Published Thursday, January 28, 2021 12:45PM EST Some students will emerge from this year's extended period of online learning lagging far behind their peers, experts and teachers warn as they try to mitigate the situation. Evidence suggests that while remote learning works well for some, it can broaden the so-called “performance gap” for others and affect students for years to come, experts said. That's compounded for many children with learning disabilities and those without access to up-to-date technology and plentiful parent support, said Todd Cunningham, a professor with the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto. “Those who have access to this stuff, they get more practice, their skills get better, they're able to get more learning opportunities,” Cunningham said. “Those who don't have those same opportunities, though they keep developing, aren't developing nearly at the same rate. So we see the gap getting wider and wider and wider.”