It recently occurred to Robert Wright that he likely has dyslexia.
The 60-year-old Squamish local read an editorial about the learning challenge in The Squamish Chief and says it has "changed his life" to realize that maybe he just learns differently.
The Yale Centre for Dyslexia and Creativity defines dyslexia as “an unexpected difficulty in learning to read. Dyslexia takes away an individual’s ability to read quickly and automatically, and to retrieve spoken words easily, but it does not dampen their creativity and ingenuity.”
Wright said he has lived a good life, but he would often delegate tasks that involved reading and would recoil at having to fill out forms, such as at the doctor's office.
No one ever tested him, he said, he just struggled along thinking there was something wrong with him. It is a relief to know it was likely just a learning difference.
“It is wonderful to know that at this time of my life,” he said.
While Wright has a positive outlook, ideally, dyslexia is discovered in childhood.
Dyslexia misunderstood
Neil Johnston’s two kids have been diagnosed with dyslexia.
He said the learning challenge is generally misunderstood in society.
"I think, unfortunately, there's a stigma that can be attached to dyslexia, which does not reflect reality, which ties into [it being a] reflection on kids' potential or their intelligence," he said.
Johnston is also CEO of the private, non-profit school Fraser Academy in Vancouver, which specializes in teaching students from Grades 1 through 12 with language-based learning disabilities, like dyslexia.
He said several students from Squamish and Whistler have attended the school.
Johnston said early screening is key to ensuring your child doesn't fall through the cracks.
About 20% of the population has dyslexia, but 80% go undiagnosed, he said.
His own kids weren't diagnosed until quite late in their school lives.
"We were part of 80%. Both of our kids were diagnosed at Grade 11. Luckily, I ended up working at an organization that is a real jewel in this province and country in this field. So, I know they have the support that they need, but so many people don't."
Johnston explains dyslexia this way: "The brain's wired for language and for people with dyslexia, the brain is wired differently. So, they process information differently. It is no reflection on their intelligence or the many strengths that they have."
Johnston and others we spoke to for this story say that many students with dyslexia are not getting the help they need in public schools in B.C., including within the Sea to Sky school district.
| Category | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 |
| Q | 95 | 110 | 136 | 170 | 219 |
| All designations | 423 | 480 | 560 | 628 | 728 |
Chart via SD48
Sea to Sky school district by the numbers
The Sea to Sky school district’s Phil Clarke, director of instruction for learning services, told The Squamish Chief in a written statement that from 2019 to 2023, the number of students in the district with a “Q” designation, meaning students with learning disabilities, went from 95 in 2019 to 219 in 2023. This category does not just include dyslexia, Clarke noted, but rather all learning challenges.
There are currently just over 5,200 students in the district; there were just shy of 5,000 in 2019.
The cost of help
Tara-Leigh Cain is a registered occupational therapist and clinic director at Squamish's Play In Motion Child Development Centre, a private clinic with various pediatric therapists.
Cain says referrals to the centre have gone up for literacy, and reading written outputs, based on a diagnosis of dyslexia.
Cain is also the parent of a child with a dyslexia diagnosis.
She said she has seen firsthand the struggle to get a child in local schools diagnosed.
The student needs a psycho-educational assessment to be completed and, from her experience, the child's difficulties coping have to be quite pronounced to get one for free through the school district.
Cain said that parents who can, will get one done privately, for $2,000 or more.
"Some kids are waiting three, four, five, six years to have one done in the school system," she said.
"I was just thankful that I had the finances to be able to go out and seek something that the school district wasn't providing me. I had the money to get the therapy and tutoring that she needs," she said.
She also noted she had to drive to North Vancouver for a few weeks to get the assessment done, which is not an easy thing for all families to do either.
And just getting her child assessed was a nine-month wait.
Cain and most of the experts The Squamish Chief spoke to said it would be best to have screenings done on children in kindergarten and Grade 1, to save them the struggles later on.
According to the school district’s Clarke, currently there are 2.5 full-time equivalent (FTE) speech and language pathologists working within the school district.
He noted the target is three.
“However, this is a hard-to-fill position. Over the last five years, the district has had between 3.0 and 1.0 FTE psychologists. We are always actively recruiting for this position,” he said.
“We have also worked with some outside agencies to provide additional assessment services for schools and families to keep up with assessments. It is important to note that school psychologists do not just do assessments for learning disabilities.”
Clarke did not say how many psycho-educational assessments are done within the school district or what percentage of the whole population is tested.
Signs of dyslexia
Heather Campbell is a speech-language pathologist who has a private practice in Squamish.
She said some early signs of dyslexia include difficulty learning basic rhymes or little poems, producing rhyming words, and identifying words that rhyme and don't rhyme. Some other early phonological awareness skills may also be lacking, like being able to clap out syllables in words or identifying sounds in words; difficulty learning the names of letters and learning the sounds that the letters represent.
"That kind of playing with sounds and words and language that a lot of kids do naturally, kids who are at risk for dyslexia, really have trouble with that awareness of sounds and words."
In older kids, in addition to the phonological awareness deficit seen in younger kids, which persists, parents and teachers may see a reluctance to read out loud.
"Because they're very aware that they're not reading as fluently and automatically and accurately as their peers, so they want to avoid that at all costs," Campbell said, adding that older kids who struggle become really good at the "guess and go" strategy.
They'll sound out maybe the first sound in a word, and then just throw a word out there based on the context of the story, or based on what they see in the picture, but they're not really reading it, she explained.
"Often, kids with dyslexia have really good oral language skills. So, they can use those language skills to fill in the blanks and to help them become really good guessers so it looks like they're reading, but they're not reading very well."
Not parents' fault
Campbell said an incorrect assumption is that a child's dyslexia is their parents' fault, perhaps because they did not read with their child enough at home.
"While reading to your kids at home is absolutely going to help them learn some print concepts and develop the vocabulary, it is not going to teach them how to read. So it's not the parent's fault. That's not the problem," she said.
It is also not true that kids who struggle to read are just lazy.
"They're not lazy; they just can't do it. So they don't want to do it," she said.
Campbell echoed Cain's assertion that the need has increased in the Sea to Sky.
"I've seen an increase since COVID," she said.
"I think just that interruption and gap in education really impacted the kids who were already struggling, and then ... parents had the kids home and could actually see firsthand, I think, the struggles that their kids were having."
She has a waitlist of students wanting her help.
"Squamish is a small community; we just don't have enough interventionists," she said, noting there are a few Orton Gillingham tutors in town. These are specialized tutors who help students with reading difficulties. They focus on teaching to read at the word level.
She also echoed others The Squamish Chief spoke to, saying that early screening would be ideal.
But more screening alone wouldn't solve the problem, she said.
"Screening would be great, but then what do we do with the data? How do we move the struggling readers ahead so that they can catch up? I think there would need to be some better or lengthier teacher college training ... about the science of reading and spelling and literacy."
Provincial perspective
Cathy McMillan, founding member of Dyslexia BC, has been fighting for a change to the way public schools in this province work with kids with dyslexia, like her daughter.
McMillan herself also has dyslexia.
She recently wrote a letter to Minister of Education and Child Care, Rachna Singh, outlining her organization's concerns and wishes.
A Dyslexia BC-organized rally was held on the British Columbia Parliament Building grounds in Victoria on Oct. 3, calling for more support for students with dyslexia.
McMillan calls on the provincial government to fund dyslexia screening starting in kindergarten, incorporate evidence-based instructional methods in classrooms that are better geared to dyslexic students, provide dyslexia-specific teacher training, and allocate adequate resources to dyslexic students.
McMillan said at least 10% of kids should be getting psycho-educational assessments to test for dyslexia and other learning disabilities.
She added that the U.S. public education system is far ahead of B.C. on how it helps students with dyslexia, pointing to a State of Dyslexia map that shows which states have dyslexia policies (all) and early screening (almost all).
Science of Reading?
McMillan supports a way of teaching reading called the Science of Reading, which includes phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension. It is based on five decades of research on how people best learn to read.
This is not what is used in B.C. public schools, she said.
Further, McMillan said, in the Sea to Sky School district, parents tell her that their kids can't have an Individualized Education Plan (IEP) because the district is using Universal Design for Learning, and their kids will get the same resources as all the kids.
This doesn't cut it for kids who need specialized resources to tackle the challenges of dyslexia, she said.
Another thing she has heard from local parents is that dyslexic kids have to take a second language—French—even though their diagnosis recommends that they don't.
"Dyslexia is a language-based learning disability, and literally the disability is with language, even your first language," McMillan said in a follow-up email to The Squamish Chief.
"It is often recommended to use the French block for a resource block; it would be like exempting someone in a wheelchair from gym class so that they could go to their physiotherapy classes."
Asked specifically about these issues, SD48’s Clarke didn’t answer directly, but stressed the importance of parents working with class teachers to help individual students.
“It is important to know that if parents or guardians have any questions about their education, they should start by having a conversation with the classroom teacher(s). Teachers work to create neuro-affirming, trauma-sensitive environments to support all students,” he said in the emailed statement to The Squamish Chief.
“When teachers require additional support to meet the needs of the students in their classrooms, they rely on the collaborative model of support, which brings teachers together for purposeful dialogue using data to plan invisible interventions within the classroom," he said.
Some students who have an Individualized Education Plan may have additional specialist teachers supporting them and their classroom teacher. These teachers, or case managers can also be contacted to discuss strengths stretches and interventions for students, especially those with IEPs, noted Clarke.
"It is worth emphasizing that you do not need an IEP to get support or interventions. Our classroom teachers work hard to provide individualized support for all their students. They also can co-plan and co-teacher with several specialist teachers and support staff. Teachers are regularly assessing their students to determine each student's specific needs,” Clarke said.
Clarke noted that the school district’s philosophy is: “Safe, purposeful, and powerful learning environments require the enduring understanding that inclusion is a basic human right, diversity is a strength that benefits everyone, and personalization is essential.”
What does the Ministry of Education and Child Care say?
Asked if it was possible for the ministry to require schools to screen students in kindergarten or Grade 1, the ministry spokesperson didn’t answer directly.
“We know that some students continue to experience barriers in our schools,” reads the statement from the ministry.
“Those who struggle with reading and writing are at a big disadvantage in our educational system and in society. The Ministry of Education and Child Care has met with Dyslexia BC and is working closely with education partners, experts, and advocates to identify next steps we can take on this issue that will work best in B.C. to support struggling students, teachers, families and school districts.”
Asked what percentage of students are screened in B.C., the ministry did not provide that information, but said that the governance model for British Columbia’s kindergarten-to-Grade 12 education system gives locally elected boards of education authority to determine the delivery of education programs in their schools. “This includes decisions related to resource allocations, human resources and specific student services.”
Asked about the lack of psych assessments noted by sources for this story, the ministry echoed what Clarke said, noting that these assessments are not required in order for students to get the help they need.
“Services and supports are also not dependent on a psycho-educational assessment and school districts provide supports and services to students regardless of a completed psycho-educational assessment,” the spokesperson said.
“The results of the assessments are just one piece of information provided to the school-based team to support educational planning. Nonetheless, we recognize the frustration of families and appreciate their concerns.”
Asked if the ministry was considering a switch to the science of reading approach, the ministry spokesperson said: “We will continue to take an evidence-based approach to bringing the best resources and approaches into B.C. schools, while working with our educational partners.”
In response to the assertion perhaps teachers aren’t trained enough specifically about dyslexia, the spokesperson said, in part, “Across the K-to-12 public school system, educators use a variety of approaches—such as universal design and differentiated instruction—to address the learning needs of all students.”
The spokesperson noted that teachers have professional development days for further learning, and “internationally trained teachers are evaluated on whether their credentials include studies on supporting students with diverse abilities and are required to take additional coursework if their professional preparation does not meet requirements.”
“There is also more work to be done, and the BC Teachers’ Council is the educational partner table at which discussions about training for teachers in schools of education take place. We look forward to working with them to continue to improve training for educators in B.C.,” the spokesperson added.
A spokesperson for Simon Fraser University, which offers post-secondary teacher training, told The Squamish Chief that preparing its students to become successful educators in diverse classroom settings is an essential part of education programs.
“SFU’s Faculty of Education offers several courses that address aspects of learning disabilities, including offering a minor in learning and developmental disabilities that can be added to any education degree,” wrote a spokesperson in an emailed statement.
“Students in this program explore an interdisciplinary approach to the health, education and care of infants, children and adults with disabilities.”
Success is possible
While many with dyslexia struggle, there are positive outcomes.
The parents noted in this story saw their children succeed once they received an appropriate diagnosis and guidance.
For Johnston's children, the diagnosis and followup support at Fraser Academy have made a big difference. For one of his children, it has been a "night and day" difference, while for the other, "it helped make really positive gains in areas that they were struggling," he said.
Johnston notes that many wildly successful entrepreneurs, including Richard Branson, have dyslexia.
"They're great complex solvers and they can see the big picture," Johnston said.
Research seems to back up the idea that the skills used to overcome dyslexia can give some folks strengths that help them succeed.
"There is a significantly higher incidence of dyslexia in entrepreneurs than in the corporate management and general U.S. and U.K. populations, and some of the strategies they adopt to overcome dyslexia—such as delegation of tasks—may be useful in business," reads a 2009 University of London study.
Cain's advice for parents is to become your child's strong advocate.
"All we can do is be the best advocates for our kids. And if you've got your gut feeling, OK, they're not catching up and not where they should be. They're not reading as smoothly or they seem to be struggling with this, despite all of our practice or whatnot, the squeaky wheel gets the grease," she said. "There are definitely services out there that can help if the parents have the finances and the ability to go get them, but many don't. So, right now, my advice would be question the teachers, talk to the teachers."
Advocate for your kids until they are sick of seeing you, she said.
October is Dyslexia Awareness Month.
**Please note that this story has been corrected since it was first posted. Heather Campbell is a speech-language pathologist who has a private practice in Squamish. She does not work for Play in Motion, as originally stated. The Squamish Chief apologizes for this error.
