Dr. Linda Siegel: Canada

Linda Siegel is the former Dorothy C. Lam Chair in Special Education and an Emeritus Professor in the Department of Educational and Counselling Psychology and Special Education at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.

She has over 200 publications on early identification and intervention to prevent reading problems, dyslexia, reading and language development, mathematical concept learning, mathematical learning disabilities, and children learning English as a second language.

She has been the President of the Division of Learning Disabilities of the Council on Exceptional Children.  In 2010, she was awarded the Gold Medal for Excellence in Psychological Research from the Canadian Psychological Association.  In 2012 she was awarded the Eminent Researcher Award from the Learning Difficulties Association of Australia.

Linda has recently published a book entitled, Understanding Dyslexia and Other Learning Disabilities, (Pacific Educational Press) written for parents, teachers, and professionals. This addresses how our educational system has failed to identify many children with learning disabilities and calls for the adoption of straightforward diagnostic techniques so that treatment options can be implemented at a young age. Many children who struggle with learning become discouraged in the classroom and isolated from their peers. Linda raises the fact that many adults whose learning disabilities were not recognized in school suffer from deep feelings of inadequacy that often prevent them from developing close relationships, finding rewarding employment, or living happily.

Linda challenges the use of complex and time-consuming testing that is currently used to diagnose learning disabilities. In their place, she outlines simple and pragmatic techniques for testing for disabilities in reading, mathematics, spelling, and writing. She implores families, teachers, and other educational professionals to provide resources and services for all those struggling with learning so that no more lives are compromised.

Read Dr. Linda Siegel’s Statement on Dyslexia