I'm a special educator currently teaching near San Francisco, California. I will be moving back to India shortly and want to work in the field of special education in India. My areas of interest include Learning Disabilites, integration into mainstream, lifeskills and vocational training, school-to-adulthood transition and teacher training.
I have a lab consisting of several activities that simulate various invisible processing disorders in children with learning disabilities. Disorders addressed in this lab include auditory processing, visual processing, visual memory, fine motor issues, visual perception, memory and autism. Activities create conditions that mimic classroom situations, and participants can get an experience of what kids go through all day long in school. This activity is very relevant and useful because many kids with such disorders are undiagnosed and continue to struggle in the classroom without help. They get labelled lazy or stupid and start believing it. They fall behind academically and catching up becomes really difficult.
When teachers and administrators go through these activities, they can actually understand what a struggle it is for such students. This empathy might translate into administrative decisions such as providing special education support services for struggling students, rather than labeling and marginalizing them.
Students with invisible disabilities struggle because they themselves do not understand why they are underperforming even when they put in effort. Eventually they might stop trying.
I will be in India next June and July 2013, and would be happy to present in any venue/ school/ city. Please let me know (via this blog) if there is any interest.
I have a lab consisting of several activities that simulate various invisible processing disorders in children with learning disabilities. Disorders addressed in this lab include auditory processing, visual processing, visual memory, fine motor issues, visual perception, memory and autism. Activities create conditions that mimic classroom situations, and participants can get an experience of what kids go through all day long in school. This activity is very relevant and useful because many kids with such disorders are undiagnosed and continue to struggle in the classroom without help. They get labelled lazy or stupid and start believing it. They fall behind academically and catching up becomes really difficult.
When teachers and administrators go through these activities, they can actually understand what a struggle it is for such students. This empathy might translate into administrative decisions such as providing special education support services for struggling students, rather than labeling and marginalizing them.
Students with invisible disabilities struggle because they themselves do not understand why they are underperforming even when they put in effort. Eventually they might stop trying.
I will be in India next June and July 2013, and would be happy to present in any venue/ school/ city. Please let me know (via this blog) if there is any interest.
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