Mangalore, Karnataka :

Saanidhya Residential School and Training Centre for Special Students has launched a model mathematical handbook for special students.

The book also guides teachers, parents and counsellors on effective methods to teach students with special needs. The school developed the model book after carrying out several experiments.

“Those who teach special kids are required to have certain skills to arrest their attention and to attract them towards learning. It is very difficult to recognize the problems in special children. When it comes to concentration and grasping levels, each of them will have shortcomings that are specific to him/her,” said Vasanth Shetty, director of Saanidhya.

The book provides activities to develop an interest in learning in children. It also deals with number knowledge and time reading among other topics. “The model book is an attempt to simplify the ways of the world for the special kids to understand. Special kids develop an interest in learning only when they are trained with supportive and relevant teaching aids,” Shetty said.

The book also gives ideas to manage such children. “A special educator needs to get down to the level of the child. Topics should be split into simple and easily understandable units. The teacher should always keep in his/her mind that they are also a teaching aid who can make use of other teaching aids,” said Braganza, an instructor at the institution.

Practical lessons are more effective than theory when it comes to teaching special kids, she said. “We use real currency notes and coins while teaching them as suggested in the book and we have observed a development in the grasping power and learning speed of the kids,” she added.

source: http://www.articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / by Ranjith Kandya, TNN / August 10th, 2013