Kiran Garga - Education Therapy

When you have a neurotypical child, you feel reasonably assured that class participation and decent study habits will result in good grades. These kids have close friends. They get invited to participate in social things like birthdays, play dates and weekend gatherings. They make the teams, auditions and are always busy doing something fun with their friends.
But when you have a child with certain differences, this is often not the case. Learning may take longer, both academically and socially. Despite their tremendous efforts, results are often a fraction of their peers and social acceptance is fleeting, setting them up for painful comparisons and bitter frustration. Instead of a fun and fulfilling experience, school can become a breeding ground for depression and anxiety, and homework a battle ground at home. It is exhausting for parents and child alike.

This is the week of SPED (Special Education), Autism, Dyslexia, and ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) awareness. For all the children who struggle every day to succeed in a world that does not recognize their gifts and talents, and for those who are walking beside them, please let this be a gentle reminder to be kind and accepting of ALL people.

Recognize that the "playing field" is not always a level surface.
Children who learn differently are not weird. They are merely gifted in ways that our society does not value enough. Yet they want what everyone else wants: To be accepted.

Please help me share awareness of this. Copy and paste (by touching and holding the text) onto your profile in honor of all children who are deemed "different". Our world would be far less beautiful without them.

❤️🧡💛💚💙💜

*Inspiring story* -

In 1979, I was managing a Wendy's in Port Richey Florida. Unlike today, staffing was never a real problem, but I was searching for a someone to work three hours a day only at lunch.
I went thru all my applications and most were all looking for full time or at least 20 hours per week. I found one however, buried at the bottom of a four-inch stack that was only looking for lunch part-time. His name was Nicky. Hadn't met him but thought I would give him a call and see if he could stop by for an interview. When I called, he wasn't in but his mom said she would make sure he would be there.
At the accorded time, Nicky walked in. One of those moments when my heart went in my throat. Nicky suffered from Downs Syndrome. His physical appearance was a giveaway and his speech only reinforced the obvious.
I was young and sheltered. Had never interacted on a professional level with a developmentally disabled person. I had no clue what to do, so I went ahead and interviewed him.
He was a wonderful young man. Great outlook. Task focused. Excited to be alive. For only reasons God knew at that time, I hired him. 3 hours a day, 3 days a week to run a grill.
I let the staff know what to expect. Predictably the crew made sure I got the message, " no one wants to work with a re**rd." To this day I find that word offensive. We had a crew meeting, cleared the air, and prepared for his arrival.
Nicky showed up for work right on time. He was so excited to be working. He stood at the time clock literally shaking with anticipation. He clocked in and started his training. Couldn't multi task, but was a machine on the grill.
Now for the fascinating part.....
Back in that day, there were no computer screens to work from. Every order was called by the cashier. It required a great deal of concentration on the part of all production staff to get the order right. While Nicky was training during his first shift, the sandwich maker next to him asked the grillman/trainer what was on the next sandwich. Nicky replied, "single, no pickle no onion." A few minutes later it happened again. It was then that we discovered Nicky had a hidden and valuable skill.
He memorized everything he heard! Photographic hearing! WHAT A SKILL SET. It took 3 days and every sandwich maker requested to work with Nicky. He immediately was accepted by the entire crew.
After his shift he would join the rest of his crew family, drinking Coke like it was water! It was then that they discovered another Rainman-esque trait. Nicky was a walking/talking perpetual calendar!
With a perpetual calendar as a reference, they would sit for hours asking him what day of the week was December 22, 1847. He never missed. This uncanny trait mesmerized the crew.
His mom would come in at 2 to pick him up. More times than not, the crew would be back there with him hamming it up. As I went to get him from the back, his mom said something I will never forget. "Let him stay there as long as he wants. He has never been accepted anywhere like he has been here." I excused myself and dried my eyes, humbled and broken hearted at the lesson I just learned.
Nicky had a profound impact on that store. His presence changed a lot of people. Today I believe with every fiber of my body that Nicky's hiring was no accident.
This holiday season, I hope we all understand what we are celebrating.

We are all like Nicky.

We each have our shortcomings.

We each have our strong points.

*But we are all of value*. 🙏🏽🌹

I found this post priceless! Sharing it with you all dear friends. See how profound it is!😍🙏

The Label?

During a prank, a student stuck a paper on his classmate's back that said "I’m stupid"; he asked the rest of the class not to tell the boy.

Thus the students began laughing throughout the day. Shortly afterwards, mathematics class started and their professor wrote a difficult question on the board.

No one was able to answer it except the boy with the sticker. Amid the slight laughs, for he didn’t know why, he walked towards the board and he solved it, the teacher asked the class to clap for him and removed the paper on his back.

He told him “It seems that you don’t know about the paper on your back that one of your classmates put and the rest of them kept it a secret.”

Then the teacher faced towards the rest of the class and said “Before I give you a punishment, I will tell you 2 things:

First, throughout your life, people will put labels on your back with many bad things written on it to stop your progress.

If he had known about the paper, he would not have gotten up to answer the question.

All you have to do in life is ignore the labels people give you and use every chance you have to progress, learn and improve yourself.”

“The second is that, it is clear that he does not have any loyal friends among you all to tell him about removing the paper. It does not matter how many friends you have, it is the Loyalty between you and your friends that matter."

If you don't have friends who can defend you behind your back, who can watch over you, protect you and who genuinely care about you, you are better off alone.

To the person placing the label, that word you said against the other person to one person may cause a lifetime damage to the person.

Don't place tags on people that will destroy someone when it will not build you.

💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖When you have a "normal" child, who gets good grades, you are happy. When he or she does as they are told, you are happy. But it is a "normal" joy, because, of course, it is his/her duty. But when you have a child with some limitations, with each learning and small success, you pulsate and vibrate as if you had won a championship... I would like to ask you a great favour on an important subject:
It is the Special Education week, for children with Cerebral Palsy, Down syndrome, Autism, Dyslexia, ADHD (attention deficit, with and without hyperactivity). For all children with special needs who struggle every day to succeed, and those who try to help them.
It would be great to teach our children to be kind and to accept all their classmates.
Children with special needs are not strangers. They want what every kid wants: to be accepted! And they suffer greatly when they are rejected or mocked.
Can I make you a request? Copy and paste this message in honour of all children who are UNIQUE, but different!
💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖

Differently abled children don't need our sympathy or pity but they need our support and encouragement to become self reliant. Engaging them in constructive activities as per their abilities is what we need to be helping them with! So., do your part please!

I would like to expose a situation. If your children don't learn with children with special needs at school and have never been taught that not everyone is equal, maybe you should spend 10 minutes tonight to explain it to them, because although they don't always currently live with these children at school, they will find them in their lives for sure.

In light of recent events regarding the exclusion of a child with autism from attending a school trip and a child with Down Syndrome being expelled from dance class because she couldn't keep up with it, I feel the need to share this.

There are boys and girls that no one invites to birthday parties. There are special children who want to be part of a team but are not selected because it's more important to win than to include these children. Kids with special needs aren't weird , they just want what everyone wants: to be accepted

Can I ask a question? Is there anyone willing to copy and paste this post on their wall without sharing it, for all the special children out there?
Please teach your children to be kind to these beautiful children!

Everyone needs love and kindness , .

Just writing to reassure the parents of dyslexic children, not to get stressed out because of this language learning difficulty with their child. One should remain positive and early intervention followed by right strategies to cope up with the challenge of learning language can help your child in the long run. It’s a long battle to be won with lots of patience, positivity and motivation.
Those who are in doubt , should get the child’s psychological assessment done at the earliest and get trained professional educational therapist to help your child deal with the learning difficulty. I an sure you will be happy with your decision to do so.

Caregivers of children with special needs also need support and sometimes counselling too. I know a parent who is overwhelmed with problem her child is facing at school and fear of him getting labelled is killing her. Such parents unknowingly pass on the stress to their chlld. Hence these parents or caregivers need tons of patience and external support. .

A few decades ago , a child with poor, unclear or illegible handwriting was rebuked, punished and dubbed as careless and lazy. Nobody tried to understand the real issue. But today educators and parents are more aware about the learning difficulties faced by some children .
If the child is unable to write clearly and correctly during his primary years of schooling, he may be suffering from a learning disability called ‘ dysgraphia’ which means difficulty in writing.
Doctors and Psychologists term this leaning difficulty as ‘impairment in written expression’.

Some of the symptoms of dysgraphia are: the handwriting is
🔳 unclear &illegible
🔳 in different slants,
🔳 In mixed style (lower- case & upper -case letters )
🔳 with missing letters in words or many
spelling mistakes
🔳with words or letters not within the lines or margins of paper or
🔳 the child has unusual posture or holding paper and different or painful pen grip

If the child’s handwriting is showing some of the above mentioned symptoms, the parents should show him to a doctor and a licensed psychologist who will conduct some simple tests to ascertain suspected learning difficulty and suggest a future course of action.

Teaching dyslexic children requires a lot of patience and ability to understand their emotional well being. Besides teaching them strategies to cope up with this learning difficulty , if one can develop a good rapport with the children , there are positive outcomes resulting in faster progress. I personally experience this and feel so proud and blessed to help children with reading and writing difficulties. It gives me immense joy when I see children who initially struggled to blend and read three letter words, read out and comprehend small passages after few lessons. All they need is guidance and encouragement from a trained and patient therapist.