Abstract:
Background and Aims: Specific learning disability (SLD), dyslexia is a neuro-developmental and biological disorder. Incidence is 5-15 %. An Intelligent child with normal or above normal IQ, the child who fails in a class, reads slowly - word by word, skips words, and sentences, hates reading is considered to have dyslexia. Writing slowly, poor handwriting, reversal tendency, lot of spelling and grammar mistakes, poor in spelling have Dysgraphia. Difficulty in number sense and poor in addition, subtraction multiplication, and division in Maths, have dyscalculia. Paediatricians need to diagnose in their office practice. SLD is Diagnosed at 7 years of age. The warning signs of SLD will be obvious at 4 -7 years Missing the crawling stage, Speech delay/Language delay, Difficulty buttoning the shirt, Difficulty tying the shoelace, Difficulty with Rhymes, Difficulty with a puzzle, Difficulty telling a story, Difficulty in drawing a circle at 3y, Square at 4 y and Triangle at 5y, Difficulty in Identifying and writing ABCD and 1234 letters and Numbers etc. All the signs were given in the IAP Immunization and Developmental card.
Methodology: 10 Elementary school Teachers and 10 KG Teachers in 5 schools, each from Kumaratchi Block in Cuddalore District, selected as 2 Teachers from each School were Trained on the identification of Children with early signs of Dyslexia using IAP Immunization and Developmental card TnDC preliminary Tool with 29 Questions
After the Training, the Teachers were able to pick up the Children with early signs of Learning Disability. All the identified children were screened and other NDDs like Autism, ADHD, ID, and GDD were ruled out and confirmed the presence of early signs of LD, by the Developmental Pediatrician. Their parents were called and trained on early stimulation to correct the problems. Parents were Trained to teach the children by the Phoenix method of Teaching by the Remedial Teacher for 14 hrs in 7 days. The children need to be followed up till 7 years of age and after that also.
Results: Totally 70 children were identified by the Teachers, and all of them came to the camp. Identified 50 children have early signs of Specific Learning Disability. With the Phoenix method of teaching, these children are showing improvement. This method can prevent or at least reduce the severity of SLD.
Conclusion: This TnDC Preliminary Tool and IAP Immunization and Developmental card can be used by any MBBS Doctor working in PHC, RBSK scheme, and Paediatricians, in busy office settings to identify the warning signs of SLD. It will be a very simple and easy way to pick up SLD. They can advise on Parental education and Training to provide Phoenix method of teaching. By way of the parent-oriented Phoenix method of teaching, we can prevent or at least reduce the severity of SLD at 7 years of age.
