Recommendations on PACFOLD
cont’d
- Increase funding for programs that support improving literacy skills, and enhancing paid on - the -job learning opportunities.
- Endorse a consistent d e f i n i t i on and a comprehensive diagnostic assessment protocol for learning disabilities to be used in all publicly funded programs such as education, social service, health and other service areas.
- Build awareness and provide training among health practitioners of the coexistence of conditions with learning disabilities like low-birth weights, ear infections, allergies, asthma, depression, etc. This would facilitate quicker identification and diagnosis of LD, and provide families with early support, understanding and resources.
- Advocate for further statistical data research with a consistent definition of “disability,” and specifically, “learning disability,” coordinated across all future Statistics Canada surveys, with the most appropriate ways of wording screening questions to ensure that respondents with LD are neither screened out, nor so ill-defined that clear data cannot be garnered.
- Increase the sample size on future Statistics Canada surveys, in order to further understand the barriers and impact that living with learning disabilities has on various aspects of an individual’s life.
For Educational Institutions:
- Include compulsory courses in teacher training programs on students with special needs at both the elementary and secondary school levels. A portion of the compulsory course content on students with special needs should be devoted to the education of students with learning disabilities at the elementary and secondary levels in the areas of: characteristics, diagnosis, impact, and implementation of appropriate researchbased reading programs, strategies, interventions and accommodations.
- Enhance professional development for
teachers on learning disabilities in all
provincial and territorial school districts/
boards to ensure fewer students fall
through the cracks in Canadian classrooms.
All teachers must know:
- What the ‘signs’ are of a student at risk
- The needs and entitlements of students with learning disabilities.
- How students with LD learn.
- How to adapt and differentiate their teaching methods.
- How to utilize the principles of Universal Instructional Design.
- How to implement appropriate accommodations to meet the needs of students with learning disabilities.
For Labour:
- Increase staff and human resource
personnel’s knowledge of learning
disabilities, and implementing appropriate
accommodations for individuals with LD.
Overall, these recommendations will provide
equitable access for all Canadians to affordable,
appropriate services early enough to make a
difference in their lifelong outcomes, and will
reduce the short- and long-term economic costs
of failure (special education, unemployment,
health, welfare, and corrections).
