Need For Inclusive Education:

Children with learning difficulties should be taken into regular schools because, like other children these children too have I.Q ranging from average to above average. However,they have specific problems in academic areas and need some extra help or remedial education.

For this purpose, every school must have a resource room, with a trained remedial teacher to meet the needs of children with specific learning problems and slow learners.

This is the concept of inclusive education, wherein a regular school has a resource room set up within the school premises. And such schools are called "INTEGRATED SCHOOLS".

Problems of such children can be best understood when a remedial teacher and a regular school teacher work in coordination, in a way that the regular teacher can keep the remedial teacher updating the child's deficencies and developments in the academic area and the remedial teacher can keep the regular class teacher informed about the different methods that she can adapt in dealing with children with learning problems.

It is indeed a sad thing when parents and teachers tend to fail understanding children with learning disabilities and label them as"weak, dull, lazy, stubborn, mentally absent".

Behaviours of children are the outcome of elder's thoughts and actions because behaviours are learnt through imitation. The way our children behave is the outcome of our own actions.

So, if I, as a parent or a teacher, label a particular child as " weak, lazy, dull", later my children and students imitate my behaviour and single out the so called "weak, dull, lazy" child.

In a way, we are unnecessarily throwing a capable child into depression and with a feeling of being 'rejected'.

What actually is wrong with such children is not their state of being 'lazy, dull or weak', it is because of the wrong wiring in the brain due to which learning in a particular area is blockned.

Because of the 'unnecessary lables', that children with learning disabilities face, they would have reached a stage that they are rejected, not loved for what they are...

So, these children should be taught with utmost love, patience and support.

Techniques like positive reinforcement should be used for their desired behaviour with some rewards..the rewards can be anything from a star(*) in his/her book to small gifts that the child likes or just positive statements or phrases like "very good" with a pat, "thats a good job", "im very happy with your progress" etc..

When you look at the child's answers in a test, you will see that there will be hardly a few correct answers. Instead of counting the wrong responses, count the correct answers and praise the child even if there is a very little progress.

This will build up lot of confidence and positive attitude in the child.

Why the need for a resource room in a regular school?

Children with specific learning disabilities need remedial educational support while they continue attending regular school.

There are still a few regular schools that take a back seat in supporting such children with a view point that, if these children are normal, have an I.Q not less than average, then why would they have any difficulty understanding simple concepts that other children of their age group don't. And if there is a problem in understanding , it certainely means that they need some extra support and that they don't fit into a regular school.

Yes, these children definitely need some extra support... and they get this extra support and remedial education while attending to a regular school. Remedial education in a remedial center or a resource room and education in regular school go hand in hand unless there is a severe behaviour problem in the child to the extent that the child may be harmful to other children(hitting others, self abusive etc).

The point that many parents and teachers need to understand is that, a child with a learning disability does understand, but in a different way!

The child's mind says, " Iam unable to learn the way you teach me, so will you teach me the way I can learn?"(By- Unknown).

In remedial education, such children are taught in innovative ways, in which children are indulged in various activities and fun exercises so that learning takes place in a different way other than merely learning through books. It may take a little longer or several days for a child to understand, but yes, learning does take place.. with a pinch of effort and abundance of patience, a special educator can teach children with learning problems through various remedial strategies.