Decoding Your Child's Reading Superpower

The Catholic School Parents' Association (CSPA) is an independent volunteer parent organization that represents parents and elected school council members of the Ottawa Catholic School Board. We support school councils in their efforts to engage the parent community of each school. By partnering with administrative staff at the Ottawa Catholic School Board, we are able to keep school councils and families informed about educational issues affecting their school community.

Ottawa CSPA

Join us for a deep discussion on on decoding your child's reading superpower...

OCSB SEAC (Special Education Advisory Committee) is happy to present a deep discussion with Dr. Nadine Gaab, Associate Professor of Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, Lark Barker, President of Decoding Dyslexia, and Alicia Smith, president of International Dyslexia, on how children learn to read, the myths around how we learn to read, the Ontario Human Rights Commission and the Right to Read Inquiry, what is next and what can be done for children to assist with learning to read.

Dr. Nadine Gaab is an Associate Professor of Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Nadine’s work focuses on developmental cognitive neuroscience, particularly in language-based learning disabilities. Her research in the GaabLab examines the development of typical and atypical language and literacy skills in the pediatric brain and pre-markers of learning disabilities and the development of screening tools for screening literacy milestones and dyslexia.
She is the 2019 recipient of the LDA Award (Learning Disabilities Association America) for her work on learning disabilities. In 2018, Nadine was presented with the Allan C. Crocker Award for her advocacy on behalf of children with dyslexia and reading disabilities and efforts around the recent passage of the Massachusetts screening legislation (under the guidance of Decoding Dyslexia MA). She has also been recognized by the International Dyslexia Association in her receipt of the Norman Geschwind Memorial lecture 2020 and the Alice H. Garside Award for outstanding leadership in advancing the science and advocacy of dyslexia. She is an international speaker, frequently presenting to teachers on the brain science of typical and atypical literacy development.

Lark Barker is the president of Decoding Dyslexia Ontario. She is a special education teacher with over 20 years of experience in the education field, including as a secondary school educator, vice-principal, literacy chair and most recently as a special education resource teacher. She has spent the last decade teaching in Toronto, mostly in the Education Community Partnership Program. Her experience teaching in a northern Manitoba Indigenous community and in Mexico provoked her interest in culturally relevant pedagogy and curriculum. She began researching and focusing on teaching reading in 2014, when her son was diagnosed with dyslexia. Since then, she has become a certified structured literacy classroom teacher and recently finished an Orton Gillingham associate-level practicum.

Annette Sang, MSW, is a founding member of Decoding Dyslexia Ontario (DDON), and a social worker who has primarily focused her practice in the public policy realm. She spent several years in the Ontario Public Service with the Ministry of Community and Social Services and with the Ontario Human Rights Commission. Over the years, she has volunteered with the United Way of Oakville developing community programs assessment policy and with The United Church of Canada leading to the development of their Anti-Racism Policy, “That All May be One”. In 2015, Annette along with four other parents, founded Decoding Dyslexia Ontario, a grassroots organization that advocates alongside and supports dyslexic students and their families as they navigate the Ontario education system. Their work led to the Ontario Human Rights Commission’s Right to Read Inquiry that has examined the systemic discrimination faced by students with dyslexia/reading disabilities in Ontario’s public schools. Annette also served as a founding board member of Dyslexia Canada. She is the proud mother of three brilliant and talented sons who also happen to be dyslexic.

Alicia Smith is the President of International Dyslexia. She worked hard early in life to hide her dyslexia. Although she quickly learned computers could disguise her challenges, her secret was discovered in high school after submitting her first essay exam. Fortunately, a caring teacher arranged for her to be tested and she was given the option to write future exams on a computer, an accommodation that was not common at the time. Uncertain how she would manage in post-secondary without this accommodation, Alicia enrolled at the University of King’s College in Halifax where first-year students take oral debate-style exams. With written exams on the horizon for the second year, Alicia chose to leave university to pursue her passion for cooking. After training at The Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York, Alicia spent seven years working as a chef aboard luxury yachts. In 2004, after settling down with her husband in a small town near Georgian Bay she returned to school to study web development and computer science. After her first child was identified as dyslexic, Alicia became passionate about supporting him and changing public perception. She knew doing this would require her to do something she had hidden from her entire life. To stand with her son and others facing similar experiences she made an active choice to start speaking openly about her own challenges.

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Decoding Your Child's Reading Superpower

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