Introduction

The field of learning disabilities creates a challenge for literacy facilitators and adult educators. We suspect that many of the learners that we work with struggle with learning disabilities. We know that they didn’t succeed in school and that’s why they are in adult literacy and adult basic education programs. We know that teaching and learning methods must be different for these learners. However, in Nunavut we have few resources and professionals to help learners and facilitators tackle this complicated issue.

The Nunavut Literacy Council partnered with respected learning disabilities and literacy consultant from Ontario, Pat Hatt. Pat knows first hand that the field of learning disabilities is complex; there are over 70 different types of learning disabilities! However, Pat has simplified the puzzling and complicated information on learning disabilities for adult literacy learners and educators. She has developed a tool to guide those of us who are not experts on learning disabilities. Her tool streamlines learning disability information into three broad disability clusters, with characteristics and learning strategies for each.

Pat Hatt has worked in the field of education for over 30 years, the last fifteen in adult literacy. She has her Ontario Teaching Certificate and a Masters degree in Learning and Language Problems. She volunteered for the Learning Disabilities Association for over 20 years at the local, provincial and federal levels.

But the reason Pat comes across as a credible expert on LD is her personal experience. Pat, herself, has struggled with severe learning disabilities throughout her life. Since so little was known about LD when she was young, she persevered through elementary school, high school and an undergraduate university degree with very little support from educators in the institutions she attended. Her determination and intellectual curiosity lead her to seek out coping skills and learning strategies to help her succeed. Later she went on to study learning disabilities at the masters’ level. Pat knows first hand the great challenges people with learning disabilities face in formal educational systems. Over the past 30 years she has supported many learning disabled adults and children, including some of her own children, in reaching their literacy and academic goals.

Pat has very generously agreed to share her knowledge and work with literacy facilitators and adult educators in Nunavut and the Nunavut Literacy Council through this resource.

In Learning Disabilities: A Guide for Educators who Work with Adult Learners, we offer the following information:

• The Learning Disability Association of Canada’s official definition of learning disabilities;
• excerpts from Pat Hatt’s learning disabilities publications. Pat’s work in this section describes learning disabilities for people who are not experts. Information on the difference between learning disabilities and developmental disabilities, definitions of learning disability terms and descriptions of Pat’s three broad learning disability (LD) clusters;
• case histories of Nunavut learners with learning disabilities including literacy demonstrations and accommodations;
• fact sheets on learning disabilities, fetal alcohol spectrum disorder and attention deficit disorder; and
• a resource list that includes LD information available in books and on websites.