There are some children in our schools who seem to be doing everything age appropriately and parents do not find any problem with the child.
However, when the schooling begins, the difficulties come to the notice of the teachers and parents. Such difficulties are basically academics related.
As formal education begins at around 5 years of age, the problems do not get noted by the parents. Some of the characteristics of such children include:
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* difficulty in expressing oneself.
* difficulty in attention/concentration.
* difficulty in following directions.
* poor play ground skills.
* difficulty in learning to read.
* difficulty in learning simple tasks.
* mixing the order of letters or numbers while writing.
*
reversal/omission/addition/substituiOfl of letters or numbers
Consistently.
* clumsy movements.
* continue to seem restless/hyperactive.
* socialization difficulties.
Such children are referred to as children with specific learning disabilities.
The other terms used are specific learn ing difficulties, dyslexia, perceptual difficulties or children with minimum brain dysfunction.
These are children who have difficulty in listening, thinking, speaking, reading, writing and doing mathematical calcUlations. Their problem may be in one or more of the above processes which is not a result of blindness, deafness, mental retardation, cerebral palsy and other motor disabilities.
It is also not due to socio, cultural, economic, linguistic and emotional problem in the child. When all these conditions are normal and if the child tends to perform poorly in one or more of academic areas, he is likely to be a child with specific learning disabilities. About 4% of the population are estimated to be affected by these problems. Family history of similar difficulties are also noted in many cases.
It is difficult to identify these children very early in life as academic learning does not begin them. However, the teacher may find certain characteristics such as short attention, inability to complete an activity, clumsy performance of physical activities, distractibility, confusion of right and left and lack of clarity in speech.
These children generally have average or above average intelligence, but they have specific problem in perception and processing of information.
How to help?
* Do not call them
stupid or lazy.I
* Do notbe in a
hurry to. lable them. Lables are difficult to remove later.* Highlight their abilities and appreciate them.
* Carefully observe and locate the
specific problem so that correction can be planned.* Take assistance of
specialist when a learning problem is consistent.* Use multisensorial approach to teach these children.
* Identify their area of interest and assist them to develop those areas.
* Refer for detailed assessment and specific programming.
Suggested Activities
1. Encourage singing of nursery rhymes, poems and songs with action.
This improves motor coordination, language development and social interaction.
2. Activities associated wtih water play and sand play improve creativity, imagination and motor coordination.
3. Story telling with dramatization improve social skills, comprehension, language and attention.
4. Have a variety of activities lined up and provide frequent changes in
activities without changing the objective so that attention can be
sustained well. For instance, if colour concept is the objective, have matching/sorting activities with one object (blocks/beads) for a short time and change to another set of objects such as flowers, ribbons, etc. for matching colours. By this the attention of the child is sustained and objective of sorting colour is not changed.5. Mime rhymes or stories and ask the child to guess. Allow them to mime and ask others to guess.
6. Have conversation classes with pictures. Encourage them to describe.
Ask queries related to the pictures that require answers from the
students, such as 'before-after, under-over, up-down, many-few, big- small, thick-thin, tall-short, fat-thin and far-near and so on. For instance, a picture of a busy railway station can be shown and questions like 'Does have 'many' luggage or 'few' luggage. What is 'on' porters head? The baggages on are big or small? How does the train look?Long or short and so on.
7. Games such as dominoes and matching card are good activities for taking turns, understanding rules and improving concertration and
memory.
8. Television has the advantage of multisensory input with movement on screen which helps easy understanding of complex facts.
9. Involvement in household activites - arranging plates and cups on table, 10. Simple puzzles and puzzle books
are good for motor coordination and problem solving.
11.Activities such as 'identify sounds' - vehicle driving,
waterfalls, phone ringing, clock ticking, door bell, thunder, rain, etc. recorded in audio cassettes are good auditory discrimination activities.
bring vegetables for cutting/pealing, help learning pre-number concepts.
1'
— , I
'trace the cars to their houses'
12.Activities for following instruction in the form of games are good for readiness and memory skills for
all children. Start with one
_____instruction at a time such as 'come here'. Increase the
number fo commands gradually
such as 'pick up this paper, put it _____
in the trash can, close the door and switch on light'.
13. Clap a simple rhythm - let the child repeat.
14.TeIl a word - ask for rhyming
words 'what rhymes with
rain
?' Train, plain, chain,
drain, brain and so on. Start with easy sounds and go to difficult
ones.
, ISIS
15. Give activities for tracing shapes and forms thi&irs. Provide
puzzles for completion - start with two pieces and gradually increase.
16. For body awareness use rhymes of body parts, and activities such
as close your eyes and touch nose, stomach, chest, knees,
feet, etc.trace your way home
tyrie:
'find a similar one'