Learning issues

It has taken me a while what a neurological insult means.Anandita’s MRI taken many years ago revealed she had suffered an insult to her brain or more specifically there was destruction of white matter of the brain. White matter would mean the long myelinated fibers in the brain. Damage can result in severe coordination issues (hand eye, visual, spatial) and also balance issues. Children like her can suffer in a classroom environment because there is a significant gap between her verbal and performance IQ’s.

I have seen Anandita struggle with poor visual recall and problems with spatial perceptions and a lack of ability in comprehending non verbal communication. She has had severe deficits in social judgement and social interactions in the last few years...
In Anandita’s case we were aware of the insult/damage to the brain although I was unaware of the extent of damage done and how much it would impair her educational curve and daily living journey...

I have seen her have a difficult time learning to ride a bike and actually pedal the wheels fully in a circle. She is inadequately coordinated in her fine and gross motor skills. When she learnt to kick a large soccer ball she would always lose her balance and fall. Fine motor skills like cutting with scissors or tying a shoe lace seems impossible for her. It is only now she has graduated to coloring spontaneously and still prefers finger painting to painting with a brush.

Ananditas milestones were so delayed that she never really crawled. She was either supine, prone, lying on back. We had to keep outing her on the tummy in the hope she would learn to roll over. She didn’t. She instead took to bunny hopping all over our home when she was 2 years plus. She didn’t explore much of her environment motorically due to her impaired motor movements.

I have noticed her difficulty in perceiving subtle non verbal cues of her environment. Some social skills are normally grasped intuitively by children through observation and not taught directly.

So many difficulties. It may seem trifling to one reading it. But there are always solutions to each of these issues, solutions on how to handle it, how to ease the strain on the child and how to train the parent and child.

In Anandita’s case all she needed was a supportive environment and the right blend of therapies that were continued at home by me.

How did I help her?

I always allow her extra time to get ready when she has to go somewhere. I am okay with her tardiness. I give her a lot of verbal cues to navigate through my home, For example I need an envelope in which I need to put a letter in for her teacher. She doesn’t know where the envelopes are. So instead of telling her a generalized statement that the envelopes are in the drawer, I tell her, Go to mummy’s bedroom. In the chest of drawers open the drawer to your left. Inside will be a brown envelope. Bring it back to Mummy. Instructions are explicit and clear.
I try my best to avoid power struggles with her. It threatens her totally. It can threaten a normal child too but in this case a disabled child undergoes many low self esteem issues, teasing and other sources of anxiety( loud noises, fear of animals).The goal I set for her has to be attainable. I tune into her to see how tired she is to handle her extra study assignments and I schedule it accordingly. I avoid taking away her privileges (her TV time etc) because I know it will damage her well being rather than enhance it.

When I sense she is not ready for something I do not force it upon her. Independence in tasks that are not structured can be fearful for her. At the same time there is no over protection. There is flexibility.

At school-her paper and pencil tasks are kept to a minimum due to lack of finger dexterity and visual spatial problems. Occupational therapy to improve her fine motor movements does help in control and fluency but she still finds the entire process of writing laborious. The motor skills involved in writing are very very complex and not as we assume.

She needs assistance in organizing her information and in communicating in writing. She needs a lot of spelling out like parts to whole verbal teaching technique that helps her to comprehend better.
I don’t expect her to read between the lines. No sarcasm, idioms, slang, figurative speech, instead clears and plain language has to be used.

She responds excellently when a preview is done prior to her class sessions. It not only boosts her confidence .It also gives her an understanding on what is to follow, be it a new English chapter, a new Math’s concept, a field trip etc.

She needs concrete situations and experiences. I end up verbally teaching her conversational strategies, why not to begin a sentence with a ‘because’, how to understand tone and expressions in voices. I very often see that she is unable to perceive that she is trying someone’s patience unless that person verbally explodes (usually A or me).