Tackling learning disabilities | Bangkok Post: learning

FULFILLING SPECIAL NEEDS

Upon the conclusion of her assigning her Prathom 5 (Grade 5) class a maths exercise on decimals, Saisunee Roodeekajohnchai, a teacher at Ban Huai Lat School, asked Ngunruethai Boonsri, aka Mai, 11, and five of her classmates to group at the back of the classroom. She then told them to practise multiplication by using their fingers.

Saisunee Roodeekajohnchai teaches students with learning challenges how to multiply using their fingers. PURICH TRIVITAYAKHUN

"Under this method, I gain a better understanding of the lesson," Mai said, praising the scheme that enables her to study as part of a smaller group. "When I learn with my classmates in a regular-sized class, I find it difficult to keep up with them," she continued.

At the remote Ban Huai Lat School, located in the highlands of Nam Nao district in Phetchabun province, Mai and around 20 percent of the students from Prathom 3 (Grade 3) to Mathayom 3 (Grade 9) have been diagnosed as having learning disabilities (LD). These students experience such impediments as dysgraphia, dyslexia and dyscalculia, or the inability to write, to read and to do arithmetical calculations, respectively.

The setbacks by local children are a consequence of lack of nutrition, brain damage from illness or accidents or the local practice of marriage between close relations.

"I was shocked when I learned that around 20 percent of the students in the school have LD," said Jeratchaya Kwanprom, the current coordinator of all the projects to help students at the school with learning difficulties. The scheme to assist these students is one of the five projects that have gained the support of the "Youth Innovation Marketplace" campaign, backed by Why I Why and Banpu Plc.

Even though the workload of the teachers has increased substantially as a result - some of them have to be in school early in the morning and can only go home several hours after sunset to prepare the special lessons and teaching mediums - most of them are more than willing to help these learning-challenged students acquire as much knowledge and as many skills as possible.

"Initially, as we did not have enough teachers, we tried to solve the problem by asking our teachers to teach extra classes during lunch breaks and in the evenings that were geared towards students with LD. However, that approach did not show any positive results," Warunee Namwong, the project's consultant and vice-principal at Ban Huai Lat, said. She reasoned that students usually lose their concentration as they want to play during the breaks and to return home promptly after school.

So finally, last year, when it was allocated more teachers, the school came up with the idea to separate the students with LD from the normal students for the mathematics and Thai language classes.

For the Thai-language class, the learning-challenged students are moved to study in a different room under a different teacher. The teacher occasionally uses storytelling and simple teaching mediums, which are specially prepared by teachers, parents and students, to assist the students.

In the mathematics class, both the learning-challenged and the normal students learn the fundamental lessons together. Then, when the lessons become more complicated, the pupils with LD are separated, usually by moving their seats to the back of the room, and the teacher, or perhaps a new teacher, gradually walks them through the lessons.

"Sometimes we employ games in our lessons to grasp the students' attention," said Mrs Saisunee.

She admitted that initially she did not agree with separating the students, but she is now happy with the outcome. "After a year of employing this method, some students have shown progress, and we could move them to learn with the normal students," she said.

As part of the effort to help these children, besides having separate teaching methods, Jeratchaya and her team have come up with a plethora of schemes, such as hosting seminars and workshops for the parents, school boards and students of Ban Huai Lat School, as well as those of nearby Ban Lak Dan School, on how to prevent or treat LD among children, how to identify children with LD, and on the creation of learning activities which parents and their children can jointly carry out at home. The school has also taught these three stakeholder groups how to produce teaching and learning mediums that are used to help improve students' reading and arithmetical calculation skills.

Mrs Warunee revealed that she would also like to use this method for teaching English and science, but accepted that the school does not have enough manpower to accommodate her vision yet.

"I feel like I'm the same as the other students," Mai said, after being asked if she felt that she was excluded from the majority of the class. Peeraphat Kwanhom, Mai's classmate, said that he does not feel that Mai and other learning-challenged students are different. "They are still our friends," he said.

Mai intends to study to as high a level as she can and become a teacher. "I want to pass my knowledge to other people," she said. Given the dedication of the teachers at Ban Huai Lat School, Mai and his friends might well be able to realise their dream in the not-too-distant future.

Tell us what you think about this article

Like dislike 0 people liked / 0 people disliked it

Share this article

0

0

• More +

• Republishing permission
• Print this

Bangkok Post online classifieds

Try buying & selling goods and properties 24/7 in our classifieds which has high purchasing power local & expatriate audience from within Thailand and around the world.