The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

www.insideHALTON.com | OAKVILLE BEAVER | Thursday, March 21, 2013 | 18 Parents are always concerned about children's literacy by Dominik Kurek Oakville Beaver Staff The Learning Disabilities Association of Halton will host its Annual Solutions for Learning Conference in Oakville tomorrow (Friday, March 22), with a focus on literacy. The conference attracts teachers and education support workers from across Halton and beyond, but it has teaching strategies for more than just professional educators. Parents can benefit, too. "If I put myself in a parent's shoes and say, `Why should I come to this conference if it's really going to be tailored to educators?' I would say: I'm trying to find out if my child does have a reading problem, and sometimes parents don't recognize it; and what are the expectations? How should my child be performing?" said Barb Jorritsma, executive director of the Learning Disabilities Association. The conference will be at the Operating Engineers Banquet Hall and Conference Centre. Dr. Dale Willows will present on early literacy intervention, screening, teaching strategies and progress monitoring. Willows is a University of Toronto professor with the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) who is internationally recognized as a teacher educator in language and literacy and a If kids get to a Grade 3 point and they're quite far behind in literacy, statistically, their catchup is difficult without intervention. executive director, Learning Disabilities Association of Halton Barb Jorritsma Don't HATE your kitchen! psychologist specializing in learning disabilities, who works to put research into practice in regular and special education. Jorritsma said Willows was selected because past conference participants have asked for hands-on, evidence-based strategies. The conference will look at how educators can intervene earlier, how to screen to find out if there is a problem, how to teach those students with problems and how to monitor their progress. Jorritsma said research indicates teachers need to be able to adapt to the child's way of thinking and to target the students with learning problems at an earlier age. "If kids get to a Grade 3 point and they're quite far behind in literacy, statistically, their catch-up is difficult without intervention," Jorritsma said. Jorritsma said Willows is a leader in helping educators identify why children are struggling with literacy and how to make effective change. Jorritsma said the attendees at the conference are professionals involved with intervention of children's learning difficulties at an early age, including teachers, speech and language pathologists, early childhood educators and more. Parents will be there, too. "I think parents are always concerned when they have kids in the system who look like they're not achieving at grade level," said Jorritsma. "Certainly in the area of literacy, they recognize that these kids usually require extra support at home and sometimes that means extra work with mom and dad. In many cases, it's more than just sitting down to read with your child." She said parents might need to work on specific targeted work on phonics, word associations and more. At the conference, parents will learn how to identify if their children have literacy problems and how the children should be performing. "That's the kind of information that parents can take away from the conference and then can go back to the school and say, `I don't think my child is getting this and I think we need to look a little bit closer at why.'" The conference centre is at 2245 Speers Rd. Registration costs $175. For information, visit www.ldahalton.ca. We have a remodeling option for every budget: ReDoor ReStyle A unique Do-it-Yourself solution $1500** from New doors and end panels, paint the cabinet boxes. Thousands of custom made door choices. Update your existing cabinets $4900** from Get a new custom cabinet look and updated function. Better than "Refacing", costs less than replacing. Start Fresh with new custom cabinets We will create a custom design that meets your personal style, function and budget goals. CALL TODAY VISIT OUR SHOWROOM ONLINE $7900** from 905. 637. 3331 3480 Fairview St., Burlington, ON (west of Walker's Line) Mon-Fri 10-5, Sat 11-3 Free Design Consultation & Estimate KitchenTuneUp.com Try out our Free Design Tool Every Kitchen Tune-Up franchise is locally owned and operated. **Starting price examples are based on a common 10' x 10', L-shaped kitchen cabinet layout.