Learning 4 You
Learning for You – South Canterbury is an organisation of parents/caregivers, professionals, and people who have an interest in neurodiversity, especially as it relates to dyslexia/dysgraphia/ dyscalculia.
The organisation’s purpose is to better understand how to support and provide professional help for those students who have a learning difference. L4U has been active in the SC community for over 10 years. It has been able to provide resources , and professional information related to dyslexia/dysgraphia/dyscalculia to many families and class teachers in that time.
Each year LDANZ registered teachers who work with L4U students are teaching students in an average of 12 /13 schools a year. L4U is a member of LDANZ (Learning Disabilities Assn of NZ) a national body which has similar goals to L4U and provides training for assessors , and registration for qualified Learning Difficulties trained teachers. This ensures a high standard of knowledge and delivery of service by only recommending assessors and teachers who met these requirements.
The L4U professional team only recommends those assessors and teachers who are trained and registered in SLD/ dyslexia knowledge.
Again this year a large number of students in South Canterbury are improving their literacy skills by working with a L4U recommended teacher, some of these students are supported financially by L4U to aid them to access this intervention.
For some of the students it is a long journey; L4U is proud of the number of students who have shown resilience, worked with a trained SLD teacher and improved their literacy skills.
A student who works with a registered SLD teacher that L4U recommends, receives a weekly session of tuition. The tuition is planned especially to help the student reach their potential academically by providing a targeted, sequential, cumulative programme of learning to meet their individual needs.
The L4U committee works hard to fundraise in order to provide financial scholarships so that there is no barrier to gaining the professional help a student may need.
It should be recognised that research shows that 1 in 10 students are likely to a have a struggle with literacy/dyslexia and need specialist help, but many students don’t get this help which can lead to school absences and misbehaviour.
L4U can arrange for assessments to help provide information about how a student learns, identify the weaknesses in learning and identify dyslexia if required.
The L4U organisation appreciates the support that is often shown to our organisation by individuals and groups within the South Canterbury community. It would be very, very difficult for us to continue without this. It would also mean that a large group of students would not get the full potential.
