Metro Plus
Bangalore
Chennai
Delhi
Hyderabad
Kochi
Thiruvananthapuram
Visakhapatnam
Give those special kids a break
|
Teams of doctors are working to provide intervention and support, apart from making early diagnosis to help children reeling from severe emotional and social pressures. When parents accept the situation and act fast, half the battle is won, says SUDHA NAMBUDIRI.
|
"IF I cannot learn the way you teach, will you teach me the way I can learn"?
This is a plea for help. From a normal child with average to gifted intelligence, who has a hidden handicap called learning disability _ to put it in simple language, a scholastic or academic problem. The symptoms _ the child displays difficulty in learning to read, write, spell and compute Maths in keeping with his or her IQ level. A proper assessment becomes necessary when there is a distinct difference between the ability and performance of the child.
Ten per cent of the student population has always had it. But for want of proper help and support, their disability was written off as carelessness or dim-wittedness. The common complaints about these children were, "When I ask him, he answers all questions, but in the exams, he doesn't write" or "My daughter is very careless. Despite several dictations, she still makes spelling mistakes" or "My child is a complete failure in Maths." Described in medical terms as `neurological in origin,' learning disabilities interfere with a person's ability to store, process, or produce information, thereby creating a "gap" between one's ability and one's performance. It has now been understood that early diagnosis and appropriate intervention and support are critical for children with learning disabilities.
It is in the last decade when the paediatricians, psychiatrists, psychologists and the educators got together, there came hope for many a child reeling under severe emotional and social pressures for doing poorly at school for no fault of theirs. Today the above-mentioned are working as a team in several schools and remedial centres trying to make an early diagnosis and give appropriate intervention and support.
"Catch `em young," says Dr Seethalakshmi, a psychiatrist at Kusumagiri. "The symptoms can be detected early and diagnosed. There is no cure but there are remedial measures to help overcome the problem. Parents and teachers have to be there with the child till he or she reaches a stage where they can manage on their own."
She conducts an OP session for kids with `scholastic problems', as she calls it. "Very often, the parents delay bringing the children for remedial teaching. So when they are brought here, we do an assessment and often find that they are two standards below their age or school level," she laments.
"The teachers should be alert when the child is either able to write but not spell the regularly used words, or not able to read and understand or do simple arithmetic. So should the parents."
She cautions that delay in giving proper support to such kids could lead to severe behavioural problems and a motivation leading to further complications where medication would have to be administered before remedial process starts.
Explains Ajit Sacheendran, Coordinator-Special Education and Related Services, Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Kochi, "It is very important that teachers be trained to identify students with learning disability. The children need professional help." All the Bhavan's schools in the district are equipped with resource centres run by remedial teachers who, without disturbing the regular routine of the school life, impart and help the child learn in the way he or she understands.
"The teachers are sensitised to the problem and once they identify a child as having the symptoms, we look into the notebooks and assess the child. Once confirmed, we call the parents for counselling and brief them about the problem and the programme." Adds Ajit, "Most parents are very forthcoming in their support. As long as it helps the child they are happy." But there have been instances when parents have refused to send their children to the resource room. Empathizing with them, he says, "We are there to help. Our doors are open. We ask them to come back after a few months or check out the programme in the resource room or talk to other parents."
Incidentally, every centre involved with remedial teaching has a group of panellists or qualified experts who do a complete assessment, educational, psychological and speech and language test before the programme is charted out. There is no universality in the remedial programme, which has separate styles for each student, according to his or her needs.
Paediatrician, Dr Abraham Paul, who is part of the panel at the Child Care Centre, says that of the total number of children that come to the centre, almost 50 per cent have low IQ while those with scholastic disorder have good IQ.
"Among the first things that we rule out is poor=vision, hearing problem and IQ level," he explains. At least 30 per cent of the cases have associated problems like Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD), which requires medication before remedial teaching. "We have 4-5 sessions with the child wherein a multidisciplinary panel makes an assessment." He opines that though there are early pointers as to whether a child is having a learning disability, a firm diagnosis can be made only later.
Send this article to Friends by
E-Mail
Metro Plus
Bangalore
Chennai
Delhi
Hyderabad
Kochi
Thiruvananthapuram
Visakhapatnam
|
