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Case study: Maurine Sandler
So what could possibly change?
Well, I found out things already have changed!
An approach for all the main types of anxiety disorder has made a life-changing difference for hundreds of people.
And now I’m one of them.
Click below to watch the video – and I’ll explain what happened.
My anxiety disorder grew steadily worse over the 16 years I suffered it. It seemed to gather strength over time… while my ability to cope with it gradually weakened.
There honestly were times where I wondered where it would all eventually end.
Things are different now.
I don’t suffer anxiety attacks like that any more. I haven’t for nearly two years and my mental health is pretty much fully restored.
It took some time for me to finally get better.
Although, to be truthful, time was something I had plenty of.
Because 16 years of anxiety attacks – and everything that entails – wasn’t going to mind an extra few weeks of the same.
But by the time it had came to its end my anxiety had shrunk to a shadow of its former self.
Anxiety kicked me around emotionally, mentally and physically.
Anxiety episodes themselves were often dreadful.
Frantic, panicky, scared… Worrying about all sorts of small details, ruminating to the point of panic…
Mentally I’d go round in circles and just think myself into distress and powerlessness.
Anxiety disturbed my sleep to the point I could sometimes wake up more tired than I was when I had gone to bed.
And, inevitably, the misery of it all slipped me into occasional depression.
Mild depression is so common for people who suffer from any kind of anxiety disorder. I simply couldn’t recall the last time I felt relaxed or at ease.
I tried so hard to avoid anxiety attacks that I retreated from situations and people that might trigger them.
The problem was that for me there were so many possible triggers that I was in danger at times of becoming a recluse.
My anxiety disorder made it difficult for me to make – and sustain – friendships.
Career aspirations took a back-burner too. I had to choose work where my bosses were completely understanding.
And where me being an emotional mess all of a sudden wasn’t going to get me fired! Which does restrict your options somewhat.
I often feared that the effect anxiety was having on my relationships might leave me lonely and without friends. I didn’t want to be lonely…
I especially worried that my ability to work and support myself would deteriorate as the condition made my mental health slowly worsen.
And the physical cost – in terms of conditions that come from ongoing, chronic stress – didn’t bear thinking about.
Because the ongoing stress of my disorder is known conclusively to lead to chronic inflammation in the body.
And with too much inflammation an anxiety sufferer becomes a prime candidate for inflammatory disease. Which includes diabetes, fatty liver, kidney disease, arthritis, heart disease and some cancers.
So as well as a deteriorating mental health outlook…physical disability was an ever-present fear.
All this made me wonder about me…
What was wrong with me? Why am I like this? What must I look like to other people? What would they be thinking about me?
I really did think sometimes that I was just a ridiculous person.
I did everything I could to deal with my anxiety.
Medications made some difference. They often – although not always – took the edge off the worst anxiety attacks.
I took anxiety drugs for a while during my early years of the disease. Eventually on my doctor’s advice I stopped taking them. I was glad to stop – for two reasons.
First, the side-effects of the meds were similar to my actual anxiety! Agitation, sleep problems, loss of memory, poor concentration – even some confusion at times.
Second was that meds don’t address the actual causes of the anxiety.
They only work on symptoms – so you remain ill even when you’re drugged up.
The underlying causes of anxiety remain firmly in place… forever chipping away at your chances of ever having a truly happy life.
I didn’t like putting all those drugs into my body.
And I certainly didn’t like the fact that those meds can become habit forming – which is one of the reasons doctors try to get you off them as quickly as they can.
So, like many anxiety sufferers, that left me having to use a variety of techniques to handle my condition.
Some approaches worked from time to time. Nothing was truly reliable though.
I truly thought then that reversing the condition was impossible.
I was wrong… but that was my thinking back then when I was ill.
In the meantime I was pretty stuck. I had better days and I had really difficult days. I rarely had two better days together. After years of suffering like this my anxiety disorder was making me grow tired and despondent.
Even though I wasn’t sure that an anxiety disorder could be successfully treated it didn’t stop me from searching for some sort of miracle cure.
The bad news is that such a thing does not exist.
There are, of course, people out there who say otherwise.
They promise they’ll get rid of all types of anxieties using a secret potion made of some secret tree root they discovered in the forests of somewhere like Panama.
Other ‘gurus’ offer remedies based on all sorts of exotic rituals and exercises. A kind of faith healing, if you like.
I tried enough of them to know that none of these approaches offer single shred of improvement to an anxiety disorder.
There’s good reason why these quirky, untested approaches didn’t work. The people offering these ‘remedies’ simply didn’t understand what anxiety actually is.
They just didn’t understand that all anxiety disorders are intricate conditions with multiple layers of complexity.
There’s not a single pill or an exercise a person can do that’s going to make it go away just like that.
To make a change to an anxiety disorder requires a deep understanding of all the strands that have tied themselves together to create that disorder in the first place.
Thinking you can cure everything with a potion or a yoga exercise is just plain wrong.
Still, the promises are made. And people like me, desperate for some relief, fell for a few of them.
But now there’s some good news. Really, really good news.
If you’re patient, gentle with yourself and willing to slowly work through science-based, research-backed activities… then your world can change.
My world definitely did change.
It changed forever. I didn’t expect it to be this good. I sometimes can hardly believe that it is!
Some years ago I attended an anxiety support group where I used to live. We met weekly and although it didn’t do much to help with my anxiety it was comforting to not be alone with the problem.
It was on a visit back to that old neighborhood that I bumped into one of the group’s members.
Well. Ex-member, to be precise.
Martin had suffered from a different disorder to me – he had OCD for years – and I remembered that he had a hellish time getting it under control.
And although I couldn’t completely understand Martin’s world – my anxiety was generalised anxiety disorder (GAD) with occasional panic attacks (just to make life interesting) – I do know he had struggled a lot.
But while I still had very bad anxiety Martin had…. nothing.
No symptoms of OCD. No stress. No depression. No nothing.
We stopped off for a coffee and he explained what had happened.
In a nutshell, Martin had become so despairing of his condition that he’d tried out some natural remedies. If modern medicine couldn’t help him then perhaps alternative medicine could.
Some of the different methods he’d tried had reduced the intensity of his symptoms – which meant that he could function better.
Excited by this small progress he’d gone down the alternative health rabbit hole… and then resurfaced with what he called ‘a miracle’.
Having tried many routes Martin had found a straightforward program that gave sufferers of all types of anxiety a clear but gentle pathway out of their problem – and into repaired and restored mental health.
Martin told me the method he used worked on these types of anxiety disorder:
Martin explained that his condition had melted away bit by bit over time. He’d first noticed a slight lessening of the intensity of his symptoms.
And then a reduction in their frequency.
Over time, intensity and frequency reduced to… just about nothing.
I remember that at the time he was telling me all this, I think my mouth must have hung open. At times he laughed at my expression. ‘It’s true!’ he insisted. And I nearly believed him.
Of course, now I really believe him. Because I’ve had his experience with my own anxiety disorder.
Martin told me he had been introduced to an alternative health practitioner by the name of Christian Goodman.
Christian Goodman is the creator of a very successful anxiety disorder program that is producing outstanding results for many hundreds of people.
It’s this program that had changed Martin’s life so dramatically.
Now I’m a little sceptical about alternative cures. I do mostly trust doctors and the drugs companies. Not everyone does of course.
But Martin’s advice to try out Christian Goodman’s ‘The End of Anxiety’ program came at a time when I was becomng increasingly worried about both my mental and physical deterioration.
I had reached a stage where I really was prepared to try anything – and this seemed like a pretty good bet.
Christian’s ‘The End of Anxiety’ program guided me carefully through a set of activities that I could do at home whenever I felt up to it.
As I worked through these activities over time so my anxiety gently melted away until it no longer existed.
The program was simple, straightforward and consisted of several types of activities:
Daily habits
Some simple daily work that takes a few minutes but which does some of the most wonderful healing I have ever experienced
When-you-feel-like-it activities
Some thinking type exercises that helped me change my relationship with myself and my condition. These were transformative…
One-off actions
Simple but important things I only had to do once but which revealed really useful insights into what I was suffering
Self-care habits
I didn’t know much about how to truly care for myself until I learnt it from Christian. In truth, I didn’t realize how important it was either – until I actually did it. Amongst all the small but memorable victories I enjoyed with this program I think self-care gave me the quickest release from my anxiety misery.
Action activities
There are specific things you can do that over time make you healthier in the mind and body. Very simple but once I started I really didn’t want to stop. So I haven’t. Why stop doing what makes you happy?
I was nervous at first… starting this program itself made me anxious!
It’s almost as if my anxiety was protecting itself from me getting rid of it.
But there were two things I loved about this program.
First, was that there was no timeline for completion, no schedule that forced me to do things in a certain time.
The rate at which I adopted these changes was decided by me and how I felt about them. Sometimes I did more work, sometimes I did less.
It was like a dance… slow, slow, quick, quick, slow. Except that it was me who decided the rhythm and pace.
Second, Christian cautioned me against placing expectations on myself. Things might improve a lot one week but only a little the following week. That’s okay.
You’re only expectation should be that you will follow the program as best you can.
The rest will take care of itself.
Some of the program’s activities worked their magic at a very deep level.
So while they were very easy to do… their benefits don’t reach the surface straight away.
What I was doing was always working – I just had to be a little patient before I experienced the results.
Christian’s plan was eye-opening and inspiring from the first page to the last.
I had suffered my anxiety disorder for 16 years and in that time I’d read books, countless articles and watched hours of videos about anxiety…
Nobody told me the things that Christian taught me.
He opened my eyes to anxiety disorder and made me understand it so much better than I ever had before.
Of course, the problem with so much exciting new information is this: how on earth do I apply all the stuff I’m learning here?
‘The End of Anxiety’ handles that question very neatly.
First of all, Christian clearly explains the route out of anxiety.
He tells you the what, the why and the how of it all.
Simple explanations, clearly made points, easy to follow logic.
But then Christian offers you a simple start-up guide so that you can quickly make the learning work for you.
You know the quick-start sheet you get with a new phone or a complicated watch? It’s like that.
You want to get started now – not next week – so you need some simple steps you can start following immediately.
His ‘How to get started’ section told me what to do now. Then what to do next. Then what to do after that.
And once I built up my own confidence in what I was doing… I did what I wanted when I wanted to do it.
So long as I regularly did something I knew my anxiety was going to lose this battle.
I’m not criticizing the standard medical approaches to the various forms of anxiety.
Drugs, for all their addictive qualities and unpleasant side-effects, do make some difference.
CBT can make a difference too, even if it eventually wears off for many people.
And there are various self-management techniques that help us delay an attack, reduce it – or simply survive it.
But none of these really get to the heart of what’s wrong.
None of these will ever make you better.
One thing I learned from Christian is that anxiety disorders come from a place that can be very deep within us.
It’s not like a cut on your arm or a broken bone – something that can be clearly seen, easily diagnosed and quickly fixed.
Our disorder is hidden. It’s complex, tangled.
The causes of the disorder, the way the disorder affects us, our own thinking about ourselves and our world, and the coping mechanisms we employ to cope with our difficulties…
…all these are layered into the disorder itself, making it a deeper, much less accessible problem.
They feed into each other, creating a spaghetti-like tangle of fears, negative thoughts and distress.
It’s impossible to see where one aspect of our disorders begin and another one starts.
This is where Christian’s program is so different from anything I’d experienced before.
Standard medical remedies mostly address the symptoms – the surface – of the problem.
They get us through the day – which is a vital help – but we remain ill even when we’re managing to function.
Whereas ‘The End of Anxiety’ works very gently on the underlying causes of an anxiety disorder.
It gets to the foundation of the problem… and starts wearing away that foundation.
Instead of drugging me out of my anxiety Christian works on the inside, the source of that anxiety disorder.
And once it starts doing its work then the anxiety’s causes – whatever they are for your type of anxiety – start to subside.
Not because I’d medicated them out of existence but because they had started losing their grip on my life.
They were simply losing their reason to exist.
Christian understands anxiety disorders.
Certainly he understands them better than I did. I suspect he knows more about the underlying condition than even my doctors.
After all, he did in weeks what my doctors hadn’t managed to do for me in 16 years.
But he states clearly that this isn’t a quick-fix-cure.
So you can expect to still experience your anxiety for some time – even while following this program. Things will improve. Attacks will become less frequent – and less intense when they do occur.
But while you’re still getting them Christian steps you through an excellent coping strategy that will dramatically reduce the intensity and the duration of the experience.
It was a new coping method for me – I’d never heard of this particular way of getting through an attack.
It helped keep me upright when things got tough. Which meant I was generally in much better condition to continue with the gentle work of melting away my disorder.
I wish I had learnt this years ago! But better late than never, I guess…
I don’t know how you’re suffering. You may have a different anxiety disorder to the one I used to have. Or you may simply experience the same disorder in a completely different way.
Either way, I imagine that you’ve reached a point where you just don’t want it any more.
I empathize more than you might imagine. I do know what it’s like.
Anxiety disorder has no upside. It’s a cruel affliction that simply eats away at our happiness and destroys our simple hopes for a peaceful, contented life.
We didn’t earn our anxiety disorder. We don’t deserve what happened to us. It isn’t our fault.
Yet we feel that we’re stuck with it for life, that our anxiety is as much a part of ourselves as an arm or our kidneys.
It turns out though that this simply is not the case.
As nearly a thousand people have now found out… we’re no longer helpless and anxiety doesn’t have to be a life-sentence.
With patience and the right guidance we can gently ease ourselves out of the darkness and into the light.
Christian Goodman’s ‘The End of Anxiety’ is that guidance.
And the moment I decided I wanted to heal and that I was going to take those first tiny steps towards saving myself from a life of anxiety misery… was the single best day of my life.
Because everything that is wonderful in my life now is because of the decision I made then.
Well, you have your type of anxiety disorder. You experience it in your own unique way. So your own experience of anxiety is uniquely yours. There’s nobody else quite like you.
Which means your journey to healing might differ in some respects to mine.
The key though is that you get on that path. This is what really matters.
Once I’d decided that enough was enough – I had put myself firmly on that path.
I wanted a different kind of life.
One that was significantly calmer, more predictable, and which freed me to lead the kind of normal existence that so many other people take for granted.
And that’s my reality now.
By following Christian’s advice to the letter you present your anxiety with an irresistible healing force.
Over time, it has no option but to surrender.
Hundreds of people have successfully used ‘The End of Anxiety’ to successfully treat their anxiety disorders. They followed the guide and allowed improvements to come in their own time.
Their lives now are nothing like their lives were before.
The change to their anxiety disorder – and therefore to their day-to-day happiness – has been quite literally transformative.
There’s no reason why it wouldn’t be exactly the same for you.
Which is why Christian offers you a complete money-back guarantee on his program.
If within 60 days purchasing ‘The End of Anxiety’ you are not completely happy with the changes to your anxiety situation so far… then you can have all your money back. No questions.
Christian makes this guarantee because he’s witnessed so very many people gain life transforming benefits from following his simple plan. Their health and happiness improves as their anxiety recedes into the background.
They are relaxed, calm and in control of their lives. They experience few – or, in most cases, absolutely no – anxiety symptoms.
I wanted to know what it felt like to live my life without an anxiety disorder. I found out. And you can too – click here and get your own copy of ‘The End of Anxiety’…
All anxiety sufferers realize in the end that if we’re going to heal then we are going to have to play an active role in that healing.
If you’ve endured anxiety for any period of time then you already know that it isn’t going to just disappear on its own.
If you do nothing… it’s yours forever.
My anxiety had a cause. Yours does too.
Your anxiety cannot withstand an approach that directly affects that cause.
It cannot resist something that gently dissolves its grip on your happiness.
Christian’s research-backed methods gradually eased anxiety out of my life.
And Christian guarantees it.
If within 60 days purchasing this program you don’t agree that you’re feeling significantly better than you have done for years then you can have all your money back.
I took Christian up on this same offer a little over 2 years ago. I’m a completely changed person – and I live a much happier, stress-free life.
That can be your story too. Take charge of what’s happening to you… and then watch it change. Get ‘The End of Anxiety’ by clicking here…
There’s no end to where an anxiety disorder can take you.
Over time, a sufferer’s mental health deteriorates. If the condition isn’t addressed head-on, depression becomes significantly more likely.
That’s not all. The condition eventually undermines physical health too.
Ongoing stress – an integral part of anxiety misery – releases stress hormones into the bloodstream.
And ongoing levels of stress hormones in the body lead to inflammation and a host of related physical diseases – with diabetes, kidney and liver disease, heart disease and various immunity malfunctions being the most common.
I wasn’t going to let this happen to me. First my mental health was suffering.
And then my physical health could follow suit.
Enough was enough. I wasn’t going to wait around until my health had deteriorated to the point of no return. I didn’t want that regret hanging over my head.
Once I made my decision to heal… Christian’s program did the rest.
It was easily the best decision I have ever made.
If you’ve read this far then I believe you’ve made your decision too.
You’ve decided you’re not going to suffer like this anymore. You’ve decided you’re going to heal.
Which means you need ‘The End of Anxiety’. Click here and you can have it…
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Overthrowing Anxiety cb | Blue Heron Health News is backed with a 60 Day No Questions Asked Money Back Guarantee. If within the first 60 days of receipt you are not satisfied with Wake Up Lean™, you can request a refund by sending an email to the address given inside the product and we will immediately refund your entire purchase price, with no questions asked.
Skinstitut Holiday Gift Kits take the stress out of gifting
Toronto, October 31, 2024 – Beauty gifts are at the top of holiday wish lists this year, and Laser Clinics Canada, a leader in advanced beauty treatments and skincare, is taking the pressure out of seasonal shopping. Today, Laser Clincs Canada announces the arrival of its 2024 Holiday Gift Kits, courtesy of Skinstitut, the exclusive skincare line of Laser Clinics Group.
In time for the busy shopping season, the limited-edition Holiday Gifts Kits are available in Laser Clinics locations in the GTA and Ottawa. Clinics are conveniently located in popular shopping centers, including Hillcrest Mall, Square One, CF Sherway Gardens, Scarborough Town Centre, Rideau Centre, Union Station and CF Markville. These limited-edition Kits are available on a first come, first served basis.
“These kits combine our best-selling products, bundled to address the most relevant skin concerns we’re seeing among our clients,” says Christina Ho, Senior Brand & LAM Manager at Laser Clinics Canada. “With several price points available, the kits offer excellent value and suit a variety of gift-giving needs, from those new to cosmeceuticals to those looking to level up their skincare routine. What’s more, these kits are priced with a savings of up to 33 per cent so gift givers can save during the holiday season.
There are two kits to select from, each designed to address key skin concerns and each with a unique theme — Brightening Basics and Hydration Heroes.
Brightening Basics is a mix of everyday essentials for glowing skin for all skin types. The bundle comes in a sleek pink, reusable case and includes three full-sized products: 200ml gentle cleanser, 50ml Moisture Defence (normal skin) and 30ml1% Hyaluronic Complex Serum. The Brightening Basics kit is available at $129, a saving of 33 per cent.
Hydration Heroes is a mix of hydration essentials and active heroes that cater to a wide variety of clients. A perfect stocking stuffer, this bundle includes four deluxe products: Moisture 15 15 ml Defence for normal skin, 10 ml 1% Hyaluronic Complex Serum, 10 ml Retinol Serum and 50 ml Expert Squalane Cleansing Oil. The kit retails at $59.
In addition to the 2024 Holiday Gifts Kits, gift givers can easily add a Laser Clinic Canada gift card to the mix. Offering flexibility, recipients can choose from a wide range of treatments offered by Laser Clinics Canada, or they can expand their collection of exclusive Skinstitut products.
Brightening Basics 2024 Holiday Gift Kit by Skinstitut, available exclusively at Laser Clincs Canada clinics and online at skinstitut.ca.
Hydration Heroes 2024 Holiday Gift Kit by Skinstitut – available exclusively at Laser Clincs Canada clinics and online at skinstitut.ca.
LONDON (AP) — Most people have accumulated a pile of data — selfies, emails, videos and more — on their social media and digital accounts over their lifetimes. What happens to it when we die?
It’s wise to draft a will spelling out who inherits your physical assets after you’re gone, but don’t forget to take care of your digital estate too. Friends and family might treasure files and posts you’ve left behind, but they could get lost in digital purgatory after you pass away unless you take some simple steps.
Here’s how you can prepare your digital life for your survivors:
Apple
The iPhone maker lets you nominate a “ legacy contact ” who can access your Apple account’s data after you die. The company says it’s a secure way to give trusted people access to photos, files and messages. To set it up you’ll need an Apple device with a fairly recent operating system — iPhones and iPads need iOS or iPadOS 15.2 and MacBooks needs macOS Monterey 12.1.
For iPhones, go to settings, tap Sign-in & Security and then Legacy Contact. You can name one or more people, and they don’t need an Apple ID or device.
You’ll have to share an access key with your contact. It can be a digital version sent electronically, or you can print a copy or save it as a screenshot or PDF.
Take note that there are some types of files you won’t be able to pass on — including digital rights-protected music, movies and passwords stored in Apple’s password manager. Legacy contacts can only access a deceased user’s account for three years before Apple deletes the account.
Google
Google takes a different approach with its Inactive Account Manager, which allows you to share your data with someone if it notices that you’ve stopped using your account.
When setting it up, you need to decide how long Google should wait — from three to 18 months — before considering your account inactive. Once that time is up, Google can notify up to 10 people.
You can write a message informing them you’ve stopped using the account, and, optionally, include a link to download your data. You can choose what types of data they can access — including emails, photos, calendar entries and YouTube videos.
There’s also an option to automatically delete your account after three months of inactivity, so your contacts will have to download any data before that deadline.
Facebook and Instagram
Some social media platforms can preserve accounts for people who have died so that friends and family can honor their memories.
When users of Facebook or Instagram die, parent company Meta says it can memorialize the account if it gets a “valid request” from a friend or family member. Requests can be submitted through an online form.
The social media company strongly recommends Facebook users add a legacy contact to look after their memorial accounts. Legacy contacts can do things like respond to new friend requests and update pinned posts, but they can’t read private messages or remove or alter previous posts. You can only choose one person, who also has to have a Facebook account.
You can also ask Facebook or Instagram to delete a deceased user’s account if you’re a close family member or an executor. You’ll need to send in documents like a death certificate.
TikTok
The video-sharing platform says that if a user has died, people can submit a request to memorialize the account through the settings menu. Go to the Report a Problem section, then Account and profile, then Manage account, where you can report a deceased user.
Once an account has been memorialized, it will be labeled “Remembering.” No one will be able to log into the account, which prevents anyone from editing the profile or using the account to post new content or send messages.
X
It’s not possible to nominate a legacy contact on Elon Musk’s social media site. But family members or an authorized person can submit a request to deactivate a deceased user’s account.
Passwords
Besides the major online services, you’ll probably have dozens if not hundreds of other digital accounts that your survivors might need to access. You could just write all your login credentials down in a notebook and put it somewhere safe. But making a physical copy presents its own vulnerabilities. What if you lose track of it? What if someone finds it?
Instead, consider a password manager that has an emergency access feature. Password managers are digital vaults that you can use to store all your credentials. Some, like Keeper,Bitwarden and NordPass, allow users to nominate one or more trusted contacts who can access their keys in case of an emergency such as a death.
But there are a few catches: Those contacts also need to use the same password manager and you might have to pay for the service.
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Is there a tech challenge you need help figuring out? Write to us at onetechtip@ap.org with your questions.
The Canadian Paediatric Society says doctors should regularly screen children for reading difficulties and dyslexia, calling low literacy a “serious public health concern” that can increase the risk of other problems including anxiety, low self-esteem and behavioural issues, with lifelong consequences.
New guidance issued Wednesday says family doctors, nurses, pediatricians and other medical professionals who care for school-aged kids are in a unique position to help struggling readers access educational and specialty supports, noting that identifying problems early couldhelp kids sooner — when it’s more effective — as well as reveal other possible learning or developmental issues.
The 10 recommendations include regular screening for kids aged four to seven, especially if they belong to groups at higher risk of low literacy, including newcomers to Canada, racialized Canadians and Indigenous Peoples. The society says this can be done in a two-to-three-minute office-based assessment.
Other tips encourage doctors to look for conditions often seen among poor readers such as attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder; to advocate for early literacy training for pediatric and family medicine residents; to liaise with schools on behalf of families seeking help; and to push provincial and territorial education ministries to integrate evidence-based phonics instruction into curriculums, starting in kindergarten.
Dr. Scott McLeod, one of the authors and chair of the society’s mental health and developmental disabilities committee, said a key goal is to catch kids who may be falling through the cracks and to better connect families to resources, including quicker targeted help from schools.
“Collaboration in this area is so key because we need to move away from the silos of: everything educational must exist within the educational portfolio,” McLeod said in an interview from Calgary, where he is a developmental pediatrician at Alberta Children’s Hospital.
“Reading, yes, it’s education, but it’s also health because we know that literacy impacts health. So I think that a statement like this opens the window to say: Yes, parents can come to their health-care provider to get advice, get recommendations, hopefully start a collaboration with school teachers.”
McLeod noted that pediatricians already look for signs of low literacy in young children by way of a commonly used tool known as the Rourke Baby Record, which offers a checklist of key topics, such as nutrition and developmental benchmarks, to cover in a well-child appointment.
But he said questions about reading could be “a standing item” in checkups and he hoped the society’s statement to medical professionals who care for children “enhances their confidence in being a strong advocate for the child” while spurring partnerships with others involved in a child’s life such as teachers and psychologists.
The guidance said pediatricians also play a key role in detecting and monitoring conditions that often coexist with difficulty reading such as attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, but McLeod noted that getting such specific diagnoses typically involves a referral to a specialist, during which time a child continues to struggle.
He also acknowledged that some schools can be slow to act without a specific diagnosis from a specialist, and even then a child may end up on a wait list for school interventions.
“Evidence-based reading instruction shouldn’t have to wait for some of that access to specialized assessments to occur,” he said.
“My hope is that (by) having an existing statement or document written by the Canadian Paediatric Society … we’re able to skip a few steps or have some of the early interventions present,” he said.
McLeod added that obtaining specific assessments from medical specialists is “definitely beneficial and advantageous” to know where a child is at, “but having that sort of clear, thorough assessment shouldn’t be a barrier to intervention starting.”
McLeod said the society was partly spurred to act by 2022’s “Right to Read Inquiry Report” from the Ontario Human Rights Commission, which made 157 recommendations to address inequities related to reading instruction in that province.
He called the new guidelines “a big reminder” to pediatric providers, family doctors, school teachers and psychologists of the importance of literacy.
“Early identification of reading difficulty can truly change the trajectory of a child’s life.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 23, 2024.
