The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : With a little effort, learning difficulties can be solved

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jun 12, 2007
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

With a little effort, learning difficulties can be solved

Kannal Achuthan

Mainstream schools should offer creative teaching methods: expert

FUN WITH LESSONS: A teacher uses word cards at a centre for children with learning difficulty in Chennai. — PHOTO: M. Vedhan

Chennai : Seven-year-old M. Priyanka (not her real name) can draw landscapes, talk at length about her lessons, and is ever eager to learn new things. But the class 2 girl scored only nine on 100 marks in her last Science examination and her class work is often incomplete.

When the child's parents visited her school in Royapettah on `Open Day', her teacher told them, "Priyanka is a very poor student." It was only when her parents took the girl to a counsellor that they knew that she had learning difficulty. She now goes for remedial coaching.

Although activity-based learning and creative teaching techniques are talked about widely, students who don't perform well in examinations are termed `failures' by some schools and parents.

"Difficulty in reading, writing and calculation does not mean cognitive deficit," said Lakshmi Krishnakumar, founder of Sankalp, a centre for children with learning disabilities. Children with average intelligence, and often more than average, can have difficulty organising data such as alphabets, words or numbers. Remedial coaching by trained teachers can help the children process information better.

Gradual change

Several schools in the city are beginning to realise that early intervention can help children with dyslexia (reading, writing difficulties) or dyscalculia (difficulty with Math). Some of the schools that offer counselling help are Good Shepherd, Lady Andal and Padma Seshadri. Vidya Mandir has its own resource centre to offer remedial coaching.

Ms. Krishnakumar hopes that more schools will send their teachers for creative teaching courses offered by various non-governmental organisations. "Many schools back out when it comes to training. They say teachers don't have the time," she said.

Teachers who know about dyslexia will be able to spot telltale signs even among upper kindergarten or class one students. The school management could get a professional screening done through the school counsellor or advise the parent to consult an expert.

Mainstreaming disability

Lalitha Ramanujan, director of Alpha to Omega Learning Centre, said multi-sensory teaching techniques could be used to teach children with learning disability. Word cards, picture cards, listening games, yoga and drama are used in the centre to help children grasp and process information.

"As far as possible, children with learning difficulties must be integrated into mainstream schools. It is only when a child finds it too difficult to cope and needs one-on-one attention that a special learning centre is required," Ms. Ramanujan said.

Mainstream schools cannot give excuses that a child with learning disabilities would spoil the school's pass percentage record. The Tamil Nadu government has passed an order in 2003 exempting these students from taking a second language besides granting an extra hour to finish the answer paper. Examiners would be advised to evaluate according to content and overlook spelling mistakes of children with the disability.

Students also have permission to use a calculator and, in extreme cases, get assistance from a scribe to write the exam.

It is estimated that about 10 per cent of school students in any class suffer from some learning difficulties. Child psychologists and counsellors say that mainstream schools must make it their business to cater to these students too.

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