About Amy dhindsa
I’m a speech-language pathologist working through telepractice from a home base on the island of Montreal. I’m licensed to practice through the Ordre de orthophonistes et audiologistes du Québec and I provide services to clients anywhere in Québec.
my work
I work in the areas of literacy (reading and writing disorders), study skills, and early intervention. All my work is supported by research and is evidence based. In my work in early intervention, I provide services in English and French. I work in English when providing support for reading and writing disorders, and when supporting the development of study skills.
Literacy
The largest part of my work is in literacy: supporting students with the language-based difficulties of reading and writing disorders. Solidly based on the robust findings from the science of reading (a very large interdisciplinary body of scientific peer-reviewed research), intervention follows a structured literacy approach. I am fully trained in the Orton-Gillingham approach through the Reach Learning Centre®. Instruction provided is explicit, direct, prescriptive, systematic, analytic, and cumulative in nature. I own the Reach Learning Centre Ottawa franchise. Through this franchise I also train teachers, education assistants, allied health professionals, and others, in the theory and implementation of a structured literacy approach to support students with reading and writing disorders.
Study Skills
Many students struggle to organise their notetaking, aren’t sure how to tackle a chapter in a school textbook, and wonder how to organise the vast quantity of information they’re exposed to everyday. Brain Frames® are visual tools to organise language. Students are taught to use Brain Frames to organise the information they’re given and recognise the most common language patterns they’re exposed to in school. Brain Frames can support notetaking, reading comprehension, as well as overall academic writing development.
Early Intervention
Amply trained in the programs created by the Hanen CentreTM, early intervention work focuses on parent coaching. These are structured learning and coaching opportunities in one-to-one or group settings, for parents and caregivers, of a child experiencing difficulties in language acquisition. This might include delays in the acquisition of language due to unknown reasons, intellectual disability, and/or autism. Hanen programs have been provided to thousands upon thousands of parents and caregivers, all over the world. These programs are solidly based on research. I’m certified to offer It Takes Two to Talk®, More Than Words®,TalkAbilityTM, ABC & BeyondTM, and Learning Language and Loving ItTM.
Why are parents/caregivers coached? You are your child’s most important and most available provider of language stimulation for communication development. This is where the power of parent coaching comes from.
Daycare staff can receive coaching as well! I’m certified through the Hanen Centre in Learning Language and Loving It and ABC & Beyond to train educators in daycares and early education settings on how to stimulate communication and literacy development in early childhood education (daycares, preschools) settings.
