The Law and Disability

People’s attitude to the world of the disabled is changing rapidly. This is perhaps due to a greater understanding of the disability movement or the impact that people with disabilities make when they display their skills. All this has led to the disabled community being looked at with respect rather than with pity. It has… [ Continue Reading ]

Special Education: Need for Trained Support

The disability field as most other rehabilitation fields was initially looked upon as a zone of charity. Consequently, there were very few technically qualified people. However, the scenario has changed a lot in the last few years and the need of the hour is for trained and qualified professionals. Special education as a field requires… [ Continue Reading ]

FAQs on Special Needs

All handicapped people are retarded. Intelligence is only affected if a person is mentally retarded or gifted. Mental retardation can range from mild to severe. The diagnosis is based on the IQ levels and functional development level. Gifted people are those who have above normal IQ. Other than these two conditions, other disabilities do not… [ Continue Reading ]

Training for Special Educators

There are a variety of courses offered in the field of special education. Since the techniques of working with each disability are different, the courses are also specific. Hence a special educator would either be trained to work with the Mentally Challenged or the Hearing Impaired or the Visually Impaired and so on and so… [ Continue Reading ]

Checklists of Children’s Science Activities

In their thought-provoking book, ‘UNESCO Sourcebook for Science in the Primary School: a Workshop Approach to Teacher Education’, Wynne Harlen and Jos Elstgeest provide a means of self-evaluation which teachers can use at those points when they ask themselves ‘how good a job am I doing?’ They present three check-lists relating to children’s activities, their… [ Continue Reading ]

Special Education – Some Signposts

What is special education? Special Education is the individually planned and systematically monitored arrangement of physical settings, teaching procedures, special equipment and materials, and other interventions designed to help learners with special needs, to achieve the greatest possible self-sufficiency and success in the school and community. All children exhibit individual differences in terms of physical… [ Continue Reading ]

Are the Blind a Resource or a Liability?

Affected since childhood, Abraham made a habit of excelling in everything he did, be it state-level athletics in a “normal” school, college at the prestigious St Stephen’s, a productive career with advertising giants Ogilvy and Mather, or the organisation of the first ever World Cup Cricket for the Blind, in 1998. He is the recipient… [ Continue Reading ]