Educating Mentally Challenged Children in SEVAI Special school.

Playway method teaching  for intellectually challenged in SEVAI- SRBC

Talking to Special Educators of SEVAI, the Director of SEAI, Dr.K.Govindaraju enlightened the teachers, “The task of educating a mentally challenged child can be daunting. The usual methods of teaching and overseeing class work might not necessarily apply, and you may encounter frustrating moments in which you feel you are "getting nowhere." It's important to know and understand a child's disability and learn to work within its confines, rather than expecting the disability to go away. Learning a child's strengths and helping her compensate for weaknesses will play an important role in fostering success” Dr.K.Govindaraju further explained the steps of educating these children and suggested the SEVAI special educators, i)“Use visual aids. According to MentalHelp.net, lengthy verbal instruction and lectures have limited appeal for almost all students, and are particularly ineffective in teaching a mentally challenged child. Instead, MentalHelp.net advises incorporating plenty of visual stimuli, such as charts, drawings and models. You can also use charts to track a child's educational or behavioral progress. ii) Use hands-on demonstrations. Mentally challenged children may have difficulty in grasping abstract concepts, to find ways to engage them in a sensory way. For example, explaining gravity verbally to a mentally challenged child will likely be confusing; instead, give him a book and let him drop it. This type of firsthand, visceral understanding is more likely to be retained, Use flexibility with tasks or assignments. For example, if you're a parent helping your child with homework and she's struggling, don't become mired in the details. Education.com recommends determining what skill your child is meant to demonstrate with the assignment and adapting the assignment based on her abilities. The goal here, Education.com says, is to learn to work with your child's unique strengths to accomplish tasks, even if your methods are unorthodox and Break information or tasks down into smaller parts.. Once the child masters or completes one step, you can move on to the next.Director, SEVAI further told the teachers, “Set your expectations in accordance with the child's disability. A child with a mild mental disability could be taught to use a recipe, whereas a moderately challenged child might be taught to make a grocery list. A severely disabled child might simply be taught to communicate hunger”.-Govin