As many as 750,000 Canadian schoolchildren could be dyslexic. Early screening is crucial
Keith Gray, Special to Financial Post
Published Nov 30, 2023
For years in Canada’s business pages, CEOs, policy-makers and experts of every stripe have cried out for us to become more competitive and productive. We’re falling behind, they plead in op-eds, warning: Wake up, Canada, or we’ll slip into economic oblivion.
Assuming this broken record is correct, why have we been hearing it for so many decades with so little to show for it? No doubt many aspects of improving productivity and competitiveness are complex but there’s one obvious fix: teaching Canadian children to read, particularly the estimated 750,000 schoolchildren struggling with dyslexia, three to four of them in every classroom.
Those figures are based on International Dyslexia Association data showing that 15 to 20 per cent of the population is dyslexic. The IDA also reports that 85 per cent of students with reading disabilities are dyslexic. But it’s a problem that’s largely solvable.
And it has a potentially large payoff: a 2020 Deloitte Canada study for the Canadian Children’s Literacy Foundation cited research estimating that a one per cent rise in adult literacy could result in a 2.5 per cent increase in labour productivity and a 1.5-to-three per cent rise in GDP per capita. That’s potentially $67 billion in additional annual economic growth. Serious money. More than enough to pay the federal government’s interest bill every year.
The 750,000 Canadian children affected by dyslexia are almost double the number of adult Canadians directly and indirectly employed by the Canadian automotive industry and look how the country bends over backward to lure electric vehicle-related business here. The auto sector has been central to the Canadian economy for decades and one hopes in the future as well. But without early intervention those 750,000 kids may never earn enough to afford one of those new EV’s.
The challenges faced by the even larger number of Canadian adults who are dyslexic were likely ignored during public-school days, and they have no doubt paid an agonizing price for a neurological condition that can be successfully addressed if caught early.
Aside from economic benefits, there is an urgent social need. Dyslexic children who don’t get help in time fall behind and are labelled dumb. I know. I was one of them. In Grade 3, I got the strap and was flunked because I struggled to read. It’s a painful memory and, many decades later, dyslexia still haunts me countless times a day. But I squeaked through. Most aren’t as lucky. They’re often bullied and abused, and they face an increased likelihood of unemployment, poverty, homelessness and mental health problems.
“My youngest brother had dyslexia,” reads a heartbreaking letter I received, “and I believe it contributed to him taking his life in his thirties.” Tragically, there are many more stories like this. According to a University of Toronto study, 34.5 per cent of dyslexic adults say they were abused as children.
There is progress, but it’s slow. “Right to Read,” a landmark report by the Ontario Human Rights Commission last year, moved the dial, stressing that its findings “are a matter of overall equity in education.” To its credit, Ontario’s government announced plans for a new curriculum for this fall, including the goal of universal screening for children from kindergarten to Grade 2. The earlier the better. It takes four times longer to intervene effectively with a child in Grade 4 than one in kindergarten. While Manitoba and Saskatchewan are also conducting human rights inquiries in connection with reading, the sad truth is that national progress on this issue is glacial.
It’s not easy for dyslexic children to learn how to read but from a public policy perspective it’s a lay-up. With early screening followed by targeted intervention most dyslexic children can read, giving them a fair shot at learning like other kids. A science- and evidence-based approach is required, with children taught via phonics, which fell out of vogue decades ago. Literacy problems for 95 per cent of all children can be prevented, opening the glorious vistas of reading, and the pleasure, knowledge, thought and ideas it brings.
Aside from the moral imperative of ending the anguish faced by dyslexic children and their families, this is a huge potential win for Canada’s future labour force. We establish infrastructure banks, subsidize this and that and constantly chase shiny industrial objects we hope will foster economic growth and prosperity. How about we invest in our children to help both them and our country at the same time?
Keith Gray, a retired TD Bank executive, is founder and chair of Dyslexia Canada.