What's it all about?
A podcast for parents and educators about the best way to support people living with specific learning difficulties.
Do you, your partner, your child, a relative or a student of yours grapple with an identified (or suspected) Specific Learning Difficulty (SLD)? Knowing what to do next can be scary.
But……you’re not alone.
About dys podcast
Specific learning disabilities / differences / disorders / difficulties … whatever you call them, they DO exist and colour the lives of people everywhere. Dyscastia is a podcast for people who live with any of the Dys family; whether they have a Dys themselves, parent a child with a Dys, have a partner with a Dys or teach people with a Dys. So, which Dys’s are we talking about? You’ve guessed it – Dyslexia, Dysgraphia and Dyscalculia. We call these the 3Ds.
Michael Shanahan and Bill Hansberry are both specialist teachers of students who live with a Dys or more than one Dys. They both run thriving practices and bring their own thoughts and experience to you, as well as the unique perspectives of others whose lives are touched by Specific Learning Difficulties and the additional difficulties that can come with.
dyscastia (n.)
“a difficulty in podcasting due to a condition of the brain,” from Greek dys- “bad, abnormal, difficult” (see dys-) + cast + past participle of cast (v.). Figurative sense “widely spread” is recorded by 1785. As an adverb from 1832. Modern media use began with radio (1922, adjective and noun). As a verb, 1829 in a figurative sense, 1921 in reference to radio. + abstract noun ending -ia.
About Bill Hansberry
Bill is one of the directors of Fullarton House – Assessment, Therapy and Teaching in Adelaide, South Australia. Bill specialises in teaching students with Dyslexia and runs training for schools in the area of Specific Learning Disabilities (SLDs) and The Science of Reading. Bill runs the popular Teaching Students with Dyslexia (TSD) suite of training for Specialist Multisensory Literacy Teachers. Bill co-developed The Playberry Dyslexia Solutions Multisensory Literacy Program which is used in Schools and centres across Australia as a tier 3 intervention program. Bill also co-developed the Word Cracker suite of morphology resources with Sally Andrew.
About Michael Shanahan
Michael is the director of Dyslexic Strengths, a specialist reading and maths tutoring service and Adelaide, South Australia. He developed a passion for supporting kids with reading and maths when he and his own kids were identified with SLDs. Since then, he has completed the highly regarded Teaching Students with Dyslexia (TSD) training run by Bill, Sally Andrew and Karen Hodson as well as specialist dyslexia and dyscalculia tutor training. He is also a registered tutor with SPELD SA.
If you are in South Australia, Michael maintains a directory of tutors on his website South Australian Literacy Specialists (Dyslexia) Register.
Recent Episodes
Episode 17: What high-performing countries are doing in maths. With Liana McCurry
In this episode, we have Liana McCurry back to talk about her Churchill Fellowship findings on what the top PISA performing countries are doing with maths instruction and how we can use that information to improve outcomes for kids living with learning difficulties.
Episode 16: The Importance Of Daily Review with David Morkunas
In this episode, we chat about daily review with David Morkunas, current head of teacher efficacy at Brandon Park Primary School, previously a teacher at Bentleigh West Primary School.
Episode 15: SLDs and Individual Learning Plans with Lilly Shanahan and Sue Griffith
In this episode, we chat with experienced teacher and intervention specialist Sue Griffith and YR 12 student Lilly Shanahan about Individual Learning Plans (ILPs). What are they for? Why do kids need them? How do we make them effective?
