For the benefit of special children, the Government of India has said that all Kendriya Vidyalayas (KVs) should have special educators, said M. Pushpavathi, Director, All India Institute of Speech and Hearing (AIISH), Mysuru.
Presiding over the two-day national seminar on ‘Paradigm shift in early childhood education for children with communication disorders’ organised by the Department of Special Education, AIISH, here on Monday, she said, “These children can get better training as special educators teach them in simple methods. Schools in most Western countries are equipped with speech pathologists, special educators, physiotherapists and application therapists”.
“Early childhood is a crucial phase of growth and development. Knowledge acquired during early childhood can shape an individual’s life. Education in this period is fundamental to the development of a child and can significantly shape the later years of his or her life. He or she may not understand or make the sounds of speech. The child may also struggle with word choice, word order, or sentence structure. Therefore, for children with communication disorders, it is important to ensure access to interventions which can help them to reach their full potential,” she explained.
The AIISH Director said 18 per cent of the people in India were suffering from communication disorders and therefore a paradigm shift was required right now to bring the special children from machine to human interaction.
The seminar has been organised to orient students/ researchers, professionals, mainstream teachers, NGOs and special educators on early childhood education for children with communication disorders.
Earlier, Himangshu Das, Director, NIPMED, Chennai, inaugurated the seminar. The inaugural function was followed by lectures by professionals in the field of special education including a talk by Hikari Nishizawa, senior special education teacher from Japan, and paper presentations by professional and students. Alok Kumar Upadhyay, Associate Professor and Head, Department of Special Education, AIISH, Mysuru, was present.