I am an educator and neuroscientist who studies how the brain learns to read and what happens when a young brain can't learn to read easily, as in the childhood learning challenge, developmental dyslexia.

The act of learning to read added an entirely new circuit to our hominid brain's repertoire. The long developmental process of learning to read deeply changed the very structure of that circuit's connections, which rewired the brain, which transformed the nature of human thought.

There's an old rule in neuroscience that does not alter with age: use it or lose it. It is a very hopeful principle when applied to critical thought in the reading brain because it implies choice.

Deep reading refers to a whole continuum of processes that include some of the most important things about thinking and how we connect thought to what we read - critical analysis, analogical reasoning, how we infer from the text, how do we take another's perspective.

Since my brother died in 1982, my parents and I had formed a shaky tripod of a family; now that I'd lost my father too, it was too easy for me to glimpse a future point where I alone was the keeper of not just my own childhood memories, but of my family lore.

I don't watch that much TV. I think I should probably watch a little bit more, but I love the ABC Family shows.

No matter what I hear about my parents, about my family, no matter what I read, the fact is that I'm absolutely proud to be a Trump. For a while, I was worried that for my whole life I'd sort of be under my parents' shadow, but it's not a bad shadow to be under.

Christmas really is about all the cliches: health, happiness and love. A future with my family is the important thing... to stay alive for them.