Visually-challenged toddlers gear up for mainstream

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Follow us:WhatsappFacebookTwitterTelegram.cls-1{fill:#4d4d4d;}.cls-2{fill:#fff;}Google NewsFour-year-old Madhumita cannot see, but she cheerfully reaches for the hands of anyone who says ‘hello’ to her. “Sing the Kaka song...sing sing,” her mother encourages her along. Once she is done with the first verse, she smiles. She is one of the five children with their mothers at The National Association for the Blind’s Early Intervention Centre.The two-year-old centre is situated within the campus of the Madras Seva Sadan on Harrington Road: a single room abuzz with activity. Toys of different shapes are strewn around the floor, spice boxes filled with various kitchen items sit on another side and a lone braille typewriter is passed around to the little ones. The idea is to orient these children, aged 0 to 6 years with their visual challenge and prepare them with the basic knowledge required to enroll at a mainstream school. “The first step is acceptance,” says Prema Seetharam, vice-president, National Association for the Blind, Tamil Nadu branch. She adds, “A lot of parents don’t know what to do when they find out their child can’t see. They end up going to one hospital after another, doing pujas. A lot of time is wasted in the initial stages of the child’s life.”For the toddlers, who have enrolled in the programme, it is a different world. There is no black board on the wall or teacher standing in front of the class. Instead, classes take place on-on-one with parent-to child interaction, apart from two teachers in the vicinity to monitor their progress. “It is essential that each child is accompanied by his or her mother to be comfortable, and of course travel safely,” Prema explains. Once a prayer has been said in the morning, the classes are structured just like creche activities, except modified to focus on the senses of touch, sound and smell. This includes identifying shapes, fitting one cup into another and even weekly music lessons. Says Rajeshwari K, teacher and project-in-charge, “ In this, the focus is on identifying sounds.So our music instructor will make vehicle noises or animal sounds.” Learning to count is done by picking up stones or passing beads along an abbacus and the alphabet on braille.A pig-tailed Tulsi busily presses keys on the typewriter. She reads out a sheet nearby, “T U L S I,” grinning. Her mother, Renuka reveals, “Before we came here, if someone reach out a hand to Tulsi she would push it away.She has started to interact with people.” However, the most daunting task, lies outside the classroom. Says Rajeshwari. “The biggest fear for these children is walking on their own.” Each child is given a stick to extend forward and find their ground under close monitoring. “We encourage the mothers not to pick them up,” she elaborates. This is a quicker learning process, without relapsing back into patterns they are used to. “So far, we have had five children progress to attending mainstream schools, when the child is ready,” she reveals.first published:September 19, 2012, 08:37 ISTlast updated:September 19, 2012, 08:37 IST
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Four-year-old Madhumita cannot see, but she cheerfully reaches for the hands of anyone who says ‘hello’ to her. “Sing the Kaka song...sing sing,” her mother encourages her along. Once she is done with the first verse, she smiles. She is one of the five children with their mothers at The National Association for the Blind’s Early Intervention Centre.

The two-year-old centre is situated within the campus of the Madras Seva Sadan on Harrington Road: a single room abuzz with activity. Toys of different shapes are strewn around the floor, spice boxes filled with various kitchen items sit on another side and a lone braille typewriter is passed around to the little ones. The idea is to orient these children, aged 0 to 6 years with their visual challenge and prepare them with the basic knowledge required to enroll at a mainstream school. “The first step is acceptance,” says Prema Seetharam, vice-president, National Association for the Blind, Tamil Nadu branch. She adds, “A lot of parents don’t know what to do when they find out their child can’t see. They end up going to one hospital after another, doing pujas. A lot of time is wasted in the initial stages of the child’s life.”

For the toddlers, who have enrolled in the programme, it is a different world. There is no black board on the wall or teacher standing in front of the class. Instead, classes take place on-on-one with parent-to child interaction, apart from two teachers in the vicinity to monitor their progress. “It is essential that each child is accompanied by his or her mother to be comfortable, and of course travel safely,” Prema explains. Once a prayer has been said in the morning, the classes are structured just like creche activities, except modified to focus on the senses of touch, sound and smell. This includes identifying shapes, fitting one cup into another and even weekly music lessons. Says Rajeshwari K, teacher and project-in-charge, “ In this, the focus is on identifying sounds.So our music instructor will make vehicle noises or animal sounds.” Learning to count is done by picking up stones or passing beads along an abbacus and the alphabet on braille.

A pig-tailed Tulsi busily presses keys on the typewriter. She reads out a sheet nearby, “T U L S I,” grinning. Her mother, Renuka reveals, “Before we came here, if someone reach out a hand to Tulsi she would push it away.She has started to interact with people.” However, the most daunting task, lies outside the classroom. Says Rajeshwari. “The biggest fear for these children is walking on their own.” Each child is given a stick to extend forward and find their ground under close monitoring. “We encourage the mothers not to pick them up,” she elaborates. This is a quicker learning process, without relapsing back into patterns they are used to. “So far, we have had five children progress to attending mainstream schools, when the child is ready,” she reveals.