A recent succession of victories is evidence that we have developed a supportive, balanced learning “ecosystem”. Within the last few days tutors have reported their student achieving grades at the 90% level.
Why all the excitement?
Well, the learning history of this student in question, to say the least, had been turbulent during the last term — the student’s first year in grade 8. The original tutors, due to unexpected circumstances, quit just before Christmas of last year. Our ecosystem of tutors reflected the stress of an unbalanced habitat. Thank God, after some scrambling on my part, we now have a highly efficient and productive team. The truth is: the team members are great. They love working together and they are all eager to share notes and to help each other out. The synergy is fantastic. As the case manager, I must say that these tutors have “done me proud.”
The concept of the “ecosystem” as applied to learning management for LD students is quite unique. I don’t know if any of my professional colleagues are “into” this concept. However, doing LD case management guided by the “ecosystem” idea had clearly worked for us. We are seeing great results. We have also been successful in creating a culture of cooperation and collaborative learning.
This has been a great day! I am “tutor happy” and “tutor proud.”

Steve Jobs is gone forever. His contribution to special education lives on, however.

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.

We have recently started publishing a newsletter for educators in our area and in this issue, we shared one of our success stories with a Chinese girl who is from an ESL-speaking background.  This girl is quite severely learning disabled and yet within a year, she has made some tremendous progress. Most encouraging of all is the fact that her attitude towards learning has improved as did her social-emotional well being!

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.

Over the years, I have come across many cases where Chinese-speaking parents do not know how to access special educations for their learning disabled children. As a result, precious time for learning is lost and the children often suffer from all kinds of emotional issues, and amongst them is low self-esteem. This really saddens me. In fact, this bothers me so much that I will do something about it!

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.!

Before the Christmas holidays, our organization ⎯ Dr. Winnifred Tang & Associates Learning Management Inc. ⎯ was invited to be included in the Community Healthcare and Resource Directory (CHARD) in 2010.

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!!!

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I have been invited by S.U.C.C.E.S.S. to give a talk on dyslexia in Cantonese in early April. The details are available on the dyslexia-talk. For a long time, parents who do not speak English struggle to make sense of dyslexia without the benefit of having literature that explains this medical condition adequately. As a result, there is a great deal of misunderstanding and unnecessary fear.

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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