Joining Amanda and Vickie on today’s podcast is Dr. Daniel Franklin. Due to his dyslexia, Dr. Franklin did not develop even rudimentary reading and writing skills until 5th and 6th grade. He shares his extraordinary story about an extraordinary teacher who reached out to him and helped him develop the confidence to learn.

Dr. Franklin has been in the education field for the past 30 years. He demonstrates his own success story as he discusses language-based learning disabilities and attachment-based teaching and learning. As he relates, anyone can use these strategies with kids, from teachers, parents, and other family members.

Dr. Franklin opened his practice, Franklin Educational Services, 14 years ago and now has locations in West Los Angeles and Newport Beach. Franklin Educational Services provides a very broad range of educational services including tutoring, test prep, fully accredited one-on-one schooling, educational consulting, and more.

He is the author of Helping Your Child with Language-Based Learning Disabilities: Strategies to Succeed in School and Life with Dyslexia, Dysgraphia, Dyscalculia, ADHD, and Processing Disorders.

Show Highlights:

• His book is for parents and based on a course he developed about 15 years ago. It’s currently a graduate extension course on the principles of one-on-one support for children, teens, and young adults with language-based learning disabilities.
• Language-based learning disabilities include dyslexia, dysgraphia, and dyscalculia.
• Dysgraphia is the writing version of dyslexia.
• Dyscalculia is the math version of dyslexia.
• Language-based learning disabilities also include ADHD and executive function deficits, and a wide range of visual and auditory processing capacities.
• A lot of these learning and behavioral differences overlap, so you need strategies that consider both issues.
• The major principle of Dr. Franklin’s book is that the human brain is a social organ and it’s designed to learn in a social context, especially one-on-one.
• No-one is better equipped to provide one-on-one service than parents.
• The difference between helicopter parents and helpful parents is that helicopter parents provide help that may be unneeded, and the helpful parents provide help that IS needed. 
• The book is both explanatory and strategic. Each chapter of Dr. Franklin’s book addresses a different area of learning, such as reading, writing, math, study skills, ADHD, auditory and visual processing, advocacy, and more.
• When a child is learning to read, they cannot use reading to learn. This is where a parent needs to step in and figure out what their child needs to learn from reading and come up with strategies that allow their child to acquire an understanding of that material. This is called a bypass strategy.
• Writing also requires a lot of co-active support.
• In order to learn we must have a broad base of general information, and if we limit access to information by a slowly emerging skill like reading, we’re hindering the capacity for that child to develop reading comprehension skills.
• Dr. Franklin does all of the initial phone calls with parents because he wants to have a good understanding of what’s going on. 
• Since the human brain is a social organ, it only develops well in the context of healthy relationships. The single most important thing we can do for a child, teen, or young adult is to provide them with close, healthy relationships with adults. 
• It is in the context of healthy relationships that a brain is in a state for learning. 
• Attachment-based teaching prioritizes the quality of relationships above other considerations. 

Links/Resources:

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