Diagnostic tools and resources for Learning Disabilities in India.

Vidhya,
I know this is late but had some ideas for your son's fine motor activities:

1.If you can find small tongs (the kind they use to grab papad frm the oil)...(they should be right size for him)...put some water in a playtic trough and throw in small toys. He has to pick them out using the tongs (wit his fingers not his whole hand).

2. Hide small toys or objects in playdough (or chappathi dough). Ask your son to find all the toys hidden in the playdough.

3. Make greeting cards for every occasion-have him tear different kinds of paper (of varying thickness and texture), teach him to use a little bit of glue (give verbal vues to squeeze the tube gently-children with poor fine motor skills will squeeze too much, too soon), and for the message-alternate between typing the message on the computer and writing by hand-this way he will contnue to practice writing and the typing will be motivating.

4. Cooking acivities are great-if you have both kids help you with those doughy snacks-they can roles out the dough (sweet or salty based on their preference), make a face or any creative shape (don't worry about it being thin or even-the kids wil eat those any which way) and you can fry them in oil (or bake-if it is a biscuit).

 

That is very interesting ilite. Thanks for the info. Will keep my eyes open for any related info.

Coming to diagnosis and intervention, here is something to think about...

I met with parents of a 1st std child who should have been in 3rd std according to her age. She was in an English medium school with additional support from spl. ed teachers after school (private practice). Parents didn't speak English at home. They were trying to decide what was the best option for their child-her language skills and functional ability were at a higher level in her mother tongue. They had heard two sets of information which put them in a quandry.

1) Indian languages are phonetic and hence you can't have SLD if you learned in your mother tongue.

2) The spl. ed teacher said the girl was showing progress because she had started to identify the colors and shapes in English (after 6 months).

Firstly, yes, Indian languages are phonetic which takes care of blending and reading-/c/ /a/ /t/ has to be sounded together to read 'cat.' But there is also an auditory processing and memory piece which require more than the ability to identify and blend sounds. There is a lot of research going on on this aspect but it is seen that even phonetic languages present some level of difficulties.

Secondly, look at your child's morphological age and her functional age. Consider how much a child without a learning disability will learn in 6 months. Evaluate how much progress your child is making in the same time period. Will she be able to bridge the gap or will it get wider? Will she be able to bridge the gap in her mother tongue? Do her English language skills get reinforced by constant usage in and around her home? If not, would it be better for her o learn in her mother tongue. The same level of effort we put into teaching 'English' can be used towards teaching cognitive skills in her mother tongue.

Yes, the ability to read/write and communicate in English is important in today's milieu. But if it is easier for the child to have the ability to think, create and problem solve in another language why not encourage that?

Something to think about...
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