Practitioners indicated they “need to know how to tackle these disabilities.” They need information about setting up individual strategies plans for their learners once assessment results have been obtained.
“I think being familiar with as many learning strategies as possible is helpful to all learners.”
Many practitioners feel so ill-equipped, “any information would be appreciated.” Generally, they would like training in adaptive strategies and learning styles, specifically in reference to reading and writing strategies.
They would also like to have access to better resources.
Overall, practitioners held positive attitudes about participating in a future pilot project that would provide services to help them better understand learning disabilities and provide them with methods for working with learners with learning disabilities. They indicated participation would provide needed access to assessment tools, result in a better diagnostic approach for identifying students with learning disabilities and lead to new resources for accommodating these students. Practitioners viewed participation to be potentially beneficial also in terms of sharing their ideas and experiences through discussions with other literacy programs.
This survey is part of a larger project called “Strategies for Success”. See “What is this project and why are we doing it?” on page 14 for information on the overall project.
Please note that all quotes in grey boxes are from Manitoba literacy practitioners unless otherwise noted.
This report summarizes the findings of the survey questionnaire from phase I of our “Strategies for Success” project. These findings overwhelmingly support the view that learning disabilities focused literacy programming is needed in the province.
This research focuses exclusively on the experience of working with adults with learning disabilities. It does not include learning difficulties that may be a consequence of cultural differences, second language acquisition, social disadvantage or intellectual deficiency. We have screened out these factors as they present a different type of barrier to learning.