Is your child blocking out auditory inputs?

Dear Chetana,

My son is six years old with speech delay. He’s not fluent with sentences and struggles to reply. He goes to a regular school At school they’ve noticed he has a difficulty in writing. Like any other child he’s not interested to copy from the board or trace over in the practice books.

We just don’t know whether he’s understanding whatever is taught. At times he replies and sometimes he decides not to answer. He does drawing, colouring, and listening to stories, but is not interested in watching TV. He can recognise cars, be it of any model, and brands. He is quite organised and sticks to a routine. At school they want the parent to come along and sit with him throughout the class to help him write down notes and make him feel part of the group. Somehow we are not convinced by this method as it puts pressure on the parent as well as the child. We would like to homeschool him and would be thankful if you can advise us on this.

Ry

Dear Ry

There may be several reasons for your child to have speech delay and one of them could be lack of language exposure during his childhood or is inability to pick sounds from his environment. From what you have told me about cars, brands, etc., you child seems to have a very good visual perception and memory. However language acquisition in the childhood is mainly through the auditory channel. In school there is a multisensory approach that the child is exposed to. If he is blocking out auditory input because of no/extra sensitivity in his hearing then he has been unable to match letter names to the alphabet, pick vocabulary, sentence structure, intonation, etc., from the language around him. So he will have problems in these areas and also concept understanding, spellings, written expression and speech in terms of sentence structure.

Right now you are at a stage when your child is unable to catch up with what is happening in school. It’s difficult for the school to help your child because there is a huge lag in his ability vs. the expectation. Hence it is difficult to accommodate him. The reason they call you is because young children are comfortable with their mothers, Your presence could help the child to open up and learn and with you around he gets personalised attention. It is a good way to help children with learning lags.

From your query it sounds like your child has a considerable delay in acquiring the academic and speech skills that are age appropriate. Unless you cover them now the gap will only increase. Homeschooling at this stage is a good option if you are educated and are willing to teach yourself.  Your child will get a totally stress free environment if you create one and also can learn without pressure or competitiveness at his own pace.
Language acquisition happens systematically like hearing, listening, comprehending what we are listening, speaking, reading, understanding what we are reading by connecting the language that we already know and then comes writing what we understand or what we want to convey.

In your case you must begin with several of these stages at once but giving enough time for him to learn. Give him many language models to learn from. These include:

* Talking to him, expressing what you are doing, feeling, hopes and aspirations in English

*Reading aloud books that are of interest to him and explaining the concepts he doesn’t understand

*Reading along with him, books that are of his reading age 

* Doing things together while describing what you are doing like cooking, shopping, gardening, entertaining, driving, etc.

At first allow him to freely express himself; do not correct what he says. When he is totally comfortable, start correcting the wrong words /grammar, etc by gently reminding him. Ask guided questions to make him comprehend what he is listening to.

At the same time start teaching the alphabet for shape recognition – matching shape to its name and slowly matching the shape to the sound it makes (phonics). Introduce a lot of books that will give him exposure to the letters he is learning. You can use clay to model the letters and then learn to write them on paper. Use word walls, flash cards, scrap booking, etc., to bring in the interest element and to align to his visual learning style. Later on you could think of spelling and vocabulary workbooks to substantiate.
Along with this if you could get someone to offer remedial help for an hour or two everyday, it will take a lot of burden off your shoulders and allow you to enjoy the parent- child relationship. It will also make learning more systematic for your child which is essential for him to overcome the learning gaps.

Good luck!

Dear Chetana ,

I would like to get trained as a special educator and be of some use to the society. How do I go about this?

Mythily

Dear Mythily

It is nice that you want to help children with learning difficulties. There are very few special educators available.

Special needs include learning difficulties, autism spectrum disorders, mental retardation, ADHD, etc. Becoming a special educator requires some additional skills other than training. These include high levels of patience, positivity, understanding of child psychology, flexibility, ability to build instant rapport, being in touch with new teaching methodologies, and the belief that miracles can happen!

There are many institutions that provide training in the above mentioned fields in Bangalore like Brindavan Education Society in Jayanagar Karnataka Parents Association for Mentally Retarded Children in Dairy Circle, and Spastics Society of India in Indiranagar.

Chetana Keni

The author is a special educator for children. To have your queries on learning disabilities and home-schooling answered, send them to [e-mail]