Programs
Below are programs that work specifically with children or youth with learning disabilities and gifts. Please use this as a list of resources and not as recommendations. We encourage you to do your own research for each program and choose one that is right for you and your needs.
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Learning Disabilities Association of Toronto District (LDATD)
Toronto, ONThe Learning Disabilities Association of Toronto District (LDATD) is a chapter of the Learning Disabilities Association of Ontario (LDAO) serving the amalgamated City of Toronto. They are a Not for Profit Charity. LDA is committed to creating a society in which people with LDs are able to achieve the full expression of their intellect and abilities and enabled to contribute in the workplace to their fullest.
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The Claremont School
Toronto, ONClaremont School is a small, private elementary school dedicated to teaching students with dyslexia from Grades 2 – 8. Their program has an intensive Language and Math focus. Claremont School has a proven track record in English language education. They use traditional and innovative tools to ensure our graduates are well-prepared for high school and beyond.
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Class In Session
Toronto, ONAt Class In Session they support learners in reading, writing and spelling comprehension strategies. They help students catch up or get ahead of their grade level. They offer scheduled sessions with highly experienced educators and provide detailed assessments outlining next steps for remediation.
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Therapy Spot
Toronto, ONTherapy Spot provides evidence based treatment to children and adults with communication, learning and social emotional difficulties. They offer speech therapy in Toronto as well as group sessions, including a specialized autism therapy treatment program called GABA school. Therapy Spot has now expanded to include a world class team of speech therapists and pathologists.
Their team of highly qualified speech therapists provide one-on-one ABA and IBI therapy utilizing the Early Start Denver Model.
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Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital
Toronto, ONAt Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital, they care for kids with disabilities, kids needing rehabilitation after illness or trauma, kids whose medical complexity requires a kind of care they can’t get elsewhere. Every day, Holland Bloorview’s frontline staff embrace kids with boundless potential and their families and ask “how can we help you achieve your goals?” With a mix of services not offered anywhere else in Ontario, they partner to provide the best interprofessional care within their walls and to prepare families for life beyond them. Through teaching and research, they expand how the best care is defined and take those new insights around the globe.
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Canadian Mothercraft Society
Toronto, ONCITYKIDS is a network of agencies working together to provide single point access, coordinated intake and service delivery to children with special needs and their families.
They serve children from birth to 6 years of age, and children from 6 to 12 years of age attending child care, who reside within the Greater Toronto Area.
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Possibilities Clinic
Toronto, ONThe Possibilities Clinic offers evidence-based medical, coaching, and therapy services to individuals across the lifespan. They are specialists—not generalists—with expertise in ADD and ADHD and disorders that often coexist with attention differences, like Tourette Syndrome, Anxiety Disorders, and Learning Disabilities. They strive to create exciting, inspiring, and sustainable possibilities for you and your family. They don’t focus on plans to “just get by” or to build skills that are “just good enough.” They leverage science and expertise to secure victories as challenges and opportunities arise across the lifespan.
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YMCA Academy
Toronto, ONThe majority of students who attend the YMCA Academy have been diagnosed with a learning disability and all have an Individual Education Plan (IEP) in place.
The Academy is committed to providing students identified as exceptional through the Identification, Placement and Review Committee (IPRC) with all of their accommodations. Our Special Education Supervisor implements a student’s current IEP immediately upon receipt. Each year, amendments are made to the student’s IEP based on feedback from students, staff, parents/guardians, and professionals and medical resources (doctors, Psychological Education Reports, etc.).
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The Reading Foundation
Toronto, Calgary, VancouverThe Reading Foundation’s students receive an experience that is more learning therapy than tutoring thanks to their unique approach and delivery. Unlike traditional tutors, their trained clinicians deliver effective, research-based instruction in specialized programs designed to strengthen the student’s fundamental learning skills when they experience difficulties in reading, spelling, comprehension, writing and math. Their intensive, one-to-one programs are suitable for struggling learners as well as students with learning disabilities. They also provide programming to emerging readers, as well as to students seeking improvement or enrichment of their learning.
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The Donald Berman Yaldei Developmental Center
Montreal, QCThe only one of its kind in Quebec, Yaldei is a not-for-profit developmental centre and school devoted to helping children reach their full potential. Yaldei is comprised of a multi-disciplinary team of experienced therapists and educators dedicated to early intervention treatment, individualized therapies and special education programs for children from birth to 18 years. Their integration of advanced clinical, behavioral, educational and family support services provides children with the opportunity to learn how to walk, talk, play, attend school and lead productive lives as part of their community.
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Banav
Montreal, QCFounded in 2008, Banav is a non-profit organization serving the youth of their community with learning disabilities.
Today, BANAV is running the most attended informal educational program in the Montreal Jewish community on a weekly basis, with around 200 students per year.
At Banav, they look beyond the difficulties, the disabilities, the impediments and the weaknesses and discover the potential and the capability of every student so they achieve learning success.
With the contribution of its Advisory Committee on Special Education, the programs are established in partnership with the different schools and parents according to their needs and goals.
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The Scottish Rite Learning Centres for Children
BC, AB, ON, NSAt the Learning Centres, they help children with dyslexia learn to read. Children are tutored individually utilizing the Orton Gillingham Approach that accommodates their specific learning differences in a one-to-one setting. There is no cost to the child or family. The sessions are generally held after school hours depending on the location.
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Brighton School
Toronto, ONBrighton is a leading private school for learning disabilities in Toronto intentionally designed for elementary and secondary students with learning disabilities. Brighton has set the standard for special education schools in Ontario for the past 18 years. They use best practices, evidence-based teaching methods, and specialized remedial programs in the areas of reading decoding, reading comprehension, math and writing remediation, and social competency development.
The profile of a typical Brighton student is one who learns best in a small group; may have an uneven academic profile; or may experience difficulty with attention, anxiety, memory, language, motivation, or social skills. They may lack confidence or have low self-esteem due to lack of success in a traditional education environment.
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Ruth Rumack’s Learning Space
Toronto, ONRuth Rumack’s Learning Space (RRLS) provides personalized educational support for Pre K-12 students in Toronto, including those with learning differences.
RRLS provides individualized academic and special education support that goes well beyond the role of a standard tutor. The 1-to-1 programming is centered on research-based Direct Instruction programs, and incorporates kinesthetic learning and other creative teaching methods. RRLS’s highly-skilled teachers also provide preparation courses for writing the SSAT, SAT, and ACT.
For 20 years, RRLS’s approach to teaching through sensory and motor activities, combined with tailoring to specific learning styles, has yielded excellent measurable results.
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Arrowsmith School
Toronto, ONArrowsmith School is a privately owned co-educational and non-denominational day school that is dedicated to helping students with specific learning difficulties.
Students who go to Arrowsmith School have been struggling in school – some are just starting their schooling but their experience has already shown a pattern of learning problems. Others have been finding school a challenge for years.
Their program has been of benefit for students having difficulty with reading, writing and mathematics, comprehension, logical reasoning, problem solving, visual and auditory memory, non-verbal learning, attention, processing speed and dyslexia.
Their goal is for our students to become effective, confident and self-directed learners for life and to enable them to achieve their goals of academic and career success..
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Right To Read inquiry
OntarioOn October 3, 2019, the Ontario Human Rights Commission (OHRC) announced a public inquiry into human rights issues that affect students with reading disabilities in Ontario’s public education system. The Right to Read inquiry, which focused on early reading skills, found that Ontario’s public education system is failing students with reading disabilities (such as dyslexia) and many others, by not using evidence-based approaches to teach them to read.
The Right to Read inquiry report highlights how learning to read is not a privilege but a basic and essential human right. The report includes 157 recommendations to the Ministry of Education, school boards and faculties of education on how to address systemic issues that affect the right to learn to read. The report combines research, human rights expertise and lived experience of students, parents and educators to provide recommendations on curriculum and instruction, early screening, reading interventions, accommodation, professional assessments and systemic issues. Implementing the OHRC’s recommendations will ensure more equitable opportunities and outcomes for students in Ontario’s public education system.
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Private Learning Disability Schools
OntarioFind a list of Ontario special needs schools with learning disability support. They provide full-time special needs support for all students in the school, through accommodations, modifications, and remediations.
Learning Disability Summer Camps
Toronto, ONCamps for learning disabled children have been running successfully in many parts of the world, helping children develop better learning patterns. Specially created for children with ADHD, anxiety, and other disorders, these camps are increasingly in demand, as diagnoses of some of these problems climb.
These kids' camps combine learning with a range of fun activities. Learning disabled (LD) kids' camps help children and teenagers with these problems to cope better with academics and gain self-esteem and poise. The staff at learning disabled camps is made up of teaching professionals and adults with experience of working with children who learn differently. Numerous summer and March break programs offer a specialization in specific types of LD, such as autism spectrum disorder.
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NEADS
CanadaSince its founding in 1986, the National Educational Association of Disabled Students (NEADS), has had the mandate to support full access to education and employment for post-secondary students and graduates with disabilities across Canada.
NEADS is a consumer-controlled, cross-disability charitable organization. They represent their constituents through specific projects, resources, research, publications and partnerships. NEADS is governed by a national Board of Directors representative of all of the provinces and territories.
Their work as an organization focuses on three core Strategic Program areas:
Student debt reduction
Student experience in class and on campus
Student and graduate employment
The organization functions collaboratively with post-secondary stakeholders, other non-governmental organizations, employers, disability service providers (on college and university campuses) and communities that can improve opportunities in higher education and the labour market for persons with disabilities in Canada.
Their work includes promoting government programs and services that support higher education for Canadians with disabilities. The Association is a member organization of the Council of Canadians With Disabilities (CCD).