With growing momentum towards advocating for students and individuals with reading disabilities add your voice and be heard. The Ontario Human Rights Commission's Survey for Parents/Guardians and Students gives the public the opportunity to share their experience with the Ontario education system. This survey is non discriminatory, if your are a person who has already completed the primary and elementary school system you can still share your experience. I just did and it was very cathartic. If you, a loved one, or friend is effected by reading challenges please forward this link to them. The more voices shouting the same message, the closer we come to real change. Give your voice or aid someone who does not have the ability to shout for themselves. 
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Survey Link:
ontariotbs.ca1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_4TwifRctQYohRoV

Further information can be found here:
www.ohrc.on.ca/en/right-read-public-inquiry-on-reading-disabilities

​Wishing everyone a great and relaxing March Break.

​There is movement towards advocating for our Dyslexic children in schools today. Hopefully our government and the work of hundreds of individuals with voice will be able to advocate for those without ones. Students in schools in Ontario are at a disadvantage, our teaching system does not teach English in a phonological way cause a massive barrier to those who can not learn the language through memorization and wrote. With this barrier students find themselves falling behind, frustrated, and hating school. Inevitably students check out, are labeled "lazy" or a "trouble maker" and are often given attention in a negative manner due to their behavioral habits in class. All this can be avoided with Phonological awareness and explicit structured lessons. Teaching this way is an inclusive method in reaching all the learning style of a classroom as well as including new language learners. 

Check out the recent CBC episodes on Dyslexia and the conversations that are moving toward good change. 
​https://www.cbc.ca/listen/live-radio/1-45-ontario-today/clip/15755666-ontarios-human-rights-commissioner-standing-up-for-kids-who-cant-read.

A free 'app' that detects dyslexia in 15 minutes
23 DIC 2016 - 7:21 CET
My child has dyslexia . How did you find out? In the doctor. This may change. Dyslexia is the impaired ability to read why confused or order of letters, syllables or words altered. Now, as announced this week, Samsung and Change Dyslexia presented Dytective for Samsung, "a new free application for tablets that integrates for the first time a test of linguistic games and attention artificial intelligence for early detection of risk this disorder, "reports EFE. It is the first detector online dyslexia.
The application, which is available for both Android and IOS- consists of a series of exercises lasting a quarter of an hour in which "after analyzing more than 200 variables and the user is notified if you are at risk or suffer dyslexia with 89.5% accuracy, "he explains Change Dyslexia on its website. Unlimited use, the test is aimed for families, professionals and schools. And it has been tested with a sample of 10,000 people. "It can be used for children aged seven years and this test is not equivalent to a medical diagnosis," warn the creators.
This new action is part of the campaign 'purposeful Technology', launched by Samsung, which aims to eliminate all kinds of educational and social barriers through technology, as explained in a statement.
It is estimated that 20% of the population suffers from dyslexia, as announced by the Madrid Association Dyslexia last January. Among children, more than 600,000 children suffer and many even become diagnosed. Although children with dyslexia have a completely normal intelligence, this disorder is behind many cases of school dropouts, according to experts. "With this app, we can help both detect dyslexia as experience and improve school performance of these children , " said the director of Communication, Institutional Relations and Corporate Citizenship Samsung, Francisco Hortigüela.
"Dytective is the result of several years of research Luz Rello (Princess Award Girona 2016) years hard labor after which finally has managed to materialize into a single tool," explains Association Madrid with dyslexia in its web . For research, he had more than 300 volunteers from different countries (Spain, Colombia, Argentina and Chile) and the collaboration of more than 100 schools and centers. The result is the largest study to date on dyslexia in the Spanish-speaking world.
"Talking about Samsung is talking about innovation, but innovation with purpose. Dytective for Samsung is a good example of this. This is an initiative that helps break barriers and help people through technology helping to make a better society "says Marketing Director of Samsung Spain, Alfonso Fernández.
The app is available in Samsung App Store. The promotional video on these lines can be seen in Callao (Madrid) and in cinemas throughout Spain in the coming weeks.
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Article translated from Spanish. 
Original Article: https://elpais.com/elpais/2016/12/22/mamas_papas/1482421874_807579.html 

Naturally Literate is excited to be accepting new students for the new year! Enroll your child at our Toronto location and help support them through the rest of the school year. Or Enroll your child in our summer intensive in Thunder Bay, Ontario. More information 

 Today we were treated with a lovely sunny day to kick off our Summer Intervention Program.
We are off to a fantastic Start! Assessments for our summer intervention are complete. I'm so proud of our students for completing the assessments. Now our real work can begin.

Tomorrow we begin the exciting adventure through the land of the English language. We will set off on this voyage learning the fundamental letter sounds and then search for the 44 speech sounds and the elusive 90 grapheme representations. Some will be easy to catch and some will be sneaky but I have full confidence in our Adventures. Let's equip them with the best nets and skills, then let us see what will escape them! Good job boys! 

If you know of families in the Thunder Bay Area that need literacy help please do not hesitate to pass along this link Home. Naturally Literate is still taking students for the Summer Intervention Program, Grades 1-12. Please refer to Services for more information on our programs.

​Have a wonderful Monday everyone and stay tuned as our adventurers discover and capture these sounds and graphemes. 

-Julia

Intensive Literacy Remediation for your child. Help them understand reading, writing, and spelling in the English language. This summer program is a intensive daily program that is interactive, kinetic, and multi-sensory. We pride ourself on giving the one-one support the child needs helping them build strong foundation skills in English. There are three programs available: Early Language Curriculum, Reading Remediation Grade 1-12, and Grammar/ Essay writing Grade 5-12.

Please visit our website at www.naturallyliterate.org for detailed information on the programs being offered. 

For all general inquires please email naturalliterate@gmail.com or Facebook Message our Page Naturally Literate

Give your child the gift to unlock the knowledge with-in by enrolling them in Naturally Literate. Helping children Master Literacy one child at a time! 

​Running from June 18- August 16, 2018

Thank you to Carol, Miguel and Dalma Postigo for their generous donation to our Childrens' Library. What a wonderful way to celebrate yesterdays Children Day then to add new reading material to our library for our students. This donation will inspire countless youth.

Thank you!
​-Julia

We are so excited to provide Browsealoud on our Website! This service is one more stepping stone to bring accessibility to our visitors who need help with reading. Find Browsealoud in the top right corner of every page. Enjoy!

-Julia