*This is PART 4 of a 4-part series “HELP AND HOPE for Struggling Students


The IEP student list seems to be growing. Is it true that more and more students are requiring extra help? Educators are expected to provide more specialized programming for their students. But, do teachers, educators, and resource teachers have the training to understand each of these student’s challenges? How do they serve the variety of needs that are now so evident in our schools?

Each year there seems to be more awareness of specific learning challenges that students face – new labels, new strategies, new brain-based curriculum, new program ideas. In this digital information age, we are inundated with ideas and information.

  • Is it even possible to help the student with Auditory Processing Disorder follow my teaching instructions?
  • Is it possible for me to support the student with Sensory Processing Disorder?
  • How can I begin to teach the steps to reading if my student has no concept of the sounds that letters make?

So many teachers struggle with these questions day after day. If I keep on plugging on, will they eventually ‘get’ it? Where does one go to find some HELP and HOPE for teaching struggling learners?

School board administrators, principals and teachers are always on the look-out for professional development opportunities – to continue the quest of life-long learning and to provide the best services for the students in their schools. Let me introduce you to NILD Canada (National Institute for Learning Development-Canada).

NILD Canada, a non-profit organization, is a conduit for linking educators to current research that strengthens intervention methods and equipping them to unlock the learning potential for all students. Our research-based graduate-level training allows educators to become an NILD Educational Therapist to work with struggling learners in a one-on-one or group therapy setting. Educational Therapists are specifically equipped with the ability to identify and assess student learning needs. Therapists create and implement individual educational therapy plans utilizing the NILD techniques specific to the learning goals for each student in order to unlock the learning potential of their students through an individualized, therapeutic approach. The end result for students is significantly higher cognitive, academic, perceptual, and emotional functioning.

I’m sure you’ll want to hear from these educational therapists how the training changed their lives as well as their students’ lives!

Last week: Teachers Look for Support in their Classrooms