19/10/2020
“NEITHER HERE NOR THERE “
Just as, no two snow flake’s are ever the same and each is destined to fall in its predestined place, no to flower’s on the parent plant or bush are the same either. Similarly no two children in a classroom are ever the same. A ‘classroom’ is, in fact is a small world in itself with children from varied backgrounds, each with their own thoughts and expressions woven into a unique mental and emotional framework.
A teacher’s role is not very different from a ‘conductor’ of an ‘orchestra’ who has to know each musician’s special attribute, thus harmonizing the musicians and their instruments to create a ‘masterpiece’.
Here in, lies the importance of knowing the strengths and weaknesses of each child. In a class of an average thirty students there may be at least one child with a ‘special learning disability’ or even a ‘slow learner’. As the learning needs of these two groups are different, it is imperative to be equipped with the knowledge to differentiate between them and then formulate ‘study programs’.
A ‘Slow Learner’, is a child of below average intelligence, whose thinking skills have developed significantly more slowly than the normal for his/her age. Intellectual functioning IQ is in the range of 71-84 on formal IQ testing. This child will go through the same basic developmental stages as other children, but will do so at a significantly slower rate. However, this development while being slower, nevertheless will be relatively even. These children do not have intellectual disability, but it takes them longer to understand and grasp concepts.
As ‘ Slow Learners’ have not been included in the list of disabilites as defined in the The Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act – 2016 , they are unfortunately not eligible for any of the concessions granted by the CBSE and ICSE Boards of Education for their board examinations. Thus making the entire scenario of education so much more challenging for the child and the experience of learning extremely laborious.
On the other hand, a child with Specific Learning Disability, is one of average intelligence who has specific difficulties which can make learning very difficult. There may be deficits in any of the basic central nervous system functions which have to do with the acquisition and use of listening, speaking, reading, writing, reasoning or mathematical abilities, that is attention, memory, language, auditory and visual, perception, motor co- ordination and planning, spatial orientation, impulse control and sequencing. In short there is a discrepancy between the child’s potential and actual achievement. These children are eligible for the concessions provided by the CBSE and ICSE Boards and are thus in a more advantageous position than the Slow Learners.
The following characteristics of each group may be helpful in identification.
SLOWER LEARNER
1. Developmental: may have immature language patterns or speech problems. This means the the child may take longer to start speaking than other others or may need more prolonged and repetitive lessons to learn most concepts.
2. Social: poor judgement, immature social behavior and prefers the company of younger children.
3. Personal: They may seem to have less control over their emotions. They tend to fall back to anger quickly, get frustrated faster than most , express emotions like anxiety for seemingly minor issues or get depressed over set backs.
4. Educational: They take longer to process and understand the information provided to them and may show proficiency with particular tasks rather than subject areas. They may have poor memory and experience difficulties understanding several steps in a task. Need’s to have new information linked to old and also experience difficulties transferring information learned in one situation to others.
However, I would like to add that all the features might not present at the same time and a basic criteria is the low IQ.
SPECIFIC LEARNING DISABILITY
1. Academic:
Reading—confuses similar words and letters, loses place, repeats words, does not read fluently, persists in using fingers to follow along, does not like to read.
Spelling—uses incorrect order of letters in words, has difficulty of associating correct sound with appropriate letter, reverses letters
Mathematics—has difficulty associating number with symbol, cannot remember number facts, confuses columns and spacing, has difficulties with story problems, has difficulty comprehending maths concepts.
2. Physical:
-- perceptual motor difficulties
--visual perception difficulties
--poor visual coding
--general coordination deficits (balance, eye—hand)
--poor auditory memory (difficulty following sequence of directions)
--attention deficit
--mixed dominance ( hand, foot, eye )
3. Psychological
--emotional instability
--difficulty learning by ordinary methods
--low social acceptance ( disturbed peer relations)
--low self concept/self-esteem
--general disorganization ( time and actions )
4. Social/emotional/behavioural
--hyperactivity (gross, noisy, constant movements)
--hypoactivity (quiet, nervous, fidgety)
--poor concentration span (distractability)
--low frustration tolerance
--emotional lability (highs and lows)
--seems paradoxical ( may remember past events in minute detail but cannot remember number facts and spellings just learnt.
Would like to mention here that the child may have one or more of the above features depending on the type and severity of the learning disability.
There are similarities between ‘Slow Learners’ and children with , ‘Learning Disability’, for eg errors in number and letter productions, reading errors, behavioural aspects, but the differences are what influence the type of instruction used and hence the timely IQ evaluation is important.
If a child has a history of a delay in developmental milestones then the child can be tested as early as 6 months for developmental age which correlates with the cognitive scale. If the young one has had an overall normal new born ( 0-4 weeks ), Infancy (4 weeks- 1year ), toddler (1yr- 2yrs ), pre- school ( 2yrs-5rs) period then if required the IQ test can be done from 6yrs to 16 yrs ( Malins Intelligence Scale for Indian Children ). Here also a word of caution is required, one should not only go by an IQ score alone, a detailed social history and mental status examination should be done.
As a care giver or a teacher one must always ‘ Adjust ones expectations’, Slow learners will always be behind their chronological peers—which doesn’t mean they cannot be expected to improve. It just means it will be slow. LD children can, with the right help, be expected to attain chronologically appropriate academic levels in time. Systemic developmental instruction paced at a rate consistent with their learning ability is best for slow learners. Highly specialized remedial instruction focusing on the specific learning disabilities is needed for the LD child.
Here also, I would like to mention the importance of timely evaluation of the child with the IQ test so that the teacher and parents can plan out the teaching modalities and also apply for the concessions as provided by the CBSE or ICSE Board of Examination as and when eligible. Parents should also consider ‘ ‘National Institute of Open School’, for children who fall in the Slow Learner category as the time frame offerered by the NIOS is very flexible and advantageous for such children.
Dear readers, I close my narrative with hope that the newly proposed Education Program will also include Slow Learners in the Disability Act so that they too can be helped during their formative schooling and 10th and 12th Board Examinations.
With regards Bani 💐
