Supporting Your Neurodivergent Athlete at Home: Building Confidence and Success

My son never enjoyed school. After the Davis® program, academics became easier and his self-confidence improved—but he couldn’t help comparing himself to his older brother, who naturally loved books, reading, and learning.

Then he found sports.

Everything changed. He loved it. I truly believe his confidence and resilience today stem directly from this athletic foundation, though being a dyslexic athlete came with bumps. He was physically gifted—he dominated on a pure athletic level—but the vocabulary, the plays, the coaching language? Sometimes that confused him. And when he hit middle school and experienced coaching transitions, new coaches brought different teaching methods and terminology he had to decode all over again.

That’s when I realized: what happens at home matters just as much as what happens on the field.

The hours between practices and games—how you prepare your child, how you respond to setbacks, how you reinforce learning, and how you interact with your child during and after the game—can be the difference between a child who thrives in sports and one who gives up.

This isn’t about becoming an assistant coach or turning your backyard into a training facility. It’s about creating a home environment that builds on what’s happening at practice, can rebuild confidence when it wavers, and helps your child develop the resilience that will serve them far beyond sports.

Let’s talk about how to do that and where to start.

Self-Regulation Tools

Before your child walks into practice or steps onto the field, they need to be ready—mentally and physically, that’s where self-regulation tools come in. These are simple techniques you can teach your athlete to get their brain and nervous system into the optimal space for learning and performing.

If you’ve already completed a Davis® Program, you have an excellent focusing tool for academics and learning—keep using that as is. For sports, however, you might want to introduce a sports-specific focus point that works better for athletic performance. For many field sports athletes find a focus point located directly above the forehead works great, as it gives them a wider view of the playing area and helps with quicker reaction times.

If you haven’t completed a Davis® program and don’t have the Davis self-regulation tools, don’t worry. Here are three essential self-regulation tools every neurodivergent athlete needs:

A Focusing Tool: The String Method

A sports focus can often be located directly above the head—about six-inches to a foot above, between the crown and their forehead. Here’s a technique you can teach your child to find and maintain that focus point:

Step One: Find Your Balance

Have your child stand up straight and shift their weight onto one foot. They’re going to balance on one leg—it doesn’t matter which one. The act of balancing requires their brain to orient itself. You literally cannot balance while disoriented. This simple physical act is the foundation.

Step Two: Imagine the Strings

While balancing, have them visualize that there is a string holding them up. Picture a string attached to the crown of their head, gently pulling them upward. This invisible string is holding them in perfect alignment. This visualization gives their brain a clear, physical reference point—something concrete to focus on rather than an abstract idea.

Step Three: Place Your Focus Point

Now have them imagine a dot floating about six-inches to a foot above their head, and just forward of the string maybe in inch to two forward. This dot is their focus point. It’s not moving. It’s not complicated. It’s just there, steady and clear.

Step Four: Return to Your Dot

Whenever they need to refocus in practice or a game have them think of that dot. Imagine the feeling of the string holding them upright and aligned as they see the dot in their mind. If they have a moment, actually balance on one foot. If they don’t have time for that, just mentally picture the dot and feel the strings holding them upright.

Your child will need to experiment with this focus point as they play their sport. If it doesn’t feel quite right or they can’t get into the zone, they may need to shift it slightly.

For example, a baseball player might try it while catching and again while stepping up to bat. The softball and baseball athletes I’ve worked with all really liked this focus point. One soccer player told me he felt much quicker reacting with it, and a hockey player said he could see the court better. If your child swims or does martial arts, this particular focus point might not be the best fit—but the principle still holds: finding a focus where their body feels grounded and in alignment will serve them well.

Once they find the right spot, it becomes a quick mental reset they can use anytime—before stepping up to bat, before a free throw, before taking the field. It is important to practice using this new focal point. After using it intentionally overtime it will become second nature.

A Calming Tool: Nervous System Reset

When your child is feeling anxious or overwhelmed—waiting to bat with everyone watching, or after a frustrating play, they need a way to calm their nerves. Teach them a simple breathing technique: slow, deep breaths in through the nose, and longer exhales out through the mouth. This signals to their body and mind that they are safe and helps release the anxiety that builds in high-pressure moments.

An Energy Tool: The Dial or Lever

In Davis® work, we call the energy tool “your dial.” If your child hasn’t learned this yet, think of it as an energy lever they can actively control and adjust based on the activity. The energy needed to listen to instructions is very different from the energy needed to sprint down a football field or explode off the line. Teach your child to consciously adjust their internal lever before each activity—turning it lower for focus and listening, higher for explosive movement and intensity. They’re in control of dialing in exactly what they need.

These three tools—focus, calm, and energy—work together to prepare your athlete’s brain and body for success.

Pre-Teaching Vocabulary and Concepts

When starting a new sport or going back to a sport for a new season, vocabulary can change, when this happens, it can be very helpful to pre-teach vocabulary and concepts at home to help reduce the cognitive load your child faces at practice.

When your child walks into practice and hears unfamiliar terminology or new concepts for the first time, they’re trying to do three things simultaneously:

1. Decode and understand the words
2. Grasp the concept being explained
3. Figure out how to execute it physically

That’s a lot. For a dyslexic that often processes language more slowly, it’s can be too much and they have disoriented or fall behind and miss information. For a kid with ADHD, following the sequencing and timing of a new play can cause some disorientation, resulting in missing understanding.

When you pre-teach vocabulary and concepts at home, your child arrives at practice already familiar with the language and basic ideas. Now they can focus their cognitive energy on execution and refinement rather than basic comprehension.

Ways to Pre-Teach Effectively

Get the practice schedule or curriculum in advance

Ask the coach: “What will you be working on this week?” or “What plays or skills are coming up?” Most coaches are happy to share this information, especially when you explain it helps your child prepare.

Introduce terminology in a low-pressure setting

A few days before practice, casually introduce the terms:

“Hey, I heard Coach is going to work on ‘pick and roll’ this week. Want to see what that looks like?”

Then show them a short video clip (YouTube is full of examples) or demonstrate with household objects.

Use visual aids and or physical demonstration

Don’t just define the term verbally. Show it:

• Watch professional athletes execute the skill
• Watch a YouTube lesson on it.
• Walk through the movements
• Have fun:
  • model it in clay
  • Draw a simple diagram or
  • Use action figures or toys to demonstrate a play

Make it interactive and playful

“Okay, you be the defender, I’ll be the offensive player. I’m going to show you what a ‘give and go’ looks like.”

Learning through play removes pressure and makes the concept stick.

Keep it brief

Five to ten minutes is plenty. You’re not teaching them to master the skill—just familiarizing them with the concept and language so it’s not brand new when the coach introduces it.

Real-World Example

Your child’s soccer coach is introducing “overlapping runs” next practice.

A few days before practice:

• You watch a 2-minute YouTube video together showing overlapping runs in professional soccer
• You walk through it in the backyard: “You dribble here, I run past you here, you pass to me here”
• Have them teach it back to you.

At practice:
When the coach says “We’re working on overlapping runs today,” your child thinks, “Oh yeah, I know what that is!” Instead of disorienting, they experience recognition and confidence.

The Confidence Multiplier

Pre-teaching doesn’t just reduce confusion—it creates a powerful psychological advantage.

Your child walks into practice feeling prepared and competent. When the coach introduces the concept, they might be one of the first to understand it. They might even demonstrate it successfully on the first try.

Suddenly, they’re not the kid who’s a step behind. They’re the kid who is a step ahead.

That feeling is transformative.

Ongoing Support

Learning-Focused Conversations After Practice

Instead of “How was practice?”—which usually gets a one-word answer—try asking questions that help your child process what they actually learned:

• “What did Coach teach you today?”
• “Did you learn anything new?”
• “What was the most interesting part of practice?”

These questions shift the focus from performance to learning. They give you real insight into what stuck, what confused them, and what might need reinforcement at home. Plus, they help your child recognize their own growth instead of just worrying about whether they did it “right.”

Build a Highlight Reel

Keep a running collection of your child’s best moments—video clips, photos, or even just a written list of wins big and small. You’ll miss recording plenty of moments (especially during practices) and that’s okay. What matters is having something to pull out when you need it.

Use this highlight reel strategically:

• Before big games to remind them of what they’re capable of
• When confidence dips after a tough practice or loss
• Just to celebrate progress and growth

Here’s what surprised me: my son and I would work on his highlight reel at different times during the season, but when his brother made one set to his favorite music and showed it to him, my son noticed something we’d both missed. His brother (who understands sports more then I do) had picked out different moments than we had. His video showed the screens, the pick-and-rolls, and the passes that led to assists. Not just the flashy moments or the baskets. My son felt a surge of pride realizing his brother could see how hard he was working, not just the highlight-reel plays. That’s the power of this tool: it shows your child what others see in them.

Difficult Experiences

Even with the best coach and excellent preparation, your child will have hard days. They’ll make mistakes. They’ll feel frustrated. They might have a game where nothing goes right or a practice where they feel like they can’t do anything correctly.

How you respond in these moments can really help your athlete build resilience.

What Not to Do

In these moments, avoid minimizing their feelings, jumping straight to solutions, or comparing them to others. All of these responses—whether it’s “It wasn’t that bad,” “Here’s what you should do differently,” “But you did better than your teammate,” or “I’m so proud of you!”—dismiss their experience and create distance.

What to Do Instead

Validate their feelings first:

“That was a really frustrating practice, wasn’t it?” or “I can see you’re disappointed with how that game went.”

Let them know their feelings make sense. Sit with the disappointment for a moment before trying to move past it.

Ask what they’re thinking:

“What was the hardest part for you?” or “What are you feeling most frustrated about?”

Sometimes they just need to be heard. Other times, this helps you understand what specifically went wrong so they can address it. This can help move from frustration to empowerment.

Help them identify one thing that went well:

After they have shared their experience, you can help them identity something that went well such as “I noticed you made a great pass in the second half” or “Your footwork on that one play was really solid.”

This isn’t sugar coating—it’s helping them see that a bad game doesn’t mean everything was bad. It builds the habit of balanced self-assessment.

Reframe mistakes as information:

“So you’re saying the timing was off on that play. That’s really good to notice. Now you know what to focus on in practice.”

Mistakes become data points for improvement rather than evidence of failure.

Remind them of past progress:

“Remember when you first started and [specific skill] felt impossible? Now you do it without even thinking. This new thing will get easier too.”

This builds confidence that struggle is temporary and improvement is possible.

Ask what they could do to make a change:

Here’s where you help them figure out what actually went wrong—and what they can control next time.

Start with: “What do you think you could do differently next time?”

Listen to their answer. They might say “I need to practice that move more” or “I didn’t understand what the coach was asking” or “I felt confused out there.” All of these are valuable.

If it’s a skill gap (they recognize they need more practice):
“That makes sense. That’s exactly what practice is for—building that skill. What part do you want to focus on first?”

This frames practice as the solution and puts them in control of what to work on. You can offer to practice together in the backyard, or ask if they want to watch a video of that play first.

If it’s a self-regulation gap (they felt confused, disoriented, or anxious):
Ask: “Did you feel clear about what you were supposed to be doing, or were there moments where things felt confusing?”

If they recognize the confusion or anxiety, you’ve found the real issue. Then: “Remember those focusing and energy tools we’ve been practicing? That’s exactly what would help you feel more grounded and clear next time. Want to practice that before your next game?”

If they didn’t notice the disorientation, you can gently point it out: “I noticed you seemed a little lost out there. Sometimes when we’re not feeling grounded, it’s hard to focus on what the coach is saying. That’s where your focus tool comes in.”

The key: help them recognize what went wrong so they’re motivated to use their tools next time. They’re not being told what to fix—they’re discovering it themselves.

Offer physical comfort and connection:

Sometimes a hug, sitting together quietly, or going for ice cream says more than words. Physical presence communicates “I’m here with you in this” without requiring them to talk about it.

The Long-Term Vision: Sports as a Resilience Builder

Here’s what you need to remember on the hard days, when you’re wondering if all this effort is worth it:

Sports aren’t just about athletics. They’re about building the whole person.

For your dyslexic child, sports can be the place where they discover something school might never show them: They are capable, competent, and strong.

Sports Build Identity Beyond Academics

In school, your child may be “the one who struggles with reading” or “the kid who needs extra help.”

In sports, they can be “the player with great field vision” or “the teammate who never gives up” or “the athlete with creative moves.”

This alternative identity reminds them—and everyone else—that they are more than their academic challenges.

Sports Teach Resilience Through Lived Experience

You can tell your child a thousand times that struggle leads to growth. But it’s different when they live it—when they practice a skill over and over until they finally nail it, when they lose a game and come back to play stronger, when they make a mistake and figure out how to recover.

That’s when it clicks. Not as an idea, but as something they’ve actually done. And that lived experience of pushing through and improving? It carries into everything else in their life.

Sports Provide Concrete Evidence of Progress

In school, your dyslexic child works hard—but progress often feels invisible. They study, they try, they put in effort, yet the results can feel abstract and slow to appear.

Athletic progress is different. It’s physical and visible. Your child can see and feel themselves getting better in real time:

• “I couldn’t dribble with my left hand at the start of the season, and now I can”
• “I used to be afraid of the ball, and now I’m not”
• “I didn’t understand that play, and now I can execute it”

This visible, concrete evidence of improvement—where effort directly translates to measurable progress they can witness themselves—builds self-efficacy: the belief that focused effort actually leads to improvement.

Sports Create Community and Belonging

Being part of a team gives your child a place where they belong, where they contribute, where they matter.

For children who may feel isolated or different in academic settings, this sense of belonging can be profound.

Sports Teach That Different Strengths Matter

Your child learns that there are many ways to be valuable:

• Speed matters, but so does strategy
• Scoring matters, but so does defense
• Individual skill matters, but so does teamwork

In the real world, people need all kinds of strengths. Speed and strategy. Scorers and defenders. Solo players and team players. School often only values one narrow set of skills. Sports shows your kid that the world is much bigger than that.

The Skills Transfer Beyond the Field

The skills your child develops in sports—resilience, teamwork, communication, handling pressure, recovering from mistakes, working toward long-term goals—are exactly the skills they’ll need in careers, relationships, and life.

You’re not just raising an athlete. You’re raising an adult who knows how to persist through difficulty, who can collaborate with others, who understands that failure is temporary and improvement is possible.

Your Role in the Long-Term Vision

Your job isn’t to make your child a star athlete or to ensure they never struggle.

Your job is to:

• Help them find environments where they can succeed
• Teach them to advocate for what they need
• Support them through setbacks
• Celebrate their growth
• Remind them of their strengths when they forget
• Keep the long-term vision in focus when the short-term is hard

You’re teaching them that they can navigate and thrive in a world that isn’t always built for how their brain works.

The Ripple Effect

When neurodivergent children find success in sports:

Their confidence grows and spills into other areas. They start advocating for themselves in school. They try new things. They take risks. They believe in their ability to figure things out.

The resilience they build on the field shows up in other places of life. The problem-solving skills they develop in games help them find creative solutions to academic challenges. The identity they build as a capable athlete balances the identity of “struggling student.”

Sports become the foundation that supports everything else.

Your neurodivergent child can find joy, confidence, and belonging in sports. They can build resilience that transforms their entire life.

And you—through your advocacy, your support, and your unwavering belief in their potential—are making that possible.

You’ve got this. Your child has got this. And together, you’re building something that will last far beyond any season.

The post Supporting Your Dyslexic Athlete at Home appeared first on Learning Tools.

When Your Dyslexic Athlete Can’t Focus: Understanding Disorientation and Finding What Works

Picture this: Your child is at practice, standing in a circle with their teammates. The coach is explaining the next drill—something about positioning, timing, and who goes where. Your child is nodding. Their eyes are on the coach. They look engaged.

Then the whistle blows, and your child runs to completely the wrong spot. Or they freeze, eyes darting to their teammates, trying to figure out what everyone else is doing so they can copy it. Or they have that look—the one you’ve seen before in homework battles and classroom struggles—that glazed, lost expression that tells you they’re somewhere else entirely, even though their body is right there on the field.

This isn’t about not listening. This isn’t about not trying. This is about disorientation—and it’s one of the most misunderstood challenges facing dyslexic athletes.

If you’re parenting or coaching a dyslexic athlete, understanding disorientation and how to overcome it might be the single most important tool you can give them. Not just for sports, but for life.

When Confusion Becomes Disorientation: What’s Really Happening

Here’s what most people don’t understand about dyslexic brains and confusion:

For many people, confusion is momentary. Something doesn’t make sense, they ask a clarifying question, they get an answer, and they move forward. The confusion lasts seconds. It’s a speed bump, not a roadblock.

For people with dyslexia, confusion works differently.

When a word or concept doesn’t have clear meaning—when it’s abstract, or uses terminology that hasn’t been fully internalized, or involves multiple steps that blur together—that initial moment of confusion doesn’t just pause. It compounds. It builds on itself.

Think of it like this: Imagine you’re trying to follow directions in a language you’re still learning. The first sentence makes partial sense. The second sentence uses a word you don’t quite know, so you’re still processing the first sentence while trying to catch the second. By the third sentence, you’ve lost the thread entirely, and now you’re not just confused about the current instruction—you’re disoriented about where you are in the entire sequence.

That’s what happens for many dyslexic athletes when coaches give rapid-fire instructions using sports terminology that hasn’t been fully visualized and internalized.

The coach says: “We’re running a motion offense, so when you see the screen, you’re going to curl around, read the defense, and either pop out to the wing or continue through to the baseline depending on how they rotate.”

Your child hears words. They recognize that instructions are being given. But “motion offense” might not create a clear picture. “Curl around” is abstract. “Read the defense” requires processing multiple moving pieces simultaneously. By the time the coach gets to “pop out to the wing,” your child is three steps behind, trying to make sense of the beginning while new information keeps coming.

And here’s the critical part: Once disorientation sets in, asking clarifying questions doesn’t help.

Why? Because to process the answer to a clarifying question, you need to be in a clear mental state. You need to be oriented, focused, and able to receive new information accurately. When you’re disoriented, your brain isn’t in that state. It’s like trying to tune a radio while someone’s shaking the dial—you can’t lock onto the signal.

This is why you might see your child nod when the coach asks, “Does everyone understand?” They’re not being dishonest. They genuinely think they understand, or they understand pieces, or they’re hoping it will make sense once they start moving. But the disorientation is still there, quietly scrambling the information.

Why “Just Concentrate” Doesn’t Work

So the natural response—from coaches, from parents, sometimes from the athletes themselves—is: “You need to focus. You need to concentrate harder.”

If only it were that simple.

Traditional concentration techniques—the ones that work for many neurotypical learners—often fail spectacularly for people with dyslexia. And when those techniques don’t work, everyone gets frustrated. The athlete feels like they’re failing at something that should be basic. The coach wonders why this player can’t seem to “lock in” like the others. Parents watch their child struggle with something invisible and feel helpless.

Here’s why traditional concentration typically doesn’t work:

It requires sustained mental effort in the exact way that’s already challenging. Telling a disoriented dyslexic athlete to “concentrate harder” is like telling someone who’s dizzy to “balance harder.” The disorientation is the problem—willpower alone can’t override it.

It doesn’t address the root cause. Concentration techniques often focus on blocking out distractions or maintaining attention. But for dyslexic athletes, the issue isn’t usually external distraction—it’s internal disorientation. Their brain isn’t receiving information correctly, so no amount of attention will fix the garbled signal.

It adds pressure to an already stressful situation. When an athlete is told to concentrate and they genuinely try but still can’t achieve clarity, it reinforces the belief that something is wrong with them. This creates anxiety, which makes disorientation worse, which makes focus even harder to achieve. It’s a vicious cycle.

The truth is this: Dyslexic athletes need different tools to achieve focus. Not harder effort. Not more willpower. Different techniques that match how their brains actually work.

Practical Grounding Techniques: Finding What Works

The good news—and this is really important—is that there are effective ways to move from disorientation to focus. They just might not be the methods you’ve tried before.

These techniques are often called “grounding” or “self-regulation” strategies, and they work by helping the brain return to a clear, oriented state. Different methods work for different people, and part of the journey is discovering what clicks for your athlete.

Here are several approaches that have helped dyslexic athletes find their way back to focus:

Deep Breathing with Intention

This isn’t just “take a deep breath”—it’s structured breathing that gives the brain something specific to track. The 4-7-8 technique works well: Inhale slowly for 4 seconds, hold for 7 seconds, exhale completely for 8 seconds. The counting provides structure, and the extended exhale activates the parasympathetic nervous system, which helps calm the body and clear the mind.

Some athletes do this once. Others need three or four cycles. The key is making it a practiced routine, not something they’re trying for the first time in a high-pressure moment.

The 5-4-3-2-1 Sensory Technique

This method anchors you in the present moment through your senses: Identify five things you can see, four things you can physically feel (the ground under your feet, the fabric of your jersey, the air on your skin), three things you can hear, two things you can smell, and one thing you can taste.

This technique is particularly effective because it’s impossible to do while remaining disoriented. By the time you’ve moved through your senses, your brain has naturally reoriented to the present moment. The challenge is that it takes time—maybe a minute or two—which makes it better for timeouts or breaks than for quick mid-play refocusing.

Physical Movement and Body Awareness

Sometimes the fastest route back to orientation is through the body. Light physical activity—jumping jacks, shaking out your arms and legs, doing a quick stretch—reconnects you with your physical presence. This works especially well for kinesthetic learners, which many dyslexic athletes are.

One athlete I worked with would do three quick toe-touches whenever he felt disoriented. The movement, combined with the feeling of his hamstrings stretching, brought him back to focus in seconds. It became his signature move, and his teammates learned that when they saw him do it, he was resetting.

Mindful Touch with a Grounding Object

Holding something with distinct texture—a smooth stone, a stress ball, even a specific spot on your water bottle—and focusing completely on how it feels can pull you out of mental fog. Notice its temperature. Its weight. The texture against your skin. This sensory focus interrupts the disorientation loop.

Some athletes keep a small object in their pocket or bag specifically for this purpose. It becomes a physical tool for mental clarity.

Mantras and Affirmations

Repeating a specific phrase—”I am here, I am ready,” or “Clear mind, strong body,” or even just “Focus”—can help center your thoughts. The key is choosing a phrase that resonates personally and practicing it enough that it becomes automatic.

This works best when combined with another technique, like deep breathing. The words provide mental structure while the breathing provides physiological grounding.

The Challenge: Finding What Works Quickly

Here’s the reality of athletics: You often don’t have two minutes to work through a sensory checklist. You need to refocus in seconds, sometimes while the play is still happening.

This is where the work becomes personal and specific. Your athlete needs to discover which technique works for them quickly and easily.

This discovery process is important:

Try different methods during low-pressure situations—at home, during casual practice, in moments when there’s time to experiment. Notice which techniques bring clarity fastest. Which ones feel natural versus forced? Which ones can be done subtly, without drawing attention?

Once you’ve identified a method that works, practice it deliberately. Not just when disorientation happens, but regularly, so it becomes automatic. The goal is to make refocusing as natural as tying shoes—something your athlete can do without thinking about the steps.

Also teach your athlete to recognize their own early warning signs of disorientation. What does it feel like in their body? Do they notice their thoughts getting fuzzy? Does their vision seem to blur slightly? The earlier they catch disorientation, the easier it is to reverse.

A Focus Technique Designed for Athletes: The String Method

This technique is effective for several reasons:

The physical act of balancing forces orientation. Your brain has to be clear and focused to maintain balance—it’s a built-in feedback system. If you’re balanced, you’re focused.

The visualization is concrete and spatial. Dyslexic thinkers often excel at spatial reasoning. A dot in space, strings holding you up—these aren’t abstract concepts. They’re things your brain can “see” and work with.

It’s quick. Once you’ve practiced this technique, you can return to your focus point in seconds. You don’t need to go through a long sequence or find a quiet space. You can do it standing on the sideline, in the huddle, or even while play is happening around you.

It’s personal and portable. Your dot and your strings are always with you. No equipment needed. No one else even needs to know you’re doing it.

The Bigger Picture: Empowerment Through Self-Regulation

This ability to get focus transfers everywhere. But here’s an important thing to note: dyslexics can have different places to focus for different tasks. For sports, above the head tends to work great. But in the classroom, when looking at 2-dimensional symbols, the focus point will be in a different place. The Davis Methods (programs I facilitate at Learning Tools), teaches how to focus for a classroom and other situations.

Here’s what I want you to understand: Learning to recognize and overcome disorientation isn’t just about sports performance. It’s about giving your athlete a tool they’ll use for the rest of their life.

When your child discovers they can move themselves from confusion to clarity—that they have agency over their mental state—everything changes. They’re not at the mercy of their brain’s quirks. They’re not dependent on others to rescue them from disorientation. They have a technique, a method, a way back to focus that belongs to them.

The athlete who learns to refocus on the field is learning something profound: I can feel lost, and I can find my way back. I have the tools. I have the power.

That’s not just athletic training. That’s life training.

So yes, help your athlete find their focus technique. Practice the marionette method or deep breathing or whatever works for them. But also celebrate what they’re really learning: self-regulation, self-awareness, and the confidence that comes from knowing they can navigate their own neurodivergent brain.

The disorientation will still happen sometimes. Confusion will still arise. But now they’ll have a way through it. And that makes all the difference.

Looking for more support in helping your dyslexic athlete develop self-regulation skills? At Learning Tools for Life, we provide coaching and consultation for parents and coaches working with dyslexic and neurodivergent learners. 

The post Athletics and Dyslexia:  Getting focused appeared first on Learning Tools.

When Your Dyslexic Child Wants to Play Sports: Understanding the Vocabulary Challenge That Changes Everything

As the fall sports season ends and the winter season begins, my phone lights up with calls from parents who sound both hopeful and worried. “My daughter made the basketball team, but I’m concerned,” one mom told me last week. “She’s so excited, but I’ve watched her struggle to follow instructions in school. Will sports be different? Or am I setting her up for another place where she feels behind?”

If you’re reading this, you might be asking similar questions. Your dyslexic child wants to play sports—maybe they’re bursting with enthusiasm, or maybe they’re cautiously optimistic after difficult experiences elsewhere. You want to support them, but you’re not sure how to help them succeed in an environment that moves fast, uses unfamiliar terminology, and requires quick processing of verbal instructions.

Here’s what I want you to know: Sports can be transformative for dyslexic children. But success depends on one critical factor that most coaches and parents don’t realize is the issue—vocabulary comprehension.

Why Vocabulary Is the Hidden Barrier

Let me start with what’s really happening when your dyslexic child stands on the field or court, looking engaged but somehow not executing what the coach just explained.

The coach calls out: “Okay, we’re running a pick and roll! Set up at the top of the key, wait for the screen, then drive to the post!”

Your child nods. They look focused. But moments later, they’re in the wrong position, and the coach is frustrated. “Weren’t you listening?”

Here’s the truth: They were listening. But listening isn’t the problem.

Dyslexia is a specific way of thinking that requires being able to visualize the meaning of a word to understand it fully and to think or perform with that word. Without a clear mental picture, a dyslexic individual might have only a fuzzy idea of the word or concept, which causes confusion and doubt.

Think about what just happened in that coaching moment. The coach used terms like “pick and roll,” “top of the key,” “screen,” “drive,” and “post.” For a neurotypical athlete picturing this doesn’t matter as much, they are following and will ask for clarification if needed and for a neurodivergent athlete who has been playing for awhile they probably already have the vocabulary and experienece that allows them to follow the coach. They see the play unfold in their mind before their body moves.

But for your dyslexic child, if they don’t have a precise visual understanding of what “post” means in basketball, their brain is scrambling. Is it a physical post? A position? Where exactly? By the time they’re trying to decode “post,” the coach has moved on to the next instruction, and they’ve lost the thread entirely.

This isn’t about intelligence. It’s not about effort or motivation. It’s about how information is being delivered versus how their brain naturally processes it.

I’ve seen this play out hundreds of times. The child who can visualize complex spatial relationships struggles because they’re stuck trying to translate abstract sports vocabulary into something their brain can use. And because this happens in real-time during practice or games, there’s no opportunity to pause, clarify, and build that mental picture.

The Confusion Multiplies Across Sports

The vocabulary challenge becomes even more complex for children who play multiple sports—and many dyslexic children do, because they’re searching for the right fit or because they genuinely love athletics.

Consider how the same words mean completely different things depending on the sport:

In hockey, you move the puck up the ice toward the offensive zone. In baseball, a player is next up to bat. In football, you might run up the middle. Each “up” creates a different mental image, a different direction, a different action.

Or take the word post. In basketball, the post refers to specific areas on the court near the basket. In football, a post is a route a receiver runs toward the goal post. In soccer, the post is the physical upright bar of the goal. In gymnastics, you might post your hands on the vault.

Splits in gymnastics are positions with one leg forward and one back. In swimming, splits are the times of individual segments of a longer race. In bowling, a split is when pins are left standing with a gap between them.

For a dyslexic athlete playing basketball in winter and baseball in spring, their brain has to constantly recalibrate what these words mean. While their neurotypical teammates seamlessly switch contexts, your child might experience a moment of hesitation—”Wait, which ‘up’ do they mean?”—that looks like confusion or slow processing.

This is exhausting. And it’s invisible to most coaches, who interpret the hesitation as lack of focus or athletic ability rather than what it actually is: a vocabulary comprehension challenge.

What’s Really Happening in Your Child’s Brain

Let me explain this more deeply, because understanding the mechanism helps you advocate effectively.

When a dyslexic person encounters a word without a clear mental picture attached to it, their brain doesn’t just move forward with partial understanding. It creates doubt, confusion, and sometimes a kind of mental static. They might hear the word, but they can’t think with it or act on it because there’s no concrete image to guide their body.

Imagine trying to follow directions to a house, but instead of an address, someone gives you abstract descriptions: “Go toward the feeling of warmth, turn at the concept of transition, and stop when you sense arrival.” You’d be lost, right? That’s similar to what happens when a dyslexic athlete hears sport-specific vocabulary without having built clear visual definitions first.

For younger athletes just starting a sport, this processing delay is significant. While they’re trying to decode what “transition defense” or “weak side” or “through ball” means, the play has already moved on. They fall behind, not because they’re slow athletes, but because they’re working with incomplete information.

For older, more experienced athletes who’ve been playing their sport for years, this becomes less of an issue—but only for that specific sport. They’ve built up a library of visual definitions through repeated exposure and context. The word “post” in basketball now instantly creates a clear mental image because they’ve seen it, done it, and experienced it hundreds of times. The processing delay disappears.

But introduce them to a new sport with new vocabulary, and they’re back to square one.

The Hidden Strengths Your Dyslexic Athlete Possesses

Before we dive into solutions, I need you to understand something crucial: Your dyslexic child isn’t at a disadvantage in sports. They’re at a vocabulary disadvantage. And once that’s addressed, they often have significant athletic advantages.

I’ve seen it over and over again. The child who struggles with reading comprehension demonstrates remarkable spatial awareness on the soccer field. The student who can’t seem to sequence letters in spelling shows incredible ability to read patterns of play and anticipate what’s coming next.

Here’s what many dyslexic athletes naturally bring to sports:

Exceptional spatial reasoning. Many dyslexic individuals have superior ability to understand space, distance, angles, and positioning. They can “see” the geometry of the game in ways that give them a competitive edge. They know where they are in relation to teammates, opponents, and boundaries without having to think about it consciously.

Intuitive pattern recognition. While they might struggle with verbal play calls, dyslexic athletes often excel at reading what’s happening in real-time. They notice patterns in how opponents move, anticipate plays before they develop, and make split-second decisions based on what they observe rather than what they’ve memorized from a playbook.

Creative problem-solving. Dyslexic athletes frequently find unconventional solutions. They might not execute the play exactly as the coach drew it up, but they achieve the objective through innovative adaptation. They see possibilities that more linear thinkers miss.

Strong kinesthetic learning. Once they feel a movement in their body—once they’ve physically experienced what “post up” or “transition” means—they often master it quickly and retain it deeply. They learn by doing, not by hearing about doing.

Big-picture strategic thinking. Many dyslexic athletes naturally understand game flow and strategy. They see how all the pieces fit together, even if they struggle with the individual verbal labels for each piece.

These aren’t consolation prizes. These are genuine athletic advantages that can make your child an exceptional player—once the vocabulary barrier is removed.

How to Help Your Dyslexic Athlete Succeed

So what do you actually do with this information? How do you help your child build the vocabulary foundation they need while advocating for them with coaches?

Start the Season with Vocabulary Building

The most important thing you can do is ensure your dyslexic athlete begins their season with a thorough, visual understanding of the sport’s specific vocabulary. This isn’t something that can happen on the fly during practice. It needs to be intentional and proactive.

Before the season starts, sit down with your child and identify the key terms they’ll need to know. If you’re not sure what those are, ask the coach for a list of common terminology, or look up beginner guides for the sport online.

Then, build visual definitions together. For each term, create a clear mental picture:

• Watch video clips that show the concept in action
• Draw simple diagrams together – or better yet, create it in clay!
• Act it out physically in your living room or backyard
• Take photos or screenshots they can reference
• Create flashcards with the term on one side and a visual representation on the other

The goal isn’t just recognition—it’s creating a mental image so clear and specific that when they hear the word, they instantly see what it means and what they need to do.

For example, if “transition defense” is a key concept in basketball, don’t just define it verbally. Show them video of teams transitioning from offense to defense. Pause it. Point out what each player is doing. Have them describe what they see. Then go outside and practice it physically—”Okay, we just lost the ball, now we’re transitioning to defense. Show me what that looks like.”

This pre-teaching makes an enormous difference. When the coach uses these terms in practice, your child isn’t hearing them for the first time and trying to decode meaning under pressure. They’re hearing familiar words that already have clear pictures attached.

Opening the Conversation with Coaches

At the beginning of the season, have a brief, positive conversation with the coach. You might say something like:

“My child is really excited about playing this season. I wanted to share that they learn best through demonstration and visual explanation rather than verbal instructions alone. They’re a strong kinesthetic learner, so hands-on practice really helps concepts stick. If you could take a few minutes early in the season to demonstrate and explain key terminology, that would help them tremendously. I’m also happy to work on vocabulary at home if you can share the terms you’ll be using most often.”

Notice what this does: It frames your child’s learning style as information, not a problem. It offers partnership, not demands. It gives the coach a specific, actionable way to help without requiring major changes to their coaching style.

Most coaches respond positively to this approach, especially when they understand that a small investment of time upfront will result in an athlete who processes instructions more quickly and performs more confidently throughout the season.

What to Look for in a Coach

Not all coaching styles work equally well for dyslexic athletes. As you navigate sports programs, here’s what to look for:

• Coaches who show, don’t just tell.
• Coaches who break down instructions.
• Coaches who check for understanding differently.
• Coaches who use consistent terminology.
• Coaches who provide positive, specific feedback.

If your child’s current coach isn’t naturally inclined toward these approaches, that doesn’t mean it’s a lost cause. Many coaches are willing to adapt when they understand why it matters. But if you encounter a coach who is rigid, dismissive of your child’s learning needs, or unwilling to make small adjustments, it might be worth exploring other programs or teams.

Supporting Vocabulary Learning at Home

Beyond pre-teaching at the start of the season, you can support ongoing vocabulary development throughout:

• Create a visual glossary.
• Watch games together.
• Process after practice.
• Use the correct terminology at home.
• Celebrate vocabulary victories.

When Context-Dependent Words Cause Confusion

If your child plays multiple sports, pay special attention to words that shift meaning across contexts. These are the ones that cause the most confusion and processing delays.

Make it explicit: “In basketball, ‘post’ means this position near the basket. In soccer, ‘post’ means the physical bar of the goal. They’re different things with the same word. Let’s make sure you have a clear picture of each one.”

You might even create comparison charts: “Words That Mean Different Things in Different Sports” with visual examples for each context. This helps their brain categorize and file the information correctly rather than creating interference between sports.

The Bigger Picture: What This Means for Your Child

Here’s what I’ve witnessed over years of working with dyslexic athletes: When these young people have coaches who understand how they learn, when vocabulary is taught explicitly and visually, when their unique strengths are recognized and leveraged—something remarkable happens.

Sports becomes more than physical activity. It becomes proof that they can excel. That they can be valued team members. That their different way of thinking is an asset, not a deficit.

The confidence they build on the field or court transfers to other areas of life. They approach academic challenges with more resilience because they have evidence that they can master hard things. They advocate for themselves more effectively because they understand their learning needs and can articulate them. They develop a growth mindset rooted in real experience: “I’ve learned complex things before. I can learn this too.”

Your dyslexic child’s brain isn’t a barrier to athletic success—it’s simply a different operating system that requires compatible input. The vocabulary challenge is real, but it’s solvable. And once it’s solved, you might be amazed at what your child can do.

As you navigate this journey, remember: You are your child’s most important advocate. Your willingness to understand how their brain works, your proactive approach to building vocabulary foundations, and your partnership with coaches will shape not just their athletic experience, but their understanding of themselves.

Sports can be where your dyslexic child discovers they’re not just capable—they’re exceptional. With the right support, the field becomes a place of belonging, growth, and joy.

Looking for Additional Help for Your Child?

At Learning Tools for Life, I work with families to support dyslexic learners in all areas of life, including athletics. The Davis Dyslexia program is a fantastic resource for children and adults that helps them understand how they best learn, provides self-regulation tools, and clears up 218 common trigger words that cause disorientation—many of which are the directional and positional words that create confusion in sports.

If you’re looking for more personalized support in helping your dyslexic athlete succeed, or if you want to explore the Davis program, contact me. Because every child deserves to experience the joy and confidence that comes from athletic success.

Tags: ahtletics and dyslexia, baseball dyslexia, basketball dyslexia, Dyslexia Bothell, dyslexic athlete, football dyslexia, gymnastics dysleixa, hockey dyslexia, seattle, soccer dyslexia, softball dyslexia

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I have some thrilling news to share with you! Learning Tools has relocated from the beloved Seattle location to a bright, sunny office in Bothell. This move marks an exciting new chapter for Learning Tools, and I can’t wait to welcome you to the new space.

Why the Move?

Seattle has been a fantastic home for Learning Tools, but I wanted a location that offers even more convenience for my clients. The new Bothell office is just off the 405, making it easily accessible for everyone on the east side and the North End. Whether you’re coming from Bellvue, Redmond, Woodinville or Mill Creek you’ll find that getting to to Learning Tools is now quicker and more straightforward.

The New Office

The new office space is a bright, sunny environment that’s perfect for learning and creativity. This is a positive and vibrant atmosphere which is crucial for effective learning, and the new location offers just that. I am confident that you’ll love the new space as much as I do.

Special Offer: 10% Discount

To celebrate the move, I am offering a special 10% discount on any first or second program you enroll in this summer or fall. Just mention this blog post when you sign up to take advantage of this limited-time offer. Whether you’re looking to enhance your reading or math skills or learning concepts for life, now is the perfect time to reach out and schedule yours or your child’s program.

Looking Forward

I are incredibly excited about this move and the opportunities it brings. My commitment to providing top-quality educational programs remains stronger than ever. The new location allows me to serve clients better and continue offering the exceptional learning experiences you’ve come to expect from a Davis Program.

Thank you for your support. I look forward to seeing you at the new Bothell office soon!

Warm regards,
Sophia Goebel
Owner & Facilitator at Learning Tools

P.S. Don’t forget to mention this blog post to receive your 10% discount on your next program!

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When we are able to predict what will happen in the future, we are able to plan and prepare for it.  This can help us feel more in control and less anxious.  However, when we are not able to predict what will happen, we may feel helpless and powerless.

One of the main reasons why people may not be able to predict the future is due to uncertainty.  If you are neurodivergent and you have missed key life concepts or lessons when you were young (due to being unfocused/disoriented/dreamy/inattentive) you might really struggle with prediction. That predictive ability and skill come into account daily in the choices we make.

Imagine your life without this ability, little decisions we make every day can affect how we feel throughout the day. Do I need a coat? If I go into that classroom what will happen to me? Is that person dangerous?  Why is there so much noise, will it ever stop? When will I eat again?

Learning Tools can help with prediction and thus anxiety.

In a number of the Davis Programs provided here at Learning Tools, we master the core concepts that are needed to predict.  The Davis Programs are brilliant in their simplicity and ability to get at the root cause of an issue.  The concept of consequence (something happening as a result of something else) is pivotal in one’s ability to predict.

Understanding the concept of consequence allows one to understand the potential outcomes of a particular action or decision. This understanding can then be used to make predictions about future events or situations, as one can anticipate how different actions or decisions may lead to different consequences.

For example, if a person knows that a particular decision is likely to lead to a negative effect, they can predict that this outcome will occur if that decision is made.  In this way, understanding the concept of consequence can help one make better predictions about future events, as it allows one to anticipate the potential outcome of different actions or decisions.

Consequence inherently contains the concepts of change, cause, effect, before and after; these concepts clarify the meaning of consequence.   These concepts are core to problem-solving and predicting.  The better you understand them, the easier it is to create the change (cause) that you want to take place (effect).

Predicting requires an educated guess of what will happen. Life experiences provide learning for us, but if the concept of consequence and all those it includes are not clear the learning hasn’t been able to provide an experience that can be decoded and remembered for the future.  People often feel they are victims and have no control.

Learning core developmental concepts gets at the root cause of many executive function activities and can address the issues of anxiety around confusion or not knowing how to predict.

The Davis Concepts for Life and Davis Autism Approach programs both go even further into root concepts providing 40 concepts that also look address motivation, responsibilities, and relationships.   If you want to learn more, I encourage you to give me a call or visit https://www.rdautismfoundation.org/.

The post The Power of Prediction in Relieveing Anxiety. appeared first on Learning Tools.

spring 2022 newsletter LT

The post Spring 2022 Newsletter appeared first on Learning Tools.

by Jenny Wise

According to Understood.org, one in five children has a learning disability, and if they don’t get the right support, they are three times as likely to drop out of high school and twice as likely to be jobless as adults than kids who don’t. These sobering statistics show that involving these children in engaging activities outside of schoolwork is essential for their intellectual and emotional development, and the answer may be the arts.

“Involving children with learning differences (at Learning Tools, we prefer difference to disability) in the arts can have several benefits, including improved motor skills, concentration and focus, creative expression, and self-esteem. Learning Tools outlines some arts to consider introducing to your child.

Music

For a child with learning disabilities, music works the areas of the brain that are tied to speech, reading, comprehension, problem-solving, focus, and more. Singing and playing an instrument have especially remarkable benefits for children with learning disabilities, but even the act of listening to music can have a wonderful impact.

Health benefits of singing
How to get child interested in playing a musical instrument
How to set up music room at home
If you have a music background and you’ve considered making some money on the side, consider using ZenBusiness to start your own business and teach other kids, perhaps specializing in instructing children with learning disabilities.

Photograph

It takes a steady hand, concentration, and focus to take a good photograph, not to mention the ability to compose a scene before you snap the shutter. Children with learning disabilities can learn photography to develop these same skills and so many more.

Benefits of photography for kids
It’s not all about camera phones; teach kids to use a DSLR camera
Photography-focused activities kids can do

Painting and Drawing

It doesn’t matter if the child uses colored pencils, markers, crayons, or watercolors; the act of moving something colorful across a blank canvas is a creative way to express emotions. At the same time, it can help a child develop patience, concentration, and problem-solving skills.

Different drawing styles kids can try
12 free online painting and drawing lessons for kids
Benefits of painting for children
Teach children about famous paintings

Regardless of the art form your child pursues, make sure there’s always some fun injected into it. Also be sure to help the child realize every day that the fun he or she is having will boost their focus, improve their schoolwork, and greatly enhance their self-confidence.

About the Author: Jenny Wise created Special Home Educator as a forum for sharing her adventures in homeschooling and connecting with other homeschooling families. She has been homeschooling her four children for many years now, including her youngest daughter Anna who is on the autism spectrum.

Learning Tools assists adults and children attain skills, confidence, and motivation needed to achieve their goals. Our programs are offered for learning and correcting multiple struggles of neurodivergent learners. Reach out to us today! 206-451-7102

Photo Credit: Pixabay.com

The post Involving Your Child with Learning Challenges in the Arts appeared first on Learning Tools.

Several years ago, I published a comprehensive blog post addressing coaching strategies for dyslexic athletes. This work attracted the attention of Darius Namdaran, founder of Bullet Proof Academy and host of the Dyslexia Explored podcast. Darius subsequently invited me to serve as a guest speaker on his landmark 100th episode. The resulting conversation provided valuable insights that I am pleased to share with you here: Dyslexia Explored #100 with Sophia Gomma

The following summary outlines key recommendations discussed during that episode, organized by audience: coaching professionals, parents, and student-athletes.

Tips

Coaches:

• Dyslexic athletes are non-verbal conceptualization thinkers who process information through visual and emotional frameworks rather than sequential verbal instructions.
• Verify that athletes understand the meaning of sport-specific terminology rather than assuming comprehension of standard coaching vocabulary.
• Carefully consider directional communication, recognizing that spatial orientation challenges may arise when coaches communicate from the sidelines to athletes on the field.
• Recognize that athletes who do not maintain eye contact while listening are actively engaged in visualization and mental processing, not disengaged or disrespectful.
• Allow additional processing time for athletes new to the sport or unfamiliar with your coaching approach before providing verbal corrections or redirects. This processing delay typically diminishes with familiarity and experience.
• Provide meaningful context and explanation of the reasoning (“why”) behind new information to facilitate integration into long-term memory, as abstract instruction without context is ineffective.
• Familiarize athletes with clipboard diagrams and visual play representations before high-pressure competitions, as flat visual representations can be disorienting without prior exposure.
• Utilize field-based visual markers and demonstrations when providing directional guidance. Abstract directional language such as “left,” “right,” “east,” or “up court” can create significant confusion for visual-spatial thinkers.
• Recognize that dyslexic athletes typically demonstrate strong intrinsic motivation and desire to learn, though they may experience diminished self-esteem due to academic challenges. Motivate through effort-based feedback rather than generic praise or criticism. For example, “I observed you really tried hard at that—your effort was evident” proves more effective than statements such as “you are already good at that” or “you are not skilled at this.”

Parents:

• Secure your child’s agreement and buy-in before initiating conversations with coaches regarding accommodations or interventions.
• Recognize that most coaches lack formal educational training in dyslexia and may not understand dyslexic cognition and learning needs.
• Communicate to coaches that your child thinks in pictures and learns most effectively when provided with the “why” and big-picture context before exploring specific details.

Student-Athletes:

• Advocate for yourself:
  • If you experience difficulty maintaining eye contact during explanations, communicate to your coach that looking away enables you to visualize and mentally construct the concepts being presented.
  • If you require additional processing time, inform your coach of this need.
  • If you are uncertain about assigned plays, request clarification or verbally describe your understanding to your coach—articulate the mental images you have formed to verify comprehension.
• Conduct independent research: Develop familiarity with your sport through video resources, study relevant terminology, and build foundational knowledge to reinforce understanding and build confidence.
• Engage in mental training:
  • Identify your focused or grounded mental state and develop strategies to access this zone consistently.
  • Engage in self-reflection regarding your responses to challenging emotions: How do you respond when angry, confused, or nervous? What strategies can you employ to support yourself during these situations?

The post Coaching Dyslexic Athletes, Dyslexia Explored Podcast appeared first on Learning Tools.

Spring News Letter 2020.

The post Spring News 2020 appeared first on Learning Tools.

My domain name has changed from Learning Tools Dyslexia to Learning Tools For Life.

I made this change for a number of reasons:

• The first reason is that I’m adding on the Davis Autism Programs and a Parenting Skills program to my services.  The “For life” addition to Learning Tools is broader and encompasses the new programs instead of just being known for Dyslexia services.
• I also feel that once you learn the “tools” in all of the programs I offer, you or your child will use them in everyday life, all the time.. and I’m going to imagine I will keep using them my whole life. 
• Lastly, one of the Davis programs for autism is called “Concepts for Life” so the “for Life” just seemed like the perfect fit. 

My email has changed as well, I am now using info@learningtoolsforlife.com, so please update your contacts/address book as needed. 

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