Mobile devices have become entrenched in today’s culture. In light of the unprecedented surge in mobile device usage, its implications on child health becomes more pertinent. Aspects of child development, such as establishing a stable work-life balance and identity formation are paramount when considering the impact of mobile devices.
Currently, approximately four to six percent of all Canadian children and youth have a learning disability. Three well-explored categories of learning disabilities are dyslexia, dyscalculia, and dysgraphia. Learning disabilities can affect all aspects of a youth’s life and development, including social-emotional, cognitive, physical, and behavioural-moral domains. Options to treat and manage learning disabilities are currently divided into compensatory strategies and remedial treatments, including drilling and practice, task analysis, computer aids, faded support, and multisensory instruction. Different types of community-supports are also available to supplement treatment and management options. As a newly recognized field, research on learning disabilities has seen major developments within the last few decades, with significant changes during the COVID-19 pandemic. COVID-19 has impacted the health of children and youth with learning disabilities and changed the accessibility of education. However, despite the developments in the field, gaps and critiques persist in the research. This paper aims to review the current literature on treatments, community supports, and management strategies for learning disabilities in Canada and discuss the impacts of COVID-19. Reviewing existing data and gaps in the literature will help provide a holistic overview of the current state of the literature on learning disabilities in children and youth in Canada.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.