Children with dyscalculia have difficulties with all areas of Mathematics – like telling time, counting money, and performing mental calculations. According to a family psychologist and author – “their brains need more teaching, more targeted learning experiences, and more practice to develop these networks. Dyscalculia frequently coexists with dyslexia.

Signs of dyscalculia are not always easy to spot. Keep in mind that all kids have trouble with maths from time to time. But children with dyscalculia struggle a lot more than other children the same age. Dyscalculia is not the same as math anxiety because the latter involves strong emotions around Math.

What are the signs of Dyscalculia?

• Face difficulty when learning to count.
• Doesn’t seem to understand the meaning of counting.
• Struggle to recognize patterns, like smallest to largest or tallest to shortest.
• Have a problem understanding number symbols like making the connection between ‘9’ and the...

Knowledge is the supreme power and every child has the right to access this power. The schools hold the responsibility to provide education and the homely environment to children which helps them to bloom and secure a prosperous future. 

Every child deserves to have a safe learning environment that is free from any discrimination or marginalization. 

In the case of students with special needs, most of them are admitted to special schools. Nevertheless, we must acknowledge the increasing demand for Inclusive educational institutions where every child irrespective of their background gets a chance to gain knowledge. 

One cannot ignore the importance of belongingness and unity in the development of skills in a child as they seek to attain knowledge in their growth years.

Our main aim should be to help a child with special needs to learn skills which can help them throughout their lives. An inclusive education institute ensures that they acquire these skills as they...

Specific Learning Disability (SLD) is a permanent disorder caused by neurological impairments that interfere with acquiring, integrating and demonstrating verbal and non-verbal abilities. As a result, students with SLD are poor communicators and have difficulties interacting with others.

For a child to be diagnosed with SLD, the child has to function two grades below his/her age-appropriate grade in reading, writing, arithmetic, or mixed abilities. The child may also exhibit psychological signs due to the disability such as quitting, avoiding, clowning, controlling and denying all.

Priya is a typical example of a student with SLD. She had difficulty understanding the order, sounds, and recognition of letters and hence affected her learning. And because of her learning difficulty, she felt very frustrated at school. 

In order to help students with SLD such as Priya, inclusive teaching techniques can be used. Inclusive teaching can start with the school and teachers providing a...

I have taught students with special needs for more than 35 years. I have taught students with visual disabilities, auditory disabilities, mental retardation as well as specific learning disabilities.

I am more perplexed when I deal with a kid with a learning disability. Though all special educators rightly give importance to early intervention, my heart goes to the struggle teenagers face, after basic remediation.

Many of my students who joined me while in their primary school have now grown to be independent and doing well in life. I have seen them struggling not only in school but at home, in their social circle and handling their emotions as adults.

All L.D. Students have reading/writing/spelling/math difficulties. Fortunate ones receive early intervention and good remedial support. But what percentage of them remain in the mainstream and complete their high school diploma, in a regular school set up? 

Many schools provide resource facilities up to the end of primary school....

Hyperlexia is a term that struck me when I first came across it. Maybe, because I had never heard of it. So, I decided to explore it further.  It turned out to be my light bulb moment because I was working with an amazing little child diagnosed with Autism who would fit in the description of hyperlexia. I could relate the two now. And I finally found the word I was looking for.  

This child has an exceptional reading ability. In his grade, he was the only child in class (only ASD in a class of 30 neurotypical children) who could read fluently without any error and much beyond his age. Now if only you would hear him read, you would be astonished too, just like his teachers. The reading is advanced beyond his age but I can’t say the same for comprehension. Comprehension and understanding the text is compromised.  And so are the social interactions and understanding & use of verbal language, also traits of Autism.  As I dug deeper into the world of...