LDANR works with Brock Professor to promote reading

Some may find it difficult to believe, but one in 10 children live with a learning disability, and of them 80 per cent also struggle with a reading disability. It is statistics like these that highlight how important organizations like the LDAC are.

The Learning Disabilities Association of Canada (LDAC), founded in 1963, is a not-for-profit organization whose goal is to improve the services and support offered to individuals with learning disabilities. The Learning Disabilities Association of Niagara Region (LDANR) retains this objective, offering several programs in the Niagara Region to individuals with learning disabilities.

"We serve individuals with learning disabilities across the Region," said Ashley Short, Executive Director of LDANR. "We mostly serve children and youths, but we do have our adult services as well because with a learning disability, you don't grow out of it."

LDANR's programs include Reading Rocks,  Better Emotional & Social Times (BEST), Social Teen Empowering Program to Succeed (STEPS) and their most recent initiative, Just Add Music (JAM), among several others.

According to Short, Reading Rocks is the organizations flagship program. Reading Rocks is a project of Brock University Child and Youth Studies Professor John McNamara. McNamara's research focuses on reading disabilities, including prevention and development. McNamara is also the Chair of the LDANR Board of Directors.

"[Reading Rocks] is a one-on-one literacy program," said Short. "We take kids who may have been diagnosed with a reading problem or [who] may just be having difficulties reading, and we match them up with a tutor. They'll work with this same tutor for 16 sessions."

The tutors are individuals who volunteer their time to work with youths with reading disabilities. Many of these individuals are Brock students, and specifically, students of McNamara. As the Reading Rocks program grows, the number of volunteers needed grows as well. Reading Rocks helped over 50 youths in its 2011 fall program.

"For Reading Rocks, however many kids we have, we need to have just as many volunteers because it's one-on-one," said Short. "We're trying to grow our volunteer base so that we can serve more kids because we're not even close to hitting how many kids need the program."

Reading Rocks is currently looking for volunteers. The program begins in February, and those interested should note that it is an eight week commitment. Volunteers meet twice a week with their appointed youth to help them improve their reading skills.

Other programs such as BEST and STEPS are what LDANR calls self-advocacy and social skills programs. Both BEST and STEPS offer similar programming, but for different age groups.

"Basically they are self-advocacy and social skills programs. There is such low awareness as to what a learning disability is, so these kids need to understand what it is and what it means to have one, so that they can advocate for themselves," said Short.

LDANR also offers JAM, a music-oriented learning experience for youths and a March Break program called March Break Boost. All of these programs are looking for volunteers and offer great experience, especially for those thinking of becoming a teacher.

"It's not very often that we turn down volunteers," said Short.

Short has been involved in planning and organizing a program called Reading Rocks Junior, which is essentially the same idea as Reading Rocks, but it is targeted at a younger demographic.

"The program that I did is called Reading Rocks Junior, and it's in its pilot year right now. It was an idea I had when I was [getting] my Master's [degree]. We thought that if all these kids we have in Reading Rocks received help a little earlier, then maybe they wouldn't fall even further behind. So, we called it Reading Rocks Junior because it's for youths from four-to-six-years-old," she said. "It's an early intervention program. These kids haven't been diagnosed with reading disabilities yet because they don't get diagnosed that early, but these are kids that are showing signs that they may have future reading difficulties."

Organizations like LDANR help as many people as they can and hope to offer programs to everyone in the community who needs them. Two main problems that arise are the number of volunteers and securing funding. For Reading Rocks Junior, Short said it was mainly about finding funding.

"In a nutshell, how you get something from an idea to making it happen is you need the money," she said.

Educating people is the first step in trying to help those with learning disabilities said Short. If people do not understand what a learning disability is, trying to help somebody who has would be quite difficult.

"It all starts with understanding what a learning disability is because sometimes it feels like most people don't know what it is," said Short. "We hear the word disability and there is this stigma, so we really look to educate people to understand what a learning disability is, which in the end, really doesn't mean that the person can't learn, it means that they learn differently."

For more information about LDANR, including how to submit a volunteer application, please visit ldaniagara.org