Published in the Globe and Mail, January 31, 2019
Re Canada’s Shortfall In Basic Skills Costs Us All (Jan. 25): Dyslexia is the elephant in the room when there is discussion of low literacy. Dyslexia affects, by the Ontario Ministry of Education’s own admission, 6 per cent to 17 per cent of students. That is at least one in 15 kids for whom the way reading is taught in our schools does not work.
How can we continue to deny all those children the equivalent of their “ramp” into our educational system?
Reading is fundamental to education, literacy and success in life. Helping these students learn to read by using proven, researched instruction methods in our schools would go a long way to improving literacy in Canada.
Our grassroots volunteer organization hears from families every day looking for but not finding help for otherwise bright, hard-working children who struggle with reading. Effectively addressing dyslexia in our schools must be part of the solution to the literacy skills shortfall.
Riina Makk, President, Decoding Dyslexia Ontario; Victoria Harbour, Ont.
Decoding Dyslexia Ontario 