For a long time, we know that education students entering the work force are not adequately equipped to deal with learning disabilities at the school level. I know that as a fact because I have taught education students at UBC.

That is way I am very excited to learn that IDA is conducting reviews of university-based teacher training programs in reading. The participating universities are U.S. based but I think we can all learn something from this review here in Canada. We need to have better teacher preparation for the sake of the students.

This week, I had the pleasure of working on an early identification case. The father of the child is a professor of medicine. His clinical astuteness alerted him that something is not right about his young son’s language development. As a result, he urged his wife to get some diagnostics done to determine what the problem is. I performed the screening and, as suspected, this was a classic case of dyslexia.

The bad new here is that the child has dyslexia. The good news is that he is still young enough to have a comfortable window of opportunity so that he can receive intervention and not fall too far behind from his peers.

I must say that I was very impressed with the good doctor, father of the young boy, whose medical specialty was in respiratory diseases. Quite a few of my clients are actually parents who are medical doctors. However, when it comes to diagnosing dyslexia and dyscalculia, unless a doctor has received training in a related field (e.g. psychiatry), he/she would not be able to identify their own children’s learning disabilities.

This was a good week! Early identification had happened at my office. And “bravo” for the astute parents who initiated the screening to take place.

Here is a teacher who knows how to use a test to maximize learning:

I was quite impressed by a certain science teacher in the Richmond School District. This science teacher teaches my client’s daughter who is in grade 8.

Why am I impressed? Well, whereas most teachers would just use a test to see how much a student has learned, this science teacher goes beyond that. Mr. Smart* actually asks his students to take the marked tests home, correct the mistakes, and then bring the corrected tests back for an “upgrade”— that is, if done right, the teacher would move the grade one notch up. If, for example, a student got a “C+” and he/she dutifully corrected all the mistakes and brought the test back to the teacher, the final grade for the test would be “B+” instead of the original “C+.”

This is very clever. By dangling a carrot before he students – promising to revise the marks for a properly corrected test— the students who didn’t do well the first time will be highly motivated to look carefully at their mistakes and to find out what the correct answer should be.

To me, that is getting maximum value from a test!

* The science teacher’s name has been changed to protect my client’s privacy.

Today’s special education students are blessed to have so many Apple products available to support their learning. For the dyslexic student who cannot read fluently, if he/she has a Mac that can do text to speech, then the obstacle to learning becomes less daunting. And for those students with working memory problems and cannot correctly copy from the board, an iPod Touch with a camera or an iPhone can do the trick — one click and the image of whatever needs to be copied can be captured.

The world has lost a brilliant star. We will miss Steve Jobs.

One of the nicest and most original comments I have received recently from a Chinese client was this: she said, “You offer your services with the fluidity of water and the smoothness of silk.”

Somewhat surprised and puzzled, I asked her to elaborate on what she meant by that.

She then explained, “Well, through your consulting and strategic planning, you help us go around obstacles – just like water. Nothing can stop water; it has a way of getting through somehow. That is what you do best!”

“What about the silk part?” I asked.

My client answered, “You always smooth things out, whether it is through “diplomacy” or “networking” – you achieve goals without ruffling feathers. The process is as smooth as silk – it feels good to have problems solved discretely, without creating too much extra work for us, the parents. That is important for busy folks like ourselves.”

Needless to say, I was walking on air for the next few days, thanks to the kind words of my grateful client. I am very happy that what I tried so hard to achieve in my work can be “felt” and appreciated by my client.

The goal that I set for myself in managing our clients’ cases has always been the same: aim for excellence. We have expertise in learning disabilities in our organization; we have a “network of excellence” to draw from when it comes to finding suitable subject tutors; and we are efficient in solving the student’s learning problems. We help struggling learners reach their targets in a timely way!

Incidentally, the analogy of “water” and “silk” is very Chinese – “fluidity” has a sort of gentle dynamics to it while “smoothness” denotes grace and diplomacy.These are highly valued qualities in the Chinese culture.

Admittedly, our fees are comparable to those of lawyers and Chartered Accountants — we are an exclusive consultancy service catering to a very sophisticated clientele. These clients are looking for service that is beyond “standard” Orton-Gillingham tutoring, and they are definitely not part of the DIY (Do-It-Yourself) crowd. Our clients are usually busy business people or professionals who appreciate the value of expertise and are willing to pay for it. After all, these folks became successful by doing what they do best, and in the same way that they are well-rewarded financially, they understand that they have to pay for professional expertise and high-quality service.

That said, I have to say that my greatest reward is not from my fees; it is from the children who are transformed by our work with them!

Last October, I sent one of our clients’ children (with both reading and arithmetic disability from an ESL background) to the psychologist — a gentleman whom I blogged about earlier because he is an icon in our field, one who is marked by high professional standards and integrity. The Ed-Psyche report that came back was not good. I have never seen such low scores. The term used to describe our client’s child was “slow learner.” Very discouraging indeed!

What followed after the official Ed-Psyche report was a great deal of work: observation sessions, designing intervention, recruiting tutors, training tutors, managing the client-tutor relationship, going to the school for meetings, and very intense monitoring and reviewing to ensure a high level of “seamless” service delivery. Of course, from time to time, we also had to deal with the psycho-emotional aspects of the child’s struggle; it is not unusual for LD children to exhibit problematic behavior. With a “damaged” self-esteem from being a chronic low achiever in school, LD children often resort to very unhealthy coping mechanisms in order to “survive.”

Fast-forward to a year later. I am happy to report that our “slow learner” who didn’t have friends now has self-confidence, popularity amongs peers, and good grades (all As and Bs with the exceptions of a C in English and a C+ in Science). The parents of the child are thrilled, of course, and they are very appreciative. But my greatest reward came in the form of a “thank you” note.

Let me tell you the significance of this “thank you” note. For someone with a reading/writing disability, writing a note is equivalent to, well, going to the dentist to have one’s tooth extracted. This child had painstakingly written a note to thank me! I was so overcome with joy that I was walking on air the rest of the day. See the “thank you” note? I am so proud and happy for this child.

Because of cases like this one, I want to emphasize that when we look at a child’s Ed-Psyche report, we should always keep in mind the words of our psychologist who assessed this child: he wrote, “the overall results of this assessment should be seen as only providing an estimate of the child’s intellectual abilities at this point in time. His/Her true intellectual abilities may be higher.”

The socially inept “slow learner” of last year is today’s athletic, popular, and successful student!

We hope these talks will help parents to better understand what the factors for achieving academic success are for students who are English learners (ESL) and are new to the country. It is estimated that five percent of these ESL student have a language-based learning disability of some sort–the same percentage as in the mainstream population. It is only through public education and making parents and educators aware of the existence of this problem that the affected ESL students will receive appropriate intervention.

The deadline for purchasing tickets to the talks is quickly approaching. Call our office at 604-222-1688 and my wonderful assistant, Annie, will be able to help you.

See the Chinese talk prelim outline copy.

It was a very cozy and pleasant gathering. We had the talk (without the slide projector due to technical difficulties!) and a very stimulating discussion afterwards. Of course, there was the delicious Black Forrest cake and pastries and tea too. In short, we all enjoyed ourselves very much. Even my co-workers felt the same way despite of the huge amount of planning and work that went into putting on an event like this. We really do wish that more educators could join us for tea and “shop talk” at Hycroft. It was just so much fun! However, we do know that this is a tense time in our public education system and teachers are overworked and they really do not have that much time to spare. For this reason, we felt really honored to have the number of guests that we had.

So, here is the slide show that was actually not shown on the day of the talk. Yes, “yours truly” (me) brought the wrong projector for the occasion and my guests had to listen to me speak without the slides. In fact, I was so flustered about the absence of the slide projector that I must have been incoherent when I spoke! So, I hope the slides will make up for my performance that evening.

(Please click “HERE“ for the slides.)

The message we want to get across is simply this: LD children do not necessarily have to be in a special school where all the students have LD. With proper support, they can do very well in a regular school setting. The school-based team, working together with an intermediary special education service such as us, can produce some very encouraging results.

Summer is a good time to jump-start LD intervention. Teachers should encourage parents to take advantage of this time to help their children move ahead!

We are having Tea & Talk @ Hycroft for Chinese-speaking parents on May 26^th, 2010. Chinese-speaking parents who find it hard to access special education services due to language barriers should make it a priority to attend this event!

Email us @: events@Learn2ManageLD.com to RSVP.

Dr. Winnifred Tang & Associates Learning Management Inc. is organizing a talk for Chinese-speaking parents which will take place on Wednesday, May 26^th, 2010, from 7:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at Hycroft, home of The University Womens’ Club of Vancouver. There will be a tea reception afterwards so parents will have a chance to chat with all of us from the office of Dr. Winnifred Tang.

Tea & Talk @ Hycroft for Chinese-Speaking parents is intended to be a cozy and leisurely event. We want parents to feel comfortable talking to us about their children’s learning problems. The beautiful setting at Hycroft, hopefully, will help us to achieve this purpose!

Interested parents should contact us as soon as possible to avoid disappointment. All the information is on the flyer.

We have opened an account at HSBC specifically for Tea & Talk @ Hycroft. Parents can go to HSBC directly and make a payment for their tickets. Before they do so, they should email us at events@Learn2ManageLD.com to ensure that the seats are still available. We will send out the HSBC account information upon confirming seat availability.

The registration procedures were designed to reduce unnecessary paper work and communication. We hope you will find this method of registering simple and convenient.

See you at Tea & Talk @ Hycroft on May 26^th at 7:00 p.m.!