It is more than a lifetime promise that a child imbues from its mother and the promise is a wee bit stronger when the child has special needs, as portrayed by Jaishree Mishra in her autobiographical novel ‘Ancient Promises.' In the novel, she sets out to get trained to teach her special child.
In Kerala's capital Thiruvananthapuram too, a mother has a similar story to say, where she set up the first school in the state for children with learning disabilities and runs two centres under the Travancore National School - one exclusively for children with learning disabilities and the other for autistic children. She tells parents of special kids not to be sad as their fear would aggravate the pain in the child, and make them feel they are good for nothing.
Sandhya Prajin, from Chakka in Thiruvananthapuram, was a lawyer by profession and decided to quit her job to take better care of her son Thejus, who experienced hard learning issues. Thejus found it difficult to be among other children in usual schools.
The special school idea evolved when one of the schools turned the boy away when he reached class II, for his inability to catch up with the rest.
“It was rather a difficult situation for us, as parents, when the special school he used to go to decided to close down by the end of 2013-14 academic year. Parents of nearly 50 children from the school gathered at the IMA hall at general hospital here, to discuss plans, including starting a new school. However, many of the parents were hesitant to reveal that their children had special needs. (The special school was part of a larger school).
“Of the nearly 50 sets of parents, 44 chose to remain with the main school, in the fear of having to reveal the ‘special’ status of their children and the parents of four kids and we, stayed together, with the support of three teachers from the earlier school,” Sandhya said.
The Travancore National School first functioned from the IMA Hall at General Hospital, before moving into a rented building in Kochar Road. A small van provided by the family of one of the students was used to take children to and from school.
Sandhya’s husband, Prajin Babu, formerly a builder, is the chairman of the Travancore Education Trust while Sandhya is the executive director. The schools - in Sasthamangalam and Vattavila - have nearly 100 children and 30 staff members currently.
“There are many types of learning disabilities for the children. Dyslexia is a condition where the children have difficulty in following the languages, comprehension and spelling. Those with Dysgraphia have problem in writing. Some others have Dyscalculia, i.e. difficulty in making arithmetical calculations. Each one has to be treated differently,” Sandhya says.
Along with instilling confidence in Thejus, who is in seventh level now, Sandhya’s school could successfully send out 25 children till date and one of them is doing an undergraduate course in mass communication in a regular college in Thiruvananthapuram.
“A lot of children are born to parents in the Gulf countries, who are brought here under the care of their grandparents. Here, they grow like normal children and their parents now know that it is natural to have children with special needs and there is nothing to be ashamed of,” she says.
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