Chandigarh administration takes cue from film

CHANDIGARH: Taking cue from 'Tare Zamin Par', the Chandigarh Administration has decided to start a new course to sensitize and train the teachers for identification of children with learning disabilities.

Chandigarh would be perhaps the first state or Union Territory to start this type of course for its teachers, UT Home and Education Secretary, Krishna Mohan said today as as the public is gradually becoming aware of Specific Learning Disabilities (SLDs), which causes academic difficulties.

The Administration will also start a new resource centre to take away the stress and tension from the parents of such children. UT Education department had earlier arranged for free special screening of the 'Tare Zamin Par' for its 2,500 teachers.

The Home Secretary said that the course will help the teachers in identifying the children with the learning disability and take necessary steps to overcome.

A screening test would be conducted for identifying the children with the aforesaid disability with the help of the screening instrument, he added.

Mohan said that the children having SLDs will be first screened by shorter version of the NIMHANS index of SLDs which include the tests like attention, language, arithmetic, visuo-motor skill and memory.

Children suspected to be having a learning disorder will then be administered the detailed battery including MIMHANS index of SLD, Malin's Intelligence Scale for Indian Children (MISIC) and PGI Memory Scale, he further added.