back-to-school prep: how to support students with learning disabilities

this october 22, kim mclean and her team at the learning disabilities association of canada (ldac)are launching the great read along, an event that celebrates the joy of reading. not everybody finds reading easy, however, so that’s why mclean wants to create awareness and get people across canada to pick up a book and read that day.

“when you think of learning disabilities and disorders like dyslexia, you think, ‘oh my god, they can’t read,'” she says. “well, that’s not true. they can read, but because of the struggle, the enjoyment that reading brings to us, which is a quality-of-life issue of being able to sit down and enjoy a good book, that quality piece is harder for them to access.”

mclean, a long-time calgary educator and executive director of ldac, is dedicated to changing misperceptions so that people will recognize the challenges of learning disabilities and understand that learning may take more time, repetition and different approaches for those with disabilities. visual cues, sensory and interactive strategies can be helpful and promote better learning for every child.

her younger brother was labelled mentally handicapped when they were growing up in the 1960s and ’70s. he didn’t finish high school, but he learned to read on his own and later worked on small engine repairs. “he had a heart of gold,” she says, noting he passed away and he’s missed. “he left an amazing legacy and i’m really humbled by his legacy.”

his early experiences prompted mclean to start volunteering with ldac when she was a teenager in an after-school program, and in university she helped run summer day camps for students with learning disabilities and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (adhd). her passion and involvement grew from there.

her insights on how parents and teachers can support inclusive learning are valuable to share—and come with decades of experience.

“a lot of it is to prep in advance, not just kids with special needs, but with all kids before you go back to school,” she says of the behaviour rehearsal to set them up for success. “start changing their sleep routine. if they’ve been allowed to sleep in and stay up late and they’ve got to get up at 7 again, you have to do this.”

rehearsing school routines

practicing the routine is important for kids to feel less overwhelmed and less anxious about going to school again, especially if it’s a new school, new teachers or a new group of classmates.

she outlines that having kids get organized, putting their things by the door, helping get their lunch ready and walking to the bus stop are all significant steps. “you have to practice and rehearse all of those in real-time. you can’t do it the night before school starts. that doesn’t make sense. they can’t make that transition.”

there’s also the pre-visit to the school, if you have the opportunity, to navigate the school and protocols. “where’s the entrance? where do you go in? where’s the playground? if you’re riding your bike, where’s the bike stand? where does the bus drop-off or parent drop-off?”

many schools have meet-and-greets in advance, so she recommends bringing your child and introducing them to the teacher and walking around the school to find the bathroom, gymnasium and library.

“go through the whole routine as much as you can, including where’s the water fountain? can they bring a water bottle? and read the parent handbook.” she also suggests briefly mentioning to the teacher that your child has special needs and you’d like to arrange a time to talk with them about their individual learning plan (that outlines individual goals, strengths and areas of need) and any accommodations needed.

make conversations about school positive and supportive

as school begins, another key pointer for parents and families is the positive end-of-day follow-up, the one about “how was your day?” where kids often say very little, except for “meh” or “okay.”

instead, mclean says reframing the question can help: “tell me something that made you laugh today, what gave you joy? what if you could do something differently tomorrow, what would that be? or is there something you would like to share with the teacher?” if they’re finding something difficult, be supportive with a question like, “we know you’re having trouble with your reading, so what could we be doing to help you with that?”

this type of conversation ends the school-day experience with a positive that they can carry with them to school the following morning.

but what if your kid doesn’t want to go to school at all? she points out that many students with learning disabilities disengage from learning at school, making the claim that it’s boring.

her interpretation of boring is that kids are overwhelmed.

why kids are bored at school

“boring means there’s too much happening all at once. ‘i can’t figure it all out,’ so it’s boring because they haven’t been able to connect with the material. it doesn’t mean they may not understand it. it could be coming at them too fast. they need a longer time to process, and by the time they’ve processed the information, the teacher has gone on to the next item.”

she also highlights memory skills in neurodivergent kids who are trying to keep up. they’re thinking, “okay, i have to remember how to store all this. by the time they’re trying to store all this, the class has moved on and they’ve lost the thread. so generally, it’s more like they’ve lost the thread and not because they’re not paying attention. it just takes so much mental energy to keep in all that material and once you lose the thread, you get bored.”

how curriculum is taught and the ways students are asked to participate is experienced differently for kids with learning disabilities. for example, a review of the science on school-related challenges for kids with dyslexia in annals of dyslexia in 2025found that many typical school routines—such as reading aloud in front of the class, peer comparisons, or public error correction—emerged as particularly distressing. as the authors note, “these practices are rarely questioned but can lead to humiliation, anxiety and fear of failure for students with dyslexia. recognizing the subjective experiences of students with dyslexia offers valuable insights for developing more inclusive educational practices.”

mclean talks about the role of teachers as more challenging than people realize with larger classes that often group students with different learning abilities. how do you convey the material in a way that everybody learns?

some foundational basics are “dry,” she says. “there’s no way to dress it up. but once you get through the dryness, then you do see teachers doing more activities, project-based, group work and collaborations that promote social skills and all these executive functioning skills that they need to do. but if you jump into that without having the foundation, then it falls apart. so, i think the trick is trying to hold their attention for the foundational stuff.”

in language arts, students have to go through and read the chapter in the book before they get to the activity where you can collaborate on all the answers, design the book jacket or write an alternative ending.

“when you’re teaching things like phonics, that can be dry. but you can’t learn to read unless you know how to make those sounds and move your mouth and do all those things. but once they put those first letters together, and that light bulb goes off, oh my gosh, it’s worth everything.”

she emphasizes that learning has to be set up in a way to make it accessible.

for example, students might need language to be read to them and on paper and demonstrated at the same time in order to understand it, depending on what type of learner they are. they might need it repeated in different formats where they can process it and then the exercise is repeated again with pictures or a peer paraphrasing the story. while it may take time, once students have processed the material, they’re just as creative as anyone else.

inclusive learning better for everyone

“everything that i’m saying is just good teaching,” she adds. in its national advocacy work, teacher preparedness programs are on the agenda.

“we feel that teachers right now are absolutely overwhelmed with all the demands. and they’re in a spot now where the education programs for teachers have not caught up to what the demands are in the classroom for the diversity of learners.” teachers can graduate without having any courses on inclusion, special ed, or ever seeing what an individual learning plan looks like.

“teachers need this and they’re asking for it. so, how do we make this more mainstream that you have to graduate with some knowledge in this area? there are absolutely universities that are doing that. it’s just slow to come.”