In order to identify the children with learning disability at the initial stage at school level, the UT Administration has initiated a special training for the teachers in union territory of Chandigarh.
Rehabilitation Centre for Handicapped Children - PRAYAAS (A Project of Indian Council for Child Welfare, UT Chandigarh) has been entrusted with the task to organize symposium to prepare teachers to identify such children. In its initiative, PRAYAAS organised a symposium on early identification, assessment and intervention of children with learning disabilities for the primary teachers of various government schools of union territory of Chandigarh. The two days symposium concluded on Friday at PRAYAAS building, Sector 38 here.
The doctors from various medical institutions spoke at the conference apprising teachers about children with learning disability. At the symposium, Dr BNS Walia, former Director Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research emphasized that a child who is otherwise intelligent but does not meet the expectations of the parents and teachers in academic activities has been the subject of lot of research for a long time. Such children should be dealt with care and patience.
During the conference, Dr RK Gupta, Director RCHC-PRAYAAS said that the basic motive of the symposium was to sensitize the teachers so that they are able to identify the children with learning disability at the initial stage at school level. He also gave an overview of the activities being run by PRAYAAS such as Speech Therapy, Physiotherapy, Occupational Therapy, Clinical Psychology, Mental Retardation and Autism.
Other experts who spoke at the conference included Arun, Professor in Dept of Psychiatry, Government Medical College and Hospital (GMCH) Sector 32; Dr Adarsh Kohli, Professor Clinical Psychology PGIMER; Dr Anuradha Bhandari, Professor Department of Psychiatry PU among others. The symposium was attended by more than 60 teachers of various government schools in the city.