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Making the invisible visible: Helping students with learning disabilities succeed

The Learning Disabilities Association of Sault Ste. Marie kick off third annual awareness month event with flag-planting event

Staff and students at Sault College were on campus in order to plant 1,100 blue flags outside of Essar Hall Wednesday, each one representing a local student that has been identified as living with a learning disability.

The event, organized by the Learning Disabilities Association of Sault Ste. Marie, took place in order to officially mark October as learning disabilities month.

Executive director Mary-Liz Warwick says the theme of this year's event is 'making the invisible visible,' as some learning disabilities aren't easily identifiable. 

“Students who have a learning disability have average to above average intelligence,” said Warwick. “They just often struggle in one part of school, and there’s no reason why they can’t be successful.”

“It often just means they need some accommodations, like assistive technology,” she continued. “By creating awareness, we hope to help these students self-advocate for the accommodations they need, and also reduce the stigma.”

Warwick says that although there are currently more than a thousand students living in Sault Ste. Marie that have been identified as living with a learning disability, there are probably more students locally who live with a disability flying under the radar.

“Those are just students who have been identified, there’s certainly students who cannot be identified, or maybe don’t even realize they have a learning disability,” Warwick said.

The Learning Disabilities Association of Sault Ste. Marie offers a number of services through the organization’s resource facilitator, including programs for children in order to help them develop social skills and self-advocacy skills.

Warwick says that the programs are a response to the parents of children with learning disabilities, who often struggle to navigate the education system.

While Sault College donates office space for the association to work out of, Warwick told SooToday that the organization also attends school meetings that targets not only students with identified learning disabilities, but their classmates as well.

“Any workshop we do for general awareness takes place with every child,” said Warwick. “We just don’t pull out students with learning disabilities, so the idea is that every child learns about learning disabilities - what they are, what they aren’t, what it feels like to have one.”

A flag raising ceremony also took place at city hall Wednesday afternoon to mark Learning Disabilities Awareness Month locally.

The event, now in its third year in northern Ontario, is held regionally in Sudbury, North Bay, Sault Ste. Marie and Timmins.


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James Hopkin

About the Author: James Hopkin

James Hopkin is a reporter for SooToday in Sault Ste. Marie
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