On December the 4th 2017 CADDAC met with Minister Fleming and his staff to discuss ADHD in BC schools, our recent policy paper, and rumours that the highly anticipated new BC Special Education guidelines, placing ADHD in a standalone category, would not be released.
Here is a summary of what the Minister and his staff shared with CADDAC.
The guidelines in special education have been delayed due the change in government and a full review going forward in K to 12 funding. CADDAC was assured many times that changes to the new Special Education Guidelines, incorporating the changes in DSM 5 resulting in the inclusion of ADHD as a standalone category, are not being considered for removable. They are not looking at preventing this due to the restoration of old language of class composition in the teachers’ contract. There has been no conversation on their part regarding limiting designations of special needs students. They have been focusing on hiring more educators to meet these students’ needs.
During the process of reviewing funding they will be reaching out to stakeholder groups after they complete their financial consultation. They will be informing CADDAC on a timeline for submissions.
Deputy Minister Laura Sampson will be staying in touch to up-date CADDAC on these issues.
The Ministry is aware that their web site information on ADHD for educators is out-dated. They are in the process of developing up-dated information.
This question is being asked and answered in our recent policy paper, Inequitable Access to Education for Canadian Students with ADHD.
Also access our Media Release and a Summary of our key messages.
During the morning of October the 3rd, CBC's "The Current" hosted the call in show "Is the public school system working for kids with special needs. They asked for people to continue contacting them about this topic.
I'd like to encourage everyone to contact CBC and share your thoughts and the experiences of your children with ADHD in Canadian school systems. There was very little said about ADHD during the 90 minute show.
You can listen to the full episode here, http://www.cbc.ca/radio/thecurrent/the-current-for-october-2-2017-a-national-call-in-special-1.4317150
You can share your thoughts here, http://www.cbc.ca/radio/thecurrent/contact via e-mail, Facebook or twitter.
We need to get our voices out there!
If this topic is near and dear to your heart we need to hear your story!
CADDAC continues to receive calls on a fairly consistent basis from parents across the country expressing concern about their child’s education. Many have tried for years to work with their child’s school to put strategies and accommodations in place. They are extremely frustrated about the lack of recognition that ADHD can significantly impact a child’s learning and the void in training for educators.
If these issues are of interest to you, you need to add your voice to our 2017 ADHD Awareness Month Campaign and advocacy efforts. While Awareness Month will be the launch, we anticipate this campaign to extend throughout the next year. We are aware that most often we are contacted about the worst situations and rarely hear about the successes. So, we also want to hear your positive comments.
Although our knowledge on how ADHD impacts learning has expanded significantly in the past twenty-five years, little has changed in how schools, school boards and Ministries of Education address student’s learning needs. While some educators have great insight into why and how students with ADHD are impaired and strive to support them, others still label students with ADHD as lazy, unmotivated and defiant. School boards and teacher education programs continue to spend very little time training educators and administrators on ADHD even when on average there are at least 2 to 3 children with ADHD in every classroom.
For the past twenty years CADDAC and its representatives has been meeting with Ministries of Education attempting to bring change to the way students with ADHD are recognized, understood and serviced. Ministries of Education that identify students with disabilities as exceptional learners continue to systemically exclude ADHD in their categories of exceptionality. However, whichever provincial special education system is in place, the continued lack of training for educators is a commonality across all provinces.
So, during this year’s ADHD Awareness Month, in October, CADDAC will be launching a campaign to bring more awareness to the impact of ADHD on learning, the lack of educator training, the lack of school services for students with ADHD, and the continued stigmatization of students with ADHD is some schools. At the same time we would like to highlight schools that do a great job of supporting our kids with ADHD, because we know that it can be done.
After meeting with Ministries, boards and government officials for years only to be told that the continual concern we hear from parents about their child’s learning and their frustration at the schools’ lack of understanding, knowledge and services is just hearsay, we think it is about time they hear it from you.
In preparation to the launch of this campaign CADDAC is requesting that you send us your stories. They can be brief or as lengthy as you like. Tell us about your experiences, good and bad. Tell us about your efforts to be heard, your frustrations and your successes. Let us know about the teacher who really “got your child” and made your child’s year. Essentially we want to hear whatever you would like say on this issue.
We completely understand that this can be a very emotional issue for some, but we do ask that you not name individual schools or boards. Since these stories will be collected, collated and eventually shared with policy makers you may wish to send your letter anonymously. If this is the case, please do not place your name at the bottom of your document. However, also remember that a signed document holds more weight. Also, it is about time that we openly address these issues and refuse to accept the stigma that many feel is still attached to ADHD.
Please send your stories to advocacy@caddac.ca either in the body of the e-mail or as an attachment.
Stay tuned for additional up-dates on this campaign through or blog post, web site or through our e-mails.
Please also join the discussion on this topic though our Facebook page.
Warm regards,
Heidi Bernhardt
It was with great interest that I reviewed an Australian study looking at academic achievement in students with ADHD during the period from childhood to adolescence. Having spent the last twenty years speaking with researchers, parents, educators, school boards and Ministries of Education across Canada I firmly believe that this study highlights the same situation that we have here in Canada.
The study published in the Journal of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics showed that 40% of students with ADHD were not reaching minimum standards for literacy and numeracy in at least one academic area such as writing or math. Based on test results in year seven, which is equivalent to our grade seven, 73% of students with ADHD had a problem with writing and almost a quarter scored below the minimum standard. By year nine things had become worse; 54% of students still had difficulties, however now 37.5% did not reach the minimum standard. What was also interesting was the fact that boys had far greater difficulty with writing than girls. The lead researcher, Nardia Zendarski said that they had expected to see a gap in academic success for students with ADHD, but not such a large gap.
Professor Harriet Hiscock, a consulting paediatrician with the Murdoch Children's Research Institute that ran the study, said problems arose for students with ADHD particularly in English subjects, due to issues with writing, spelling and grammar. "They're quite sophisticated things that we learn how to do," she said. The frontal lobe of the brain, which we know is not as developed in children with ADHD, is used in this type of task.
Remarkably, 75% of children looked at in the study were on medication to increase their attention. This fact led Ms. Zendarski to state, "ADHD medication has its place but it doesn't seem to improve long-term academic outcomes … it doesn't address the core academic skills." She went on to say, "We should stop focusing on the argument around whether these kids should be medicated or not and start focusing on providing services and support that they need to reach their full potential. These programs could be used to support all kids with learning difficulties.”
"We need to look further back and see when the problems start — do these problems start for kids as early as grade one?" said Professor Hiscock. "And if they're not picked up and addressed, particularly in primary school, then these kids get into high school where it becomes harder, the work becomes more complex. So we're seeing the problems become worse."
Professor Hiscock went on the say, “The solution is not clear cut, but better support and training of teachers would be a good start. More support around literacy and numeracy teaching, probably it's got to be small groups, more individualised teaching."
Tracy-Ann Pettigrew a mother with two sons with ADHD went back to university to study special education in order to assist her sons with school. There's not a lot of understanding by mainstream teachers about how to teach kids with additional learning needs and it's a tough gig," she said. "I am hoping that this will facilitate some meaningful change, so that teachers can learn the skills that they need to learn to be able to support these kids."
Ms Zendarski closed by says, “As education is a key determinant of overall quality of life and health, I can't think of a better area to concentrate our efforts,"
Access the Institute’s REPORT
Access articles on the study:
A new Huffington Post article is talking about changes coming to the BC Special Education Guidelines that will allow students with ADHD, who present learning needs, to be identified under the learning disability (LD) category. This may not seem like a huge change, but parents of children with ADHD in BC and CADDAC have long been advocating for this change. In fact, CADDAC has been advocating for this change to occur in Ontario since our inception in 2005.
What does this change mean and why did it come about?
In the past system, students with ADHD in BC, who were struggling at school, were denied recognition as exception students (learners) because ADHD was not listed under a category. This recognition allows students access to special education resources and an Individual Education Plan (IEP). By placing ADHD under the LD category the Ministry of Education in BC has acknowledged recent changes in the DSM 5 (the document that defines mental health and neurological disorders) which now categorizes ADHD as a neurodevelopmental disorder, rather than a behaviour disorder. Learning disabilities have long been recognized as neurodevelopmental disorders. Although ADHD is not an actual learning disability it can significantly impair learning even without an LD being present.
Unfortunately, CADDAC continues to receive countless calls from parents in Ontario frustrated that their children are still being barred from being recognized as exceptional learners, many also being denied an IEP. Although a 2011 Ontario Ministry Memorandum states that a student with ADHD presenting learning needs should not be barred from being recognized as an exceptional learner, this is still routinely occurring.
You see, school boards are entitled to set the bar of learning impairment (how impaired a student must be to be recognized as an exceptional learner) wherever they like. There is no requirement for school boards to document this, so decisions are often quite arbitrary and difficult for parents to challenge. This is resulting in little consistency across boards or even within the same school board. Even though the Ministry’s 2011 memorandum exists, we continue to receive calls from parents who are told that their board does not recognize students with ADHD, period. The latest parent I spoke with, who also happened to be a teacher, just told me that their principal was totally unaware of the memorandum and when it was brought to their attention was sure that it must be out dated.
So here is my “ask” of you. If your child with ADHD is struggling at school and continues to be denied an IEP or recognition as an exceptional student in the Ontario School System and you would like to share your story with us to further advocacy efforts in Ontario, please contact heidi.bernhardt@caddac.ca
Access the article HERE
Guest Post by Don Reist, OCT Director, Specialist: Special Education at Tutorwiz Education Centre. Public Speaker on Education and Special Education
Many people consider ADHD to be a lifelong curse. However, the fact is that many highly successful people have or had ADHD.
Thomas Edison was a poster boy for ADHD. He left school at an early age because his teachers deemed him to be “too dumb to learn anything”. Although some question his personality, he became one of the most prolific inventors of all time, patenting 1093 inventions, including: the light bulb, motion pictures, the phonograph and the electric generator.
Leonardo Da Vinci is noted for only completing a small percentage of the things he started. Through his sketches and illustrations we know that he envisioned hundreds of things quite literally hundreds of years before his time.
Albert Einstein, whose very name is synonymous with genius, suffered with ADHD. He was very forgetful and often oblivious to everything around him. There is a story that one day he left home and headed down the street having forgotten to put on his trousers.
Sir Richard Branson has ADHD and dyslexia. He left school at 15 years of age as he was not gaining anything from it. Today he is self-made billionaire. He is the owner of the Virgin Group which includes amongst other things an airline and Virgin Galactic a company which plans to provide suborbital spaceflights to space tourists.
All these people have incredible imaginations with thousands of ideas bouncing around in their heads. Most importantly they have the ability to hyper focus. When people with ADHD are passionate about something they can dedicate themselves to it and work and concentrate harder on it than the average person can even imagine. Because their ADHD minds thirst for stimulation they strive in situations in which the average person falls apart. In a crisis, there is no one better to handle the situation than a person with ADHD.
How do I know this? I suffer from ADHD. I was the daydreamer in school. I use to sit at my desk and wander off into Lala land on a daily basis. When I wasn’t daydreaming I was fidgeting in my seat wanting to run around the room. However, I was very fortunate in the fact that I was passionate about learning. When something new was introduced in class I became totally focused.
My lack of interest at university resulted in me dropping out after only a few months. I wandered from job to job. I became fascinated with computers. I returned to university to get my degree in computer science. At this point my ADHD served me well. I could not afford to quit working. Hence I worked full time while attending classes. My passion for computers enabled me to use my ability to shut everything else out. Upon graduation, I worked for IBM Canada. My ADHD helped me skyrocket up the ladder. In one of my positions I was responsible for supporting an online banking system used by many trust companies. If the offline processing did not complete the trust companies could not open for business. Anytime the offline failed I would hop out of bed and head into the office. While everyone was running around in panic mode, I sat at my desk whistling a tune looking for and then fixing the problem. The trust companies always opened on time!
I have two university degrees. I have run a successful company for the past eight years. I am a specialist in special education, I am writing a book on educating students with special learning needs and I have hosted my own television program for the past four years. I also thoroughly enjoy public speaking especially on the topics of special education and education in general. ADHD has not prevented me from being successful.
Is ADHD a curse? In many ways it is. However, if you embrace it instead of trying to hide or deny it and take advantage of its positive effects which includes the fact that five tornadoes are constantly twirling in your head, it’s amazing what you can accomplish.
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People for Education recently released a report on Special Education in Ontario. To access the report, please click on this link:
http://www.peopleforeducation.ca/pfe-news/new-report-shows-special-education-challenges-continue/
This report focuses on several issues, most of which CADDAC and undoubtedly many other organizations with an interest in education, have frequently heard from concerned and frustrated parents:
CADDAC strongly agrees with all of People for Education’s recommendations for changes:
With Ontario’s upcoming election, parents who have an interest in these concerns may wish to draw their candidate’s attention to these issues and ask what their take is on special education services within Ontario.
You can access information on how to do this here:
http://adhdawarenessweek.ca/en/?page_id=325
http://adhdawarenessweek.ca/en/?page_id=202
