I shall overcome...

I watched this child, who suffers from hearing impairment, partial visual insufficiency, increased muscle tone and convulsions, making efforts to move about in four limbs and reach out to toys to explore. 

She uses her sense of touch, smell and taste to explore her environment. She associates the informations she gathers to make social relationships. She touched me and stayed close to me for a while at the first time she visited me. When she came the second time after three weeks, she greeted me with a sense of familiarity. At home she is able to function almost independently with minimal help. She goes to a special school and integrates into the class room  activity. At seven years of age, she has come to accept her limitations, but is still making efforts to walk, talk and use her residual abilities with determination. 

Her parents told me that, she enjoys playing with her sister and both of them help the mother in cooking. She is keen to take out the vegetables from the refrigerator, wash them and stay in the kitchen to  have conversations with her mother. Her strong sense of smell is to her advantage. She takes care of their dog by feeding, brushing and bathing her. She does all of them easily and dextrously. She lives relationally at home and welcomes visitors by greeting them spontaneously. Her parents find her well adjusted to all situations, while travelling and visiting new places or at the hospital where she gets admitted often for treatment for her convulsions.

Her story is one of overcoming. Her story is a repeat story of Rev.Dr.Martin Luther King, who led the civil rights movement singing the famous inspirational song, 'we shall overcome one day..'

Anna and I receive her story as an inspiration to begin the new year with hope and anticipation. There resides in each of us a call to transform our circumstances. This journey from complaining to overcoming is possible when we can view our difficulties as opportunities. Paul and Silas while being in the prison, used their time to sing and praise God.  

There is another way to live and go through life.  Let our lives lead others to discover this another way in the new year! We send you our good wishes for this year to be blessing in our lives.

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)  

  

  

Children speak on class room learning

At a conference held recently at Nagpur on learning issues children face at school, children put up a skit to give vent to their feelings about being forced to learn in one particular way alone. The learning method as of now in the school education system consists of reading, writing, memorising, writing tests  and examinations for performance assessments, etc.

There are children who cannot do well in this system as they are not good in reading, writing or memorising. They therefore suffer because there is very little scope for them to pursue education through the current educational system.

I heard the children discuss between themselves in the skit their feelings about the pressure to do everything at school like the way most students do. One of them said, ' I use a software to dictate to the computer which gets transcribed into a text. Why can't I use this to write my assignments?'. Another child said, 'My mother reads the text book to me and after hearing it read to me couple of times, I can recall it verbally. Why can't the teacher test me orally'. A third child mentioned that 'I lose marks in the tests and examinations, because my spellings are not correct. Is spelling all that important? I use spell check when I write on the computer'.

As I heard this conversation taking place before an audience of few hundred delegates, I felt distressed that children's needs and voices are not alerting the educational policy makers to look at our educational system with an open mind. Some children go to school only to get discouraged because they can't learn the usual way.  

A child whom I met around eight years of age with the above special educational needs had to move to another country to continue his education. He is now completing a master's course in architecture. He learned in his own way and he was assessed differently all along. He received some concessions and personal tutoring to compensate for his lack. He excelled in many areas and was ahead of others in understanding and expression of his thoughts in graphics.

Let me suggest that parents need to develop a supportive role when children struggle with learning rather than force them to learn in the usual way. There are alternative methods to help them to learn and there are several resources available on the inter-net to help in this process.

A child during a consultation told me, 'I cannot read the wall texts in your room. But I can follow all the pictures and photographs. Thank you for remembering children like me when you decorated your room'.

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)          

Become a neigbour's friend!

Let me share a personal experience from my professional life of 40 years.

I got drawn into the specialty of caring for children with various neuro-developmental needs from 1982 through an unusual experience in life, when I did not have formal training or skills in this field. Soon thereafter, I got trained in this area and made it my preferred area of specialty with post doctoral research.

When I come across children with weakness of the hands or inability to move hands due to increased tone in the muscles, I notice them making intense efforts to perform any activity. The above photo of a child attempting to hold a rattle in the hand involves efforts involving  hands, face, neck, etc. It is as though the body is resisting any movement of the body. 

When muscles contract intensely like this it is painful and exhausting for the child. The mother would find it difficult to hold the child in her lap as his body would extend backwards while moving to do anything with hands. Even the mother or the care giver would get tired as such stiffening of the body could take place during feeding, bathing, carrying, or on hearing a loud sound which would make the child startle. Although some medicines, muscle relaxation exercises, proper positioning of the bod, etc. can reduce the stiffness of the muscles and give some respite, most children will have to learn to live with the stiffness of the muscles. 

There will be one or more families having children with special needs, living among us in our street or as our neighbours. These families have several challenges to cope with- the stress of having a child with special needs; frequent medical needs which make them visit hospital often; physical and emotional exhaustion; financial stress; the needs of other children in the family, etc. From my experience, most families in such a setting feel lonely and helpless, not knowing whom to turn to for friendship and help.  

Let me suggest that we look out for such families in our neighborhood and enquire from them, how we can be a support to them! This is one of the ways to make our residential areas neighbor friendly.

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)