Our clients are often pleasantly surprised by how quickly their children begin to experience the sweet taste of success once we begin working with them. Our secret? We take an “uncluttered” approach to our work and we keep things simple and direct. And that can only be done if one truly knows what he or she is doing!

I like to tell clients that we prefer not to have them spend unnecessary time and money if we can help it. For example, most psycho-educational assessments take six to eight hours and that is very stressful for the children, especially for the younger ones. With us, we can have a high quality psycho-educational assessment done by an experienced and respected psychologist for much less time and cost. And here, I am talking about an assessment that can stand up to the scrutiny of scientists working in the forefront of research in our field.

How do we do that? Well, we make it a priority to establish a professional network of excellence. We have a good working relationship with professionals in related fields who share our philosophy of simplicity and directness. These professionals will not sell unnecessary services. They are happy to help you when you need them, but only if you really need them. Why? Because they have better things to do with their lives than trying to waste your time and theirs!

Working with quality individuals is our secret to success.

The creation of CHARD is indeed a step forward by the British Columbia Medical Association, the Ministry of Health Services and HealthLink BC. For the longest time, one of the major challenges facing GPs and other health providers in the province has been a lack of information when it comes to referring patients to the right professionals to get timely and appropriate intervention for children with learning disabilities. Learning disabilities are learning problems related to academic learning; the most common ones are reading disability (dyslexia) and arithmetic disability (dyscalculia).

Many times, I have sighed and shaken my head at the fragmented service delivery for those with learning disabilities. For example, we have clients coming into our office with assessments from medical professionals such as pediatricians or psychiatrists; when we look at the date of these reports, we cannot help wondering why there is such a big time lapse from the time the client was suspected to have learning issues to the time they finally found their way to our office on their own. There is no intermediary service linking the diagnosis to appropriate special educational services. Medical professionals and special education professionals must work more closely to bridge the gaps in service delivery so client’s interests are best served.

Hopefully, with CHARD, gone are the days of parents having to rely on the “grapevine” for information when it comes to finding appropriate special education services for their children with learning disabilities! Sometimes it just takes too long for clients to find their way to our office and precious time is lost.

And so I say, “Bravo to BCMA, Ministry of Health Services and HealthLink BC!!!” It is high time medical professionals and special education professionals join together to serve patients more effectively. There has to be a way for parents to access evidence-based interventions for their children that are founded on sound scientific research.

Let’s drink to the CHARD initiative which is enabling the formation of this very desirable and productive union between the medical profession and the special education profession!

Happy New Year!!!

A few months ago, one of these “gung-ho” moms came to my office for help. Over the years, she has channeled a great deal of financial resources and time investment into her only son, a grade 6 boy who speaks Mandarin as his first language. The problem: the investment does not match the return.

Apparently, this boy has a language-based learning disability and is already “maxed-out” in terms of his efforts. He is already doing his best and is getting a “C” grade in school. This, unfortunately, is not good enough for his “gung-ho” mom. To her credit, she suspected something was wrong with her son and she came to us. We told her the truth: her son has a language-based learning disability and unless he has appropriate intervention, he will continue to stay up until 1a.m. each day to do his homework and still get a “C”.

Then guess what? The “gung-ho” mom exhibited a classic denial response. “No, my son is only lazy. “ was the defensive remark made. Now don’t forget this mother came to us suspecting something was amiss, and she wanted us to find her the answer!

Both my associate and I shook our heads as we said a little silent prayer for the “gung-ho” mom and son duo as they left our office. The boy will have a difficult time ahead of him. He is already showing signs of rebellion and emotional distress.

To our dear colleagues in the school system, we support you and empathize with you. Remember to take a deep breath and put on a smile as you hear out these “gung-ho” moms at your next Teacher-Parent Meeting.

I spent a great deal of time in the library when I was studying Art history at UBC for my B.A. degree. Reading was and is still one of my favorite past times. It is hard to imagine what life would be like without books and reading. Yet, as one who specializes in dyslexia and language-based learning disabilities, I am very much aware that there are some students who cannot read and each day in school is like torture to them.

Young children with reading difficulties are known to have tummy aches and all kinds of “ailments” when confronted by reading tasks. I can sympathize with these children because I also have similar problems when feeling overly stressed. For children who cannot read, much of their frustration comes from the fact that they are unable to articulate their reading problem to adults. Frankly speaking, many adults don’t even know what dyslexia is!

In my next blog, I will share an interesting case that I had encountered just before school was out for the summer. Let me just call it “The Story of a Maxed-Out Kid with a Gung-Ho Mom.”

Until next time…

Out here in the “real” world, “end users” such as parents and educators are concerned about “funding” and “labeling.” If there is a name for the problem, there is the possibility for accessing “funding” and getting additional educational support for the child. I can’t blame them for being practical and so, I’ve decided to try and make myself useful by doing a little “Adult Education” here.

Here is a simple “memory aid” for all you confused folks: ☺

1. Educational Psychologists are supposed to be “experts” in testing. They know what tests screen what. They test everything from “depression” to “dyslexia”.
2. Dr. Winnifred Tang, yours truly, has a Ph.D. from UBC in Special Education dealing with learning disabilities. Her doctoral research examined the cognitive profiles of learning disabled children from an ESL (English as a Second Language) background. These are the children with reading disability (dyslexia) and arithmetic disability (dyscalculia).

Simply put: the Educational Psychologists find the problem and I fix it.  That is, if it belongs to my area of specialty, which is dyslexia and language-based learning disabilities.

Dyslexia and dyscalculia are terms used by researchers, academics, and the medical professionals. Educators like to use a broad term, “learning disability”, to describe a range of learning problems ranging from poor reading to poor calculation skills. Note that a learning disability refers only to academic-related skills in the language and numerical domain. A child who cannot do gymnastics is not “learning disabled” nor is the child who cannot sing and dance.

Do I know how to diagnose dyslexia? Of course I can! This is what I was trained to do. And not only that, I can fix the learning problem through educational intervention. Hence my background in Language Education-my master’s research dealt with reading acquisition and the development of writing skills in ESL students- and my interest in using technology in education come in handy.

The disclaimer I have to make here is this: I only diagnose dyslexia and related learning disabilities and I set certain boundaries in my private practice. For example, autism and ADHD are two areas which I am hesitant to venture into and I would accept dyslexia cases with these accompanying co-morbidities on a case-to-case basis.  Also, I diagnose by clinical observation and criterion-based tests. For parents requiring “a piece of paper” with an Educational Psychologist’s signature on it so that they can access services from the school,  I am not the person to see. However, for parents interested in “fixing” the problem, regardless of who pays for what, I may be the person of interest to them.

Now that I have cleared the air, I look forward to working with my colleagues in the school system to help dyslexic children ridden with language-based learning problems to receive timely and appropriate educational support.

Here, I think it is the right time to do a little refresher on what “reading disability” is. The following was written for the benefit of our readers who are teachers or parents of dyslexic children:

Medical Name: Dyslexia (reading disability)

Clinical Features
Cases usually present themselves as seemingly normal children whose reading ability lag behind that of their peers. Characteristics include:

• Poor spelling
• Early word recognition
• Poor grammar (e.g. syntax)
• Poor recall of content read
• Speed of reading extremely low
• Inaccurate reading (e.g. skip lines and words)
• Hesitant reader
• Nervous during reading
• Avoids and dislike reading
• Poor recall of verbally given information/instructions
• Uncomfortable in noisy environment where reception of audio information may be more difficult

Diagnosis
Standardized tests tapping into the core deficits will in most cases identify dyslexia. Full-scale psycho-educational testing is unnecessary unless there is co-morbidity.  Clinical observations can also be used to diagnose dyslexia.

Clinical Management
Timely and appropriate educational intervention will help the dyslexic child improve learning. Each child with dyslexia has a different combination of learning problems. That is why each dyslexic child needs Full Service Learning Management covering these areas:

• Diagnosis
• Intervention Design
• Intervention Delivery
• Monitoring of Progress

Thanks to the Biomedical Branch Librarian, Dean Guistini, at VGH, a wiki was created in UBC Health Library Wiki under Research into learning disabilities - “Dyslexia”.  This was intended to give evidence-based research information to professionals and parents.  Check it out.

My hope is that through this free workshop sponsored by S.U.C.C.E.S.S., non-English speaking Chinese parents can now breathe a sigh of relief and come to realize that they are not alone. Dyslexia is one of the most common learning disabilities plaguing school-age children who are learning to read. Help is just around the corner. Dyslexia can be managed successfully and it is possible for dyslexic children to learn to read with proper instruction.

See you at the workshop! And don’t forget to register.

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Professor Mary Ashworth taught in the Department of Language Education between 1967- 1988. I was fortunate enough to have been under her supervision when I was working on my M.Ed. degree in Teaching English as a Second Language (TESL). I will always remember Professor Ashworth for her frequent allusion to a saying from the Book of Proverbs in the Bible - “There is nothing new under the sun.” I actually put this verse on the front page of my M.Ed. graduating paper! I guess, this was the observation from a “seasoned” veteran who had fought the “system” time and again for the sake of ESL children in British Columbia.

I am particularly grateful to Professor Mary Ashworth for the sage advice she gave when I was her student at UBC. She was always helpful and practical. I still remember how she used to tell us not to treat our master’s thesis or M.Ed. major paper as “the writing that will change the world.” Her admonition was: be sensible, do what you need to do, graduate, and then you can change the world!

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Professor Ashworth is probably smiling down at all her former students now from heaven above. I hope I am one of these students!

We love you, Mary! And we are so proud to have been you students.