Publication: Hindustan Times
Date: November 27, 2007
Section & Page: Metro/State, Pg. 7

 

'5 per cent of city children have learning disabilities'

How to spot a child with a learning disability (LD) in a classroom. How to include LD children in mainstream education and social interaction. These are some of the issues that will be discussed at the Tata Interactive Learning Disability Forum (TLDF) 2007.

The forum, which held its first such event last year, will once again bring together local and foreign experts in the field. The last year saw an increase in awareness, with Sion hospital seeing more than 1,000 students come forward to test for LD. An estimated 5 per cent of city children suffer from various learning disabilities," said Dr Madhuri Kulkarni, dean of Sion hospital, the city centre for LD certification. "Now, there is a three-month waiting period for testing because of the increase in awareness."

Another milestone was the increase in the number of schools that were registering for LD certification.
"Earlier, only 230 schools had registered with Sion hospital. That number has doubled. By the end of the year, we are hoping to reach a target of 500 schools," said Sanjaya Sharma, CEO of Tata Interactive Systems.

But while awareness in schools is increasing, the situation in Civic schools is bleak. "We have started a pilot project with one municipal school, but there is a lot left to be done. It is very rare that a teacher from a municipal school identifies LD in a child and reports it to us," said Kate Currawalla, president of Maharashtra Dyslexia Association.

 

ABOUT LD

What is a learning disability?

It is a disorder where children do not learn and comprehend through conventional methods of teaching and learning. How to spot a child with LD – Signs begin showing when the child is between eight and ten years old.

Some of the main disorders are:

Reading disorder: when the child consistently skips words while reading and mispronounces certain words.

Writing disorder: Missing out letters while writing or writing in mirror image. Eg: p instead of q. Mis­spelling the same word differently in a paragraph.

Maths disorder: Difficulty in adding or subtracting, especially when numbers are carried forward.