PRAYATNA
CASE STUDIES
1. Our 'Learning' at Prayatna: recollections from a grateful parent
The background
Our daughter, Sriya was born on the 5th of April 1994. Things were perfectly fine before her birth. As there was some delay in labour, she was delivered by forceps, which caused injury to her brain. There were several anxious moments during her birth, moments of agony when she did not immediately cry, when she began to throw fits soon after. Thanks to a wonderful paediatrician and timely help, Sriya survived, was put on treatment for her fits, and pulled through this major crisis of entering a new world.
Apart from some minor hiccoughs ( in the form of fits which settled with changing her medicine) early in childhood, Sriya pulled along simply fine, and did what all other children normally do in infancy. Of course, she took a little longer learning to talk, and we noticed that she was a little clumsy with her right hand, but that was understandable given that she had had a real knock on the brain. Both of us doctors, we had feared the worst regarding her brain injury, and are always aware that things could have been much, much worse.
We put Sriya in a pre-nursery school at about 31/2 years of age. Her clumsiness and difficulty in writing and drawing started to become apparent. The preschool teacher was very understanding, and felt that she would pick up over time.
We were able to get her into a reputed school at the age of four, as I was an old student there. In the nursery class, she had a very kind and understanding teacher, who made practically no demands. But we found that Sriya was not as comfortable as the rest of the class. She was extremely clumsy with her things, she could not form her alphabets properly, she could not colour. She had to be helped in finding her things, practically all the time.
The beginning ..of problems.. at school
Although Sriya made little progress in Nursery, the principal of the school, who is extremely understanding and concerned, felt that Sriya would gradually improve and she went to preparatory. Another kind teacher, lots of attention. But Sriya continued to appear vague and lost. She did not know which line to stand in during the assembly. She could not find her way to class. She would not mind her things. Her work in class was clumsy. With her earlier history, we had anticipated problems, so on our own initiative, took her for an assessment to a learning disability center. The person there performed tests for a seven year old (although Sriya was only five) and therefore she appeared way behind on these tests. We were quite disillusioned by the lack of sensitivity at this place and wondered what to do, what the extent of the problem was.
And then we found Prayatna.
The principal of Sriya's school suggested that I meet Aruna, who had just returned with a Ph.D. in developmental psychology at Harvard, and started a center for children with learning disability, Prayatna. She had been offering remedial education for children from class 2 in the school, but the principal thought it would be useful for Sriya to be evaluated at Prayatna.
We met Aruna, explained the background, and took our five year old to Prayatna. Our first visit - We saw two little tables and chairs, many pictures and story charts raised our hopes. We had wondered whether we would be able to find any place that would help our little girl.
With inputs from Aruna and her team at Prayatna, we began to pay attention to Sriya's specific learning problems in more detail. It was quite obvious that she had a problem keeping her attention on a particular task- she was quite distractible. She had a problem remembering things she had done the previous day. She would never tell us what had happened in school, what the teacher had told them to do. She had difficulties in forming concepts- for e.g. what was soft, and what was rough, things that any other child automatically figured out. With drawing. she simply could not keep to the margins. Lines did not exist for her.
Systematic inputs from Prayatna started when Sriya was in Junior I. Her teacher in this class began to express doubts about Sriya being able to follow group instructions. She went to the extent of suggesting a special school. But we thought she was otherwise intelligent and should have a chance to learn like a normal child.
Inputs at Prayatna
At Prayatna, the initial year focused on her getting to learn basic concepts of shapes, colours and counting. Drawing objects within specified squares, colouring, identifying objects, keeping to lines were the focus. She had oodles of exciting pictures to colour.
Within a few months of starting Prayatna, we found Sriya eagerly looking forward to her Prayatna sessions.
School continued to be a bit of an ordeal. There were days when Sriya got up in tears, asking if there was school and insisting it was the weekend. To help her in school, both Aruna and I interacted with the teachers. The teachers were kind but not greatly enthusiastic about getting actively involved in the Prayatna way of teaching - conceptual rather than by rote learning. We had begun to notice that Sriya's rote memory was excellent- in fact she had begun to 'read' Dr Seuss' Cat in the Hat from cover to cover! It took us a while to realize that she just knew it all by heart!
Her teacher and the principal suggested that Sriya repeat Junior I. We discussed this with Prayatna and felt that an extra year would give her the confidence she needed to grasp basic concepts required for the primary school. And it worked. Although the new class teacher started off on the wrong foot, asking why we did not put Sriya in the handicapped children's section, she soon came to realize that Sriya was not dull, she had specific difficulties in following group instructions, in copying from the board, in following lines.
During this year, the focus at Prayatna changed, with the staff trying to get Sriya to work independently, to copy from the board. The focus on conceptual learning continued. The staff regularly gave Sriya tasks to do at home. We helped Sriya with these tasks, most of which she really enjoyed doing.
What lies ahead?
Sriya is presently in Class I. The teacher here is more understanding and accepting of Sriya's limitations. Sriya is excellent in her reading work. She continues to have difficulties in copying and can't keep pace with the class work. Maths is a little difficult, as is kannada. Our concerns continue, and we will have to possibly find her a school sensitive to her needs and a class with fewer children.
Despite the struggle, she is a happy child, willing to work, loves praise, and her self confidence has improved.
We have Prayatna to thank for several things:
We hope more parents get the opportunity we had to start thinking of a better and brighter future for our precious child. We still don't know what the future holds for our child but we have great hopes for her, thanks to Prayatna.