29Jan/13Off

What ADD & ADHD are really all about explained by Dr. Naoisé O’Reilly

I always see ADD and ADHD as an affect of what is really going on with the students who come to me looking for help and support with their school work. This has helped me to coin a term over the last 4 years called "Diffuse Focus™" to describe what is really happening for them. I equally see these patterns of behaviour carried through to adult life with our business clients!   Dr. Naoisé (Expression Developist™)

Filed under: ADD, ADHD, Comprehension skills for Dyslexia/SLD, Confidence, Dyslexia, Expression Skills for Dyslexia/SLD, Junior Cert, Leaving Cert, Primary level, Reading skills for Dyslexia/SLD No Comments
4Jan/13Off

Helping Dyslexics to write within an hour

Even if I don't want to be pigeon-holed as a dyslexic specialist I can't help but attract many dyslexic students to help! I currently work with a range of dyslexic students from the ages of 5 to 55.

It is an absolute joy to see someone effortless write their first page in an hour. I remember only too well how hard it was for me!

 

 

Filed under: Business, Comprehension skills for Dyslexia/SLD, Confidence, Dyslexia, English, Exam Techniques, Expression Skills for Dyslexia/SLD, Junior Cert, Leaving Cert, Primary level, Reading skills for Dyslexia/SLD, Schools No Comments
4Jan/13Off

Working with students with Asperger’s Syndrome

Video to discuss my work with Asperger's Syndrome prompted after some of the recent appalling media coverage of the condition. I currently work with a spectrum of students from the age of 5 to 18

 

Filed under: Asperger's Syndrome, Confidence, Dyslexia, Expression Skills for Dyslexia/SLD, Junior Cert, Leaving Cert, Primary level, Reading skills for Dyslexia/SLD, Schools, stress No Comments
17Dec/12Off

Who bullied me most in school?

I'm now 36 and I remember school like it was yesterday. Everyone has a school story and for this reason even though I hated school I now work in education passionately to change it for the better. For everyone. 

I spent most of my time between 5 to 7 standing outside the classroom because as a profound dyslexic I could not write or read at all. One day having stood outside the class all day I was sent to the head teacher as I had pointed out that I then couldn't do the homework. As I had not been in class all day whatever hope had I anyway. I had chairs thrown at me ... I was Isolated at a desk on my own with 2 feet all round so I couldn't communicate with anyone to ask for help as my teacher realised I had one friend in the class who would spell for me on the quiet. No one else in the whole class ever spoke to me. 

Then there was the endless humiliation of the spelling tests ... 

At 7 I was told by a teacher in front of the whole class having struggled to read a story aloud that "I was too stupid to be in the school and should be in the school down the road for the mentally retarded".

I was moved to a new school. The whole time I so excelled at maths I could do the 6th class maths in 1st class. In the new school I was motivated to finally do well by an amazing teacher who saved my life. I had him for two wonderful years. Then it took a wobble with the next teacher as I was now on the road to doing everything brilliantly, when I asked what I had done wrong in a test I was mocked in front of the whole class for being an annoying perfectionist. Somehow I had the strength to ignore this blip and keep going. 

In that year of that school I was also accused of doing something I didn't and had my honesty questioned in front of the whole class till I had melt down again and the equally amazing head came in and sorted it all out and I was never picked on again. I left that school to read my first book. 

 On my first day of secondary school I had to defend my right to stay in mainstream English class. There was no way in this world I was going to "veggie" English! I had decided I was going to university and I was aware I needed honours English for my course. I was staying. But it was a humiliating battle that took place in front of the whole class and set the tone for my next six years. 

By my final year in school the same remedial teacher met the department of education official to tell them I didn't deserve support as I didn't have a "real problem", I had done too well in school in all honours subjects including English. She discussed my "case" openly with me in the school corridor for all to hear. 

At the same time when I was desperately looking for someone to read my exam papers to me, my other teachers were openly humiliating me in class for my writing, spelling, reading and most ridiculously not correcting my mock papers because I hadn't spelt their names right. I was stopped in the corridor in front of other students to complain about how hard it was to correct my exams. 

Then there are all the teachers who continually for 6 years made me read out loud in class - what's in paragraph  blah Naoisé? I didn't know what page we were on never mind where we were on the page! I had panic attacks in certain classes for years.  Teachers asked me to read off the board and then spoke to me in pigeon English when I got it wrong.

The gap, transition year was the worst as every day was new and I never knew what was waiting at school for me. I had to read Shakespeare aloud amongst other awfulness and everyone had so much more time on their hands to bully me. 

I'd love to say it's all different now but my students are always surprised I understand them so well - I see the humiliation in them like tattoos and many cry at our meetings as I'm the first person who has been able to understand then. It's overwhelming for them. 

When will adults realise the importance of their behaviour? You set up how everyone else will treat that person, that child. Whatever you say and do in public sets the ground rules for the environment and what can and cannot be done to that person. 

After my first day in English where I needed to defend my right to be in the same class as everyone else I spent years picking my books out of the bin in every class I went into, because I was rubbish. I spent years been used as target practice to have objects thrown at me repeatedly in the locker room. No one wanted to be my friend. Every table I went to sit at was "full" - and worse that I will not talk about. Teachers were often deaf, dumb and blind to what happened to me. 

It's called respect. It's a two way process. You earn it. It's not assumed  and it doesn't correlate with your title or how many letters there are before or after your name. 

The first thing I do with every new student I meet is to shake their hand.  They are my equal. 

What you do in public sets the private behaviour FOREVER, not just that one moment in class. 

 

Dr. Naoisé  Expression Developist™

Filed under: Bullying, Comprehension skills for Dyslexia/SLD, Confidence, Dyslexia, English, Expression Skills for Dyslexia/SLD, Junior Cert, Leaving Cert, Maths, Primary level, Reading skills for Dyslexia/SLD, Schools, stress 2 Comments
30Nov/12Off

A Year in Perspective – 2012

I encourage everyone to do this - What did I learn this year? What did I do? One of my Idols Francoise Dolto ran a radio program across France for years, she was a household name, a little like our own Gay Byrne... but she would never accept people phoning in to ask questions. She insisted that everyone wrote in as she believed that by sitting down to write you were half way to working out the problem for yourself. The act of writing the letter had made you think about the situation in the same way I reflect every year! This is the key to development. You have to constantly think about where you have come from and where you are going....

January - I started the year with a full page in the Irish Examineron Homework... A topic I was to be later introduced in November as a "leading expert on." This was never an aspiration of mine... it wasn't in the PhD! But  you can't start a year much better than a whole page in a National newspaper :-) The Homework Club was three which passed in a haze of activity!

 

February - This was the formation month of the Confidence Club and we were set to work in the background on the logo, web design and all the rest.

March - I wrote The The Purple View to start to bring all the methods and research of the last three years of the Homework Club together.

One review for the book Review for The Purple View

I didn't go to Oprah for the sake of the school and the students .. accepting the opportunity would have meant upending the terms and evaluations of the mocks - when the results can out in August and September I was really happy with my decision! We also started the use of "sound" research in the background to put into place for May and June when everyone would be really stressed! We had a sound guru come to explain to the whole team what the difference frequencies of music do to our brain. I have now taken the work to use on ADD and Aspergers students to create outlets for stress. We are also using meditation to help with Confidence!

April - I was back on the radio to support French parents who were boycotting homework in France - French Primary school students are not suppose to get any! I couldn't agree more. There really is more to everyone's life than homework.

May - This was the start of the methods and environment creation going outside The Homework Club. I was part of a business workshop in Cork where we set up the room and the experence to suit all the different learning styles in the room! Really exciting to see the environment created for adults!

June - it goes without saying that the whole time all of these other "highlights" were taking place I was still running a school and looking after a large amount of students. We had survived the character crushing season of the mocks and were now in the throws of the exams. I had high hopes for everyone and though to be honest for the first time ever there were a few people who were so borderline we had to put all our efforts into keeping everyone positive. I think it was the worst year to sit the leaving in decades but everyone got through! and even the people who we worried most about made it on to a course ... a path for the future! We packed up the school, The Homework Club which was a hugely emotional time for everyone involved but I feel it was time to move on to the next stage and keep developing. 

July - no work as I got married! Though I did wake up on the morning of my birthday with the term Expression Developist™ - I don't fit in anyone else's box so I made a new one ...

August - I came back to head straight off to the London Olympics ... it was the most fantastic experience to be in London for this special occasion... I learnt so much and filled note books on what I saw which will all go towards the new book. For me it did inspire!

August also saw the start of the Confidence Club and being able to support students across the planet not just in a small area of Dublin...I also started formally working in the business world using my own brand of profiling to reinvent business people, Purple Profiling. This has meant me working across the globe and has increased my understanding of how the patterns I saw in a school in Blanchardstown are universal for all ages, cultures and environments! I can't wait to write the book! Of course the Leaving cert results were amazing - and I always wish I could tell the stories of determination and success. 

September - My favourite time of the year as it is Fringe Season! I had a ball as usual and my favourite show was "I'm not ADHD I'm just Bold". This was the month of the amazing Junior Cert Results - I see every year that it makes such a difference when we start working with people younger. We can really set people up for life rather than trying to get them through and find all the alternative paths ... It felt like together we had proven everyone wrong about what dyslexics in particular can and can't do!

I was part of my first training session at Croke Park and mentored my first athletes "outside" of the school environment .. setup the workshop environment for a training session at the University of Limerick... all really exciting on top of the Confidence Club and Business Profiling that has been ongoing since August!

October- Wrote a book proposal for the new book and am actively seeking a publisher! It seemed to be photo competition season... my other passion in life - I also finished a painting! It seemed to help me think away from the computer or pen! It's been about putting everything together that I have learnt to date...

November - Saw a return to radio a year since I had first started the debate on homework. There has been a radical change in how we now approach it too - since I haven't got it abolished yet, I'm working directly with parents to make it doable and reduce the time and stress spent on it. If you can't beat it conquer it! I also had several meetings that it has felt like I have spent two years prepping and working myself up to. I was filmed by RTE television as part of program to be aired in January ... This month has felt like the setup for next year!

December - will be London 12 12 12  .....

 

My Year Dr. Naoisé now an Expression Developist™ 

 

Filed under: Schools No Comments
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Point of Blog

Our motto is that "we don't do normal". Everyone who comes to The Homework Club is different and is here for a different reason. It's not important if they are dyslexic, have reduced hearing or simply don't "get-it". This Blog is about creative teaching that suits everyone, all of the time! No one needs to be "special". The work is done in groups, so students avoid stigma and don't feel only they need help!

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