Heather Ross, a mom of two in Vancouver, noticed her daughter Eliza was a weaker reader than some of her classmates during Grades 1 and 2. Ross was hoping things would click for Eliza by Grade 3, as they had for her older brother when he reached that age. They didn?t, and yet Eliza?s teacher still wasn?t overly concerned. ?We were told she was doing well enough and wasn?t really that far outside the range of normal,? recalls Ross.
But as the year progressed Ross became even more convinced there was a problem: Eliza started to dislike school and seemed stressed out?there were more and more meltdowns at home over seemingly small issues. So Ross paid $2,000 out-of-pocket for a private psycho-educational evaluation, which diagnosed a learning disability. The recommended course of action was an Individualized Education Program (IEP) at school and specialized tutoring, which cost Ross an additional $5,000 that year. Eliza?s story is far from unique: Many students show signs of a learning disability in reading, or dyslexia, early on, but aren?t diagnosed until they fall far behind their peers. Many experts, however, say learning disabilities, can?and should?be screened for as early as kindergarten or Grade 1, so remedial tutoring can begin right away.
According to the Ontario Human Rights Commission, approximately 10 percent of the population has reading difficulties, also known as dyslexia, which is a neurobiological, hereditary condition that makes it harder to learn to read acc...