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A note from Sean’s facilitator

Some things arrive when you least expect them.

Seven years after Sean completed his Davis Mastery for Dyslexia program with me, an email arrived in my inbox. He was applying to college and he wanted to share his essay with me.

What he sent me was one of the clearest descriptions of the dyslexic mind I’ve ever read. Because it’s from the experience of living with a picture-thinking brain, the confusion it created, and the confidence that came when he finally understood it.

I asked his permission to share it here. He said yes.

Sean’s Essay

Written by Sean, age 17. Published with his permission.

The most pivotal moment of my life happened while I was doing a maze at the age of 10. My mother paused from reading and said to me, “This book says the thing that makes reading so hard for you could be the same thing that makes solving puzzles so effortless.” Then my mom further explained that the cause of my reading problem could be my greatest strength. The book she was referring to was “The Gift of Dyslexia” by Ronald Davis, and it changed my life.

I was diagnosed with dyslexia by a neuropsychologist and had been given Title 1 literacy services for years, but nothing seemed to help. In school, I often felt like a failure, especially when we were asked to read aloud. I would go really slow, skip over some words, and say words that weren’t there. Also, when the class read silently, I was never finished when the class started to discuss the passage. This made me embarrassed and frustrated too, because sometimes it made me feel stupid, although I knew I wasn’t.

Then, the summer before fifth grade, I enrolled in the Davis Mastery for Dyslexia program inspired by Ronald Davis’ book, and everything changed. My instructor, Karen, introduced me to my mind’s eye, which is similar to someone’s imagination. The mind’s eye of a dyslexic person tends to wander, which is helpful when being creative, but makes reading a challenge. Karen taught me how to orient and control my mind’s eye when I needed to focus on words.

This was the start of my success story. The year after I enrolled in this program, I was in the top 95th percentile for growth on the Massachusetts standardized test (MCAS), and I no longer received Title 1 support. Throughout middle school, I strengthened my skills gifted to me by dyslexia. Now in high school, I think with images using my mind’s eye, and this makes things such as studying for tests easier for me. I see the terms I need to know not as definitions, but as short films in my head. For example, to answer the question, “What happened at Pearl Harbor?” I don’t simply remember it was attacked by Japan. Instead, I see Japanese flags on the side of planes dropping bombs. Then, for another question, I might see the image of my teacher writing the term on the board. When I think with my mind’s eye, I am not just thinking. I am teleported to a multidimensional place where I am free to investigate.

My mind’s eye also helps me outside of school. Since I think in 3-D images, I can visualize things from all angles. In sports, it enables me to be hyper aware of all the players’ locations. I can visualize the field from above and see gaps in defense, so I can attack the net. Dyslexia helps me with practical things as well, such as packing the car before a trip, because I can see how everything fits together in the most efficient way.

In addition to helping me in and out of school, dyslexia has taught me important life lessons. Mathematical things tend to come easily to me, but when I see others struggling with simple math problems, I understand, because I am challenged by reading passages others find simple. I learned the valuable lesson that everyone has their own strengths, and often they are different from your own. Dyslexia has taught me to be compassionate to others.

I am extremely fortunate to have dyslexia. It bestowed me with extraordinary skills. My mind’s eye never stays inside the box and always looks for new ways to see the world. In my younger years, dyslexia was a difficult thing to cope with, but it didn’t take long to harness it and see it for what it was — a gift I hold great pride in.

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Closing Reflection

Sean’s story is not rare. What is rare is having the language to describe it this clearly.

The dyslexic mind thinks in pictures, not words. It is three-dimensional, creative, and capable of holding enormous complexity. The same mental agility that makes reading hard is what lets Sean visualise a sports field from above, pack a car like a puzzle, and study for a history test by watching it like a film.

What changed for Sean wasn’t his brain. His brain was always working exactly as it was designed to. What changed was his understanding of it and the tools he was given to work with it.

That’s what a Davis program does. And sometimes, seven years later, a college essay arrives to remind you why.

Does this sound like your child?

A Davis facilitator can help you understand what’s happening and what a program looks like. No commitment required for an initial conversation.

Find a Davis Facilitator →

Can you child remember every dinosaur species? Build working robots? Or tell you the most vivid, imaginative stories? But can’t remember what comes after the letter M? This article is for you.

In an online parent forum recently, a mum posted that her 4th-grade son couldn’t reliably sing the alphabet. Different gaps each time, different errors on different runs. She described feeling helpless. He had a tutor. He worked hard. The evenings were consumed by homework he couldn’t finish. And still, the alphabet didn’t stick.

The thread drew hundreds of responses. Parents sharing versions of the same story: children who know their letter sounds but can’t sequence them. Kids who sit at the top of the maths class but can’t recite the days of the week. Children being sent home with more rote practice, yet that’s the one thing that keeps not working.

If that’s your household, here’s what you need to hear: this is not a memory problem in the conventional sense. And that difference matters, because treating it like one is why the standard approaches keep missing the mark.

Arbitrary sequences are a different kind of hard for picture thinkers

The alphabet is what’s called an arbitrary sequence, a fixed order with no underlying logic. There’s no reason D follows C other than convention, vowels are mixed with consonants and most frequently used letters are not grouped together. The same is true for days of the week, months of the year, and times tables. You can’t reason your way through an arbitrary sequence. You have to hold it as a whole, intact, in working memory.

For neurotypical children, repetition builds that whole automatically. For many neurodivergent brains, repetition without understanding doesn’t anchor, because there’s nothing to understand. The sequence is meaningless, so it doesn’t stick the way meaningful information does. More practice doesn’t fix this. It just means more practice at the thing that isn’t working.

This shows up across sequential tasks: days of the week, months of the year, telling time, following multi-step instructions. It’s the same underlying challenge presented in different places. And it’s one of the most commonly missed aspects of dyslexia and ADHD assessments, because it doesn’t look like a reading problem until you understand what’s behind it.

Davis facilitators describe this through the lens of disorientation: when a dyslexic or ADHD mind encounters confusion or overwhelm, like the confusion of a meaningless sequence, it responds by generating its own mental impressions to compensate. The child isn’t forgetting the alphabet. Their brain is doing exactly what it’s wired to do. The problem is that conventional teaching assumes a neurotypical brain will just absorb arbitrary sequences through exposure. For many kids, that’s simply not how their minds work. 

“Ron Davis could not learn the alphabet in order until he was an adult. When he figured out why, he designed programs specifically to fill in the conceptual gaps for others like him.”

Davis founded his first centre in 1982 after overcoming his own severe dyslexia at age 38. He was autistic, had been unable to read until adulthood, and had built an engineering career entirely around compensating for what school had failed to teach him. The alphabet, for Ron, wasn’t a minor gap. It was a symbol of everything that arbitrary-sequence learning demands from a brain wired for picture thinking. 

Grasping the concept of sequence

One of the core components of the Davis Attention and Dyslexia programs is mastery of the concept of sequence itself: understanding that some things have a fixed order that must be followed precisely, and that order is a thing you can hold, check, and correct. This isn’t taught through repetition. It’s taught through hands-on clay work — making the concept tangible before applying it to letters.

Once the concept is genuinely understood, the alphabet stops being an arbitrary list to memorise and becomes something the child can deliberately work through. In Davis programs, mastery of the alphabet typically takes between two hours and two days. For many families, it’s one of the first moments they see their child’s confidence visibly shift.

Things worth trying

• Stop drilling. It reinforces the failure experience without building understanding.
• Use physical letters like tiles or magnets so your child builds the sequence with their hands, not just their ears.
• Ask the school to reduce homework volume while support is in place. The nightly battle is exhausting both of you, and exhausted children don’t retain anything.
• Look at whether the current accommodations match the actual problem. A child taking three hours to complete what takes classmates forty minutes needs a different plan, not more of the same plan. 
• Read Ron Davis’s Book: The Gift of Dyslexia – available at good bookstores and many libraries.

One more thing

Buried in the replies was a comment from a parent who’d been where every other parent in that thread was sitting. Her daughter had struggled with sequencing, days of the week, months of the year. She’d done a Davis program. Eleven years later, her daughter had graduated college.

“Life would have been so different without the concepts she learned. I later trained to become a Davis Facilitator myself, because I was so blown away by the difference in her.”

That’s what happens when the right intervention addresses the underlying cause, not the symptom.

Your child not knowing the alphabet in 4th grade is not a character flaw, a parenting failure, or a sign of what their life will look like. It’s a signal that something specific isn’t being addressed. The right approach exists. It just doesn’t look like singing the song one more time.

If sequencing is a consistent pattern for your child — across the alphabet, days of the week, months of the year,  it’s worth a conversation with a specialist who understands what’s driving it. Davis facilitators work with this directly. An initial conversation costs nothing. 

Related Articles:

• The Ron Davis story
• What Causes Dyslexia? Understanding Disorientation and Dyslexic Perception
• The Gift of Dyslexia: Understanding Dyslexia as Talent, Not Deficit
• Dyslexia and Comprehension: When the Words Don’t Stick

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Frequently asked questions:

Why can’t my child remember the alphabet even with daily practice?

The alphabet is an arbitrary sequence, there’s no logic to the order, just convention. For many dyslexic and ADHD or neurodivergent learners, repetition alone doesn’t anchor arbitrary sequences the way it does for neurotypical learners. More practice at the same approach produces more of the same result. The issue is the method of delivery.

Is forgetting the alphabet a sign of dyslexia?

It can be, particularly when it shows up alongside other sequencing difficulties like days of the week, months of the year, multi-step instructions, phone numbers. On its own it’s not diagnostic, but it’s a pattern worth discussing with a specialist who understands how dyslexic and ADHD and neurodivergent brains process ordered information.

What’s the difference between a memory problem and a sequencing problem?

Memory problems affect recall broadly. Sequencing problems are specific to ordered information with no inherent meaning,  like the alphabet, timetables, or days of the week. A child can have an excellent memory for facts, stories, and spatial information, and still find arbitrary sequences genuinely difficult to hold. The two require different approaches.

My child knows all the letters but can’t put them in order. Is that normal?

Yes, and it’s an important distinction. Letter recognition and alphabet sequencing are separate skills. Many dyslexic learners know every letter by name and sound but struggle to produce the sequence reliably. This tells you the letters are there, the sequencing concept is what needs direct attention.

Across the world, families and individuals are waiting. Waiting for an appointment. Waiting for a report. Waiting for a label that gives them permission to act. But for hundreds of thousands of people, that wait is the problem, feeling stuck in limbo, unsure where to turn while life carries on around them.

The reality of the diagnosis gap 

The numbers are stark. In the United States, nearly two-thirds of autism assessment centres have wait times longer than four months. Fifteen percent report waits of over a year, or waitlists so long they’ve stopped accepting new referrals altogether.

In New Zealand, a formal dyslexia assessment costs between $1,000 and $3,500 and requires a registered Educational Psychologist or C-Grade Assessor. There’s often a waiting list on top of that. In the UK, private spending on ADHD and autism assessments more than doubled in a single year between 2023/24 and 2024/25, as families turned to private providers to escape public system delays.

The barriers aren’t just about time. Cost, geography, language, and systemic bias all affect who gets diagnosed and when. Research consistently shows that women, people from ethnic minority communities, and those in lower-income households face longer waits and higher rates of missed diagnosis.

While families navigate all of this, the person who needs support is still waiting.

A different starting point

The Davis approach was not created in a clinic or a research institution. It was created by Ron Davis, a man who grew up as a non-speaking autistic individual with severe dyslexia. He had no formal education and no diagnosis, at a time when autism affected roughly one in 660,000 people.

Ron didn’t have access to a diagnostic pathway. What he had was a direct, lived experience of how a neurodivergent mind works from the inside.

Ron’s early life gave him something that conventional frameworks rarely offer: an inside view of the neurodivergent experience. His discoveries didn’t start with symptom checklists or diagnostic criteria. They started with clay, with color, with the way confusion creates perceptual distortion — and with the question of what happens when you remove that distortion.

That origin matters. It means the Davis approach was never built around diagnostic categories in the first place.

What the traditional model misses

Conventional support for neurodivergent individuals tends to follow the diagnosis. You get the label, then you get the help. The label determines the program, the specialist, the funding pathway, the accommodations.

The problem is that this model has significant limitations. It pathologizes natural cognitive differences, treating different ways of thinking as deficits. It can’t explain why strengths and challenges coexist, or why diagnostic categories overlap so heavily. And it consistently misses the underlying mechanism driving the difficulties.

Research bears this out. Among autistic individuals, 50–70% also meet criteria for ADHD. Between 65–73% experience dyslexia-type reading difficulties. Co-occurrence is the norm, not the exception, which means a diagnosis of one condition rarely tells the full story.

The Davis view is that autism, ADHD, dyslexia, dyscalculia, and dyspraxia are not separate disorders with unrelated causes. They are different expressions of the same underlying mechanism: disorientation, a natural, automatic shift in perception that becomes a habitual default when confusion, stress, or sensory overload goes unaddressed.

Once you understand that mechanism, the diagnostic category becomes less important than the person in front of you.

What this means in practice

Because the Davis approach works from the root cause rather than the label, it doesn’t require a diagnosis to begin. A facilitator works with how an individual actually thinks and perceives, their sensory experience, their relationship with the physical world, their capacity for orientation and self-regulation.

A diagnosis doesn’t change that process. It doesn’t change what a facilitator does, or how effective the work can be.

This matters enormously for the families currently sitting on a waitlist. It matters for adults who have managed their whole lives without ever receiving a formal assessment. It matters for people in communities where diagnosis is expensive, inaccessible, or culturally complicated.

As Ron himself put it: all knowledge is experiential. You can’t do this to someone, or for them. They have to do it themselves. The starting point is what’s there — not what a report says.

Not instead of diagnosis, alongside it

To be clear: Davis is not a substitute for the diagnostic process, and we don’t diagnose. For many people, diagnosis opens doors, to school accommodations, to funding, to understanding. If you’re pursuing assessment, that process has real value and is worth continuing.

The point is simply that support doesn’t have to wait for a diagnosis.

Davis programs can run alongside a diagnostic process. Many families begin Davis while still on a waitlist. Others come to us years after a diagnosis, having tried other approaches. Some come with no diagnosis at all and find that the work is just as relevant, just as effective.

What matters is not the label. It’s the person.

Want to know more?

How the Davis Method works The Davis approach is built around a simple idea: if you understand the root cause of a difficulty, you can address it directly. Read more about the method behind the programs. → The Davis Method

Ron Davis: from non-speaking autism to changing lives Ron Davis grew up as a non-speaking autistic child with no formal education. His story — and the discoveries he made along the way — became the foundation for everything Davis does. → The Ron Davis story

What Davis programs are available? From autism and ADHD to dyslexia and dyscalculia, Davis offers specialist programs for children and adults of all ages. → Explore Davis Solutions

Hear from families and individuals Real experiences from people who have been through Davis programs. → 

• Davis Autism Approach® – Isaac & Juliana
• Davis Mastery for Dyslexia® – Kristiina’s story
• Davis Autism Approach® – Faga’s story
• Davis® Mastery for Math – Natalie’s story
• Davis Autism Approach® – Sam’s story
• Davis® Mastery for Attention – L.B’s Story
• Davis® Mastery for Dyslexia and Davis Concepts for Life – Stephen’s story
• Davis® Mastery for Dyslexia – T.R’s story
• Davis® Mastery for Dyslexia – Alex’s story
• Davis Concepts for Life® – Anonymous story
• Davis Autism Approach® – Albert’s story
• Davis® Concepts for Life and Mastery for Dyslexia – Nicola’s story

Find a Davis facilitator Davis facilitators work with clients worldwide, in person and online. → Facilitator Directory

By Nadine Schumont, Davis Facilitator

I’ve learned that sometimes the most meaningful moments in life are the ones we never plan.

It was near the end of winter, around March or April, when I received a phone call from a young woman asking about Davis programs. I invited her in, and we sat down together.

As we talked, she opened up. She was living in her car. She was looking for support, trying to find her footing.

An Unexpected Connection

That same day, I was heading out to look at a site for a children’s summer program I was planning. I invited her to come along, and she said yes.

On the drive, I remembered that we had an RV sitting in our backyard, unused since COVID. It was just sitting there.

Before we started working together, we had an honest conversation. We talked about what she needed, support, stability, and a way to deepen her understanding of herself and the world around her.

She moved into the RV. And we got to work.

What the Davis Concepts for Life Taught Us Both

What started as a simple exchange grew into something much more meaningful. It became a shared lesson for both of us.

Through the Davis Concepts for Life® program, she gained confidence and a clearer understanding of her own mind. And as I walked alongside her through the process, I deepened my own understanding of the concepts through real, shared experience.

That’s what Davis Concepts for Life® does. It meets people where they are. It doesn’t push or fix, it helps people understand, it helps untangle. And from understanding, things begin to change.

If you’re curious about how Davis Concepts for Life can support you or someone you care about, connect with us. We are here to listen and walk through it with you.

By Nadine Schumont – Davis Facilitator

A young woman came to see me a couple of years ago. She was with her pastor and his wife. She didn’t say much. Her head was down most of the time, and everything about her felt flat, like she wasn’t really connected to anything around her.

She had been struggling for a long time. She’d been off work because of depression. She’d been in hospital more than once because she didn’t want to be here anymore.

When I started the assessment with her, she stayed the same. Short answers. No emotion. No real connection.

Then I asked about the kids in her life, her nieces and nephews.

And just like that, she lit up.

It wasn’t big or dramatic, but the shift was clear. Her face changed. Her energy changed. In that moment, I knew there was still joy in her. And where there is joy, there is life. That became our focus.

Following the Process

We started her Davis Concepts for Life® program and simply followed the process, step by step, concept by concept. Nothing was forced, and nothing was rushed.

As she began to understand concepts like cause and consequence, change, wants and needs, and how her thoughts and perceptions were shaping her experience, something began to shift.

It wasn’t about adding anything new to her. It was about clearing what was in the way. The thoughts, the heaviness, the patterns that were stopping her from seeing the joy that was already there in her life.

And she worked through it. Gently, but fully.

She Chose to Step Back Into Her Life

At one point, she took a short break in the program. During that time, she went back to her workplace, not to jump back in, but to train. She wanted to prepare herself so that when she finished the program, she could return the very next day feeling ready.

And that’s exactly what she did.

Today, she lives independently in her own place. She’s returned to work, continues to grow, and is connected to her community in a new way, more open, more present, and grounded within herself.

And most importantly, she is here.

Where It Started

I still think back to that first moment. Not the assessment or the program, but that small shift when she thought about those kids. That’s where it started.

Not with fixing something. With her remembering that joy was still there.

And sometimes, that’s all it takes to begin finding your way back.

Life can feel heavy. But understanding creates space. The Davis Concepts for Life program helps people clear what’s in the way so they can reconnect with who they truly are — and the life that’s still possible.

Change is possible. Joy is still there.

“Where there is joy, there is life.”

Want to learn more about Davis Concepts for Life?

By Lili’a Lemuelu-Viliamu

Finding the right autism help for your child isn’t always straightforward. As parents of an autistic individual, we knew our son Faga was struggling, academically and personally. His behaviour was becoming more challenging, and he found it hard to manage and express his emotions. Staying focused, and even staying awake during the day, was difficult. He also struggled with coordination in sports, balance, timing, and movement control all affected his confidence.

We turned to the Davis Autism Approach®, a programme designed to support autistic individuals in building the skills and self-understanding they need to thrive. When I thought about who could help, Claire Ashmore, a Davis Facilitator based in New Zealand, came to mind immediately. I’d seen her work first-hand. Her ability to genuinely connect with young people and her depth of knowledge made the decision easy.

Meeting Claire

When we told Faga he’d be meeting a friend of mine, he was open and even a little excited. After his first session, he kept asking when he’d see Claire again. That told us everything, he felt understood and safe in a way we hadn’t seen before.

As the sessions progressed, it became clear he needed more intensive support, which meant travelling to spend a full week with Claire. He was excited but unsure. At one point he asked, “Mum, is something wrong with me? Why do we have to stay for a week?”

We reassured him: nothing is wrong. He learns differently. This was about understanding how his mind works and giving him the tools to grow and build confidence.

That conversation changed things, not just for his learning, but for how he sees himself.

The Results

At the end of term, Faga received five principal awards across mathematics, physical education, ancient histories, science, and engineering. For a child who once struggled to stay focused in class, that’s a remarkable outcome.

A Ripple Effect

Seeing the Davis Method work for Faga inspired something bigger. His mother Lili’a and a Samoan friend are now seeking community funding to train as Davis Facilitators themselves — so they can bring this support to others in the Samoan language. That’s the kind of impact that goes well beyond one family.

Find a Davis Facilitator Near You

If you’re looking for autism help for your child, a Davis Facilitator could be the right next step. Search our directory to find a qualified facilitator in your area.

Unsure where to start?

Book a free Discovery call to talk through your family’s situation and find out if the Davis Method is the right fit.

Publish date: World Autism Acceptance Day, April 2

Today is World Autism Day. And if you’ve been paying attention to how the conversation around autism has shifted, you’ll have noticed a change in language.

Autism Awareness. Autism Acceptance. They sound similar, but they’re not.

Awareness is where the conversation started

Autism awareness campaigns have been running since the 1970s. They’ve done useful work, more families recognizse autism earlier, more schools have started thinking about inclusion, and autism is more visible in public life than it’s ever been.

But awareness has a ceiling.

Knowing autism exists doesn’t change whether an autistic person feels safe enough to be themselves. It doesn’t change whether they spend their energy masking who they are just to get through the day. It doesn’t change whether they have the tools to stand in who they are, and participate fully in the life they choose.

Awareness tells the world autism exists. Acceptance changes what happens next.

The shift came from autistic people

The move from awareness to acceptance wasn’t driven by organizsations or campaigns. It was driven by autistic people themselves.

The Autistic Self Advocacy Network has framed April as Autism Acceptance Month since 2011, calling for autism to be recognizsed as a natural part of human experience, not a condition to be fixed or feared. The language changed because the autistic community asked for it to.

That matters. Because acceptance isn’t something that gets handed to autistic people from the outside. It starts from within.

The real cost of not accepting yourself

Many autistic people mask, suppressing natural behaviours, forcing eye contact, mirroring social norms, to fit into environments that weren’t built for them. It’s exhausting. Over time it leads to burnout, anxiety, and a loss of identity.

Masking happens when an autistic person hasn’t yet built the foundational sense of self to stand in who and what they are. When the world’s message — spoken or unspoken — is that your natural way of being isn’t acceptable, you learn to hide it.

External acceptance matters. But self-acceptance is where the real shift happens.

When an autistic person develops a strong enough understanding of how they experience the world, and the tools to navigate it on their own terms, the weight lightens. Not because the world suddenly becomes more accommodating. Because they no longer need it to be.

Ron Davis knew this firsthand

Ron Davis was autistic at a time when the word didn’t yet exist for what he was. He was labelled a Kanners Baby (coined by Leo Kanner to describe young children or infants with severe social, communication, and behavioral differences).

As a child he didn’t speak. Doctors told his mother he would never learn, never amount to much. The world had no framework for his brain, so he built his own. He didn’t mask. He didn’t try to become neurotypical. He stood as himself, figured out how his mind worked, and built a life, and eventually a career as an engineer and sculptor. 

That experience gave Ron something academic researchers didn’t have, a firsthand understanding of what it actually takes for an autistic person to find their footing in the world. And it gave him a mission: to help other autistic people do the same.

The Davis Autism Approach® — built on acceptance, not correction

The Davis Autism Approach® wasn’t designed to make autistic people appear more neurotypical. It was designed to empower autistic individuals to participate fully in the life they choose, all on their own terms, as themselves.

It starts with individuation, developing a strong, stable sense of self. From that foundation, autistic individuals build the self-awareness, self-regulation, and life concepts that allow them to engage with the world without needing to mask who they are.

As Ron himself said: “If I could find my own way through this chaos, I could provide a map for others of my kind to follow.”

That map doesn’t lead to neurotypicality. It leads to a life that genuinely works for the person living it.

What acceptance looks like today

On World Autism Day, acceptance looks like listening to autistic voices. It looks like building support around how autistic brains work, not against them. It looks like autistic people — children, teens, and adults — having access to tools that build genuine self-understanding.

It looks like standing in who you are. And having the support to do it.

Find a Davis Autism International facilitator near you and start a conversation. 👉

By Lindsay Hodge

My story begins, as a lot of others do, when I was struggling to teach my second child to read. My first child was easy. She thrived in our homeschool classroom, but my second child was different. He was a mover, he loved (and still loves) taking things apart and figuring out how things worked. He was curious and brilliant. Classroom time was a mixed bag of emotions for him. Science was his favorite. Math was okay if I read the instructions, but there were tears anytime we tried to work on reading. It wasn’t that way at first, but by the time we started second grade he would have a full-on meltdown every time we worked on reading or writing or any language arts.

Everyone told me to just give it time and keep trying to make it fun. I tried everything to make reading and writing more fun and engaging. I wanted him to love reading like I do. We did letter tiles, to make word building more fun. He just wanted to stack the tiles into towers. We used sand trays to write letters and words in a more multisensory way. He did what I asked grudgingly, but he just wanted to feel the sand with his hands and play in it. We looked for books that he would be interested in, but he only wanted me to read to him. We tried writing words on cards and jumping from card to card as we read them. He just liked jumping. I tried apps and games on tablets. I tried so many things.

At the beginning of his second-grade year, he was still struggling to meet kindergarten standards. We were doing our pre-term testing through a public school homeschool program, and it took us many hours over several days to complete a test that should have taken an hour or two. There were many meltdowns, lots of bribes, and so much cajoling. My boy was suffering. I prayed my way through that test, and at one point I felt inspiration strike me. I thought, “What if this is dyslexia?” I asked the supervising instructor what he thought about it, and he couldn’t give me a straight answer. I jumped down the rabbit hole that is the internet, and I looked up all things dyslexia. I spent hours looking into it. I had no idea how shallow my understanding of dyslexia was. I had no idea how many people were affected by it, and I had no idea how bad it could be. I saw terrifying statistics about the percentage of prison inmates with dyslexia, and I read about people who said they learned how to read but never learned how to enjoy books. I mourned. I cried for days as I truly felt the loss of the possibility for my son to ever enjoy reading. It occurred to me that since literacy is the face of intelligence, some people might not ever truly see my brilliant boy. I was devastated and trying all the while to put on a good face so my son wouldn’t know how sad I was. My hope was hanging by a thread.

It was at that point that I began looking for dyslexia friendly solutions that could help him learn to read. I knew we needed to do things differently. Most of the language arts curriculums for kids with dyslexia are very heavily focused on phonics. We tried a few. The trouble was, my son hated it. He could not process the sounds of the letters well. Things weren’t sticking. One day I was teaching him that “a says /ah/” and the next we would try to learn that “a says /ay/” or one of the other phonemes associated with a. His confusion just worsened with every lesson. So did the meltdowns.

By his fourth-grade year I was nearly ready to give up. I was ready to give up hope that my son would ever read comfortably. That’s when I saw an advertisement from a Davis Facilitator. I don’t remember what the ad said, or what made me think to call her, but I did. I know I was desperate to find something, anything that would work. She did an assessment with my boy and told me how much it would cost. I wanted desperately to try, but I just couldn’t afford it at the time. This wonderful facilitator could tell my hope was fragile. She told me to just read the book, The Gift of Dyslexia by Ron Davis. She encouraged me to give the procedures in the book a try, and to call her when we were able. I devoured the book. The first time I read it through, I thought, “There’s no way I can do this with him. We just need to save up and pay for a program.” The second time I read it through, I thought, “I don’t know. Maybe.” The third time I read the book through, I was ready to try, but I was nervous I would do it all wrong. I bought the home kit, and I did what I could to prepare myself for this new venture. When I finally mustered up the courage to try the orientation procedures and build the Alphabet, my son was actually excited about it. He said it worked, and I could clearly see a difference. I began to hope again. It was January, and by May I had seen such an improvement that I knew we needed more.

For me, the next obvious step was to take the Gift of Dyslexia Workshop. I had made mistakes, but we still saw positive results. I just wanted to improve on our personal experience. Becoming a facilitator myself was not the plan at first, but I soon felt like I was being called to this work. I’m so glad that I have followed this path. The Davis Methods have absolutely helped me to become a better mother. My training as a facilitator gave me the tools I vitally needed to parent and homeschool my three neurodivergent children, and I am here to shout it from the rooftops. Davis really works, and everyone ought to know it!

Neurodiversity Celebration Week 2026

This week was Neurodiversity Celebration Week, the theme was “From Awareness to Action.”

It’s a theme worth taking seriously. Because awareness on its own, hasn’t moved the needle much for neurodivergent people.

We’ve had decades of awareness campaigns. Colored ribbons, hashtags, designated days and weeks. And yet neurodivergent people still face higher rates of unemployment, poorer educational outcomes, and support systems that are largely built around fixing what’s “wrong” with them. Awareness tells people neurodiversity exists. It doesn’t change what their experience is like.

Action does.

The problem with how we’ve been thinking about this

Most traditional support systems, in schools, in clinics, in workplaces, still operate from what researchers call the deficit model. This means it identifies what the person can’t do. The method of “fixing” is: Intervene, remediate. repeat.

This type of approach is increasingly recognized as the wrong starting point.

Research published in 2025 confirms what many neurodivergent people and their families have known for years: interventions that focus exclusively on deficits, especially without equal attention to strengths, perpetuate stigma and damage self-esteem. They produce worse outcomes. And they miss the point entirely.

A dyslexic brain that thinks in pictures and sees connections others miss isn’t a broken reading machine, it’s a different kind of thinker. An ADHD brain that hyperfocuses and responds fast under pressure isn’t a disorder, it’s a brain that needs the right conditions to shine. An autistic brain that brings intense focus, pattern recognition, and deep expertise isn’t deficient in neurotypicality, it’s operating from a different, valid set of strengths.

The deficit model doesn’t see any of that. It sees the differences when compared with a neurotypical brain.

Action means changing the question

Moving from awareness to action doesn’t only mean changing systems — though that matters too. It means changing the question we ask about neurodivergent brains.

Not “what’s wrong?” but “how does this brain work?”

Not “how do we fix this person?” but “what does this person need to participate fully in the life they choose?”

That shift from correction to curiosity changes everything about the support that follows.

It also means recognizing that even where systems don’t change, neurodivergent people can build the tools and self-understanding to navigate the world on their own terms. While we wait for the world to catch up, let’s equip neurodivergent people with what they need right now.

Action means changing the question

Moving from awareness to action doesn’t only mean changing systems — though that matters too. It means changing the question we ask about neurodivergent brains.

Not “what’s wrong?” but “how does this brain work?”

Not “how do we fix this person?” but “what does this person need to participate fully in the life they choose?”

That shift from correction to curiosity changes everything about the support that follows.

It also means recognizing that even where systems don’t change, neurodivergent people can build the tools and self-understanding to navigate the world on their own terms. While we wait for the world to catch up, let’s equip neurodivergent people with what they need right now.

Where Davis fits in

The Davis Method wasn’t developed in a research lab. It came from Ron Davis, a dyslexic, autistic man who as a child didn’t speak, and who didn’t learn to read until he was 38 (read his full story here).

Ron didn’t get there through remediation. He got there by understanding how his own mind worked and then asking whether that understanding could help others.

That question became the foundation of the Davis Method. A strength-based, neurodiversity-affirming approach now used across 40+ countries with children and adults with dyslexia, ADHD, autism, and dyscalculia.

It was built from the inside out, by someone who lived it. And Davis has never treated a neurodivergent brain as a problem to solve.

That’s not just a philosophy. It’s a practical difference in how Davis support is designed and delivered.

From awareness to action — what that looks like

This Neurodiversity Celebration Week, action looks like asking better questions. It looks like finding support built around how a brain works, not against it. It looks like neurodivergent people — children, teens and adults — having access to tools that build genuine understanding rather than compensatory workarounds.

It looks like moving beyond awareness and doing something with it.

If you’re ready to take that step, find a Davis facilitator near you and start a conversation. 👉 Find a Facilitator

Unsure where to start? Contact us

If your child is living in a constant state of overwhelm, Mary Martin’s story is worth reading.

Mary’s daughter Sophia was diagnosed with sensory processing disorder and motor deficiencies. She couldn’t accurately process what she saw, heard, or felt — and that left her in a near-constant state of fear. On a typical day, Sophia experienced three to four 20-minute meltdowns. (Not tantrums — meltdowns and tantrums are not the same thing. A meltdown happens when someone can’t regulate their emotions and literally falls apart from the inside out.)

The family tried therapies. Some helped. None got to the root of it.

Then, at age nine, Sophia started the Davis Concepts for Life® program.

The first time Sophia listened to the Davis Ting — a specifically engineered sound designed to support calm, stable perception — Mary asked her how she felt. Sophia said, quietly: “I feel peaceful.”

She had never felt peaceful before.

Over the following four to six months, working through the program daily, Sophia began to individuate — developing her own wants, likes, and preferences, and allowing Mary to interact with other people. She’d previously been glued to her mother’s side.

The program works through a structured sequence of life concepts, each modelled in clay and then explored in the real world:

• Construction 1 – Change: Sophia stopped being terrified of change. She began to understand it as simply something becoming something else.
• Construction 2 – Perception: She started accurately perceiving the world around her.
• Construction 3 – Emotions: She learned how emotions connect to motivation and responsibility.
• Social concepts: She developed a framework for understanding relationships and how her behaviour affected others.

By the end of the program, Sophia had moved from a frightened child who struggled to connect with others to a teenager actively pursuing her goals — two belts away from a black belt, with ambitions to work for Lucasfilm.

Mary puts it plainly: “It changed our life so drastically that I pursued my facilitator’s license.”

That’s the other thing about Davis Concepts for Life® — it doesn’t just support the child. It gives families a shared language, a common framework, and a way to understand both themselves and each other.

If this resonates, the next step is a free discovery call with one of our facilitators. They’ll take the time to understand your situation and help you work out which Davis program is the right fit.

Find a Facilitator

Not sure where to start? Contact us

By Richard Whitehead, Director, Davis UK & Ireland

Davis UK & Ireland has recently launched NeuroNavigators, an online community designed to support parents, educators, professionals, and neurodivergent individuals at the very beginning of their journey.

Many families discover Davis during a moment of struggle. NeuroNavigators aims to meet them earlier — at the stage of curiosity — providing accessible education and strengths-based understanding before they step into a one-to-one programme.

The community offers free webinars on dyslexia, ADHD, autism, and related learning differences; interviews with Facilitators and programme graduates; practical guidance for parents; and a welcoming discussion space. It serves as a bridge into deeper engagement with Davis programmes and Facilitator training.

In collaboration with The Whole Dyslexic Society (WDS) in Canada, NeuroNavigators is also hosting screenings of WDS’s award-winning new film, Who Knew — Dyslexia is a Way of Thinking, helping to widen public understanding of dyslexia as a different way of thinking.

While open internationally, NeuroNavigators is particularly focused on supporting families and professionals across the UK & Ireland and in emerging Davis regions in Africa and the Middle East. Anyone interested can join the community for free at www.neuro-navigators.net

Read our latest posts:

• From Struggling Reader to College: Sean’s Story
• Why can’t my child remember the alphabet?
• Why You Don’t Need a Diagnosis to Get Support
• What Happens When We Begin to Understand Our Mind
• A Quiet Shift That Changed Everything

Dolores Gage was recently invited to deliver an online talk for IE University faculty, reaching professors based in Spain and across IE’s international campuses, including New York. The invitation was circulated to approximately 1,000 faculty members worldwide, with strong engagement for a faculty development session: close to 50 registrations and nearly 40 participants attending live at the start of the session.

The session offered faculty a clear, integrated framework for understanding neurodiversity, focusing on dyslexia, ADHD, and autism. Rather than treating labels in isolation, it highlighted the shared cognitive dynamics behind neurodivergent thinking and learning, as well as their distinct expressions. Faculty were encouraged to reflect on their own teaching and consider small, practical adjustments—like clearer structure and flexible ways to demonstrate learning—that reduce barriers and enhance inclusion.

Feedback was overwhelmingly positive, with participants calling the session “immensely insightful,” “really useful and illuminating,” and “a new perspective that sparked curiosity.” Many planned to apply the ideas immediately, while many expressed how valuable it was to gain a clearer conceptual understanding rather than just additional tools.

The session reinforced the growing interest in higher education for approaches that move beyond deficit models, supporting both student wellbeing and academic potential.

Read our latest posts:

• From Struggling Reader to College: Sean’s Story
• Why can’t my child remember the alphabet?
• Why You Don’t Need a Diagnosis to Get Support
• What Happens When We Begin to Understand Our Mind
• A Quiet Shift That Changed Everything

By Karen LoGiudice

If you’re an adult who struggles with reading, writing, or spelling, you may have dyslexia — and you’re far from alone. Around 10-15% of the population has dyslexia. Many adults reach midlife without ever getting a diagnosis, quietly compensating for difficulties they don’t fully understand.

That changes when you know what you’re working with.

What adult dyslexia actually looks like

Dyslexia isn’t just about reversing letters. As an adult, your experience might look like this:

• You’ve gravitated toward roles that play to your strengths and avoid your weak spots
• You hide difficulties from colleagues, friends, or family
• You struggle with standardised tests, which can block career advancement
• You’re either a high achiever or someone others say isn’t “working to potential” — rarely in between
• You’re highly intuitive, read people well, and think in ways others don’t
• You struggle to remember names but never forget a face
• Verbal instructions don’t stick; you need to see things to process them
• You re-read the same paragraph multiple times, or fatigue quickly when reading
• Your spelling is inconsistent — sometimes within the same document
• You rely on spell-check, assistants, or others for written work

These aren’t character flaws or laziness. They’re patterns that point to a different kind of brain — one with real strengths that conventional workplaces often overlook.

The thinking style behind the struggles

Dyslexic adults tend to be strong visual and spatial thinkers. You process information in pictures rather than words, which makes you better at seeing the big picture, connecting ideas, and solving problems creatively. These are the skills that drive innovation.

It’s no coincidence that people like Jamie Oliver, Richard Branson, Steven Spielberg, Keira Knightley, Zoe Saldaña, and Octavia Spencer have dyslexia. Branson has said his dyslexia gave him the ability to see the big picture in business — and in 2024 he launched a free learning platform, the University of Dyslexic Thinking, specifically to help others use those same strengths. Spielberg wasn’t diagnosed until his 60s; he described the discovery as “the last puzzle piece to a great mystery.” These aren’t people who succeeded despite dyslexia. Many credit it directly.

Why stigma still holds adults back

For younger generations, the conversation around dyslexia has shifted significantly. It’s increasingly framed as a different thinking style, not a deficit. But for many adults — especially those who struggled through school before dyslexia was well understood — the stigma runs deep. Low self-esteem, a fear of being “found out,” and years of compensating in silence are common.

That wasted potential isn’t inevitable. It’s the result of not having the right tools or support at the right time.

What you can do about it

The Davis Method was developed by Ron Davis, an adult with dyslexia who found his own way through. The program works with your natural perceptual strengths rather than against them. It’s an intensive one-on-one programme — typically around 30 hours over one week — and follow-up work is done independently, at home, at no extra cost.

The Davis Method is effective for dyslexia and also for related learning differences including ADD/ADHD, dyspraxia, dyscalculia, and dysgraphia. It’s currently available in 38 countries and can be used in virtually any language.

If you’ve spent years managing around your difficulties rather than addressing them, this is a practical option worth knowing about.

Find a Davis Facilitator near you →

Have questions about the Davis Mastery for Dyslexia Program? Contact us

Press release: January 30, 2026

Tuesday, January 26, 2026 – It was clear and cold as Lindsay Hodge, Davis Method Facilitator in Southwest Washington, packed her kids into the car and headed to her office with two of her colleagues in tow. Jeanette Devries and Mirriam Hill, facilitators from BC, drove down to help support Hodge at a lunch time community outreach event she had set up. The goal: to spread the word about the Davis Methods and the new documentary, “Who Knew: Dyslexia is a Way of Thinking” with certain members of the community. The highly acclaimed documentary, created in partnership with The Whole Dyslexic Society and Nice Lady Productions, and funded by TELUS Story Hive, has now won several awards at various film festivals.

Watch the trailer for Who Knew here.

View Lindsay’s profile here.

This event had been in the works for a few months. Last year, Hodge initiated a relationship with the Lewis County Autism Coalition (LCAC). By September 2025, she had moved in as an independent service provider to the LCAC’s new community space, The Spectrum and Development Community Center in Napavine, Washington, USA. The Community Center was created with the intention of making resources and services more accessible to families and individuals in need. As neighbors, the Lewis County Pediatrics and Family Medicine Clinic and LCAC intend to work hand in hand to support neurodivergent individuals and their families. Hodge faced only one issue: no one really knew about Davis Method Solutions.

Hodge says, “When I say that I provide Davis Method Programs for Dyslexia, ADHD and students who struggle with Math, the follow up question is always, ‘What is a Davis Method Program?’ I’m so grateful for the hard work that went into that documentary. That was the most wonderful way to introduce what I do to the clinic professionals and LCAC board members.”

Hodge had invited clinic professionals, LCAC board members, and other professionals who were interested in knowing more about the Davis Method, including one representative from an organization called Morningside, which works with disabled persons who need help finding gainful employment. She also invited Davis colleagues from her region, and a few parents of former clients. There were 18 individuals in attendance at the private screening event. Hill and Devries were invaluable support to Hodge in preparing for the event, helping Lindsay to pick up food and conversing with Hodge’s children. In addition to being a licensed Davis Facilitator, Hodge is a homeschool mom of three children, aged 15, 13, and 6 years old. Her children are the reason she came to Davis, and it was a gift to have them in attendance as well.

At noon, community members began coming in. They were greeted, asked to sign in, and invited to grab some lunch while they waited to get started. At 12:15, Hodge stood up and introduced the documentary and invited guests to take notes in preparation for the brief Q&A afterward. Then the lights were turned down, and they watched the beautifully made documentary. The audible gasps and “Ohs!” that were heard during the screening were a sign that the audience was engaged. When the lights came up, Hodge’s youngest son jumped up and exclaimed, “MY MOM IS THE BEST!” and everyone shared a little chuckle. 

Then came the questions. One guest raised his hand and asked, “How long has this been around?” He shared that he was dyslexic, and that he related on a deep level with Davey, the father of Wynn. “That was me,” he said. Hodge answered with a brief overview of how these methods came to be, and anticipated that the next question would be “Why doesn’t everyone know about this?” She shared a bit about new rebranding and restructuring of the Davis organization, and the hope that they would be better able to help spread the word. She also shared about efforts of Davis facilitators worldwide to get the word out, including the work the Whole Dyslexic Society is doing with the documentary and other outreach. Other participants asked how they could share this information, and providers at the clinic asked how they could refer patients to Hodge or other facilitators. Hodge pointed them to the Davis Method Website for more information on Davis programs, and the Whole Dyslexic Society site for more information on when the documentary will be made public. A few participants even asked about the possibility of becoming facilitators themselves. 

There were questions about the structure of Davis method programs, costs, and questions about the effectiveness of the programs. Hodge shared brief overviews, and invited participants to learn more at the Davis Method website or call her directly. It was a powerful moment for those in attendance when David Kerman, father of a former client, spoke up and shared his experience. “We struggled to find help for our daughter in the public school where we lived in Oklahoma… in fact her reading got worse. Then we moved here and started working with Lindsay. Our daughter went from basically not reading at all, to being able to read, and now she is even writing her own stories,” said Kerman. “We attribute all her current success to the work that Lindsay did with our daughter and the Davis Methods.” 

As the event wrapped up, guests grabbed stacks of brochures and business cards. Some asked Hodge to contact them directly. Devries leaned in and whispered to Hodge, “You have certainly broadened your reach here today.” Hodge smiled and said, “I sure hope so.” The clear result of the event was that at least a few more people know that Dyslexia is a way of thinking, not a fundamental disability within an individual’s brain, and that there is a way to help those who are struggling as a result of not being taught in the way their brains were born to learn. 

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Davis facilitators offer one-on-one programs for dyslexia, ADHD, autism, and math learning differences. Programs are personalized to each client and based on the Davis Method developed by Ron Davis.

Find a licensed Davis facilitator near you.

By Dr. Angie Gonzalez, Licensed Davis Autism Approach and Concepts for Life Facilitator / Workshop Presenter

Note: This article was originally published on the Ron Davis Autism Foundation website. We’re sharing it here for our community.

When I present a workshop on Autism and I ask the parents in the room, “Is there a difference between a meltdown and a tantrum?”, the response of positive nods and “Oh yeah” is immediate.  Others in the room appear to be a little more perplexed, wondering the relevance of the question.

Most of us have had personal experiences either observing or being at the “Oh my gosh! How do I control this?”, end of a tantrum. But, others have had the repetitive experiences of experiencing meltdowns, either within themselves or by others.

So, what is the difference? Why write about them? Aren’t they the same thing but just different names?

No. What they are and how we should handle them are completely different.

What is a Meltdown and what is a Tantrum?

To understand this, we need to understand a little (don’t worry, very little) about neurotypical childhood development.

In neurotypical childhood development, there are stages.  The end of the first stage of development occurs in neurotypical children around the age of two.  The end of this stage is ushered in by the onset of individuation (a fancy word meaning the realization that we are separate, individual units from all the things and people around us). With individuation, we realize that we have personal wants and don’t-wants, and we decide it’s time to let everyone around us know what those are.  The behavior that arises from this realization has been termed the “Terrible Two’s.”  This period is characterized by Tantrums. You know what those are – when a two-year-old wants candy at checkout and you say “No,” yelling, crying, dropping to the floor, turning red, holding their breath, etc. ensues.  There is some level of conscious control that is occurring during a tantrum. If the behavior is reinforced, it will continue.  If the behavior is disciplined, consistently (not just the one time, people!) it will cease.

A Meltdown is something totally different.

If I see a lizard in my office, I am going to scream (I know this to be true because it has happened more than once). If someone steps on your foot, you are going to pull it away.  You will not think about it first, it is instinctual. I cannot tell you why I scream when I see a lizard in the office and not when I see them outside, but I do.  The response is generated from somewhere other than my conscious self.  It is again, instinctual.  You cannot tell me enough times not to scream when I see it for me not to scream.

When someone is having a meltdown, we cannot talk them through it! You cannot rationalize someone out of a meltdown because it is generated from that visceral place of instinctual response.  It also doesn’t matter whether you think whatever has ‘triggered’ the meltdown is a reasonable thing to have a meltdown about.  You do not get to determine that unless you are the one having the meltdown.  Meltdown triggers are specific to the individual. It could be the texture of the mac-and-cheese, the fact that someone is too close to them, the feeling of the tag from a shirt, the smell of the neighbor’s cat, the sound of the bubbling spaghetti sauce… the possibilities are endless. So, the question then is, “what do we do”?

How do we Handle a ​Meltdown vs. a Tantrum?

Simple.

Protect and support a MELTDOWN

Discipline a TANTRUM

What does that mean?

It means, that if your kiddo is having a meltdown, remove them from the stimulus, protect them from more triggers, make their surroundings physically and emotionally safe, and do what you know calms them.  Most of all, regulate your own response. Stay cool and even-tempered in your actions and emotions. These individuals respond more to how you are ‘being’ than what you are saying or doing.

If your child or student is exhibiting behavior that you know precedes a meltdown, remove them from the stimulus, attempt to redirect their attention and give them whatever they use for self-soothing. Again, get yourself in order – stay cool and even-tempered.

In the future, avoid those things that trigger meltdowns. You know what they are – because all parents are the world’s greatest project managers.

If, on the other hand, your child is having a tantrum – this is the time to remain calm and firm. If you told them they can’t have the candy at the cash register, then please do not give in. Remain consistent and let them know that if they continue the negative behavior (say this in ‘little kid’ terms) then (fill in the blank) is going to happen. Then if they continue, the (fill in the blank) has got to happen.

The more steadfast you are in your consistent response to tantrums, the shorter the terrible two’s (or terrible fourteens) will be.

Hope this helps. Love you all.

Remember, keep it simple.

Dr. Angie

To find out more about Dr Angie and what she offers, you can go to her website: Dr Angie’s Place

Click here to find out more about the Davis Autism Approach.

Interested in the Davis Autism Approach but not sure where to start? Contact us for a free Discovery Call

When Ron Davis was a child in 1949, he sat in a corner of his classroom wearing a handkerchief on his head—a mark of shame. He couldn’t read. Teachers called him names. He had no idea that his “broken” brain would later unlock the very gift that was causing his suffering.
At 38, Davis made a discovery about his own perception that let him read a full book for the first time. He then spent decades developing techniques to help others harness the same mental abilities. The Gift of Dyslexia, first published in 1994, became a global bestseller because it offered a radical reframing: dyslexia isn’t a disability to overcome. It’s a talent that creates problems when it collides with written language.

The Gift Inside the Problem

Here’s the point most people miss: the genius doesn’t happen in spite of dyslexia. It happens because of it.

All dyslexics share eight core abilities:

🟣 They can alter and create perceptions—the primary ability underlying everything else
🟣 They’re highly aware of their environment
🟣 They’re more curious than average
🟣 They think mainly in pictures, not words
🟣 They’re intuitive and insightful
🟣 They perceive multi-dimensionally, using all their senses
🟣 They experience thought as reality
🟣 They have vivid imaginations

Albert Einstein, Walt Disney, and Greg Louganis all had dyslexia. Their genius emerged from the exact same mental functions that made reading difficult. When these abilities go unvalidated or suppressed, dyslexics often hide their gifts and adopt workarounds. When they’re recognized and developed, they produce something Davis calls the gift of mastery—the ability to understand something so deeply, experientially, that you know how to do it intuitively.

Why Dyslexia Happens

Davis explains dyslexia as “the Mother of Learning Disabilities.” It shares a root cause with ADD/ADHD, autism, dyscalculia, dysgraphia, and hyperactivity. Each case is unique because dyslexia results from a combination of an underlying talent and environmental influences—particularly the stress and invalidation that happen during early school years.

Here’s how it works: dyslexic children are visual thinkers who excel at recognizing real objects. Their brains process multi-dimensional thinking faster than verbal thinking. But when they encounter printed symbols—letters and words—their talent becomes a liability. The symbols confuse them because the child’s brain tries to apply real-world visual perception to abstract marks on a page.

Disorientation triggers when confusion sets in. The stress of repeated failure compounds it. Over time, many dyslexics adopt mental tricks to hide their disability, damaging their self-esteem in the process.

The Path Forward: Three Proven Techniques

The revised and expanded edition of The Gift of Dyslexia includes updated methods for addressing the problem while preserving the gift. Davis details three concrete techniques:

Davis Orientation Counseling teaches dyslexics to turn off disorientation and refocus their perceptions. Two simple mental exercises allow them to overcome distorted perception and accurately recognize printed symbols.

Davis Symbol Mastery uses a stress-free, multi-sensory approach. Students model symbols and word concepts in clay—engaging their creativity while building accurate visual word recognition.

Davis Reading Exercises are three simple daily practices that improve reading fluency and comprehension.

The point isn’t to “fix” the dyslexic mind. It’s to teach dyslexics how their minds work and give them tools to use their talent without the distortion.

Who Needs This Book

If you’re a parent of a dyslexic child, you’ll find practical guidance and something more important: perspective. Your child isn’t broken. Their brain works the way Einstein’s did.

Teachers and facilitators gain insight into how dyslexic students actually think—not as a deficit model, but as a different processing style with real strengths.

Adults with dyslexia often report that this book validates their experience and explains struggles they never understood. Many discover they’ve been using the positive side of dyslexia in their work all along without realizing it.

And anyone who works with dyslexic individuals—whether as a supporter, educator, or therapist—benefits from Davis’ perspective. It shifts you from seeing a problem to seeing a talent that needs direction.

Get Started With Your Reading

Download: 5 Common Myths About Dyslexia — Before diving into the book, grab this free sheet. It clears up the misunderstandings that keep people stuck: dyslexia isn’t just about letter reversals, trying harder won’t fix it, and it’s not a lifelong disability to be managed. Understanding these myths shifts how you see dyslexia—and opens the door to seeing it as a gift.

Buy The Gift of Dyslexia Now — Available in paperback through dyslexia.com, or listen to the audiobook on Audible.

Want to sample it first? Read the book summary, preface, and first chapter at the shop.

Buy The Gift of Dyslexia Now

Available in paperback through dyslexia.com, or listen to the audiobook on Audible.

Want to sample it first? Read the book summary, preface, and first chapter at the shop.

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ISBN: 978-0399535666
Publisher: Perigee Books, 2010
Author: Ronald D. Davis with Eldon M. Braun

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By Matthew Head

Note: This article was originally published on the dyslexia.com website. We’re sharing it here for our community.

Taking the First Step

After reading the book The Gift of Dyslexia (see my review here), I felt the overwhelming need to get myself on a Davis® Mastery for Dyslexia program.

I looked up my local facilitator, Tessa Halliwell. I dropped her an email that morning to enquire about the program, and by that evening we had a short introductory Zoom call.

I remember feeling quite emotional after this as I had the very strong feeling that this program would really assist me in areas that I had believed could not be corrected but only mitigated.Note: This article was originally published on the Ron Davis Autism Foundation website. We’re sharing it here for our community.

I think the feeling of mixed emotions was a combination of excitement to see where this process would take me, and the difficulty of letting go of a belief that my brain, although wonderful in some aspects, really couldn’t do some other things.

I have always believed that I have a lot of positive attributes to bring, quite a few of them shaped by my dyslexia. However, this is balanced by some weaker skills. All my life I’ve been unable to spell very well, having to use all sorts of tricks to get round this issue (dyslexialifehacks.com), but it always creeps through.

Going Online

Due to participating in this program in January 2021 when the UK was still under Covid-19 pandemic restrictions, the program was carried out in its entirety over Zoom (Video Calls). A little bit housekeeping from myself before starting was required: I made sure my Webcam was in good order and borrowed a set of laptop speakers, so I didn’t have to sit with a headset on for hours each day, and then I was good to go. To anybody reading this in the future – welcome to what life was like in 2020/2021! An initial concern for me was that doing the program over Zoom might be an issue; however, this was soon eliminated after my first initial assessment with Tessa.

The initial assessment is a simple exercise to check my perception ability also the added bonus of visualising a very nice chocolate orange cake, yummy! As it would have it, I have quite a strong perception ability, which allows me to be suitable for orientation counselling.

A note on this article: This outlines my experience of the program and touches on some of the techniques used. It is not to be taken as a guide to the techniques or how to use them. For this, I recommend reading the book The Gift of Dyslexia and/or booking yourself on a Davis® Mastery for Dyslexia program.

Getting Started With the Kit

With my kit in hand – plasticine (modelling clay), modelling tools, a workbook, the course manual, Koosh Balls, and a dictionary – I was ready to start. My conditioned brain had learned to shudder at the sight of the dictionary; however, during the program it would become a surprising ally.

Orientation: Taking Control of Your Mind’s Eye

The first day consists of carrying out the orientation procedure, so I have control of my mind’s eye. This enables me to better understand when I’m being disorientated. Because of the remote setting, this involved getting creative with blue tack and making sure my webcam was parked in the right place; after that, the procedure was straightforward. I admired Tessa’s ingenuity in getting round the video call limitations. While doing this course over Zoom I found it very useful to have a USB webcam rather than using a laptop’s integrated camera.

Alphabet Mastery

With this new tool in hand, it was now onto the alphabet. “ABCD EFG HIJK LMNOP…” is the song that sings in my head every time I must think of the order of letters. By the evening of 18 January 2021 that song was pretty much redundant!

The alphabet mastery programme consists of first modelling all the uppercase letters using plasticine in a type font set out by the programme. After an initial go at modelling the letters, it was clear that my alphabet needed work. My ABC was a nice, consistent size and it slowly grew. The first thing was to remodel all the letters so they were consistent size and height, then the fun part begins.

I then got “on point” and looked over all 26 letters. Then I was assessed on the alphabet layout. This involved picking letters at random and me trying to tell which letters went before and after it in the sequence. If there were troublesome letters, Tessa would go through a procedure with me to see if there was any kind of attachment to these letters that might be triggering my mind’s eye to move.

This is one of the driving principles of Davis® Mastery for Dyslexia: putting your mind’s eye on its orientation point so that external reality is the reality your eyes see, then developing an understanding of when it might have shifted off this point. This would happen to me when I was confronted by a trigger letter.

Throughout the afternoon the magic of this program really came to life. Once we had cleared the alphabet of any triggers and checked a few times that I had mastered it, it was done! No need to come back the next day or week and do it again and again. Mastering the alphabet isn’t tricky once the conditions are set correctly. I got to the point where I could be asked about any letter in the sequence and have no problem with it. This was repeated with the lowercase alphabet.

My brain now has clear pictures for both upper and lowercase alphabet. This also cleaned up some letter confusion, including flipping Bs and Ds round, or Ps and Qs. Post-program, although I never thought I had visual stress, letters of any type font or colour now stand out strongly and clearly to me.

Punctuation and Building Blocks

The same technique applied to punctuation. I thought I knew what punctuation meant, but now I know with certainty. I found an instant improvement in how I looked at punctuation on a page and my comfort with it, which then helps with reading and writing.

Tessa introduced various building blocks throughout the program to assist with the written word:

• Spell reading – uncovering a sentence or phrase letter by letter, saying it out loud and seeing if I then understand the word
• Sweep, sweep, spell – sweeping over a word twice before spelling it
• Picture at punctuation – stopping at each punctuation point and describing the image that the previous section created in my mind, then discussing and comparing it to what is written down

Balance and Physical Orientation

Part of the non-literary side of the program, which really surprised me, was integrating being “on point” with my balance and hearing. Before starting, I had an idea that being dyslexic might throw my kinesthetic ability off slightly. I never thought it had any effect on my hearing.

The balance exercise involves being orientated and standing on one leg and moving my mind’s eye around until I find a point where I’m perfectly balanced. Wow! Suddenly I am super balanced and barely have to do any muscle control of my legs.

The formal exercise to check this is using Koosh Balls to play catch. The benefit of these balls is that they don’t bounce very much so it’s fairly easy to catch. It feels like I suddenly gain a superhuman ability to catch these balls while still on one leg, as long as I stay “on point”. The moment I drift off point is the moment I drop a ball or lose my balance.

Hearing and Sound Orientation

Now to the part which really, really surprised me: I am able to move my hearing along with my mind’s eye. I’ve always been aware of being able to mentally conjure up pictures and play through scenarios, seeing things in 3-D in my head is easy for me. What I had not been aware of until now is that I’m able to move my hearing around. I just assumed everybody could move their hearing into a conversation next to them and listen as if sitting there, but clearly it’s a dyslexia talent again.

The ability to orientate my hearing involved playing sound through sets of headphones. I spent a long time convinced something was coming into my right ear, which turns out to be my dominant ear. Once I had completed the exercise with Tessa’s coaching, I was able to get the sound to come out where my mind’s eye is, and everything felt nicely in calibration. That very evening while watching the TV, I became aware of how it sounds different and my improved ability to listen to someone having a conversation with me and, more importantly, noticing when my hearing is drifting off somewhere else.

Symbol Mastery: The Heart of the Program

After ensuring I was able to orientate, we moved onto “Symbol mastery”, which is probably the core of Davis® Mastery for Dyslexia. Like “Alphabet Mastery”, this involves using plasticine, but this time to model up the meaning of words.

I started off by modelling meanings for parts of the English language, for example: adjective, verb, and preposition. These parts of language have always felt like abstract concepts to me. I had to learn them to pass my English GCSE when I was at school, not really grasping what they actually mean and how they are used. Now, having modelled these words in plasticine and then going through the Davis mastering process I am comfortable with the meaning of these words and how they are structured in language.

About the Author: Mathew Head

I have been statemented with dyslexia from about 6 years old. I have created a website Dyslexia Life Hacks, this shares the various tools and techniques I have developed over the years to make life easier, and is a safe space for you to share your thoughts and suggestions for further hacks!

Another remarkable part of this process is that spelling also gets mastered. As part of the learning process, I modelled “preposition” twice. The second time I had a better understanding of how to make a model that made sense to me and what it felt like to have it fully mastered. Once I had mastered preposition – a complicated word – I became confident in the spelling of it, not even having to second-guess myself.

Tackling Trigger Words

We then moved on to tackling my trigger words. Put simply, these are words I do not have a mental picture for, so as I read them I get a blank. For me, this is where symbol mastery gets challenging but also rewarding.

The trigger words I selected to master with Tessa’s help initially were: “the”, “a”, “from”, and “their”. Trying to model the meaning of a word when you have a complete blank mental picture is really tough. This is where the modelling comes into its own. After looking the definition up in various dictionary resources, I would start with an initial part of a model to see how it felt to me.

This was hard. Having a complete blank and trying to conjure up something in plasticine takes a lot of trial and error. I would initially start one idea and I just get the feeling that the model isn’t really talking the definition to me. Tessa would provide guidance and prompts to get me thinking about what I wanted from the model and I would try something else. This would be an improvement but it might not feel right. I remember sitting for ages looking at “their”, feeling quite frustrated that I could not show a sense of ownership in the model. A few more iterations on and I got a model I was happy with. Then it was a case of writing out the word underneath the model with clay letters from my alphabet and carrying out the mastering process.

Sometimes the modelling can take nearly an hour to get to a point where, without even looking at the dictionary or any other prompts, I can use just a model in my mind to know the meaning. It would just be feeling inside like, “that’s it – that’s the model that makes sense”.

The mastering process takes a matter of 2 to 3 minutes and this still amazes me. The gift of mastery truly is a gift.

Spelling: From Weakness to Strength

Spelling has always been a particularly weak point of mine; however, using the techniques laid out in Davis® Mastery for Dyslexia, I am well on the path to eradicating this weakness. Symbol mastery is used to understand the definition and get the spelling of words when I do not necessarily know the definition.

For words that I already have a strong definition/mental picture of and cannot spell, there is an alternative technique. This involves eradicating old incorrect spellings, getting orientated, and spelling the word correctly to myself forward and backwards and then mastering it – the gift of mastery paving the way once again! It’s that straightforward.

Moving Forward

Now that I have completed the program, the true hard work really starts. I need to complete the 250 trigger words with symbol mastery to truly have my dyslexia corrected. I am highly motivated and driven to complete this part. I already feel a change within myself and my outlook.

Removing some of the self-limiting beliefs, misinformation, negative self-talk, and old solutions has massively grown my confidence in my ability to not only learn the English language, which is a beast I now feel more comfortable with, but also to learn other things, for example, playing the guitar or teaching myself basic piano.

With the removal of the voice that nags in the back of my head saying “you are rubbish at learning things” I have been able to replace it with one that says, “you have a gift that allows you to master things very quickly”. Having the tools to understand when I am disorientated, therefore enabling me to get back “on point” if needed, is already paying off in day-to-day life.

I would urge anybody who is dyslexic or knows somebody with dyslexia to use this program to enrich their life. It is well worth the money invested in it and will pay off for years to come.

Find help

Find a Davis Facilitator near you or contact us to discuss your options.

Find a facilitator   Contact us

Read our latest posts

• From Struggling Reader to College: Sean’s Story
• Why can’t my child remember the alphabet?
• Why You Don’t Need a Diagnosis to Get Support
• What Happens When We Begin to Understand Our Mind
• A Quiet Shift That Changed Everything

By Cathie Geraci, Davis® Facilitator

When people ask me what I do, I tell them: “I help individuals understand how their intelligence works.” Yes, I help dyslexics learn to read, dyscalculics understand math, ADHDers manage attention and behavior, and autistic individuals make sense of the world around them. But ultimately, my clients discover how their thinking style holds strengths—and how it has also created challenges in learning and understanding.

Until recently, all my clients came from families who had their needs met. Families with the time to focus on a child’s learning struggles. Families with the resources to seek help.

But there are approximately 15 million children living in refugee camps worldwide, and fewer than half attend school. Among those who do, neurodiverse students often cannot learn effectively. Imagine growing up in a refugee camp, finally receiving the chance to learn, only to find that your brain won’t let you. It’s a double injustice. These children—some of the most vulnerable neurodiverse learners anywhere—are the ones I had the privilege to work with.

Let me tell you about Still I Rise International School.
Located in the heart of the Nairobi slums, it serves vulnerable children and refugees. Most students are local; they arrive each morning from the slums and return home each evening. A smaller group boards at the school, having come from the Kakuma Refugee Camp in Kenya or from Still I Rise emergency schools in Yemen and Congo.

This school is extraordinary. Walking through its gates, you might think you entered an elite Kenyan private school: well-kept grounds, lush gardens, a swimming pool, after-school clubs. But what truly makes it special is not that it serves slum communities and refugees, nor that it is entirely free. It is the only free school in the world for vulnerable and refugee students that offers the International Baccalaureate curriculum.

I met the school’s founder, Nicolò Govoni, in November 2024 while he was presenting his book Un Mondo Possibile. I asked whether he had dyslexic students and mentioned that I thought I could help. One year later, I found myself at the school facilitating two Davis Mastery for Dyslexia® programs.

Ryan

Ryan is 13 and lives in the slums with his mother and sister. His life is marked by extreme economic instability, yet nothing escapes his extraordinary visual-scanning ability. He is curious, thoughtful, and passionate about fencing. Despite being at the school for several years, he struggled with reading comprehension, writing, focus, and daily behavioral challenges.

After one week together, Ryan is now reading at grade level, writing comfortably—even in cursive—and maintaining focus. Most importantly, he now recognizes when he is the source of both his positive and negative behaviors. I am confident that in the months ahead, Ryan will become the student he wants to be, moving steadily toward his dream of working in cybersecurity.

Yaya

Yaya is 12 and comes from the Kakuma Refugee Camp. He left Ethiopia at age five and has spent most of his life in the camp. He is curious, kind, determined, and dreams of becoming the President of Ethiopia one day—to solve his country’s problems. Since arriving at the school just ten months ago, he has had to learn English, math, and reading all at once.

Although naturally gifted in math, Yaya could not yet read. He had developed many clever strategies to guess words and make it appear as though he could read. His motivation, however, was remarkable. By lunchtime on the final day of his program, something “clicked”—the mechanism for reading finally activated. I am confident he will be reading independently within months and soon be as strong in every subject as he is in math.

My time at Still I Rise International School was transformative. For these two students, it marked the beginning of understanding how their intelligence works and the end of the barriers that once held them back. I hope this is only the start of helping many more students there.

For me, it was a masterclass in human resilience. These students possess extraordinary motivation and remain connected to joy, despite having endured some of the harshest conditions on Earth. So while I helped two students understand their intelligence, the students of Still I Rise taught me how to be a better human being.

If you feel inspired to learn more, please visit www.stillirise.org.

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Would you like to know more about the Davis® Mastery for Dyslexia? Contact us

December 6-7, 2025 | Free live online event

Your child isn’t broken. Traditional approaches weren’t made for their mind.

Two transformative days exploring autism through the Davis lens — discovering why your child experiences the world differently and how to support them without changing who they are.

Live attendance: FREE
Can’t make it live? Lifetime recordings: £12.99

Finally, answers that make sense

You’ve sat through countless meetings where professionals describe your child’s “deficits.” You’ve tried behavioral interventions that feel like forcing a square peg into a round hole. You’re exhausted from being told what your child can’t do.

What if we’ve been looking at autism all wrong?

Join families, educators, and professionals from 5 continents for a weekend that reframes everything. No deficit talk. No compliance training. Just breakthrough insights into how autistic minds actually work — and practical tools that honor that difference.

What you’ll Discover

Saturday, December 6

5:45 PM GMT – Opening & Welcome
Featuring a personal message from Ron Davis, whose own autistic experience led to these revolutionary approaches.

6:00 PM – The Neurodivergent Thread with Dolores Gage
Why your child’s meltdowns, confusion, and sensory overwhelm all stem from the same source — and why that source is also their greatest strength.

7:30 PM – Non-Speaking Autistic Individuals with Cathie Geraci
Your non-speaking child has a rich inner world. Learn how Davis methods help restore calm and unlock communication without forcing speech.

9:00 PM – Dummy: Ron’s Story with Richard Whitehead
Preview Ron Davis’s autobiography — from non-speaking and “unreachable” to developing methods that have helped thousands worldwide.

10:30 PM – Missing Concepts and Individuation with Melanie Curry
Why your child might not recognize themselves in the mirror, understand “you” and “me,” or grasp cause and effect — and how to build these foundations gently.

Sunday, December 7

7:30 PM GMT – Facilitator Panel + Your Questions Answered
Real families. Real breakthroughs. Davis facilitators share stories of transformation and answer your specific questions live.

Featuring: Tania Blackmore-Squires, Axel Gudmundsson, Mary Martin, Danette Moriarty

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Who This Is For

Parents living with:

• Daily meltdowns you can’t predict or prevent
• A child who seems “unreachable” at times
• School calling constantly about behavior
• Therapy approaches that aren’t working
• Exhaustion from trying everything

You’ll leave with:

• Understanding of why your child’s brain works differently
• Practical tools you can use immediately
• Hope based on real success stories
• Connection with families who truly get it
• Clear next steps for your journey

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Global event, local times

This event bridges time zones to unite our worldwide community:

Saturday Opening (5:45 PM GMT):

• London: 5:45 PM
• Paris/Berlin: 6:45 PM
• Johannesburg: 7:45 PM
• New York: 12:45 PM
• Los Angeles: 9:45 AM
• Auckland: 6:45 AM Sunday
• Sydney: 4:45 AM Sunday

Can’t make all sessions live? You can purchase lifetime recordings for £12.99.

CHECK YOUR LOCAL TIME

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Why Davis Is Different

We Don’t Try to “Fix” Autism

Your child’s different perception isn’t wrong — it’s just different. Davis methods work with how autistic minds naturally function.

Created BY Autistic Experience

Ron Davis was non-speaking until age 17. These aren’t theories developed in labs — they’re insights from lived experience.

Concepts, Not Compliance

Instead of behavior modification, we build the missing conceptual foundations that make the world make sense.

Tools That Last

Families report continued growth years after learning Davis methods. The tools grow with your child.

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What others are saying about the Davis Autism Approach®

“The program didn’t try to change who he is. It gave him tools to understand and embrace himself – and that has made all the difference.” Louise, Mother of program participant

“I see how the stronger sense of who I am has allowed me to say no to what isn’t for me and say yes to what makes me happy. I no longer have to be reacting to everything happening around me. I can be centered and decide what is for me and what is not for me. I choose to respond rather than react. It feels so freeing.” Leigh, program participant

“Sophia was a frightened, fearful child who was withdrawn and living inside of herself. Since completing the program two years ago, she has become a typical young girl. She is two cycles away from completing her black belt in Taekwondo. She wants to work for Lucas films as an animator one day. Our lives are now ‘normal’ – we laugh as a family, we cry as a family, we encourage one another, we strengthen one another. We hadn’t experienced that before.” Mary, Mother of program participant

“I can’t believe how life-changing these concepts are. I use them all of the time in my life now – it is just so easy to take responsibility for things that had always seemed impossible before.” This person wished to remain anonymous

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Common questions

Q: Is this for parents only?
A: While designed with parents in mind, educators, therapists, and autistic individuals would all benefit from these insights.

Q: My child was just diagnosed. Is this too advanced?
A: Perfect timing. Understanding the Davis perspective early saves years of inappropriate interventions.

Q: My child is an adult. Is it too late?
A: Never. Davis methods work across all ages. Many adults discover themselves through these concepts.

Q: What if I can only attend some sessions?
A: Register anyway. Each session stands alone with valuable insights. Recordings available for what you miss for only £12.99.

Q: How is this different from other autism seminars?
A: We don’t talk about deficits, disorders, or “fixing.” We explore how autistic perception works and how to support it.

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A Personal Note from the Organizers

Every day, we see families exhausted from approaches that don’t work. Parents blamed for their child’s struggles. Children forced into boxes that don’t fit.

This weekend is different. It’s about understanding, not changing. Supporting, not suppressing. Hope based on real success, not false promises.

Your child’s autism isn’t a tragedy to overcome. It’s a different way of experiencing the world — one that includes incredible gifts alongside real challenges.

Join us to discover what becomes possible when we stop trying to “fix” and start trying to understand.

Organized By:

Davis UK & Ireland in partnership with Davis Autism International

Don’t Miss This

Two days that could change how you see your child — and how they see themselves.

December 6-7, 2025
Live: FREE
Recordings: £12.99

By Nadine Schumont, Licensed Davis® Facilitator

Some days in this work stay with you forever. Today was one of those days.

A 10-year-old former client asked his parents if he could visit me on his day off from school. Not because he was in crisis. Not because something was wrong. Just because he was in town and wanted to see me.

He’d completed Davis Concepts for Life® with me two years ago, when he was eight. That he wanted to come back just to visit? That alone made my day.

When children choose to return

We sat down together, and I asked how things were going. His mom had mentioned a few areas we might explore, but I wanted to hear from him first.

“Let’s think about situations that sometimes feel hard,” I suggested. “Moments where you might wish you’d handled things differently.”

He nodded and launched straight into his story.

The sandbox incident

Back in September, he’d dug a hole in the school sandbox. A really good hole. Ever since, he’d been watching it, protecting it, making sure it stayed exactly how he wanted it.

Then last week, another child started filling it with wet sand.

“I got so upset,” he told me. “We were yelling at each other, and then… I hit him.”

The shame in his voice was palpable. He knew he’d made a mistake. But more importantly, he couldn’t understand why he’d lost control over something that now seemed so small.

Making it tangible

We went into the clay room – the heart of Davis work. I asked him to model what happened, but in reverse order. This is something we do to help children see the sequence of events and recognize where they had choices.

He modeled:

• The hitting (what happened last)
• The yelling (the escalation)
• The boy filling the hole (the trigger)
• The quiet moment before anything happened

That last model – the calm before the storm – that’s where the magic happens.

The questions that changed everything

Looking at his clay scene, I asked, “Who made this hole?”

“I did – back in September.”

“Do you own the school property?”

He actually laughed. “No.”

“So if the sandbox belongs to everyone, does that mean anyone can play in it?”

He nodded, already seeing where this was going.

“Okay,” I said, “so if we go back to that moment when you were still in order – before your emotions took off – what other decision could you make?”

He paused. His face changed. A smile spread across it.

“I could just go make another hole.”

The power of self-discovery

I’ve been doing this work for years, and these moments never get old. That instant when a child realizes they have choices they never saw before. When the rigid thinking that trapped them suddenly becomes flexible.

We weren’t done yet. Using the Davis “Creating a New Behavior” procedure, we modeled what that new choice would look like. How he could recognize the moment before his emotions ramped up. How he could choose differently.

As we worked with the clay, he started connecting dots on his own.

“It’s all self-created energy, isn’t it?” he said. “My thoughts created my feelings, and my feelings created what I did.”

This is a 10-year-old, folks. Understanding emotional regulation at a level many adults never reach.

Beyond the sandbox

Later in our session, completely unprompted, he made another observation:

“Sometimes I use disorder to frustrate my mom.”

I hadn’t brought up his home behavior. His mom hadn’t mentioned this pattern. He discovered it himself, just by having the conceptual framework to understand his own actions.

We talked about how he could use his “dial” – an internal regulation tool from his original program – to turn down his energy when emotions rise. How he could walk away, breathe, and come back when ready.

“Yeah,” he grinned, “I can turn my dial down and make a different choice.”

What parents need to know

If your child:

• Fixates on keeping things “just right”
• Melts down when their plans are disrupted
• Can’t let go when something changes
• Hits or lashes out over seemingly small things

They’re not being defiant. They’re not manipulative. They’re missing fundamental life concepts that help us understand:

• We don’t control everything (and that’s okay)
• Change is survivable
• We always have choices
• Our emotions don’t have to control us

Why the Davis Concepts for Life® last

This is what amazes me about Davis work. Two years after his program, these concepts aren’t just remembered – they’re alive and growing.

I didn’t reteach him anything today. The concepts he mastered at age eight were still there, ready to apply to new situations. They’d matured with him.

His mother tells me he’s doing so much better overall. When he struggles and asks “But why?” she simply responds, “What did I tell you?” This gentle cue helps him pause and access what he already knows.

The invitation to grow

Every child who comes through my practice leaves with these tools:

• Understanding of emotion as self-created energy
• The ability to recognize order and disorder
• Tools to regulate their internal state
• Awareness of choice in every moment

But more than tools, they leave with an invitation – to keep growing, keep discovering, keep applying these concepts to new challenges as they arise.

A personal note

After 10 years as a Davis® Facilitator, I can tell you this: the children who seem most “stuck” often have the biggest breakthroughs. The boy who couldn’t let go of a sandbox hole? He’s now a child who understands flexibility, choice, and self-regulation.

His parting words to me today? “Thanks for helping me see I always have another choice.”

That’s why I do this work. Not to control behavior, but to unleash understanding. Not to manage children, but to empower them.

Because every child deserves their “I could just make another hole” moment.

About Davis Concepts for Life®

The Davis Concepts for Life® program provides individuals with the conceptual foundation necessary for emotional and social growth. Through clay modeling and experiential learning, participants master life concepts that many of us take for granted but that can be revolutionary for neurodivergent minds.

The program typically runs 30-60 hours over several weeks, paced to match each individual’s needs. It’s suitable for ages 8 through adult and particularly beneficial for individuals with autism, ADHD, and related profiles – including multi diagnosis and treatment resistant individuals.

Want to learn more?

If this story resonates with your family’s experience, you’re not alone. Many children are missing these fundamental concepts, leading to behavioral challenges that seem insurmountable.

They’re not. With the right approach, breakthrough is possible.

Find a Licensed Davis® Facilitator Near You
Learn about the Davis Concepts for Life® Program
Have questions? Or unsure whether this approach is right for you? Contact us

Nadine is a Licensed Davis® Facilitator whose own journey own with undiagnosed ADHD and dyslexia led her to take a Davis program in 2017. Since then, Nadine had been supporting neurodivergent individuals and their families. Based in Stratford, Ontario, Canada, Nadine provides both in-person and online programs. This story is shared with permission, with identifying details changed for privacy.

Have a story to share about your Davis® experience? We’d love to hear from you. Contact us

By Ronald D. Davis

Original article from the Dyslexic Reader 2002: The following is a description of an experiment he conducted in 1982 to prove to himself that disoriented perceptions are a natural function of the brain. This understanding of how the use of a natural brain function not only produces the symptoms of dyslexia, but also the many talents dyslexic thinkers can exhibit, serves as one of the foundations of Davis Mastery for Dyslexia®. It explains the tools which allow dyslexic thinkers to intentionally control the distorted perceptions that are a product of disorientation—to both eliminate a learning disability and to enhance their talents.

Setting the stage: 1982

In 1982, after my colleagues and I had arrived at a basic, rudimentary understanding of what had to be done to correct dyslexia, we offered a program for doing so to the public. The program was producing spectacular results, and we gathered a great deal of empirical evidence to support it. But the program and I were being criticized and ridiculed by the established authorities on dyslexia. This was because the developmental model for dyslexia was such a major departure from the structural model (brain damage or malfunction) that was accepted at the time. In addition, I lacked any formal training or credential in the field, so I was quickly branded a kook or snake oil salesman.

I searched in vain for anything that would support the concept that distortion in perception was at the root of dyslexia symptoms. I couldn’t even find a simple explanation of perceptual distortion, why it happened, how it happened, or what it was called.

The motivation

My primary motivation was to establish that dyslexia was not the result of brain damage or malfunction. I wanted to find a way to prove that all of the symptoms of dyslexia could be produced by a normal brain functioning naturally. I felt that if I could make a link between the perceptual distortions, which even non-dyslexics experience, and dyslexia symptoms, it would prove that the symptoms of dyslexia were not evidence of brain damage or malfunction. I didn’t know where to begin.

The breakthrough moment

Then one day I was driving into the office. We had just had about two weeks of cold, gray, rainy weather.

That morning it was warm, bright, and sunny. I wanted to play hooky from work and go for a drive in the redwood forest. I was stopped at a stoplight, with my mind already in the redwoods, when suddenly I felt that I was going to bump into the car in front of me. I naturally pushed harder and harder on the brake but I wasn’t stopping. Suddenly I realized, it’s not me moving, it’s the other car rolling backward towards me! A toot of my horn prevented a bump, but my mind began to race. This firsthand experience of the phenomenon (distorted sensory perceptions) I had been talking about for months caused a shift in my perspective. If I could reproduce this same effect in a controlled situation, I might be able to prove my theory.

The experiment begins

That day I set up an experiment. The equipment was an old 33-1/3 speed record player, standing on its side. Attached to the turn table was a large cardboard disk with a spiral painted on it. With a foot switch so the device could be turned on and off without using a hand, a stop watch, a tape recorder, and a clipboard, I was ready to explore perceptual distortion. I was the first test subject. I sat in front of the disk looking at the center of the spiral. A press of my foot, and the disk began to spin. In less than five seconds I felt the motion. The speed of the disk was so fast that the sense of motion was like flying down an endless tunnel.

The goal of the experiment was to produce dyslexia symptoms in a non- dyslexic brain. But before that could be established, the equipment had to produce dyslexic symptoms in a dyslexic brain. Based on the developmental model, the symptoms of dyslexia came from distortions in the senses. The senses most affected were vision, hearing, balance, motion, and time.

Phase one: Vision

The first thing I noticed performing the experiment on myself was that just before the feeling of movement began, the speed of the spinning disk appeared to slow down. This indicated that not only was my sense of motion distorting, but also my sense of vision.

Phase two: Balance

The second phase of the experiment was to stand in front of the disk balancing on one foot, turn the disk on, and try to maintain balance. I don’t recommend doing this without an assistant to turn the disk on for you and, more importantly, to catch you when you begin to fall–because you will fall over backwards. The spinning spiral definitely distorted the sense of balance.

Phase three: Time

The third phase was to sit in front of the stationary disk with a stopwatch in hand. While looking at the center of the spiral, I tried to estimate the passage of fifteen seconds by clicking the stopwatch on, and when I thought fifteen seconds had elapsed, I clicked it off. In five attempts I was never more than three seconds off. The next part was to start the disk spinning, and try the same thing. In five attempts I never got closer than five seconds, and twice I was more than ten seconds off. My sense of time was definitely distorting.

Phase four: Hearing

The fourth phase was to turn on the tape recorder, spin the disk, and after the feeling of motion began, have an assistant say something to me, and repeat back what I heard. We used nursery rhymes like, “Sally sells sea shells at the sea shore.” Only the assistant would deliberately alter the words, like, “Sally tells sea snails at the sea shore.” Or, “Sally sells seashores to seahorses.” I could not hear exactly what the assistant said, and the proof was on the tape.

Testing a Hundred People

So with less than $100 of equipment, I demonstrated for myself that my brain distorted the senses of vision, hearing, balance, motion, and time. The experiment produced dyslexic symptoms in a dyslexic brain. Now I was ready to try the same thing on a non-dyslexic brain. I decided to put one hundred people through the steps of the experiment. I wouldn’t even attempt to pre- determine whether or not they were dyslexic. I wanted a cross section of the population.

I started doing the experiment with anyone who was willing to sit in front of the spinning disk. I soon discovered that I needed another piece of equipment – a plastic-lined waste can. I also discovered that I needed to change the protocol. At first I let others observe someone going through the experiment. Their observations influenced their own experience. So observation was permitted only after having had the experience.

Some people were made too nauseous by the spinning disk to complete all four phases of the experiment. But there was perceptual distortion in the phases they did complete. And everyone who completed the series experienced distorted vision, hearing, balance, motion, and time. Age, intelligence, education, gender, race, etc. didn’t matter–the results were consistent.

Then one evening a young woman, the forty-eighth test subject, was sitting in front of the spinning disk. She sat there on the verge of vomiting for about three minutes, then fell to the floor and had a grand mal seizure. The unexpected event scared me; it terrified her. She had never had a seizure before, and I had never seen one that up close and personal. I felt responsible for making it happen.

I had satisfied my own curiosity. I had nearly fifty test results, all of which confirmed my theory. After all, I didn’t have a graduate degree hanging in the balance. I concluded that I had proven my point, so the hundred person experiment ended at only forty-eight.

Talents which can be enhanced by disoriented perceptions

• Spatial awareness and design
• Strategic planning and problem-solving
• Mechanical and engineering work
• Creative fields like art, music, and drama
• Athletics and piloting
• Inventing and storytelling

Thus, the goal of Davis Orientation Counseling is not the elimination of disorientation, but the ability to consciously control it when it acts as a barrier to reading, writing, doing arithmetic, or succeeding in a traditional educational setting.

Ready to learn more? Get in touch with our team to discuss your questions about dyslexia, or explore how the Davis® Mastery for Dyslexia can help you or your child thrive.

Contact us

Guest post by Tracy Doyle, Davis Facilitator

Math can feel like a foreign language, especially for learners whose brilliance shines in pictures, spatial thinking, and creativity. It isn’t that these kids can’t learn—it’s that the traditional way of teaching math often doesn’t align with how their minds naturally process information.

For students with dyslexia or dyscalculia, the symbols, sequences, and linguistic twists in math can create confusion rather than clarity. Dyslexic learners, for instance, often excel at three-dimensional or spatial reasoning but struggle with rote memory, symbols, and step-by-step logic—exactly the areas where so much of math typically lives.

That’s why the Davis® Mastery for Math Program offers such a profound shift. It meets learners where they are: visual, kinesthetic, big-picture thinkers, and invites them into math in a way that genuinely makes sense.

Natalie’s Transformation

When Natalie began her program, she was clear on what she wanted:

• To feel more confident
• To improve her math skills
• To ease the anxiety that often crept in during learning

And she did blossom. Natalie learned to work with her picture-thinking mind instead of fighting it. Concepts that once felt daunting—like addition, place value, fractions, and negative numbers—began to make sense in a whole new way.

Her measurable progress tells the story:

• Basic concepts: from grade equivalent 3.1 to 4.8
• Operations: from grade equivalent K to 3.3
• Applications: from grade equivalent 2.6 to 3.3

Through hands-on tools, clay modeling, and strategies for regulating focus, energy, and emotions, Natalie didn’t just grow mathematically—she built a stronger connection to herself. She walked away not only with math tools but with a deeper understanding of how her brilliant mind works. That’s not just change; that’s empowerment.

How This Approach Connects with What We Know

Visual, multisensory learning builds real understanding. Research and experience show that visual and manipulative strategies—like using beads, clay models, or pictorial overviews—help bridge abstract math concepts. When learners see and touch the math, it becomes anchored, meaningful, and memorable.

Math anxiety often stems from language and symbol confusion. Words like “from,” “by,” and other everyday words in math problems can trigger confusion for picture thinkers. They may recognize the words but can’t translate them into picture meaning, and that’s where true understanding falls apart.

At the root of math struggles lies disorientation, not laziness. Dyscalculia, the math-side counterpart to dyslexia, often stems from distorted perception. When you can’t intuitively grasp numbers or procedures because you’re disoriented, math becomes a maze. Approaches that address that orientation directly can be life-changing.

Natalie’s Story in the Bigger Picture

She’s not alone. Across the Dyslexia.com blog, you’ll find stories of students overwhelmed by numbers, math terms, or symbols, only to find joy and clarity when learning finally meets how they think.

This isn’t just healing academic wounds—it’s reigniting curiosity, confidence, and a sense of belonging in math.

If math has ever been a source of frustration, fear, or disconnection for your child, it doesn’t have to stay that way. The Davis® Mastery for Math Program offers an approach that changes everything because it starts with understanding how your child learns, not how we’ve traditionally taught.

 Connect with Tracy Find a Facilitator

Have questions about the Davis® Mastery for Math?

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Guest post by Sue Hall, Licensed Davis Facilitator, TedX Speaker, Author, Film Writer and gifted dyslexic

I was beyond excited to receive an invitation to deliver my first Keynote talk at the Edmonton Family Literacy Conference on October 8, 2025.

Even better?

After lunch, they were screening our documentary WHO KNEW Dyslexia is a Way of Thinking.

I love presenting at conferences and professional development sessions because of the unknown—those attendees’ ‘aha’ moments, the nods and smiles when I voice what they already know to be true.

When I share the unique ability of picture thinkers to alter perception, which leads to talents in the 3D world, and then explain how it works against us in the 2D world of print… when I explain that picture thinkers are image-based thinkers rather than sound thinkers and phonics just isn’t the way we learn to read… and when I share that picture thinkers need pictures to think with, and no image means no thinking—the overwhelming reaction is always the same: “I had no idea people thought like that.” Hence the title of the film.

The conference theme was to shift perception and disrupt. I opened by saying, “I promise to disrupt!” That part was easy.

After my talk and the film screening, there were plenty of questions and a great deal of emotion. I passed a notebook around, asking attendees to write their email if they wanted more details. The next morning I looked at the notebook… oh my… so many entries. It was affirming and heartwarming.

Here’s what happened next: A considerable number of attendees from Aboriginal and Metis communities wanted to book another talk, a professional development session, a film screening. I had shared that challenges can be significantly reduced with Davis Learning Strategies for K-3 teachers and The Whole Dyslexic Society’s pilot DLS for Early Years. The very next day, I heard from a province-wide association working with 3-5 year olds and a school district wanting to change their remediation methods.

I write this on Canadian Thanksgiving Day, and I could not be more grateful—for Ron Davis’s wisdom, for my calling as a Facilitator, for the invitations to enlighten educators of individuals from 3 to 80+. The message is clear: everyone is able to learn if they are taught in the way they were born to learn. They are definitely not learning disabled. And now way more educators know this and can share their ‘aha’ moments. Yay!

And there’s more exciting news: The WHO KNEW film director submitted the documentary to film festivals, and we just heard it’s been accepted to the Los Angeles Women in Film Festival (November 13-16, 2025)! She was beyond excited, too. Who knows what that will lead to? We just know it will be exciting and inspiring.

Want to experience your own ‘aha’ moment? Learn about Davis workshops and programs that can transform how you or your loved ones learn. Head to our  solutions page.

Watch the documentary: Discover the full WHO KNEW story

Connect with Sue

Have questions about any of our Davis Programs or Workshops?

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Guest post by Stephen Martin, New Zealand

When we talk about neurodiversity, most people want clean labels. You’re “dyslexic” or you’ve got “ADHD” or maybe someone says you’re “on the spectrum.”

But for so many of us, it’s not one neat label. It’s a cocktail.

For me, dyslexia was the first word that gave my challenges a name. Reading from the board at school was nearly impossible, and that’s what got picked up. But fast-forward 20 years and suddenly I’m sitting in a doctor’s office, learning I also have ADHD. And when I really reflect, I know I carry traits from autism too — a love of routine, moments of social struggle.

This is the truth for so many people: we are not “one thing.” We’re a unique mix of traits, strengths, and challenges. It’s why one-size-fits-all solutions rarely work.

Why it feels like a cocktail

Each piece of neurodiversity adds its own flavour.

• Dyslexia gives us visual thinking, fast pattern recognition, but also the frustration of words not sticking the way they should.
• ADHD brings the kerosene, hyperactivity, dopamine-seeking, the racing energy that can be both gift and chaos.
• Autism traits can add a deep need for structure, a sensitivity to noise or light, or the feeling that social rules are written in a language we never got taught.
  
• Plus all the rest…
  

Put them together and you’ve got a cocktail that changes flavour depending on the day. Some days it’s a mojito, sharp, refreshing, full of energy. Other days it’s a hangover in a glass.

The Davis way of looking at it

What I love about the Davis Method is it doesn’t just chase symptoms. It asks: what’s the trigger?

Ron Davis understood that disorientation in the mind’s eye is at the core of dyslexia. That our brains are trying to see 3D meaning in 2D symbols, which leads to confusion. His approach is experiential, clay modelling, visualisation, life concepts. Instead of memorising, you build understanding with your hands and senses.

And here’s the powerful bit: this approach doesn’t stop with dyslexia.

The same life concepts work has helped people with ADHD, autism, dyscalculia, and more. Because at the root, all of these brains struggle with abstract concepts, time, cause and effect, or holding onto focus. Davis methods give those concepts a shape and a place in the mind.

A retrospective shift

Looking back, I wish more of us were told the truth earlier. That dyslexia was never just about spelling. That ADHD wasn’t just about being distracted. That autism wasn’t only about “social skills.”
They’re all connected. They all overlap. They’re different branches of the same neurodiverse tree.

And if we’re honest, so many adults only discover this cocktail later in life. That’s when the grief hits, what could my life have been like if I’d known at 20, not 40?
But awareness also brings possibility.

Why Davis makes a difference

The Davis Method isn’t a quick pill. It’s a way of rewiring how you see the world. For me, doing their Concepts for Life course was like having puzzle pieces finally slot into place. Suddenly time made sense. Cause and effect clicked. I wasn’t broken, my brain just needed a different way of learning.

That’s why I believe Davis programs can support across the board, dyslexia, ADHD, autism, dyscalculia, dyspraxia. Because they go to the root. They help us master the building blocks of thought in the way our brains actually work.

And when you shift the foundation, everything else in life gets lighter.

Final thought

So if you see yourself in this cocktail, a bit of ADHD, some dyslexia, maybe a splash of autism, know that you’re not alone. You’re not collecting diagnoses like Pokémon. You’re simply wired differently.

And that’s exactly why methods like Davis can make such a massive difference. They don’t try to pour your cocktail into someone else’s glass. They help you understand the mix you already have and use it to build a life that finally makes sense.

When The Cocktail Needs More Than Reading Support

If you recognize yourself in Stephen’s description – carrying ADHD, dyslexia, autism traits, or other neurodivergent characteristics – reading skills alone won’t solve everything.

The Davis Concepts for Life® program addresses the abstract concepts that all neurodivergent brains struggle with: time, cause and effect, motivation, responsibility, order, and relationships.

Why Concepts Matter

Stephen mentions how the Davis approach “doesn’t just chase symptoms” but asks “what’s the trigger?” The program uses clay modeling to make abstract concepts concrete, giving them shape and place in your mind through hands-on creation and real-world exploration.

You master fundamental cognitive concepts like cause and effect, time, order and disorder, motivation, and responsibility through plastilina clay modeling, then explore how these concepts work in your daily environment. You can read more about this in our blog post: A guide to understanding abstract life concepts.

What Changes

People who complete the program report increased self-awareness, stronger sense of self, improved executive functioning, better stress management, and enhanced ability to form and maintain relationships.

The program helps with executive functioning skills, stress, anxiety, focus, self-regulation, and behavior management – particularly beneficial for those struggling with forming and maintaining positive relationships.

The Approach

Programs run 50-70 hours, delivered one-on-one with a trained facilitator, either in-person or online. The flexible schedule spreads across several weeks, tailored to your specific needs and goals. Find out more about the Davis Concepts for Life program.

Unlike talk therapy, this uses creativity and experiential learning. You’re not memorizing concepts – you’re building them with your hands, then experiencing them in your life.

This Works Across The Cocktail

The program supports individuals with ADHD, autism, dyscalculia, and other neurodivergent profiles through hands-on methods that align with unique learning styles, no formal diagnosis is required.

As Stephen says: when you shift the foundation, everything else in life gets lighter.

Find a Licensed Davis® Facilitator in your area or learn more about the program here. If you are unsure whether the Davis® Concepts for Life program is right for you or someone you support, fill out the form below for a free Discovery Call – one of our team will speak with you about your specific needs.

About the author

Stephen Martin, based in New Zealand, is the creator of The Truth About Dyslexia podcast, with nearly a million downloads worldwide. Diagnosed with dyslexia as a child and ADHD as an adult, Stephen shares raw, real stories about the neurodiverse journey and what it takes to thrive. 

He has worked with the Davis Method himself and is passionate about showing adults that dyslexia, ADHD, and autism are not just challenges, but part of a powerful mix of strengths.

Learn more about his dyslexia in adults podcast here or help him with his ADHD Sleep project survey if you have ADHD.

Guest Post by Stephen Martin, New Zealand

When I was first found to have dyslexia, I was about ten years old.
It wasn’t because I told my mum that words were moving on the page and in fact, that was never really my issue.

It was because I couldn’t copy words down off the blackboard and onto a piece of paper without getting a splitting headache.

I’d look up, then down, and the letters just wouldn’t stay still long enough to make sense.

It was exhausting.

That was the big sign for me that something wasn’t quite right.
Sure, I had spelling challenges too, but back then it was often brushed off as being “lazy” or “not trying hard enough.”

Luckily, someone saw past that and got me tested.

And that’s what’s wild  because for so many of us, dyslexia doesn’t show up in just one way.
It’s not as simple as letters moving on a page.

The truth is, the visual side of dyslexia that most people think about, the swirling text, the jumping words and that’s only a small part of the story.

What often goes unseen is how dyslexia affects comprehension.

The hidden side of dyslexia

If you’ve ever read the same page three times and still couldn’t tell someone what it said, you’ll get this.
It’s like the words go in, but they don’t stick.

You might even start blaming yourself and thinking you’re lazy, distracted, or not focusing enough.
But you are focusing. Your brain’s just working differently.

People with dyslexia often think in pictures and stories, not words.
When we read, we don’t automatically “hear” the words in our heads like others do.
Instead, we translate them into visuals and into little movies.

That translation takes mental energy.

And by the time we’ve converted the words into meaning, we’re already tired.
So when someone asks, “What did that paragraph mean?” we draw a blank.
Not because we didn’t read it,  but because our brain was busy doing the hard work behind the scenes just to make sense of it.

Why comprehension drains dyslexic brains

Reading isn’t something our brains evolved to do naturally and it’s a learned skill.
Most people’s brains eventually automate that decoding process.
But for many dyslexics, reading and comprehension use different neural pathways that take more effort to fire up.

It’s like running a race with a backpack full of bricks – you still finish, but it takes way more energy.

By the time you’ve decoded the words, you’ve got less energy left for understanding them.
That’s why it’s easy to reach the end of a page and realise you have no idea what you just read.

And it’s not just reading.
The same thing can happen when we listen.

When listening feels like reading

Ever listened to a podcast or an audiobook and found your mind wandering halfway through?

Then you suddenly realise you’ve missed ten minutes  but can’t remember zoning out?

That’s the comprehension gap at work.

We hear the words, but they don’t all connect.
Our brains crave context think images, emotion, and stories to anchor the meaning.

That’s why dyslexic minds remember stories perfectly, but not the fine details.
Ask us what a book was about, and we might struggle.
Ask us what the main character went through, or what the scene looked like, we can tell you in vivid colour.

We don’t just remember information.
We remember experiences.

The cost of constant confusion

This comprehension challenge doesn’t just live in classrooms.
It follows us into adult life and into work meetings, emails, conversations, and relationships.

It can make you doubt yourself.
One moment you feel sharp, the next you’re lost.
And when you can’t quite grasp what’s being said, you start compensating, nodding along, pretending to understand, then piecing it together later.

That takes a huge emotional toll.

It’s why so many dyslexic adults describe feeling like they’re always behind and not because they can’t keep up, but because their brains are working twice as hard just to stay level.

But once you understand that comprehension is part of your dyslexia and not a personal flaw, you can start to work with it, not against it.

Three things that help when comprehension is the struggle

1. Use your picture brain on purpose

If your mind thinks in pictures, use it.
When you read something important, pause and see it.
Create a mini movie in your head.
The Davis® Mastery for Dyslexia actually teaches this – how to turn abstract words into real mental models so you understand what you read, not just recognise the words.

2. Slow down – speed isn’t understanding

We’ve been trained to read fast, as if speed equals intelligence.
But for dyslexic thinkers, comprehension lives in the pauses.
Slow reading lets your brain catch up and connect the visuals and that’s where meaning sticks.

3. Re-tell what you’ve read or heard

After reading or listening, try explaining it in your own words.
You don’t need to repeat it perfectly, just tell it like a story.
That act of storytelling helps your brain connect the language to your natural way of thinking – through pictures, emotion, and flow.

The bigger picture

Dyslexia isn’t just about reading and spelling.
It’s about how we make sense of the world.

We might not remember every sentence, but we see the big picture faster than most.
We connect patterns. We sense emotion. We understand people.

That’s comprehension too, just a different kind.

So if you’ve ever read a book and thought, “None of that stuck,” or listened to a talk and wondered where your brain went – take a breath.

You’re not broken.

Your brain just processes meaning in a way schools were never designed to measure.

And when you learn to work with that wiring – to use pictures, stories, and your natural way of thinking – comprehension finally starts to click.

Looking for help for Dyslexia? The Davis® Mastery for Dyslexia Program is suitable for all ages – yes, adults included!

If Stephen’s experience sounds familiar, you’re not alone.

The comprehension struggles he describes – reading without retaining, listening without connecting, constantly working twice as hard just to stay level – affect thousands of dyslexic adults and children.

The Davis® Mastery for Dyslexia program works with your picture-thinking brain, not against it. Through clay-based Symbol Mastery and orientation techniques, you learn to eliminate the confusion that causes words to slip away.

Learn more about the program here or find a Licensed Davis® Facilitator in your area.

If you are unsure whether the The Davis® Mastery for Dyslexia program is right for you or someone you support, fill out the form below – one of our team will speak with you about your specific needs.

About the author

Stephen Martin, based in New Zealand, is the creator of The Truth About Dyslexia podcast, with nearly a million downloads worldwide. Diagnosed with dyslexia as a child and ADHD as an adult, Stephen shares raw, real stories about the neurodiverse journey and what it takes to thrive. He has worked with the Davis Method himself and is passionate about showing adults that dyslexia, ADHD, and autism are not just challenges, but part of a powerful mix of strengths. Find out about his Dyslexia & ADHD in adults podcast here or his new Added Sleep Supplement here.

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