Description
Course Overview
This self-paced online course builds foundational understanding of how reading develops and how learners can be supported through evidence-informed, explicit, and systematic reading instruction.
The course introduces key concepts related to early literacy, phonological and phonemic awareness, phonics, decoding, fluency, vocabulary, comprehension, and practical literacy support across school, tutoring, home, and community contexts.
Who Should Take This Course?
This course is designed for educators, support staff, tutors, parents, caregivers, and others who support learners with reading development.
- Educators and classroom teachers
- Special education teachers
- Educational assistants
- Support staff working with learners
- Tutors and learning support professionals
- Parents and caregivers
- Postsecondary students and teacher candidates
- Community-based professionals supporting literacy development
- Individuals interested in learning more about reading development and evidence-informed literacy support
What You’ll Learn
By the end of this course, learners will have a stronger understanding of:
- how reading develops and why reading must be explicitly and systematically taught
- the role of early literacy skills, including print awareness, letter recognition, vocabulary, and narrative skills
- phonological and phonemic awareness, including how learners hear, identify, blend, segment, and manipulate sounds in spoken language
- how phonics connects spoken sounds to written letters and supports decoding and spelling
- how scope and sequence, syllable types, phonics patterns, and decodable texts support reading development
- how automaticity, orthographic mapping, fluency, morphology, and orthography contribute to skilled reading
- how vocabulary, background knowledge, language structures, verbal reasoning, and literacy knowledge support reading comprehension
- practical strategies that can be used to support learners in school, tutoring, home, and community settings
Time Commitment
Core content requires approximately 8 to 10 hours to complete. Additional time may be spent on reflection activities, optional resources, videos, and application tasks.
Access Period
Participants will have six months of access to the course materials from the date of enrollment. Extensions may be granted upon request.
Format
Self-paced, online learning featuring short videos, reflection activities, practical examples, visuals, application prompts, and curated resources.
Certificate
Participants who complete all required course components will receive a Certificate of Completion issued by the Learning Disabilities Association of Ontario (LDAO).
This certificate recognizes participation and completion of the course. It does not represent professional certification, qualification, or authorization to assess, diagnose, or provide specialized intervention.
Units
- An Overview of Reading and Literacy Learning
- The Process of Learning to Read
- Early Literacy Skills
- Phonological and Phonemic Awareness
- Instructional Strategies for Building Phonemic Awareness and Decoding Skills
- Key Components of Early Reading Development
- Reading Comprehension
- Pulling It All Together
- Course Completion and Continued Learning
