Teach With Care

HE was a child suffering from dyslexia. He could not tie his shoelaces. He used to lie to his parents about the test papers and many-a-times faced humiliation when he was compared to those around him.But,he also had a hidden talent that won him accolades once it was discovered. Sushmit Sen, lead guitarist/singer for Indian Ocean, shared his past at a recent summit organised by Times NIE with support from the Delhi Learning Disabilities Association in the Capital recently.
   The summit, on 'Life beyond dyslexia', brought together the government, teaching community, parents, those working for children with special needs and the script writers for 'Taare Zameen Par' - Amole Gupte and Deepa Bhatia, to spread awareness about this problem. Renuka Chawdhary, minister for state women and child development, was also present.

WHAT IS DYSLEXIA?

The summit highlighted that dyslexia is the part of learning disabilities that creates problem in reading and writing a language,something that is curable over time. The panellists asked parents to inform their child about the problem, as once the child is aware why he/she can't do things like other children, he/she could work towards mending it. But wouldn't awareness about a problem disturb the child further? "Not really, as not knowing about his problem would eventually lead to hurting a child's selfesteem. And that damage is far more severe than any that dyslexia could inflict," opined Shailja Sen, psychologist and member of DLDA.

CURE WITH CONFIDENCE

Low self-esteem among children often leads to grave outcomes. Since most of the dyslexic children are creative, timely recognition and encouragement to their talent can go a long way in boosting their confidence. It certainly did so for Sushmit,and for Akira Kurosawa,the critically acclaimed Japanese director whose autobiography inspired Gupte.

TEACHING TECHNIQUES

And in so far as curing dyslexia is concerned, it can come even with simple time-tested techniques in the classroom. "A dyslexic child only faces problem with reading and writing. His conceptual understanding is normal so teachers can explain concepts, like they would to other children, without making them read in the class. You need to judge the child's capabilities as well, which can be done by verbal questioning," stated Daman Dugal, princpal, Vivek High School, Chandigarh.

ADOPT INCLUSIVE APPROACH

"The dyslexic children need to be with their peers rather than learning in singled out classrooms because they can learn so much from other students. Teachers can ask them to record lectures, provide them with peer scribes etc," informed Kate Currawalla, president, Maharashtra Dyslexic Association. Further, CBSE offers various facilities to dyslexic children like providing scribes, offering options between maths and arts, or even dropping a language.
   However, many parents and students at the seminar pointed out that most schools were not ready to offer such facilities. One such example came from Kritika Behl, a student of Lady Sri Ram College, Delhi University: "I wanted to drop Sanskrit as a third language in my school as CBSE allows it. But I eventually couldn't, because my principal did not agree to it."