By Alex Wilks, Special to Peace Arch News
Growing older presents new and sometimes confusing challenges, but for eight-year-old Rylan Campbell, these challenges are something he is quickly growing to overcome.
Rylan has learning disabilities. Compared to most children his age, he struggles more with his reading and printing skills. School in the past has been both socially and academically challenging for him.
“I like to go swimming when I’m not at school,” Rylan says shyly as he fiddles with a plastic cup.
He also enjoys cooking with his mom, baking cakes and preparing salads.
Asked to describe school, Rylan stops giggling just long enough to say, “school is about learning.”
His mother, Michelle Campbell, noticed around the age of two that Rylan was reaching his milestones much later than her older son did.
“The language wasn’t there and the focusing wasn’t there and interaction with playing with toys wasn’t there,” she said in an interview. “You could just tell that something was a little bit different.”
When Rylan started going to school, “he was having some struggles socially, behaviourally and academically,” Campbell said. “It was hard to get the help.”
More than three per cent of Canadian children have a learning disability, according to Statistics Canada. The phrase ‘learning disabilities’ is an umbrella term that is used to describe various disorders that can affect a person’s ability to read, write, listen and speak, as well as affect the comprehension skills needed to retain information or do math problems.
A person can have above-average intelligence and still struggle to keep up with peers. The Learning Disabilities Association of Canada notes that one in 10 Canadians has some form of learning disability.
“There’s just not that one-on-one help in the classroom,” Campbell said. “It’s just hard having 26 kids and one teacher.”
When Campbell stumbled across the Learning Disabilities Association Fraser South webpage, she thought to herself, “Oh my goodness, is this a sign?”
The association is a registered charity dedicated to providing programs and support for children with learning disabilities. Programs include a one-on-one tutoring service for math, writing, reading, keyboard typing and seminars in the summer on steps to success.
Although the resource centre is located in Surrey, the association serves other regions including White Rock, Delta, Langley and Abbotsford. It is governed by a volunteer board and receives no core government funding, relying mainly on donations.
“(Rylan) loves the teacher he is working with, it has built up his confidence,” Campbell said. “I’ll never forget the first day I told him about it… He had been asking me ‘Mommy I want to learn how to read.’ I’ve never seen such a big grin on his face.”
Tania Wittal, the association’s resource and program co-ordinator, oversees tutoring services.
“Kids with learning disabilities look like everybody else, they act like they’re a typical child in many respects and they have many strengths in a lot of areas, but they somehow fail to succeed at school,” Wittal said. “There are a lot of misconceptions about why (children) are not succeeding, and sometimes people think it’s poor parenting, not reading enough at home with the child, maybe the children is not smart enough or maybe the child is lazy.
“Because of these misconceptions that get attached to learning disabilities, parents just don’t know where to go.”
Rylan started his one-on-one tutoring last October, and his mother has seen the progress.
“He’s having more confidence,” she said. “He’s not afraid to take the chance to read a word.”
Campbell said confidence was one of Rylan’s greatest obstacles to overcome.
“As he has built the confidence, he knows he can do it,” she said. “Before, his teacher would say ‘Well, he would n ever raise his hand,’ and now slowly the hand’s coming up.”
Campbell explained that in school every child learns so differently, yet there are set expectations that are put into place when it comes down to how quick the child is expected to learn. Rylan’s tutoring offers a wide-range of techniques modelled to fit his speed of learning.
“I’m just really pleased that if one method doesn’t work, (the tutor) has backups”, Campbell said.
“She just makes it really fun.”
Raman Badesha, 20, has been working with Rylan since he started the program.
“I don’t measure the sessions’ accomplishments by how much work he has completed, but rather how well he thinks he did and how well he thinks he learned,” Badesha said. “He’s such a great kid to work with, I always look forward to our sessions. He always makes predictions about what he thinks is going to happen in the books that we are reading.
“I think that one of the key things that we must take into account when tutoring someone, is making sure that we connect with them and they connect with us.”
For Jackson Russell, a self-advocate for dyslexia, his learning disability hasn’t limited his ability to make such connections.
But while the 13-year-old enjoys skateboarding and hockey, he has not always enjoyed reading.
“In Grade 4 and 5, I didn’t really like to take out books or read that much,” he says.
“But after I starting doing the (tutoring) I started to like to read more.”
At his tutoring sessions, Jackson learns “how to write proper paragraphs and sentences and read slower and more fluent.”
For his school science fair, he is making a “bottle rocket.”
“Science is fun again,” Jackson says.
Aaron Cruz, 25, tutored Jackson for two years at the learning centre.
“My experience working with Jackson and watching him progress has been a joyful one,” he said.
“He is smart, kind, creative and (a) well-behaved young man.”
“Persistence, practise and patience,” have been the major stepping stones for him, Cruz said.
“Jackson worked very hard during our time together and he understands that progress does not happen overnight.”
Said his mother, Kimberley Tipert: “As far as socially, he’s a very well-adapted kid; his learning disability basically hasn’t affected him.
“His biggest hurdle has been narrowing that gap between where he is because of his learning disability and where his peers are.”
For more information on tutoring programs offered through the Learning Disabilities Association Fraser South, visit www.ldafs.org or call 604-591-5156.