In the meantime, enjoy the content of this site. It contains an abundance of useful material. See you in the fall!

You are about to enter one of the most informative sites on Learning Skills and Living Skills. As you will soon discover, this site opens a far broader range of topics than its short title can indicate.

THIS IS THE SITE FOR YOU if you are looking for innovative solutions to dyslexia and other learning hindrances.

THIS IS THE SITE FOR YOU if you are looking for leading-edge solutions to depression, lack of self-confidence, and other personality issues.

THIS IS THE SITE FOR YOU--whether adult or child.

FEEL FREE TO WALK THROUGH THIS DOOR to happier learning and living, visit often, and don't forget to bring your children!

The Davis programs described here address troubling learning hindrances. You will find detailed information on the Davis rationale, and on the content and structure of the various programs:

What is at the root of learning problems? What subjects do Davis programs cover? What happens in a Davis program? What makes Davis programs different from all others? Will a Davis Program work for my child (or for me)? Why are Davis programs so spectacularly successful?

"As a Davis Dyslexia Correction® Facilitator, I am not interested in arbitrary labels based on arbitrary definitions. I ask a different set of questions." --Wayne Aadelstone-Hassel

Our Life Skills programs aim to resolve what I call "the modern malaise." This common phenomenon sucks the joy out of our lives and spawns depression, anxiety, and lack of self-confidence and of courage: We become the playthings of life's ups and downs. Our helpful programs can restore "victims" to conscious and confident living. They are inspired by the work of Dr. Aaron Beck (Cognitive Therapy), and Prof. Marsha Linehan (Dialectic Behavior Therapy), as well as other leading lights such as Deepak Chopra and Eckhart Tolle. Mindfulness training is often incorporated in our programs.

"As a counselor, I view my clients as unique individuals: There is no one else like you. You are the only You on this entire planet." --Wayne Aadelstone-Hassel

(The Davis Dyslexia Correction® Program, Life Skills, and Mindfulness Programs are separate and distinct programs which are provided in their own distinct contexts on separate schedules.)

Wayne Aadelstone-Hassel:

WAYNE AADELSTONE-HASSEL, teacher and facilitator

"Not everyone learns the same way. The tragic thing is that everyone is being taught the same way. This one-and-only method leaves dyslexics and near-dyslexics out in the cold. Could their so-called "learning disability" be seen as the school system's "teaching disability" that caters to only one particular learning style?"

"My task is to help those children and adults whom the standard approach to teaching and tutoring has failed. They do not lack intelligence: theirs is an active perceptual style that cannot be squeezed into the narrow confines of "the system." Dyslexics and near-dyslexics are three-dimensional thinkers who are uncomfortable in "the flat world" of letters, numbers, pages, and books."

"The dyslexic's and near-dyslexic's way of seeing, far from being a disability, turns out to be a precious gift. Ron Davis discovered how their gift can be used to help them master academic challenges."

"The challenge is to open the door that gives dyslexics and near-dyslexics access to the flat world, and tools that enable them to function competently in an unfamiliar terrain. This must be accomplished without destroying or damaging the gift. The gift must be preserved: when allowed to flourish without suppression, it becomes the source of heightened creativity and boundless ingenuity."

Wayne conducts his separate counseling practice under the heading of Life Skills programs. The three modalities of Cognitive Therapy, Dialectic Behavior Therapy, and Mindfulness Training make a perfect match and are successfully utilized by today's progressive counselors and psychologists. Most of the clients seeking help are struggling with self-image problems, low self-confidence, general discouragement, a sense of hopelessness or "being stuck," and prolongued depression.

Ron Davis:

RON DAVIS, educational researcher and author

"When I was eighteen years old, I was unable to read, write, or spell, despite having an IQ of 137.... I spent the next twenty years coping with a severe learning disability. I didn't read books or newspapers, and I couldn't sit still...."

"What the average person could read in five minutes or less would take me an hour or more. I could mentally compose a single-paragraph letter in seconds, but it might take four to five hours to get it down on paper. These things were simply so difficult and time consuming that I didn't do them. By 1980, I was thirty-eight years old and still functionally illiterate...." from The Gift of Learning by Ron Davis

Ron Davis's dilemma eventually turned into a blessing for thousands upon thousands of children and adults who share with him an unusual way of seeing. These are the picture thinkers, who must and can learn to succeed in a world that is dominated by word thinkers.

Is My Child "Really Dyslexic?"

We are accustomed to thinking in opposites: good or bad, tall or short, fast or slow, hot or cold, and so on. Looking more closely, we find varying degrees of these conditions. The temperature can be more or less hot, a car can go more or less fast, etc. A range or continuum exists between the opposites. Life takes place within this continuum.

Teamwork

This fact applies also to dyslexia. To bring this point home, I have coined the phrase near-dyslexia. Looking at learning through the lens of the continuum has important consequences for how we see and evaluate learning challenges:

Parents often ask whether their child is "really dyslexic." To determine the answer beyond any doubt, they may put their child through lengthy and expensive psycho-educational testing. Many of them will give a sigh of relief when they learn that their child does not have dyslexia. But sooner or later the sense of relief gives way to the sobering realization that the child's learning problems remain just as troubling as they have always been. What has gone wrong here?

The battery of psycho-educational tests is designed to arrive at a yes-or-no answer. Experts have drawn an arbitrary dividing line that is based on an equally arbitrary definition. Thus their answer reveals more about where the line has been drawn than it reveals about the person's "learning disability." If we use a big net to fish for dyslexics, we will catch many. If we use a smaller one, the number of dyslexics will shrink, although no one has actually been helped.

The continuum approach to "dyslexia and near-dyslexia" avoids categorizing students and placing them irrevocably on one or the other side of the dividing line. Instead of looking for a yes-or-no result, parents will now ask to what degree their child needs help.

• Does the child experience academic and/or behavioral problems?

• In what area(s) do these problems manifest?

• If the problems cannot be explained by developmental delay, inadequte instruction, or poor eyesight, what is their cause?

• Is the child aware of and troubled by his/her difficulties?

• Is a Davis program right for the child?

• Is the child's perceptual ability suitable for a successful Davis Program?

• Is the child motivated to master the problems?

• If not, are we able to foster the required motivation?

• Are the parents prepared to assist their child in the follow-up to the program?

Such questions give the parents and the facilitator a clear picture of the help a child needs and of the improvements that can be expected from a Davis Program.

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***For on-line DYSLEXIA ASSESSMENT***CLICK HERE _______________________________________________

***For on-line DEPRESSION TEST***CLICK HERE

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