker 1 (20:41):
Ooh.
Speaker 2 (20:43):
So through got it? It gets a little tricky.
Speaker 3 (20:47):
But we did a lot of those and from the
results of my test, and this is something I did
one on one with you after the show, like a
week or two after what did that show you about
what I had going on?
Speaker 1 (21:00):
It showed me that you have a double deficit, which
you have a phonological processing. You can process your sounds,
but it does take you a little bit to be
able to manipulate them. And it probably affects you more
with your reading and comprehending because you don't realize how
(21:20):
hard you're working with your brain to get all those
phonetics out into all of that.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
Yeah, I think that's what was so hard for me
to understand.
Speaker 3 (21:28):
I'm like, well, I get that we figured out how
to survive, or somehow my brain figured out how to work.
I finished school, I finished college. I've always wondered how
quite honestly, and retaining information was always so difficult for me.
Speaker 2 (21:45):
But I'm thinking, like, well, how in the world did
I teach myself to read?
Speaker 3 (21:49):
But the best way I was describing it to someone
else the other day was that traditional teaching, the way
I grew up and the way I was taught. Like
everybody else in my room, they were being taught from
going to point A to point B, the way we
were being taught. Most people in my class, point A
to B made sense, and they went with one line
point A to B, and they got there and I
(22:11):
was learning the same way they were, but in order
to get to B, I was having to go zig
zag zigzag, and then I made it to B, and
so I'm able to get there. But you're right, my
brain is having to work hard, and that's why it's
so frustrating.
Speaker 1 (22:27):
I usually draw out a picture of two brains when
I have a little kid, especially that i'm explaining to.
But it even helps parents, and I'm like, exactly what
you said, going from point A to point B straight
line learned to read. I have one of each kid.
My daughter never had a problem. She was reading by
four years old. Now my son, he will still get
(22:49):
to B, but we kind of like to take d
tour and maybe if you do a few loops and
then we get there, so he gets to the same place.
But it took Kim so much more work to get there.
And some days he'll still say he's twenty four. Now
he'll say I'm having a Kirby brain day. And I
don't know the scientific reason, but some days are harder
(23:12):
than others.
Speaker 3 (23:14):
Well, my theory, my v how much sleep you got
or how how rested your brain is what you've been
maybe feeding your brain right.
Speaker 1 (23:24):
The first thing I say to parents is are you
open to diet changes for your child? I think red
food dye is a huge trigger for some dyslexic kids.
When I removed gluten from my son's diet, his comprehension improved.
Will it for everybody? I don't know. I read Wheat Brain.
I was totally in it, and that's why we did it.
Speaker 3 (23:47):
So red dye number six, did you say? I feel
like I see that in like Dorito's.
Speaker 1 (23:54):
It's in a lot of things, and I've seen it
for ADHD and stuff too. To eliminate your food dies
because of the reactions your brain has to them.
Speaker 2 (24:05):
Oh gosh, okay.
Speaker 3 (24:06):
So, being in eating disorder recovery, I try not to
limit what I'm going to eat. But thankfully, since i've
been in recovery a few years now, I'm to a
place where I can do it if I know it's
for my health. Like I'm making a decision for my brain.
I'm not limiting something or cutting it out because it's
(24:28):
quote unquote bad because food doesn't have a moral value.
But this is interesting information, and I want to be
sensitive to anybody else listening like, don't use anything you're
hearing as an excuse to cut something out if it's
not for the proper reason, right, But obviously the food dies.
Speaker 2 (24:47):
I think we all could realize they're bad for us.
Speaker 3 (24:49):
But for me, I just all foods are on the
table and then it's like the pendulum swings and then
it's it's leveled out to where I can make a
decision for my brain health and the health of my body.
And it's really interesting, like I'm going to go look
in my pantry and see what I have in there
that has the food dies and just see if I
(25:09):
cut him out. And I had allowed gluten back into
my diet as well, because it's something that I also
restricted for different reasons, and I thought, well, if i'm
society says we need to be gluten free, then I'm
going to do that. And I was just really strict
about it and it was exhausting. And so now I
didn't think I was having any type of reaction to gluten,
you know, maybe because my face wasn't getting puffy or
(25:31):
I wasn't breaking out. But what if it is causing
days where I've got more of that brain fog or
I can't retain information or my ADHD is worse.
Speaker 1 (25:42):
It made a huge difference. My son, we took him
off gluten around age ten. He did not have celiac,
but he was just gluten intolerant. But we tried it
again and he was like, this makes me feel horrible.
I can't focus, I can't thank and so he put
himself back and he does not do gluten. He will
(26:04):
not cheat, even when I'm like, that's okay, because he
knows now. But you would be surprised how many foods
affect your brain. And I always tell parents, give it
a good three weeks, just try and see if you
see a difference. Yes, it is harder to buy organic
candy with more natural food dyes than it is to
(26:27):
buy a bag of skittles. But they do have them
that use natural food dyes. They're called Giggles, and you
can buy them at Target and things, and that takes
away that food dye. So if you can just try
it and see if it makes a difference, in two weeks,
you'll know if that's a big difference or not.
Speaker 2 (26:45):
I've actually had Giggles and they're not terrible.
Speaker 3 (26:47):
I mean, I get it, They're no skittle, but that's
because what we grew up on, and I think I'm
even interested to see about removing the die from my
kids too, but also explaining to them I don't want
to take away something that they love, also giving them
some power to also decide for themselves, like, hey, look,
here's the research behind this, and why don't you read
about it and tell me what your thoughts are. And
(27:10):
then ultimately I'm the one buying things, but.
Speaker 2 (27:13):
I think skills.
Speaker 3 (27:14):
I know they had to completely go in and redo
their ingredient makeup because in California they were illegal. There
was an article the other day about the same thing
was happening with flaming hot Cheetos.
Speaker 2 (27:25):
There was a bill being put on the floor.
Speaker 3 (27:28):
Or whatever it's called to make the flame and hot
cheetos illegal in California. So there's a reason why some
of this stuff is happening. And of course they're yummy
foods that we all like and they're from our childhood too,
Like I love a flame in hot cheeto.
Speaker 1 (27:43):
It's just amazing. What will affect your brain you're learning,
I mean, just things like putting that exercise in the
morning and okay, I'm not going to have you know,
crystal light or gatorade that has that food coloring in
it make us a big difference with kids with learning
this abilities.
Speaker 3 (28:01):
Thank you for that information. What about where people should
get tested? Maybe they're curious right now? How do they
find the right place? What about where people should get tested?
(28:22):
Maybe they're curious right now? How do they find the
right place?
Speaker 1 (28:25):
A lot of people will say they'll do a dyslexic screener,
and that is perfectly acceptable. What I have an issue
with is how much they charge for that and they
can't give a diagnosis. I know someone locally that does
screeners for six hundred dollars, But if she sends that
(28:46):
screener to a school, a school won't accept it because
it's not a diagnosis. So if you're going to have
a diagnosis, it has to be from a doctorate. It
has to That's the only way a school will accept it. It.
A full psychic valve from a psychiatrist is a great
way to get tested, and that will test for your
(29:07):
ADHD everything else. But just be wary of screeners where
it says screener because it's not a diagnosis.
Speaker 3 (29:18):
Basically, okay, and you have a doctorate, I know you
and I did some stuff on Zoom. Do you do
it on Zoom with people across the country or you
prefer to have them in house when they're in Arkansas.
Speaker 1 (29:28):
I prefer in house. But like after I was on
the Bobby Bone Show, I got a call from the
lady out in California and she was like, literally, I
know my daughter needs help, but it is two hundred
and fifty dollars for one session with a dyslexic therapist
and she couldn't do that. So there is an online
(29:49):
I haven't personally used it, but it's very close to
what I do that I recommended to almost everybody from
the show that heard me on Bobby Bone and didn't
live around here. It's called Dyslexic Gold and it's out
of the UK and it uses those phonemic concepts.
Speaker 3 (30:09):
Can you say the website one more time? And I'm
going to link it in the show notes.
Speaker 1 (30:12):
It's dyslexia Gold dot UK and it is a monthly
subscription site. But it's just very similar with the games
and the things they use for kids that I would
do in my office.
Speaker 2 (30:25):
I may even go on there if there's brain games.
Speaker 1 (30:29):
Yeah, I don't know what age it goes up to
or if they have stuff or older. I have not
looked at it except for the beginning stages of it.
But if you can't afford a dyslexic therapist, or there's
another one for kids called NeSSI that is geared toward dyslexics,
(30:50):
and those are just monthly subscriptions. I believe the Dyslexic
gold is thirty nine to ninety nine a month or something,
but that's much cheaper than one on one.
Speaker 3 (31:01):
Well, miss Kelly, let's close with Four Things Gratitude and
we'll do a dyslexia version of Four Things Gratitude, which
we'll hopefully also be informative for people, like if there's
a TV show, a movie or documentary that is supportive
of dyslexia, a book, a food or drink, and an
Instagram follow.
Speaker 1 (31:21):
Okay, so movie embracing dyslexia. It can be on your
streaming sides. But that's what it's called, is embracing dyslexia.
Speaker 3 (31:30):
Okay, so we're thankful for embracing dyslexia. Okay, I'm writing
it down because I want to go watch it too.
Speaker 1 (31:36):
I found it fascinating. Now book for kids or even
adult I enjoyed it was Fish in a Tree because
it's all about a little girl who is totally lost
in her third grade class and can't read. Her brother's
dropped out of high school. But then a substitute teacher
comes in and he sees what's wrong. It's probably for
(32:02):
high schoolers, but it's just a great book to read
with your kids for the understanding of dyslexia and that
it's not an intelligence thing. Henry Winkler has a set
of books for dyslexia because he's dyslexic. He actually paid
for a dyslexic font So his books are Here's.
Speaker 2 (32:20):
Hank, Here's Hank. Okay.
Speaker 3 (32:24):
And what about food, drink or anything in that category.
I know we touched on a little bit, but any
of that that you're thankful for, that that we can
maybe implement.
Speaker 1 (32:32):
I make my son eat beats. It's good for your brain,
roast them, do whatever. I think that's the best brain food,
one of them. Avocados are great.
Speaker 3 (32:44):
What about beat juice? Yes, if you like it, okay,
so if people want to try it. I enjoy beat
juice with lemon and ginger and super yummy. And that's
fresh juice like there's nothing else added to it. Some
grocery stores will have like a juicing section and you
can go over and just say, hey, I'd like beats
(33:05):
with a little bit of lemon and ginger and it's
really good.
Speaker 1 (33:08):
I'll have to try that. I roast mine in the oven,
just a little bit of olive oil and salt in
my funnel eedle.
Speaker 2 (33:15):
Okay, what about an instagram follow.
Speaker 1 (33:17):
Succeed with dyslikes yah is the name of it. There
are so many good ones on there, and especially if
parents are starting this journey and they're needing help with
like IEPs and getting their kids help in the school,
that's a great place to start.
Speaker 3 (33:33):
Well in your Instagram is knowledge charged, and then your
website is knowledge charged dot com, so people can go
check out information and contact you maybe DM you reach
out about questions they may have, or if they're in Arkansas,
they can come and see you. But if not, thank
you for you know, answering those that have reached out
(33:53):
to you to say like, hey, I feel like something's up,
but I don't have the finances to do this or that,
and you know, just even having you as a resource
in that way is so amazing and taking the time
to talk through some of this with me and for
others to hear it, and even the further testing that
you did with me. And I'm very excited to get
(34:15):
some intervention and see what it does for me. How
how long until I start to see results?
Speaker 2 (34:22):
Do you think?
Speaker 1 (34:23):
Oh? It depends on what kind of intervention you do,
how often you do it. With my son, we did
three days a week, thirty minutes to forty five minutes
a time, and I would say it was a good
probably five or six months, but then we saw amazing results.
And even now he's still continuing to do not as
(34:46):
much intervention, but like every two weeks, I'll say, let's
do a disleke see adrill. Let's do you know, like
the circling the backwards letters. It takes three to five
minutes to do at home. Do it once a week.
Speaker 3 (34:59):
You know.
Speaker 1 (34:59):
There's all kinds of dyslexia drills that you can download
for free. Just type in dyslexia drills and you'll come
up with your own little things that help you too.
And I think I recommended a couple of books. There
are so many good books out there. There's one called
The Gift of dyslexia that talks about why it is
(35:21):
a gift.
Speaker 2 (35:22):
Yes, you sent that one to me, the gift one.
Speaker 3 (35:24):
And then also I ordered the adult side of Dyslexia.
So if anybody has any questions, you can hit up
Miss Kelly or do some research on your own. And
if you're feeling like this might be helpful to some
form of intervention. I hope that you're able to get it,
and I hope that you're having a day that you
need to have. Thank you so much, Miss Kelly. All right, bye, bye, y'all,
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