| ONCE
a Dyslexic, always a Dyslexic;
but appropriate management will help circumvent this problem.
There are no quick and easy methods of overcoming a Learning
Disability. Parent and teachers must obtain reliable information
and ensure that resource rooms remedial teaching are staffed by
appropriately trained teachers. Otherwise we will end up doing
more harm.
The
frequent National Conference on Learning Disabilities in
Channai proposed a series of measures to help the Learning
Disable children. Helping these children is the collective
responsibility of the government, education departments,
parents, teachers and school managements.
School managements need to recognize the enormity of the
problem- after all 10 per cent of children in each school need
help for their scholastic backwardness. Organizations such as NCERT,
regional institutes of education, NIMHANS, NIMH, AIISH,
departments of special education in various universities, need
to take a more practical and urgent role in helping these
children.
Parents and schools should demand and obtain special provisions
for LD children, such as remedial teaching in schools,
excemption from learning more than one language, provision for
scribes (writers) for written examinations. Government in
Karnataka and Maharashtra already provide such facilities.
Parents and schools also have the responsibility to build the self-esteem
of the Dyslexic child and help him cope with his inferiority
feeling. This is possible only by spending 'quality time '
with the child. This can be done by being with the child ,
starting up conversations with him at his level and b
reinforcing his self-confidence. It takes a lot of confidence
to raise a hand in class or tell the teacher that he has not
understood something. It also takes confidence to keep trying
when he does not succeed the first time
Hurtful remarks about the child's performance should be avoided.
Parents should stop looking far ahead in the life of a child,
such as worrying about his board exams or his career. Short term
day-to-day goals should be set. All pressure on the child for
academic performance should ease.
Parents must also train themselves to teach the Dyslexic child.
This child needs love and respect which are not conditional on
his academic skills or achievement.
The
teacher needs to accept the LD child's disability and
limitations, become an innovator to try new or simple ways to
teach, and a facilitator to help the child achieve his targets.
The
teacher needs to build a relationship where the LD child can
approach her without feeling ashamed of his weakness. Liberally
praise the child's efforts, even if his performance is
poorer than that of his peers. Spare him ordeals of reading
aloud or performing in public. Find his strengths in other
areas, helping him to identify alternative careers in which he
will excel.
For
all thus to be practical, parents and teachers, school
managements and the government have to become aware of Dyslexia
and diagnose it early in schools. |
