Dr. Swaroop Rawal

‘Using Drama to Enhance Life Skills in Children with Learning Disability'

How can drama be used to enhance life skills in children with specific learning disabilities studying in a school? Teacher's capacity to recognise and realise the opportunity of an alternate reality in teaching. The reality of loving and caring for the students. The reality of an empathetic, compassionate, just and democratic classroom. 

Life skills enhancement, is a way to alleviate the stress the children experienced. Life skill education promotes mental well-being in young people and behavioral preparedness. As a drama teacher I see drama as tool for education. Drama can be used as a learning medium, to enable a gain in positive behavioral intentions and improved psychosocial competence in children. This is accomplished through augmentation of creativity, emotional understanding and development, improved self-esteem and a notion of the joy of autonomy to enable the students to deal effectively with the demands and challenges of everyday life.

 

Mrs. Lalitha Ramanujan

'Cognitive and Academic differences in Under-achievers'

The factors that influence learning differences in students vary widely. This is also true with their cognitive abilities. Teachers have to look at the strengths and weaknesses to enhance their learning ability in school. Hence the intervention has to be based on inter and intra discrepancies which often surface as deficits. The deficits lead to poor grades or underachievement in academic work. Hence it is important to improve the ability of the student to interpret the sounds of letters, spelling, syllables, morphemes, phrases, sentences, paragraphs of text material. A student with learning difficulty often has difficulties to use of higher order thinking skills, which is the basis of effective comprehension. An approach to facilitate the academic and cognitive skills is the need to overcome learning differences.

Mrs. Chetana Keni

'Solution for Dyslexia – Aurinko Academy, School for the Gifted, Shows the Way'

What do you do with children who seem "normal" except when a book is placed in front of them?

Do these children, diagnosed with labels like Dyslexia and Learning Disabilities need a normal school with extra support? Or do they need a special school?

An hour of extra support everyday ...is all that is needed?

Are Academics, the only "problem" these children have?

Is Dyslexia really a problem? Or is it a gift that is being misunderstood, misguided and misinformed?

These and a whole lot of other issues were taken in as Research Topics when Mrs Chetana Keni started her search for the perfect education for children with Dyslexia.

Today Aurinko is a school that celebrates Dyslexia. It is aimed at providing a learning environment for children where their core is safeguarded, strengthened and perfected.

The School believes that humans have an intrinsic ability to learn from the environment. Aurinko has a conducive environment where the teachers facilitate unstructured child-led learning possibilities under the broad framework of the structured Aurinko Curriculum.

This unique approach coupled with a well researched and implemented approach for academic skill areas allows the seamless and perfect inclusion of children diagnosed with learning differences and gifted children as well.

Mrs Chetana Keni attempts to explain the educational framework of Aurinko and how it can be a solution to facilitate overall growth and development of children with Dyslexia and Learning Difficulties sans the labels!

Dr G SHASHIKALA

'NEURO DEVELOPMENTAL BASIS OF ACADEMIC LEARNING'

This lecture will outline two scientific streams of approach in understanding the Mechanisms underlying LEARNING PROCESSES- particularly academic learning.

Academic learning is essentially a splinter skill of speech & language domain & begins as a developmental phenomenon. This child developmental perspective looks at environment as the trigger for all learning There is particular mention of piagetian theory, Trasactional  model of  Chandler & Sameroff & Urie Bronfenbrenner’s Socio ecological model.

The lecture will also outline the neuroanatomical model of attention, Neural Darwinism, Executive function & Neural plasticity mechanisms. Models of brain functioning. It will elaborate on the skills for how we read & write & anatomical basis of  Specific Learning disabilities.

The last part will focus on Family role in learning, teacher competencies & Peer influence The implications of multi linguism as an inherent constraint for phonological maturity will be dealt with in brief & will end with a note on recent advances in micro mechanisms of learning.

Dr Mrs Sofia H Azad

'IMPORTANCE OF SENSORY-MOTOR STIMULATION IN LEARNING DISABILITIES'

Learning is the function of the whole nervous system. The interaction of the sensory and motor systems through all their countless interconnections is what gives meaning to sensation and purposefulness of movement. Sensory-motor interaction provides the groundwork for later cognitive functions.
A child has difficulty learning to read if his sensory systems are not helping him to process the marks on the page. The more his sensory systems work together, the more he can learn and the easier it is for him. Learning to sit upright, or shake a rattle, or walk downstairs, or hold a crayon develops the brain’s capacity to learn more complex things. With the capacity developed on the sensory-motor level, the child is then better able to learn to addtwo numbers, or write a sentence, or relate to friends.
The vestibular and tactile systems provide the most basic information. The proprioceptive system conveys essential information and these three senses then give meaning to what is seen by associating the visual information with what is experienced in movement and in touch. Vision helps give meaning to what is heard and hearing helps give meaning to what is seen. Finally, the meanings given to the sensation help to form abstract thoughts.

Dr Nisreen Maimoon

‘Experiences in Running an Outside School Resource Centre’

Establishing and running an Outside School Resource Centre for children with Dyslexia or other Learning Difficulties requires deep understanding of the special needs of these children, counseling skills to guide children and their parents and management expertise to co-ordinate the efforts of professionals like Psychologists, Occupational Therapists, Class Teachers, Special Educators, Paediatriciand and Psychiatrists.

Children attend the Centre as per their need, after an IEP (Individual Education Programme) has been drawn up for them. They may have specific difficulties or multiple difficulties.

The aim of an Outside School Resource Centre should be to help and support a Dyslexic Children in acquiring coping skills to make their School task simpler. All efforts should be made to help the child remain in the main stream of education.

Dr Anjali Joshi

'Clumsiness in Children: an Early Predictor of Learning Difficulty'

Difficulties and challenges faced by a child with learning disability are often observed and identified by the age of six or even later. However there are multiple signs which start emerging from an early age which often go unnoticed.

A child who is struggling to acquire simple functional skills such as buttoning, tying shoe laces, eating with a spoon is often labeled as a lazy child. Visual perceptual deficits make it hard for the child to engage in leisure skills like playing with a jig saw puzzle or with constructional toys like building blocks affecting his peer interaction, play and social skills. Understanding of spatial and temporal concepts contributes to development of organizational skills. A child facing problems in these skills often gets labeled as a clumsy child affecting his self esteem and confidence.  

Motor in-coordination, visual perceptual difficulties and organizational skill challenges are some of the factors which often manifest into learning difficulties giving this child a diagnosis of dyslexia or specific learning disorder.

If vigilant parents and pre-primary teachers recognize and acknowledge the child’s difficulties at an early stage and seek support and guidance from an Occupational Therapist then the academic challenges this child is likely to face at later stages of his life can be reduced significantly.