Here are some important points that should be kept in mind when dealing with children and children with learning disabilities in particular:
1) The first thing I would like to elicit is not to label any child as 'weak', 'dull', 'lazy' or with any such negative words. Just go on encouraging the child even for his/her little achievements.
This will not only build up their self esteem and a sense of well being but also with the belief that no matter what, you are there for them.
It is very important to win your child's confidence first and only when one becomes a fearless individual any learning is possible.
2) Have patience in abundance. Irrespective of how many times you keep correcting the child for his mistakes, he/she is likely to repeat it. And it is natural for any parent or teacher to lose temper at some point. But when we are dealing with children with LD, we must always keep in mind that scolding or spanking never works. Once you scold the child, you can hardly expect the child to learn something for he is totally engulfed with fear.
So, there are 3 keys to work with these children:
1) Patience
2) Patience and
3) More patience...
Now that I have emphasised the importance of patience, I shall discuss other tips.
3) Make learning such a way that the child does not feel he/she is learning at all.
They are already subjected to a lot of pressure at school and tutions. So why again learning or studying at remedial class? Ofcourse our aim is to teach the child the skills he/she is lacking but teach the child such a way that he feels he is playing a game and is having fun. This way learning becomes an automatic process.
Our motive is not to make the child learn but is to make him acquire some skills.
4) Never ever compare the child with his/her siblings or other children.
Every child is different and so are the needs and difficulties.
Never even compare yourself with your child. This is how some highly successful, ambitious parents think " I have always been 1st in the class, why is my child like this?" , "I hold such a high position in my work, what will others think about me when they learn about my son/daughter?", "All my friend's children are doing well in academics, why only my child?", "My 1st son is so bright in studies and look at my 2nd son...what a shame!" Such beliefs and comparisons are highly damaging and harmful to the well being of your precious child.
Please stop comparing your child and don't pressurize the child. By doing so, you are only killing the real potential in the child.
5) Learn to recognise your child's strengths than always focussing on his/her weaknesses.
Let yourself believe the fact that not flourishing in academics is not an end in itself. As the saying goes, "all roads lead to rome", so does any talent that the child has can make him a successful human being.
6) Last but not the least...love your child for what he/she is, accept the child for what he is and be your child's best friend, not the one who scares the child with your tantrums or threats, for fear begets nothing.
Only you can be the best supporter of your child.
Friday, January 8, 2010
Thursday, January 7, 2010
A Case Study:
Here is a case study of a child with learning disability...
Rohan (name changed), a class 5 boy who has been diagnosed with learning disability was brought to me for remedial support.
He was administered intelligence tests and it was seen that he has an IQ range of above average intelligence.
However, on assessing him, I observed the following symptoms:
1) He writes words purely phonetically, i.e; by their mere sounds. For example, writes "coud or cud" for "could", "shud" for "should", "wite" or "wit" for "white","rite" for "write" etc. So he has a problem with words with silent letters and often tends to omit them.
2) Has reversals of words and sometimes letters also like writing 'b' for 'd' and vice versa, confuses with 'saw' and 'was', 'very' and 'every' and so on..
3) While reading it was seen that his reading is considerably slow and has no understanding in reading where there are commas (,) and full stops (.).
4) Encounters severe problem when it comes to writing as he makes a lot of errors in spellings, formation of sentences and grammar mistakes.
5) When I dictated a few sentences to him, it was found out that he missed out adding a full stop at the end of a sentence and a question mark at the end of every question. Also, he would start every sentence with a small letter.
6) His oral ability is better than his writing ability.
However, he as an exceptional ability in drawing.
Taking into account all the above mentioned problems, I devised a lesson plan that would better suit his needs which includes activities and exercises on sentence formation using a word, changing statements into questions and vice-versa, exercises on homophones and homonyms, words and sentence dictation, reading exercises, story writing, picture comprehension, playing various word games and several other activities and after 1 month of remedial teaching for Rohan, the following were the observations:
He is now able to write the correct spellings of some words like 'could', 'would', 'should', 'knife', etc and he has also mastered the magic 'e' rule for words like 'care' (to which he would earlier write 'car'), make, bake, fate, though he still makes errors with some other words of higher difficulty level like 'sacrifice', 'disturb'. But with continuous remedial help, there is a greater possibility that he will learn such high level words also over a period of time.
He now puts full stops and question marks where ever it is appropriate and begin every new sentence with a capital letter.
Even while reading, he is able to read with an appropriate pause when he encounters a comma or a full stop though his initial problems like slow reading and taking time in identifying some hard words still persists.
The progress in all these areas is not yet consistent ( he still makes some errors occasionally) but now he knows that which has been repeatedly taught to him and can apply it with some hints or clues. For instance, he now writes the correct spelling for the word 'should' most of the time but this cannot be accounted for his permanant spelling for this word because there is still the risk that he may go wrong with the same word some other time. But when I tell him to look at the word again and see if it is the correct spelling or not, he can tell me that he has written it wrong and he is now able to correct his error by himself.
Needless to say, there is definitely some progress in the performance of Rohan after 1 month of remedial teaching and I am definitely hopeful that he will show considerable improvement in his reading and writing abilities over a period of time though it is difficult to determine in exactly how much time or duration of remedial teaching he will learn to overcome his problems. This is a slow and long term process and with regular remedial help, change is definitely possible...remember, "Rome was not built in a day"!
Rohan (name changed), a class 5 boy who has been diagnosed with learning disability was brought to me for remedial support.
He was administered intelligence tests and it was seen that he has an IQ range of above average intelligence.
However, on assessing him, I observed the following symptoms:
1) He writes words purely phonetically, i.e; by their mere sounds. For example, writes "coud or cud" for "could", "shud" for "should", "wite" or "wit" for "white","rite" for "write" etc. So he has a problem with words with silent letters and often tends to omit them.
2) Has reversals of words and sometimes letters also like writing 'b' for 'd' and vice versa, confuses with 'saw' and 'was', 'very' and 'every' and so on..
3) While reading it was seen that his reading is considerably slow and has no understanding in reading where there are commas (,) and full stops (.).
4) Encounters severe problem when it comes to writing as he makes a lot of errors in spellings, formation of sentences and grammar mistakes.
5) When I dictated a few sentences to him, it was found out that he missed out adding a full stop at the end of a sentence and a question mark at the end of every question. Also, he would start every sentence with a small letter.
6) His oral ability is better than his writing ability.
However, he as an exceptional ability in drawing.
Taking into account all the above mentioned problems, I devised a lesson plan that would better suit his needs which includes activities and exercises on sentence formation using a word, changing statements into questions and vice-versa, exercises on homophones and homonyms, words and sentence dictation, reading exercises, story writing, picture comprehension, playing various word games and several other activities and after 1 month of remedial teaching for Rohan, the following were the observations:
He is now able to write the correct spellings of some words like 'could', 'would', 'should', 'knife', etc and he has also mastered the magic 'e' rule for words like 'care' (to which he would earlier write 'car'), make, bake, fate, though he still makes errors with some other words of higher difficulty level like 'sacrifice', 'disturb'. But with continuous remedial help, there is a greater possibility that he will learn such high level words also over a period of time.
He now puts full stops and question marks where ever it is appropriate and begin every new sentence with a capital letter.
Even while reading, he is able to read with an appropriate pause when he encounters a comma or a full stop though his initial problems like slow reading and taking time in identifying some hard words still persists.
The progress in all these areas is not yet consistent ( he still makes some errors occasionally) but now he knows that which has been repeatedly taught to him and can apply it with some hints or clues. For instance, he now writes the correct spelling for the word 'should' most of the time but this cannot be accounted for his permanant spelling for this word because there is still the risk that he may go wrong with the same word some other time. But when I tell him to look at the word again and see if it is the correct spelling or not, he can tell me that he has written it wrong and he is now able to correct his error by himself.
Needless to say, there is definitely some progress in the performance of Rohan after 1 month of remedial teaching and I am definitely hopeful that he will show considerable improvement in his reading and writing abilities over a period of time though it is difficult to determine in exactly how much time or duration of remedial teaching he will learn to overcome his problems. This is a slow and long term process and with regular remedial help, change is definitely possible...remember, "Rome was not built in a day"!
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