Empowering students with language-based learning differences
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Welcome to Siena's blog, your source for helpful, cutting-edge resources tailored to teachers, parents, and other advocates in the learning differences community. We are dedicated to providing a wealth of curated knowledge spanning various topics, ranging from dyslexia advocacy and awareness to classroom teaching strategies, heritage month profiles, and social and emotional health.
Discover innovative classroom strategies that inspire creativity and foster a love of learning.
Our commitment to social-emotional wellness ensures that we provide valuable insights into healthy student development and self-advocacy.
Discover resources, reading and podcast recommendations, volunteering opportunities, and more for parents in the LD community.
Our important heritage month posts highlight key people, offer reading and podcast recommendations, and more.
5 Tips for Student Summer Vacation Activities
July 06, 2026
Avg. Read Time 4-5 min.
Summer Activities for Kids
Siena knows that empowering students to understand their learning profiles and advocate for themselves isn’t just for the school year — it’s also for the summer.
Let us help you see summer as an opportunity to build even more confidence, independence, and real-world skills through these practical tips for balancing summer downtime and summer learning.
1. Create a Curious Learner Summer Bucket List
Reward students’ feelings of exploration and wonder by including fun challenges:
- Visit a museum
- Learn three constellations
- Explore a new hiking trail
- Learn a magic trick or a new game
- Lego or similar building challenges (such as Lego fidgets)
- Try a new recipe
- Imagine a podcast or YouTube channel they could create to show off their expertise
Curiosity drives learning. Summer offers freedom to explore interests without regular academic pressure.
2. Practice Everyday Activities That Build Academic Skills and Executive Functioning
Learning doesn't necessarily have to look like school to be useful. There are hidden learning opportunities for students each day. For instance:
- Cooking (math, sequencing, and kitchen science)
- Road trips (geography, math, and planning)
- Gardening (nature and science)
- Sports (movement, strategy, and teamwork)
Students can also practice their organization, planning, time management skills through such tasks as:
- Packing for a day trip independently
- Planning a family activity
- Managing a chore schedule
- Helping with daily or weekly meal planning
- Creating a personal goal
Building strategies and tools is central to helping students succeed long after they leave Siena.
3. Use Your Library Card (or Sign Up for One!)
A simple and very effective way to keep students reading over the summer is to use their library cards for local public libraries, such as these in the DC Metro area:
- Get A Card | District of Columbia Public Library
- Get a Library Card — Fairfax County Public Library
- Get a Library Card - Montgomery County Public Library
Particularly for middle and high school students, library cards can also get them acclimated to the digital resources (such as accessing ProQuest and other databases or audio and e-books via Libby or Overdrive). Siena teachers have worked with our students to get them library cards so they can access the excellent public library digital research resources that they might use inside and outside the classroom.
Remember that many public libraries also sell gently used books, which can be an easy, affordable way for students to build their personal libraries and/or discover new favorites.
4. Help Students Enjoy Stories and Use Technology Effectively
Audiobooks, graphic novels, podcasts, family read-alouds, storytelling and more are a great way to keep students engaged with stories — and maybe inspire them to create some of their own! Ear reading is a great complement to sight reading and gives students another opportunity to experience stories.
These tools can both help students improve students’ own literacy skills and learn that stories can be a community-building activity they can carry into the school year. Siena helps students — especially dyslexic learners — discover that literacy is more than decoding words: it's also connecting with ideas, stories, and learning.
5: Explore These Summer Technology Recommendations
Especially for LD students, some technology options can be quite productive in practicing their literacy and creative skills, such as:
- Podcasts (see these Common Sense Media podcast recs)
- Audiobooks (consider starting with Audible for Kids)
- Speech-to-text tools
- Educational YouTube channels
- Creative apps (see some app examples from Common Sense Media)
Siena teaches students to use tools and accommodations effectively. Technology can be empowering for intellectual growth when used intentionally.
Resources from Siena’s Blog
Remember that preparing for a successful fall starts in the summer: as July moves into August, parents can start reestablishing routines gradually, tasking students with organizing their technology, and set realistic goals for the transition from summer to school year.
For more information about the practical value and opportunities of summer programs, see these past blog posts about Summer Reading, Boredom Busters, and Summer Tech Skills.
The Siena School, a nationwide dyslexia education leader, serves bright, college-bound students with language-based learning differences on campuses in Silver Spring, MD (grades 3-4 and 5-12) and Oakton, VA (grades 3-12).
Posted in
Parents and Community
Mental Health Awareness Month 2026: We Are Your Village
May 13, 2026
Image from Mental Health America
Avg. read time 4-5 min.
Mental Health Awareness Month 2026
May is Mental Health Awareness Month! At Siena our goal is to foster community connection and reduce stigma. Mental Health America’s 2026 Theme is “More Good Days, Together.”
As the counseling team at Siena, we adopted this theme because it focuses on what MHA describes as “community support, strengthening connections to improve mental wellness, and acknowledging that "good" is unique to each individual.”
Many of our students have profiles that encompass such developmental differences as ADHD and other neurodivergence. Although some diagnostic labels can be stigmatizing or limiting, they can also serve as important guides for individual support and empowerment.
Mental Health Awareness Activities
The Mental Health Awareness 2026 theme is “More Good Days, Together.” What does this mean to you?
Our goal for Mental Health Awareness Month is to reduce stigma by increasing empathy and connection, increasing flexible thinking with labels, and encouraging everyone to talk about their whole health. There are growth opportunities for personal development and adapting to challenging situations even within our personal labels and profiles. This approach is consistent with Siena’s dedication to movement, multisensory approaches, and awareness of social-emotional needs.
The counseling team has created a Self-Care Wheel to encourage all families to have more good days together. One way to do that is to improve well-being and engage in self-care activities. For example, we’ve shared this activity with our families:
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Siena Mental Health Events and Resources
At Siena we are here to support our students and their families. As we often say, “It takes a village. We are your village.”
Take a look below at what our students have been learning during Mental Health Awareness month at Siena, organized around key myths and facts:
Friday, May 1st
Myth: Mental Health and Mental Illness are the same.
Fact: Although used interchangeably, each term has its own meaning.
Mental Health is a continuum of wellness that can fluctuate. It is a broad state of emotional, psychological, and social well-being that applies to every individual, allowing them to cope with life's stresses.
Mental Illness is a term for diagnosable medical health conditions that can be managed with treatment.
Week 1: May 4-8th
Myth: You only need to take care of your mental health if you have a mental health condition.
Fact: Everyone can benefit from taking active steps to promote their well-being and improve their mental health. Similarly, everyone can take active steps and engage in healthy habits to optimize their physical health. This is a key reason that Siena prioritizes daily movement opportunities for students — sometimes in the classroom with flexible seating and movement breaks, or whenever possible outdoor recess on the playground (see our blog post about this). Students have daily recess and breaks built into their schedules to ensure regular movement.
Week 2: May 11-15th
Myth: Seeking help means I’ll have to take medication.
Fact: Treatment for mental health is highly individualized. While medication can be effective for some, it is not the only option.
Week 3: May 18-22th
Myth: Discussing mental health will exacerbate children’s anxiety or depression.
Fact: Open communication about mental health can actually have the opposite effect. Encouraging dialogue about emotions and mental well-being fosters a supportive environment where children feel comfortable expressing themselves. It also helps diminish stigma and encourages seeking help when necessary.
Week 4: May 25-29th
Myth: I can't do anything for a person with a mental health issue.
Fact: Friends and loved ones can make a big difference. Friends and family can be important influences to help someone get the treatment and services they need by:
- Reaching out and letting them know you are available to help
- Helping them access mental health services
- Help them learn self-care and coping techniques
- Learning and sharing facts about mental health, especially if you hear something that isn't true
- Treating them with respect, just as you would anyone else
- Refusing to define them by their diagnosis or using labels such as "crazy," instead use person-first language
In addition, we encouraged all students, faculty, and staff to wear green on Wednesday, May 20, to support Mental Health Awareness, and we’ll be offering a Lunch ‘n’ Learn in early June on Tips to Support Mental Health and Neurodivergence.
If you or your loved one needs support, organizations like Mental Health America and the National Alliance for Mental Illness can help. Dial 988 for the Suicide and Crisis Hotline.
Siena Resources
See other posts of interest in our Social and Emotional Health blog category, such as these about Calming Strategies in the Classroom and Maintaining Routines.
The Siena School, a national leader in dyslexia education currently in its 20th anniversary year, serves bright, college-bound students with dyslexia and other language-based learning differences on DC Metro area campuses in Silver Spring, MD (grades 3-4 and 5-12) and Oakton, VA (grades 3-12).
Posted in
Social and Emotional Health
Spotlight on Belania Daley
March 03, 2026
Avg. read time 3-4 min.
"Never be ashamed of how you learn and how you communicate what you know" —Belania Daley
Women’s History Month 2026
The National Women’s History Alliance has chosen “Leading the Change: Women Shaping a Sustainable Future” as the theme for Women’s History Month 2026. In their words,
Whether developing green technologies, advancing economic justice, strengthening education systems, or building civic power – women are designing blueprints for sustainable transformation. This theme affirms that shaping a sustainable future means fostering systems that support both people and the planet. (Source: National Women’s History Alliance)
With this important theme in mind, Siena is highlighting designer and entrepreneur Belania Daley for leading the change in the fashion industry toward sustainability and increased advocacy.
Belania Daley: Fashion Designer and Entrepreneur with Dyslexia
As owner and creator of BCD Planet, Daley is not just designing and selling clothes; she’s modeling a dedication to using brand awareness to increase social awareness:
We aim to inspire the community with Dyslexia to be proud of their differences because that's what makes you great. Mixing different shapes and textures to make a statement that moves one to be courageous in their learning differences. (Source: BCD Planet)
In addition to dyslexia advocacy work, BCD is also dedicated to working with organizations for breast cancer and autism awareness because of family experiences (her mother and brother, respectively).
Here are five inspiring facts about Belania Daley:
- After graduating from the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York with a B.S. in Technical Design for Apparel Production, she worked for Ralph Lauren corporate.
- Daley created her BCD Planet brand in 2018 and has been dedicated to designing purposeful, environmentally sustainable fashion, such as by repurposing or donating as much clothing waste as possible.
- She has dyslexia and is dedicated to “making clothes to empower people with dyslexia,” as she shared in this Behind the Brand video from 2020.
- Her work was part of an exhibition at Cornell University Library, “Black Excellence: Fashion That Prevails,” which features a design she did for the annual Fashion 500 event in 2019. See the virtual exhibition here.
- Daley appeared on Project Runway Season 21 (2025), winning two challenges and making it to the final four contestants. Learn more about her experiences on Project Runway in this interview for the Fashion Institute of Technology alumni news.
As a Black female fashion designer and entrepreneur who strongly connects her fashion work with her learning differences, Daley is dedicated to doing socially conscious work in the fashion industry:
“With my work, I want to show people, hey, I have dyslexia, I’m a Black female, I’m doing fashion; all of this should inspire you…Yes, you should not be ashamed because you learn a little bit differently, you should be proud because it’s your ability, not your disability. So, my work is here to show others that I’m doing it, so you can do it too.” (Source: Cornell University Library)
Siena Resources
See additional heritage month spotlight posts on Siena’s blog, including Spotlight on Zoe Saldaña, Books and Podcasts of Interest, and profiles of writers Sally Gardner and Laurie Halse Anderson.
The Siena School, a national leader in dyslexia education now in its 20th year, serves bright, college-bound students with language-based learning differences on DC Metro area campuses in Silver Spring, MD (grades 3-4 and 5-12) and Oakton, VA (grades 3-12).
Posted in
Cultural Heritage Month Spotlights
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