It took me several years of research and development to create teaching strategies and adapt lesson materials that work for students with dyslexia and ADHD
Hi, my name is Boelo (pronounced “Bulo”) van der Pool.
I was born in the Netherlands, but after graduating from university with a degree in International Business, I decided to move abroad. I spent time in Asia and the UK, where I managed a small language school, before settling in the south of Spain in 1994.
For the past three decades, I have worked in private language schools in different roles, including school manager (and owner), course developer, language coach, teacher trainer, and international researcher.
It was only in 2018 that I discovered my own dyslexia (although mild) and ADHD. This opened up a completely new world for me and helped me understand that I wasn’t “slow” or “stupid”. My brain simply processes information in a different way.
Once I started working on international research projects on neurodiversity, such as the “SEN Toolkit” and the “Dyslexia Compass”, I realised how frustrating learning English can be for many students with dyslexia and ADHD.
That was when I decided to do something about it, because being dyslexic or having ADHD does not mean you should be bad at learning languages. I know that from personal experience, because I speak five languages myself, three of them fluently.
It took me several years of research and development to create teaching strategies and adapt lesson materials that work for students with dyslexia and ADHD. After using these strategies and materials with hundreds of dyslexic and ADHD students in Spain and Latin America, I now want to share this experience and help other language teachers and language schools around the world do the same.
This is why I created the Dyslexia Smart Programs and why I spread neurodiversity awareness in language learning whenever I have the opportunity.
At the same time, I continue collaborating on international research and development projects, and I support publishers and material writers in creating neuro-inclusive lesson materials.
If you would like to get in touch and have a chat, please click the contact button.
Free trial
The Dyslexia Smart School program is designed on a 10-week basis. Nevertheless, there is certain flexibility in this. Some schools do it faster (8 weeks), others take a bit longer (12-14 weeks)
Starting dates are also flexible, although the most suitable start of any program would be:
September/October
January
April
June/July
Workload
The workload really depends on each teacher. The videos can (and I know many will) be reviewed, text can be re-read, etc. Nevertheless, teachers report that they spend an average of 2 hours per week on the course.
Schedule a meeting
Do you have any questions? Is there anything I didn’t cover on this page? Do you want to know how this can work for your school and its teachers?
You can schedule a meeting here: