IIT-M to equip teachers to work with dyslexic kids

e-Shikshanam will train teachers and other stakeholders who work with children with dyslexia. The course will address providing remedial instructions to children up to Class 5 across the country and it is open to primary school teachers. National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning (NPTEL) is the facilitator for the course.

Bhaskar Ramamurthi, Director, IIT-M, said that structured multi-modal teaching is the best way forward to enable these children to bridge the gap between their potential and their actual performance.

Stating that MDA has evolved simple methods to identify and remediate young children, he said, “these strategies can be imparted to the children with learning difficulties in the course of their regular classroom learning process. This enhances the learning of the entire class hence does not have to be administered selectively.”

According to him, empowered mainstream teachers can facilitate the learning process for children with mild dyslexia within the comforts of the classroom. This inclusive approach buoys the child’s self-esteem. This, in turn, helps the child scale up the learning and performance.

The course is hosted on NPTEL web portal, which has enabled MDA to offer the course free of cost to anybody who is interested in equipping themselves with strategies to cope with difficulties in reading, spelling, writing and mathematics.

The portal has enabled MDA to offer not just quality content but also quizzes that help the learner to recapitulate the learnings from the segment.

Along with this, the facility to ask questions and have discussions with MDA resources on related topics makes it an effective and stimulating learning process.

The course has been structured to enable mainstream teachers to equip themselves. It consists of modules such as Introduction to dyslexia, child development, screening, reading, spelling, writing, Mathematics, study skills and multiple intelligence.