In this special two-part episode, hosts Nick and Sonja of Dyslexia Journey Podcast interview my good friend and colleague, Dr. Linda Silverman, a licensed clinical and counseling psychologist, as she gives her perspectives of how bright children may experience learning difficulties due to dyslexia or possibly stealth dyslexia. In this episode, she explores how giftedness and dyslexia interact, and digs into the details of what psychologists are looking for when you bring your child in for a dyslexia assessment.

🔊 Click here and tune in to the show now to explore:

• Dr. Silverman's interest in dyslexia and learning differences due to her family and as a lifelong passion
• Getting a full comprehensive evaluation for learning differences
• Looking at children who are having difficulty mastering reading, spelling, and calculation
• What the diagnostic assessment looks like for Dr. Silverman
• The need for accommodation even if the child is not way below average
• The limits of compensation
• The importance of vision therapy for children - Learn more in this podcast episode with Dr. Silverman
• Recommendation to read the book “The Dyslexic Advantage”

About Dr. Linda Silverman:

Linda Kreger Silverman, Ph.D., is a licensed clinical and counseling psychologist. She founded and directs the Institute for the Study of Advanced Development, and its subsidiary, Gifted Development Center in Westminster, Colorado. In the last 43 years, she has studied over 6,500 children who have been assessed at GDC, the largest data bank on this population. Her Ph.D. is in educational psychology and special education from the University of Southern California. For nine years, she served on the faculty of the University of Denver in counseling psychology and gifted education. She has been studying the psychology and education of the gifted since 1961 and has written over 300 articles, chapters and books, including Counseling the Gifted and Talented, Upside-Down Brilliance: The Visual-Spatial Learner, and Advanced Development: A Collection of Works on Gifted Adults and Giftedness 101. She founded the only juried psychological journal on adult giftedness: Advanced Development.

Her mission is to enhance global understanding of the inner world of gifted and twice exceptional children, adolescents and adults. Twice exceptional means giftedness combined with another exceptionality, such as visual processing deficits. She grew up in Buffalo, New York. She earned her bachelor’s degree at State University of New York College of Education at Buffalo, and her master’s and doctorate from the University of Southern California. Her father was an accountant and her mother was an artist. She married Hilton Silverman when she was 19, and they were married for 57 years. They raised two of their own children and helped to raise 16 teenagers; at one point they had a group care home. She has three grandsons. She is passionate about the gifted and continue to contribute to the field at the age of 81. She hopes to make other psychologists aware of the benefits of vision therapy.

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About the Dyslexia Journey Podcast:

Dyslexia Journey is a show with conversations and explorations to help you support the dyslexic child in your life. Content includes approaches, tips, and interviews with a range of guests from psychologists to educators to people with dyslexia. Increase your understanding and connection with your child as you help them embrace their uniqueness and thrive on this challenging journey!

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“Dyslexia is not a disorder. It is not a disease. It’s not even something you necessarily should fix. What you should be doing instead is finding out what your child excels at because it’s a brain difference that gives the child or the adult many different advantages, the most of which are visual-spatial abilities.” - Dr. Linda Silverman 

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