ASD & Doublethink, Anxiety, LD Achiever, More

ASD, SOCIAL ACTIVISM. If you’re looking for new ways to value the minds of those on the spectrum, check out a brief article at The Atlantic. It’s titled “Can Neurodiversity Defeat Doublethink,” and one part of the article examines whether Asperger’s in the Soviet-era sparked dissidence. The connection? The difficulty for someone on the spectrum to accept doublethink, or two big contradictory ideas, at the same time. “If you simply can’t do doublethink, if your brain explodes, then it is less discomfiting for you to become a dissident than to exist within a society.” Find the article.

TEST ANXIETY. If this is an issue at your house or in your classroom, check out an article on the topic in The New York Times. The article covers three phases of text anxiety and explains how parents and teachers can help ameliorate the condition. Find the article.

ADDITUDE says that its most popular article in June was about ADHD truths the writer wished she had known as a child — truths to help combat the “what’s wring with me?” self-image ADHD can engender. We especially liked the opening line: “I heard my third-grade teacher’s voice, but the flowers outside the window were calling my name louder, so I paid attention to them.” You can guess what comes next. Find the article.

EVENTS/WEBINARS
— July 8, expert chat titled “Sensory Processing Issues: Tips and Treatments,” by Understood. More information.
— July 8, free expert webinar titled “A Parent’s Guide to Mindfulness and Self-Regulation Strategies for Children with ADHD,” by ADDitude. More information.

STORIES THAT MAKE YOU WONDER. Once in a while an obituary or news story will make an allusion to “learning disability,” leaving us wanting to know more. That was the case in the recent obituary in The New York Times of John Shearer, a photographer prominent in the 1960s and later. (He captured the iconic scene of President John Kennedy’s young son giving a salute at the funeral.) He also “made animated films, worked in publishing, taught at the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism and collaborated with his father on a children’s book series about a young black detective,” according to the Times. The curiousity-piquing line was this: ” John, who was learning disabled, taught himself to read by studying photography books.” There’s a story there, but we’ll never know exactly what kind. Find the obit.

M. LAYNE KALBFLEISCH, who readers often heard about when we published 2e: Twice-Exceptional Newsletter because of her research and conference presentations, has relocated her practice 2e Consults from the East Coast to New Mexico. Read more.

SPOTLIGHT ON 2e
Our 12-booklet series, Spotlight on 2e, contains three booklets covering specific combinations of giftedness and learning challenges:
— Understanding the Gifted Child with Attention Deficit
— The Twice-exceptional Child with Asperger Syndrome
— The Twice-exceptional Child with Dyslexia.
Find out more about each at the website of The 2e Resource.