Established in 1969 SPELD Victoria is a not-for-profit organisation whose mission is to assist all Victorians with learning difficulties to achieve their full learning potential. We achieve this through the provision of direct service delivery, information, advocacy and awareness raising amongst the wider Victorian community.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic SPELD Victoria had to close its office and key services on the 27th March 2020. As a result, the face-to-face diagnostic assessment service, parent workshops, and the professional learning program were no longer able to be delivered. SPELD Victoria worked rapidly to adjust to online learning for both parents and professionals and to develop a new online literacy assessment which would give parents guidance in understanding their child’s difficulties and strategies for their learning.

While providing this support, our team continued to hear of the struggles individuals with learning difficulties and their families were experiencing during the COVID-19 period of remote learning and home-schooling. In an effort to better understand the experiences of students with learning difficulties and their parents, the team at SPELD Victoria invited our parent subscribers to participate in a survey on the 20th May 2020.