About Amy Dhindsa
I live and work as a speech-language pathologist on the West Island of Montreal. I’m licensed to practice through the Ordre de orthophonistes et audiologistes du Québec.
What is my work?
I have chosen to focus my work in three main areas: early intervention, literacy, and study skills. All my work is supported by research and is evidence based. I provide services in English and French when coaching parents and caregivers of children on the spectrum of autism or with language delays. I work in English when working on the language-based difficulties of reading and writing disorders, and when providing support to develop study skills.
Literacy
The largest part of my work is in literacy: supporting students with 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 will be systematic, direct, analytic, and cumulative in nature. Another facet of my working life is to train educators, education assistants, allied health professionals, and others, in the theory and implementation of a structured literacy approach to supporting students with reading and writing disorders. Orton-Gillingham Canada
Study Skills
In tandem with my work in literacy, I support students to develop their study skills. This is done through the learning and implementation of Brain FramesⓇ when reading class material and working through homework. Brain FramesⓇ can support reading comprehension, study skills, the understanding of sentence structure, 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 highly structured learning and coaching opportunities in a group setting, 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.
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.
Can daycare staff receive coaching as well? Yes! Additionally, I’m also certified through the Hanen Centre to train daycare and educational staff on how to stimulate communication and literacy development in early childhood education (daycares, preschools) settings.
I run Hanen programs by telepractice.
