Written by: Ms. Roopika S. ( Head, HSSW)
A 13 year old, square shaped face with large piercing eyes, with big scar in his mid-head, he is a tall boy with big nose and crooked teeth. His parents Mr & Mrs.X, his father is a business man and his mother is a teacher and he has a brother studying in 6th std. His brother helps him and supports him for completing his daily chores. He hails from a nuclear family.
In his birth history, it is observed that at the age of 5year he had a continuous seizure for 15 days with high temperature and was hospitalised for one month so he has difficulty in muscular movements. He was trained to read, write by his mother with the support of occupation therapy and speech therapy. He was referred by the clinical psychologist to the H.O. School. In the school he was supported by occupation therapy and remedial teaching. In the beginning he was placed in the class where only 3 students and there it was observed that no social smile. He likes to sit or stand alone in the class by pricking the nose. He is disinterested in playing. He likes to read books. He had a good fluency, rate of speed, production of words are good. He has difficulty in following instruction because he is flexible with his mother so the teachers have difficulty to make him to follow instructions. He doesn’t answer to the attendance or while his name is called. He have difficulty in poor grip, picking objects, carrying or holding heavy objects, catching ball, climbing upstairs and poor balance.
While he is travelling to school, he has to pick up 2 buses from his home so taking him in bus was really tough because of his poor balance he won’t hold it properly and often fall that irritates the person standing near to him. His academic performance was below average, he won’t copy from board, he usually writes his exam in home with his mother’s guidance or in the evening after school. His participation in class and prayer was low. He usually lay down in his desk when the teacher was giving the lecture or explaining the concept but he has good observation and listening skill. He has poor social skills and he makes irrelevant noise or yawn loudly which distracts the other students so it was the greatest challenge for teacher to handle the deviated group.
After changing his class to the group of hyperactive 2 students and specific learning disability 4 students totally 7 students including him in one class the SSW can observe the changes as, in the beginning the other students in the class doesn’t accept him. They showed their resistance by neglecting him, avoiding him, doesn’t gave him a space to participate in the class and the pupil also tease or bully him. Then the SSW orient the group about his difficulty and his ability to the group and they started accept him and they supported him by encouraging him in the class to participate. In the beginning students helped him to complete the written works. The distraction of class was minimised because they are ignoring that undesirable behaviour and started encouraging his desirable behaviours like if he answered when his name was called they gave applause to him and this encouraged him to participate.
To encourage his prayer participation, once in a while he was called for reading Thirukural or Tamil news. The SSW observed that the teacher has given the book to him, he reads continuously 6 lines then when orientation was given to him, he reads in a low tone, it is audible till 1st row. Thereafter the content for reading was written in the paper to avoid the confusion and he was instructed to read aloud when he was called for reading participation. With the support of SSW, psychologist and vocational staff some of the improvements observed are:
IN SCHOOL: Participation in prayer was improved with minimal distractions.
IN CLASS: Participation in class was improved as copying from board, participating in reading, writing exams , resting in the desk was minimised, answering for attendance, speaking in audible tone was increased, hand writing has improved, he asks for explanation to clarify his doubts. He doesn’t attend drawing class but he likes to visit computer lab and library.
IN HOME: He is helping his mother in arranging and folding mat, arranging his lunch box, school bag, books in the rack, dishes, folding clothes in the cupboard, arranging the shoes, slippers in the slipper stand and now he demands Tamil books to read.
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