2010 Seminar Itinerary and New Book, DYSLEXIA DISMANTLED

Laughton King,

Educational Psychologist, Author, Visiting speaker,

offers short seminars to teachers and parents regarding dyslexia and the learning difficulties associated with this common thinking style.

Having practiced as an Educational, Child and Family Psychologist for thirty years, Laughton has now closed his practice in Whangarei, and is touring New Zealand. Taking his life-time experience as a ‘dyslexic learner’ and his thirty years as a professional practitioner, to the road, he has spent the last three years touring the country, visiting both cities and the smaller centers, offering short seminars to local communities – teachers, teacher aides, parents and specialist educators.

Having delivered 185 seminars in the South Island in 2008/09, in 2010 he will be in the North Island, progressively working northwards through the year; 1^st term – Wellington area.

2^nd term – Taranaki, Taupo, Rotorua

3^rd term – Bay of Plenty, Coromandel, Waikato

4^th term – South Auckland.

SEMINARS

These seminars range from 90 minutes to three hours, and involve three major components;

A. Developing an understanding and pictorial definition of ‘dyslexia’, and recognising the difficulties in establishing such a definition.

B. Looking at the implications for the child – the child’s experience.

C. Looking at the implications for the teacher and parent.

This allows both parents and teachers to identify the children in question, to understand and perceive them differently, and thence to respond to them more usefully.

The gains for both the children and adults is marked, and immediate.

LAUGHTON KING - PSYCHOLOGIST M.Soc.Sci, Dip Ed Psych

Presenting seminars for teachers and parents –
DYSLEXIA DISMANTLED

“As a dyslexic person myself, I have a fair understanding of the nightmare that many of these children are living through.”

“There is nothing ‘wrong’ with the child – just as there is nothing ‘wrong’ with a diesel engine – we just need to learn that it works differently from a petrol engine, and needs different fuel.

“Being dyslexic, and being academically qualified, as well as being professionally experienced, I am in a reasonably rare position. I see this as being a privilege - but it carries an obligation.

“My obligation, and my mission is simply to assist the teachers, and the parents of these children to understand their style and their reality.

“I am currently on the final year of a self-funded, four-year tour of New Zealand, taking every opportunity I can to assist these children – of which there are probably five or more in every classroom in the country.

“Short teacher training seminars, sessions for Teacher Aides and Learning Support workers, evening seminars for parents – an introduction to a different way of viewing the child. This can make all the difference.

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LAUGHTON’S BOOKS

“REACHING THE RELUCTANT LEARNER – a manual of strategies for Teachers and Parents.

- Laughton King. 178 pages. 3rd edition, self-published 2006, NZ.

This very practical and helpful manual focuses on the learning difficulties that come under the ‘umbrella’ notion of ‘Dyslexia’. The author examines why such difficulties are so common in our schools - right around the English-speaking world - and before giving parents and teachers insights as to how to work usefully with these children, demonstrates what the world is like from the inside for these children.

He looks at how these children think, at how they understand the world, at the impact on their behaviour, and at what life is like for them – on the inside. He includes a biographical section based around his own personal experiences as a ‘dyslexic’ child.

In clarifying the fundamental differences between linguistic and pictorial thinking styles, and the connection between learning difficulty and behaviour problems, this book opens the way for parents and teachers to reach, and therefore to effectively teach so-called reluctant learners.

“WITH, NOT AGAINST”

- a compendium of positive parenting strategies.

- Laughton King. 121 pages. Self–published Second Edtn 2008.

Written with the busy parent in mind, this book is orientated to taking the head-on fight out of parenting, and is based on the author’s thirty years of clinical work with parents of young children.

This book is written as a practical manual, has a simple, bite-size presentation and is free from the pages of theory that commonly restrict easy access to useful information.

The book focuses on the small things parents do that make it difficult for children to comply and co-operate, and gives examples and illustrations of how we can easily work with our children to achieve happier households.

Includes; Bedtime strategies, Behaviour management, Language of parenting, Toileting, Mealtime behaviour, Arguments, use of Praise and Humour, amongst other issues that can make parenting a lonely and difficult role.

“DYSLEXIA DISMANTLED”

- a practical breakdown of the myths and realities of dyslexia.

Laughton King Self-published, March 2010 NZ

Finally, an insightful, clear and practical breakdown of the realities of dyslexia, from the author’s own life experience. This exposition of the thinking, learning and living style that characterise the dyslexic individual is written equally for the educator, the parent and the struggling dyslexic himself.

Eighteen myths dispelled, 61 personal characteristics outlined, and a raft of indicators examined, this book will help a large section of the population understand their own normality, their own intact and integrated thinking style, and allow them to take positive charge of their learning processes and their functioning in society.

There is nothing wrong with their brain wiring, they are not deficient, they do not need medication. As a diesel motor differs from a petrol engine, the so-called ‘dyslexic’ differs from the non-dyslexic in a simple and rudimentary way.

The Western world has a modern education system based around language as the prime learning tool – teaching, learning and assessment are typically language-based. The ‘dyslexic’ person is disadvantaged in this system, not only because is he a pictorial thinker, but because he is unable to process the language-based education system at a competitive level.

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COSTS

Books; Each book, $50 plus postage.

Seminars; 90 minute staff meetings $150.

Three-hour parent evening $300

Inquiries and Orders to Laughton via email; laughton.king@win.co.nz

Laughton King is a Educational Psychologist, Mediator, and Counselor who has worked with children and parents in schools and their homes throughout New Zealand over the last thirty-five years. He has published in parenting magazines all around the world, and is well-known as a public speaker/trainer.

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