08 May,2011 09:24 AM IST | | Dhamini Ratnam
Two New York-based preschools will open in Mumbai within the year, with special educators trained to spot ADHD, autism and other behavioural problems in kids as young as 1.5 years. Local playgroups and activity centres have begun doing the same. As children with special needs enter mainstream classrooms, experts agree that inclusive education benefits regular kids too
Pratik Ahuja doesn't feel weird about the way his nursery teacher treated him. But his father Rohan Ahuja (names changed) still feels it keenly.u00a0A year later, the six year-old with borderline attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), a neuro-behavioural disorder characterised by chronic inattentiveness, will join Class one in a mainstream school this June. But he almost didn't.
At Bengaluru-based preschool Prime Years, principal Amelita D' Monte
questions parents about the medical history of their child. Prior knowledge
helps the teacher modify her teaching methodology. Pic/Satish Badiger
Three years ago, Ahuja enrolled Pratik in a preschool in Thane. A few months later, Ahuja and his wife, Anjali, began to receive complaints about Pratik's inattentiveness, lack of communication and what the class coordinator called "disruptive" behaviour.
While they didn't openly ask the Ahujas to withdraw their son's admission, they did make it clear that they weren't equipped to deal with himu00a0-- when Pratik was promoted to junior kindergarten, the preschool asked his parents to send a "shadow teacher" along. And since the shadow teacher whom the Ahujas hired could only visit an hour after class began, they asked them to send Pratik an hour late.
"It was harrowing," recalls Ahuja. "Pratik was always excited about going to school by bus with the rest of the children. How could I tell him that he couldn't. It was simply unfair." Around the same time, a family friendu00a0-- a former school principalu00a0-- realised that Pratik was exhibiting symptoms of ADHD, and asked his parents to visit a counsellor. That was the first time they heard of this condition.
Besides taking him to a speech and an occupational therapist, Ahuja admitted Pratik to EuroSchool, a mainstream preschool with special educators and teachers trained to handle children withu00a0 special needs.
"Pratik is far more sociable than before, since he has been going to a mainstream school that's equipped to handle him," says Ahuja. "The city needs more preschools like his."
Preschool children at Jumping Genius, Prabhadevi, attend the activity
centre during the summer holidays. The Bandra-based preschool has
five children with special needs, and has hired a special educator to visit
all its four branches in the new batch that starts next month. "Parents
are scared their child will face discrimination from other children, and
very often, they're at the receiving end of hurtful remarks by parents
of regular children," says Chandni Mehta, founder.
Ahuja's wish is coming true. Till date, only a handful of mainstream preschools in Mumbai, including EuroKids and Kangaroo Kids, were employing special educators. But that is set to change. Two New York-based preschool and activity centres, Apple Seeds and Kidville, will open shop this year, with special educators to spot children with special needs and train teachers to deal with them sensitively.
Preschool and activity centre Jumping Genius has had a special educator visit its Bandra branch three times a week over the past year. In June, founder Chandni Mehta reveals, the special educator will also visit the school's branches in Juhu, Worli and Prabhadevi, due to "growing demand".
What's more, experts say, inclusive education at an early age is immensely beneficial to regular and special needs children. If spotted early, special children receive potentially life-altering early intervention. Regular children stand to gain too. They are taught in an atmosphere of acceptance, which increases their emotional quotientu00a0 and empathy level, enabling them to shed prejudices.
At the same time, asserts Shikha Bhasin (name changed), special needs children become more sociable, as they see and imbibe the actions of regular kids. Bhasin's three year-old daughter Smriti was diagnosed with borderline autismu00a0 before she joined nursery. Her developmental milestones were delayedu00a0u00a0-- for instance, by the time Smriti was six months old, she wasn't responding to sounds, although her hearing was normal, and she didn't begin babbling at 10 months, as toddlers do. While Bhasin took Smriti to Ummeed, an early intervention centre located in Lower Parel, she also enrolled her in Jumping Genius.
"Smriti's paediatrician suggested that she join a mainstream preschool, since at her age, children learn a lot by seeing other kids," says Bhasin. Bhasin is glad that Smriti is treated like the rest of her classmates. "They are attentive towards her without making her feel abnormal. And now, thanks to therapy and a mainstream school experience, Smriti is as normal as any other child," says Bhasin.
Both, Ahuja and Bhasin are quick to labelu00a0 their children 'normal' -- a sign perhaps of how difference and abnormality continue to be viewed with fear, even by some parents of special needs children. However, special educator Deepika Agarwal points out that while children who have missed a few developmental milestones but have clearly demarcated areas of strengths, stand to improve by going to mainstream schools, for some others, an early intervention centre is a better option.
Special needs can include a wide range of conditions, from autism, Down's Syndrome and mild mental retardation to behavioural disorders such as ADHD, Oppositional Defiant Disorder and Conduct Disorder, to sensory deficits and developmental delays (when key milestones in a child's growth are missed). At Bengaluru-based preschool Prime Years, principal Amelitau00a0 D' Monte questions parents of the medical history of their child. Prior knowledge helps the teacher modify her teaching mechanism and decide whether to use visual aids, repetition or story telling.
A special educator's role on the other hand, is to notice symptoms in children, and notify parents to seek remedial help immediately. There are a host of early intervention centres that treat special needs of children. At the same time, a special educator is equipped to work with these children within a classroom, and to train teachers to do the same.
Husband-wife duo Nisaurg and Shreena Doshi, who are looking to open Apple Seeds, a New York-based activity centre, in South Mumbai this June, will also launch their flagship preschool, The Big Umbrella, around the same time. They have hired Sneha Bhandari, who has a post graduate diploma in Specific Learning Difficulties, as a special educator for both centres. Bhandari will hold training sessions not only for the teachers of the preschool and the activity centre, but for all staff members too.
"Our policy is to accept all children and our teachers have been trained to offer specialised attention and care. If a child is found to have a condition, we would immediately involve the parents and ask them to seek targeted help. But that doesn't imply that the child won't be part of our classroom," says Shreena Doshi.
Rosenyn Kapur and Mallika Timblo of Kwakids Learning Private Limited, will bring Kidville, another New York-based activity centre for children to 10 cities in India, starting with Mumbai this year. Meant to be a "destination for children and parents", Kidville, Mumbai will house a retail section, a salon and a cafe, besides holding preschool and creative activities, reveals Kapur.
"Kidville programmes are for all children, irrespective of how they develop. Children can have special needs medically, behaviourally, developmentally, learning or mental health wise. Our programmes are designed to help each child succeed," says Kapur.u00a0At Kangaroo Kids, Shweta Mishra, head of Special Needs, stresses on creating conducive environments for children with ADHD.
"We make him sit in the front bench close to the teacher, who is trained to provide non-verbal reminders to pay attention, such as through eye contact or a friendly touch. We modify his worksheet or give him special lessons, with positive reinforcements. We also involve the parents and ask them to hold concentration exercises for their child, guiding them on the right way to do it," says Mishra.
At Pallavanjali, a Gurgaon-based preschool with a 60-40 per cent ratio of regular children to those with special needs, the atmosphere is relaxed. The idea is to allow children to grow without the conventional school set-up. Sakshi, who only goes by her first name, is a speech therapist hired by the school, who works with all the kids. Special trainers and rehabilitation therapists trained to deal with autism form part of the staff too.
Experts, however, are quick to point out that inclusive preschools can't replace early intervention centres. Dr Nilesh Shah, head of the psychiatry department of Mumbai's Sion Hospital, has given lectures to school and preschool teachers on how to spot and deal with children with special needs.
Shah strikes a note of caution when he says that integration is of no use unless the child with special needs is benefiting from being in a mainstream classroom. And while he agrees that regular children become more empathetic, and special children more sociable, only specific special needs children benefit from a mainstream experience, he says.
"The focus has to be on what the child needs and his disability or disorder needs to be prioritised. What's the point in sending a child to a mainstream school if he is not benefiting from it?" asks Shah. Ahuja, Pratik's father, agrees. But the solution, he says, lies in equipping preschools to handle special needs children, and sensitising other parents about them.
Your guide to early intervention centres in Mumbai
'' ADAPT (formerly the Spastics Society of India) https://www.nrcissi.org/
'' Ali Yavar Jung National Institution for the Hearing Handicapped (also has speech therapists)u00a0 https://ayjnihh.nic.in/index.asp
'' Maharashtra Dyslexia Association https://www.mdamumbai.com/
'' The Research Society for the Care Treatment and Training of Children in Need of Special Care (Jai Vakeel School) https://www.the/u00a0researchsociety.org/
''Ummeed Child Development Centre ummeed.org
Walk a mile in another's shoes
ami kothari and Shalini Kedia have started a programme called Buddeez, to train volunteer children to become buddies of kids with special needs, spend time with them to inculcate empathy and create positive role models.
The pioneer of this diversity trainingu00a0-- where individuals are made to "experience" differenceu00a0-- is Jane Elliott.
On April 5, 1968, a day after Martinu00a0 Luther King was shot dead, Eliott, a primary school teacher, held an exercise in her all-white classroom, in which she segregated children into blue-eyed and brown-eyed groups.
Each group was given one day to feel superior over the other. For instance, she wouldn't allow them to drink
from the same water cooler, and pointed out differences between the children using negative examples of the inferior group. Eliott said that until children experienced segregation first-hand, their discussions about it would only be "sharedu00a0 ignorance".
This blue-eyed/brown-eyed exercise was picked up by the Associated Press, the American Broadcasting Company, and Public Broadcast Service, and Eliottu00a0-- who faced a considerable amount of negative reaction from white parents --eventually went on to become a diversity trainer for big multinational companies such as General Electronic and IBM among others.
In the ABC documentary, she said she was inspired by the Native American saying: Don't judge a man until you have walked a mile in his moccasins.u00a0
Watch the video on PBS: www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/divided/
Head to Facebook to connect with the Buddeez founders
With inputs from Vatsala Shrangi in New Delhi and Priyanjali Ghose from Bengaluru
