Vernon tutors celebrate half-century of overcoming learning disabilities

Vernon LDA

Special to The Morning Star

For 50 years the Vernon Learning Disabilities Association (LDA) has been able to help students with learning differences, as well as offering support to their parents. Our efforts have been possible thanks to the generous support shown to the Learning Disabilities Association by the people of Vernon and surrounding communities. We want you to know of our deep gratitude.

The most recent example of what local support has made possible was the presentation of the $500 David Sager Bursary to Naolin Penner. This fund was created by members of the Sager family in honour of their family member whose education was greatly helped by the work of the Vernon LDA. The bursary money will be used by Penner to continue his studies beyond Grade 12. Following his graduation from Seaton Secondary School this year, Penner has enrolled in a two-year diploma program, Infrastructure and Computer Technology, at Okanagan College. After graduation from this program, he will be qualified to work in IT and telecommunication positions. We wish him every success.

As we celebrate the 50 years of working to help students with learning disabilities, we have been able to share many memories from the history of the association, which began in Armstrong. There, a group of parents of learning-different students, began to look for ways to support these students, and to enable the students to become successful in their lives.

Lloyd Mitchell, Dr. Art Sovereign and Betty Mason are three advisors whose actions eventually led to the formation of what was to become the Vernon Learning Disabilities Association. Much of the work done by these three people was groundbreaking. Their early work involved the students in programs to develop their physical and social skills. The parents of these students were offered opportunities to learn about learning disabilities. It was the interest of the parents which led to the set-up of monthly meetings to help give a better understanding of the nature of learning disabilities.

All three of the early advisors, Mitchell, Sovereign and Mason, were later made Life Members of the LDA. The Vernon branch was among the first registered chapters in B.C.

The list of significant figures in the history of our 50 years could continue for some time, naming tutors, educators, parents, charitable groups and foundations, such as The Foord Foundation, and volunteers, who have all made life more successful for a long list of our students and their families. Because of the continuing support offered by citizens of our area we are one of the three remaining branches of the LDA of B.C.

The role of the association has undergone big changes over the past 50 years. In part this is because we now know so much more about the nature of learning. Learning disabilities are lifelong challenges with reading, writing and math. The problems are now understood to be the result of biological differences. Between five and 15 per cent of people have a learning disability.

Today the association offers services to students, providing one-on-one tutoring to students, both during the school year and in the summer vacation. The instructional methods and materials used by our tutors are designed to best help each student learn to use their abilities to overcome their learning challenges. We also continue to offer assistance to families to enable them to understand the difficulties their students might face in dealing with their particular learning differences.

For the past several years we have been able to offer the summer tutoring service at no charge, thanks to the generous donation in memory of Anne Wellburn, an Armstrong member of our founding group, and a long-term volunteer. Ongoing support from the Foord Family Foundation, for the past several years, has made it possible for the LDA to offer supported tutoring to students whose families have faced greater financial need. Even when we charge for our tutoring services, the rate charged, $30 per hour, is significantly lower than the charge for private tutoring services. This rate has not changed, despite the major economic challenges we are all facing.

Another important service we have been able to offer students is assessments, in order to provide appropriate interventions to address their specific learning challenges. Such assessments are not as readily available from the school system as they have been in the past. Private educational assessments and psychological evaluations are available, but families can be faced with a cost of more than $1,000 for the service, and often very much more. Clearly, not all families can use services at such costs. At the Vernon Learning Disabilities Association we continue to work toward fulfilling our mission statement, "To advance the education, employment, social development, legal rights and general well-being of people with learning disabilities."

The Vernon LDA publishes a monthly newsletter for parents and supporters. Through this publication we hope to help keep our members up-to-date on the research currently being undertaken, and on the latest instructional methods, and materials, especially designed to use the skills the student has, in order to overcome any hurdles to brain function. Major advances are currently being made as a result of MRIs to observe brain activity, for example. Although students with learning challenges have shown in such scans to have differences in brain activity during reading, writing and math instruction, they also reveal average or above-average intelligence.

As part of the celebration of our 50 years we want to sincerely thank all of those in the area who have offered us their support in the past, and who continue to do so today. We are very aware that we could not do this very meaningful work without your help.