A few tips on the challenges of modern schooling

Early diagnosis of learning problems is key to success, Mary Ellen Kot says.

We’re in mid-fall now, getting close to report card time. As a retired special education teacher, I still sometimes think about school. From my experience as both parent and teacher, I humbly offer a few insights to those still in the trenches.

Early identification or diagnosis of learning problems is essential. Parents want their children to be “regular” students, so many deny that their child might have a learning problem; maybe autism or a learning disability.

To diagnose a specific learning disability, a child needs to have a psychoeducational assessment. That may sound daunting. However, accepting the fact that your child may have a specific learning problem is vital. As Ontario’s Learning Disabilities Association taught me years ago, “An informed parent is a child’s best advocate.”

It’s easier to address learning problems in the primary grades. Ideally, struggling students would have a psyched assessment by grades 1 or 2. To achieve this, school boards need to hire more psychologists. The wait for this testing at school can be very long. If parents can afford it or have benefits, they should arrange a private assessment.

After assessment, an IEP (individual education plan) is written. This includes suggestions for teaching strategies, as well as accommodations and modifications to suit the student’s needs.

A recent discussion on CBC Radio’s The Current focused on the value of inclusive classes, which are now the norm. Teachers are expected to deal with the needs of all students, whether they have ADHD, autism, learning disabilities, behaviour problems, giftedness or other exceptionalities. Even with the best of intentions, I don’t think one person can give each special student the assistance required.

However, special segregated classes are frowned upon. One university professor told the radio program that “inclusion is a human right.” This differs from years gone by. Separate classes for learning disabled students were once common. When we moved to Ottawa in the ’80s, the former Ottawa Board of Education had LD classes in all schools.

If students could be placed in a special class for half a day for reading, writing and math, they could be in a regular class for other subjects. If they had this opportunity for a few years and received the intensive teaching that they required, those years would pay off for the rest of their education. I’m not saying their troubles would be over, but they could rejoin regular classes with the accommodations and modifications required.

When I worked at a grades 7 to 12 school, many of our special Grade 7 students arrived with extremely poor literacy skills. We trained them on available technology and advised their subject teachers of the modifications and accommodations required, but it was a struggle. The saddest part of that job happened mid-Grade 8, when students had to choose high school classes. It’s not easy to tell a student and parents they can’t follow the academic stream in high school.

Experts worry about the social stigma associated with segregated classes. I would rather place that Grade 2 or Grade 3 student in a special class for a couple of years and possibly prevent that difficult Grade 8 conversation at a sensitive time in a student’s life.

Some students do not have a specific learning problem, but would benefit from some extra time. In Ontario, parents can put their three-yearold in junior kindergarten if they turn four by Dec. 31. As Malcolm Gladwell pointed out in The Outliers, kids with late (September to December) birthdays “through no fault of their own — have been dealt a big disadvantage by the educational system.”

Toronto Board of Education officials have recently adopted a new policy that addresses this situation. If you keep your fall birthday child out of school until the year they turn five, you have the option to register them for either junior or senior kindergarten. If you opt for JK, you essentially give that child an extra year in school. You delay high school for a year, take them from being the youngest to the oldest in their class and give them the tremendous advantages of time, maturity and increased confidence.

Elementary school years go by in a flash. It’s important to get those years right.