CHENNAI: A postgraduate diploma course on Learning Disability will be introduced in the Madras University in September to spread awareness about the early detection of learning disability related disorders.

The course jointly organised by Childs Trust Hospital and the Madras University is open for graduates below 40 years. This was announced at `Rehab 2006', a seminar on attention deficit hyperactive disorder, autism and learning disability disorder in children on Saturday.

Inaugurating the seminar for parents and teachers, State secretary of School Education M. Kutralingam said more awareness programmes must be organised to stress the significance of early diagnosis of such disorders in children.

Listing out the various concessions provided by the government for the differently-abled children, he said exemption of spelling mistakes in answer sheets, use of calculators in exams and allowing scribes for writing exams were some. He promised that action would be taken to simplify the certification process. and measures would be taken on the demand of adding Tamil medium in the National Open School system, which was offered exclusively for the special children. The system had a syllabus of one language and four subjects for the differently abled children.

`No statistics'

S. Karunanidhi, Head of the Department of Psychology, Madras University, pointed out that there was no statistics on the special children in Tamil Nadu and the department was prepared to provide human resource for the survey. He said school teachers must be educated to identify and deal with children of such disorders, as they needed special care.

Cardiologist D. Prabhakar spoke about the support group that was to be formed to share knowledge about the disorders and support parents. The group would consist of resource persons from various quarters such as educators, medical experts and institutions.

Organising secretary of Rehab 2006 B. S. Virudhagirinathan also highlighted the lack of diagnostic equipment for detecting such disorders.

While K. Srinivasa Raghavan station director of the All India Radio stressed on emotional support to special children, J. B. Kamdar district governor, Rotary District 3230 emphasised on the tolerant approach for better performance among the children.

The seminar covered topics including early identification of disorders, occupational therapy and remedial measures for learning difficulty.

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