Learning Disabilities

Well, it's always fun to be on the radio. Last week, on March 23rd, while staying in baby land, I took a break from making baby food and changing diapers to make a call to CBC radio's Ontario Today show. The discussion that day was entitled, Why are schools not following plans for learning disabilities?

It's too bad they started with that negative slant but it certainly generated an interesting discussion. As a mother, grandmother and retired special education teacher, this is a subject that I care passionately about. I wish I could say that in 2015 we have made great strides and that students with learning disabilities are getting the best service ever. Sadly, as the radio discussion confirmed, that is not the case.

Today's great gadgets: the smart boards, laptops, chrome books and cell phones, all provide wonderful advantages to LD students. However, technology alone does not solve every problem. There is still a great need for individual attention and instruction which is simply not possible in today's classrooms, in spite of many teachers' heroic efforts. I won't go on and on about this here. If you're interested, you can listen to the program.

My main point is that students who are experiencing difficulty need to be given a complete assessment early - by grade one. People with a learning disability are of average or in many cases, above average intelligence. A few famous folks with LD are: Jamie Oliver, Whoopi Goldberg, Albert Einstein, Daniel Radcliffe, Steven Spielberg, Keira Knightley and Richard Branson. Many people are identified as both gifted and LD. If they do not get the help they need at an early age, their self esteem often suffers, as they see their classmates achieve milestones that they find impossible. LD students require intensive assistance in the primary grades. If they can master the basics by the time they hit the junior division (grade four) then they will fit in much better with their peers and feel so much better about themselves.

Elementary school years zoom by very fast. I was recently in a grade five classroom and there was a student there who could hardly read or write. When I spoke to his teacher about him, she told me that the spec. ed. teacher was currently in discussions with the parent, trying to persuade her that her child required testing. That mother was still in the denial stage - "There's nothing wrong with my kid."

What's really sad is when you have the big discussion with parents of grade eight students. They have to fill in their option sheets for high school and that's when some of them finally realize that their child may not be capable of following the academic stream. So much heartache could be avoided if we poured pots of money into testing, early intervention and intensive assistance for our primary grade students. In Ontario, where would we get these pots of money? Scrap the EQAO testing! But that's another discussion.

Here Comes the Sun

The 20th of March - the first day of spring! Can it really be true? I am writing this from Toronto where it really is a lovely, warm, sunny day. Everyone we know in Ottawa has been complaining about our long, cold winter. While it's true that February was especially cold, we certainly have not had the severe storms that have plagued Halifax, where our son Brendan currently resides.

While summer still seems like a long way off, many Ontario residents have been planning their summer holidays. Earlier this month we managed to snag a spot at our favourite provincial campground. I'm not even going to say the name because competition for spots is already way too crazy. You can reserve a spot at an Ontario park five months in advance, so today you can reserve any spot that is available on August 20th.

The strategy for making a reservation is complicated. Well, maybe not complicated, but it requires perseverance. First, you scout through your campground website to see what will come available on the day you want to book and then, on that day, get up before 7 am to prepare. For a solid week, in late February/early March, Pat and I were up well before 7 to attempt to make our booking. I logged onto my Ontario parks account, and went as far as I could go on the campsite reservation form. Everything was typed in and my finger hovered over the last button - "reserve", until the second hand hit the top of the clock at precisely 7. Beside me, Pat dialed the reservation number on the phone, leaving the last digit until the same moment.

Most days my screen went blank or I was completely kicked out of the parks site, as soon as I hit the reserve button. Some days my screen froze and then, when it re-awakened, all the spots that had welcoming green triangles beside them at 6:58, now sported angry red triangles. The best spots are always gone by about 7:05. Somehow Pat got through on the phone two days in a row. The first day the operator slowly went through all the preamble; "Now which campground do you want? How many people in your party? How many tents will you have?" By the time she got around to asking which sites we wanted, they were all gone.The next time we got through, we were rather rude and immediately told her which campground and which site we were after and asked her to do the other details later. It worked! It is not a perfect spot. There is no shade or privacy. However it is close to a magnificent beach and close to flush toilets so we figure we're lucky.

It was a strange feeling, sitting up in bed, in the darkness of an early March morning, with the phone and latop all fired up, ready for action, knowing that at that precise moment, hundreds of other snowbound folks were in the same position, sitting in their beds, preparing to compete with us for these same spots. We are desperate people, longing for summer, for warmth and long sunny days.

Today's sun and temperatures are a hopeful sign. Spring and summer are on the way! It's a day for one of my favourite Beatles songs, Here Comes the Sun. Enjoy!