Parents deny learning problems
Behavioural, intellectual, language hurdles ignored
CanWest News Service
Published: Wednesday, October 25, 2006

OTTAWA -- Teacher Barbara White knows how difficult it is to tell parents their child might have learning challenges, and how testy the conversation can become when behaviour problems lead her to recommend a student assessment.

"The behavioural ones are the most difficult because no one likes to believe their sweet little angel isn't behaving perfectly at school," she says. "Right away, they think you want their child put on medication, and that's not the case."

White, a 32-year veteran of Montreal schools, spent many years teaching Grade 4, and saw children who could have benefited from an assessment that never took place because of parental resistance.

"I take the approach, 'I'm a parent myself. I understand your hesitation, your concern.'

"Nobody wants a child to be sick and have something wrong, [but] if they had an earache or a toothache . . . you have to have it checked out." If there is a learning problem, "you need a diagnosis to know how to help."

Psychologists, accompanied by other relevant professionals, lead assessments. They run a battery of tests designed to identify academic skills and learning styles, and assess intellectual functioning, cognitive abilities and problem-solving approaches to determine whether a child has a learning, behavioural or intellectual disability, or a language impairment.

But some parents refuse to have their children participate. "It's usually because they don't want them labelled," says White.

Students with minor learning or behavioural disabilities are often the most difficult to assess and provide assistance to -- and their parents, unlike those with more obviously challenged kids, typically come to school completely unprepared for news of possible problems.

"I feel terribly sorry for parents of those kids with learning disabilities, in particular. It doesn't even occur to them, and they're trying to learn to accept that and work in a system they have no knowledge of," says Catherine Abraham, a North Vancouver parent and longtime advocate for special-education students.

"I had an opportunity to get prepared because I knew my daughter had special needs before she started school."

In B.C., the percentage of students with a special- needs designation is nearing 11 per cent of the total student body in public schools, up from six per cent two decades ago. It hovers at about 14 per cent in Alberta.

© The Vancouver Province 2006