Scholarships for Psycho-Educational Assessments

GUEST BLOG BY JANA LEGGATT, President of the Ontario Branch of the International Dyslexia Association (ONBIDA)

• Does your child have difficulty with reading and writing? 
• Have you had difficulty accessing appropriate assessment of your child’s literacy skills?
• Is having a private psycho-educational assessment beyond your financial reach?

ONBIDA:  Ontario Branch of the International Dyslexia Association is thrilled to announce that we will be offering scholarships for psycho-educational assessments for students who qualify.

What is ONBIDA?

We are a small sized charitable organization run almost entirely by volunteers whose mission it is to promote literacy through research, education and advocacy.  Like SQE we also would like to see every child succeed in school regardless of their learning profile.  For some children the beginning of that successful development must begin with a thorough assessment of their learning skills by a qualified psychologist.  At ONBIDA, we are aware of the lengthy waiting lists, the tendency for schools to wait until a child fails to initiate referrals for assessment and that the cost of private psycho-educational assessments is out of reach for many families.  Thanks to a generous donation from Oliver Martin’s family we are able to offer psycho-educational assessment scholarships for the 2013-2014 school year.   Applications are being accepted now on our website  http://idaontario.com/assessment-scholarship.html .

Who was Oliver Martin?

Oliver Martin and his close friend, Dylan Ellis, were shot and killed while innocently waiting in a car in downtown Toronto just after midnight on Friday, June 13, 2008. This horrific crime devastated friends and family, shocked the country, and remains unsolved. The two vibrant, successful and giving 25 year old young men shall be forever missed and remembered.

In Oliver’s honour, and to provide inspiration and support to others, Oliver Martin’s family established the Oliver Martin Memorial Trust Fund. In recognition of Oliver’s lifelong challenge with dyslexia, the Trust Fund has linked with the Ontario Branch of the International Dyslexia Association (ONBIDA) to fund a specific program to improve identification and assessment of children with dyslexia.

If you, or someone you know, has a child between the ages of 5 and 21 years of age who is struggling to learn to read, download our Oliver Martin Memorial Trust Fund (OMMTF) Scholarship Assessment Application here.

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