The Learning Disabilities Research Program (LDRP) at the Hospital for Sick Children (HSC) in Toronto has spent more than 20 years investigating instructional techniques for teaching children with language learning related disabilities.
The LDRP, a clinical and educational research program: 1) conducts controlled research into effective programming for children with learning disabilities; 2) uses evidence-based intervention techniques in community implementations through research partnerships with local school boards; 3) is dedicated to evaluating the educational treatment programs; and 4) is dedicated to sharing results of the new knowledge with front-line educators, parents, and service-providers in the community.
The program specializes in developing and evaluating educational treatment programs that can address the basic learning problems that interfere with these children's ability to become literate. The programs developed by the LDRP are not solely intervention programs for children with diagnosed learning disabilities, but also are relevant to children at risk for reading acquisition failure for a range of environmental and constitutional factors.
Research and service to the children are intertwined in the work of the LDRP. The LDRP is attempting to help many more children than would be remotely possible on a personal one-to-one basis by conducting research into the core learning deficits affecting these children as well as how to remediate these deficits, and by sharing the results locally and internationally.
Some of the programs offered by the LDRP include:
Phonological Analysis and Blending (PHAB) Program:
The PHAB program is designed to teach important phonological skills.
Word Identification Strategy Training (WIST) Program:
The WIST program teaches children how to use four specific word identification strategies. These strategies are: word identification by analogy, seeking the part of the word that you already know, attempting variable vowel pronunciations, and "peeling-off" prefixes and suffixes in a multi-syllabic word.
Phonological and Strategy Training (PHAST) Program:
The PHAST program is an integration of the PHAB and WIST programs. The PHAST program is designed to teach children to become more strategic and independent in their approach to reading unfamiliar words and text, and to help them develop effective decoding skills and strategies.
Extended PHAST Track Program
The Extended PHAST Track Program is an extension of a successful reading program used and implemented in past research at The Hospital for Sick Children. In this new program, six reading comprehension strategies are added to the five word identification strategies from the original PHAST Track Program.
Retrieval, Accuracy, Vocabulary Elaboration and Orthography (RAVE-O) Program:
The RAVE-O program is designed to teach children strategies to increase the speed and accuracy of their word retrieval skills and to increase the depth and breadth of their vocabulary and spelling knowledge.
Triple Program
The Triple program combines strategies and activities from the PHAST Track Program and the RAVE-O Program.
Math and Classroom Survival Skills (MATH/CSS) Programs:
The MATH program teaches students a number of basic mathematic skills (e.g., counting, addition, subtraction, place value, problem-solving skills) using a varied approach.
About the LDRC
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