LDS charity ensures education support during COVID-19 for children with special needs
A recent report by B.C.’s representative for children and youth highlighted the extreme risks that the COVID-19 pandemic has placed on children with diverse abilities, including loss of critical supports leading to damaging learning setbacks.
The Learning Disabilities Society ( LDS), a local non-profit charity that provides LDS RISE (Research-informed Individualized Student Education) programming to children and youth with suspected or diagnosed learning disabilities and related disabilities, such as dyslexia, dyscalculia, auditory processing disorders, ADHD and others, recognized early on the extreme danger posed by the pandemic on their vulnerable students and developed an ambitious plan to ensure continuity and accessibility of its supports.
As a first step, in March LDS secured additional funding from its generous community of donors that provided much needed bursary resources to families to bridge financial gaps.
At the same time, with helpful assistance from Microsoft Accessibility, LDS accelerated the development of their adaptive, online learning platform that
enabled virtual continuity of their specialized instruction. LDS also developed additional programs and resources to support students and families subject to heightened stress, included specialized social-emotional skills training and family counselling.
To further strengthen its programming and supports, LDS then reached out to the technology community and attracted 15 corporate sponsors to support the development of their assistive technology program, RISE-AT.
“As a charity, we serve many families who are disproportionately affected by the social and economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Rachel Forbes, executive direc tor, Learning Disabilities Society. “RISE- AT not only provides our students new strategies for academic success, but helps build their engagement, confidence and ability to self-regulate, providing further strength during these challenging times.”
LDS is now further expanding its technology program through its recently announced partnership with University of Waterloo’s Social and Intelligent Robotics Research Laboratory (SIRRL).
“By partnering with the University of Waterloo SIRRL, we will have the opportunity to study the incorporation of leading- edge social robotics technology that have been used successfully to advance social skills and emotion control with children with cognitive disabilities including autism,” said Forbes. “The results of our collaboration could provide additional needed tools during this difficult time and make a transformative difference in the learning outcomes for our student community.”
Through community engagement, partnership, technology adoption, and the persistent, dedicated efforts of its staff and volunteers, LDS is ensuring continuity and accessibility to critical learning and mental health supports for vulnerable children and youth with special needs in our community during this time of challenge. As a nonprofit, LDS relies on donations and community support in order to sustain its programming and provide bursaries to families in financial need. Those interested in making a financial contribution to help vulnerable students are encouraged to visit LDS’s Giving Page.