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| Dr.Thomas Felix, Jeevan Prakash Child Centre at Kumarapuram, Thiruvananthapuram |
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Reading, writing and arithmetic may be the foundations of education for ordinary children, but for the mentally challenged, it is the comprehension, competency and creativity that are more vital, feels Dr.Thomas Felix of Jeevan Prakash Child Centre at Kumarapuram, Thiruvananthapuram. With this feeling he devised a simple but effective method to make them comprehend the abstract ideas through the use of common shapes.
He found that most common of all shapes in nature are the 4 basic shapes, circle, rectangle, triangle and square. “The mentally challenged can interact with these shapes more and they can understand abstract ideas through concrete means”, he says.
The patented education material that comes in a kit has differently coloured and sized shapes made of different materials. These help the children learn about various materials, their qualities, difference in weight, size, colour etc. Says Vivekanandan, whose son has been going to the institute for the past 15 years, “…you won’t believe how responsible he has become. He works in the institute, and even looks after his grandparents in the absence of myself and my wife.”
The Central Institute on Mental Retardation was able to get the feedback that shape based approach of special education for these children could integrate them with home and community within a short period of time.
It is a sign of the improvements brought about by this method that a team from the institute could perform a ballet on Ramayana in the Rashtrapathi Bhavan itself. And sure enough, after being at the institute for about 10 years, most of the students go out with confidence to lead life as businessmen and farmers, as clerks and dairy-farmers. If nothing works, they are atleast self sufficient and know how to take care of themselves.
Courtesy: Reema Narendran, New Indian Express, March 13, 2004
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