PRAYATNA
CASE STUDIES
1 . "This is Gaurav's story...
... This is his song. I am Dr Pratibha, a physician by profession, and my husband is an engineer. We have two children-- Gautam and Gaurav.
Gaurav was a bright, talkative and naughty toddler who gave us no clue of what was to come. It was during mid-Kindergarten when reading and writing came into the picture, that the problem began. He did not make any attempt to write in the class, refused to read, and his spellings were a disaster. Mathematics was also an ordeal. His grades fell to "Fail" by the time he was in third standard. We were confused as to why the child was not performing on tests when he spoke well and looked intelligent enough to us.
At school he had to face corporal punishment and verbal insults from the teachers and ridiculing by his classmates. This made him angry and he became violent and destructive at school.
Somewhere along the line we started wondering why our child was not performing. To our luck, we came across an article in "The Week" magazine about learning disorders. At the end of it I felt that the article was written keeping Gaurav in mind. We did not know that there was lot more to it until a neurologist friend of ours said that he had to be evaluated for Specific Learning Disability!
We got him assessed at Bangalore and then at Child Care Centre in Cochin. Both reports opined that Gaurav had above-average intelligence but had moderately severe specific learning disorder. Both reports recommended that he needed intensive remedial education. Initially it came as a shock, then we were overcome by disbelief and helpless acceptance. Finally, with firm determination we decided to help Gaurav in all possible ways.
Providence brought us to Dr. Aruna who runs the centre called Prayatna. Meeting her was the best thing that could have happened to Gaurav. She was frank and forthright and told us that intervention would be a slow but steady process and that we had to have patience and perseverance. She also advised us to put him in a school where the teachers are sensitised to this problem and where they have a resource room for such children. We were lucky to get him into National Academy for Learning at Bangalore, which met Gaurav's requirements.
We started remedial education at Prayatna and in the process also tried for language exemption and got it from the C.B.S.E. Board.
It is now nearly two years since he started intervention and Gaurav has come a long way. He can read fairly well, he is with the class in keeping his notes up to date, and can answer exams in almost the given time. From single digit marks, he now has a B+ grade in all the subjects. In maths, he is now one of the top students.
One has to look at subtle signs of improvement before you can see it academically. We thank God that he gave us the vision to understand that. Gaurav still has a long way to go but we can now see a ray of sunlight."
2 . My Experience at
Prayatna
Hi. My name is Gaurav and I am writing about my experience at Prayatna. It’s not like a regular, boring tuition. I am taught to read, write and speak in a fun way. Prayatna has given me confidence. We play games, win gifts, prizes and praise from our teachers when we do well. This makes the student motivated and he wants to learn more. He gradually becomes better. I have been to this class for four years and it has helped me so much, from a state where I could not write, read or speak properly, and being last in the class and made fun of—to being one of the good students. I am so lucky that I got a chance to enter a class like this, which has helped me. I wish children like me would get a chance to enter such a type of special education.