02 October 2010

The unprofessional bad model Teacher is the major Influencer of Retardation

The unprofessional in this context refers mainly to a teacher who abuse teacher
professionalism. It is not just academic qualifications that is required to a teacher but also the professional skills.
A teacher may have subject knowledge but not fully equipped with professional skills and teaching techniques. Unprofessionally knowledgeable teacher rarely possesses the knowledge of the social development of children ,ethics and the skills in using this knowledge in the classroom. Individual difference need to be taken seriously in the classroom. The teacher should be able to identify and to know how to deal with some of the personal problems children might have in the classroom.
For children to learn effectively ,it is not enough for the teacher to merely present them with learning materials. The methods in presenting the materials and effective use of the learning resources are important.An unprofessional teacher is unlikely to possess the skills and the most advantaged are pupils.
The teacher must have sound knowledge of different cultures in the community in which the school is located. Religious beliefs, dressing and types of foods are some of the important aspects of culture that need to be known and observed. Adverse comments in the classroom pertaining to what a child values culturally might disturb and inhibit learning in the child .Depends on the degree of disturbance that could lead to retardation. The child might become shy and withdrawn ,depressed and even aggressive as a defensive mechanism against being laughed at by classmates.
An unprofessional teacher may concentrate on subject content ,ignoring some of the essential issues in learning. Purposeful activity by pupils are important aid to learning. Learning experiences for children ,individual capacities ,motivation ,personality and the growth of skills are some of the aspects the teacher should be acquiented with.
The teacher as a bad model:Infants respect their teachers than their parents and they believed in whatever their teacher say ,even wrong things than to correct their parents when they make mistakes. They confidently argued that the teacher is always right and never go wrong. The teacher is an influential figure to the pupils .The pupils observe and in many cases copy their teacher's behaviour ,if the teacher is harsh ,intolerant and bad-tempered ,this behavioural patterns is likely to be in the children, as a result children are likely to become indifferent and care free. This tendency might inhibit learning . Some children may either withdrawn or tired ,because of fear of their teacher , some lead to a certain form of retardation.
Self Fulfilling Prophecy:Teacher's expectations can seriously influence the pupils 's academic performance. These teacher's expectations may be known as self fulfilling prophecy. Where a child notices teacher's higher expectations of him/her ,the pupil feels encouraged,motivated and puts more efforts in school work. Contrally a child
who senses that the teacher has low expectation of him/her is likely to feel discouraged ,unhappy ,disgraced and indifferent to his /her school work. Consequently his /her performance in learning might be affected.In this regard the teacher 's expectation is fulfilled.
Criticism:Learning can be inhibited if a teacher isn't sensitive to the needs and feelings of pupils. Every pupil needs the teacher's support and encouragement .Criticism can be both constructive and destructive to a child. These children usually insult ,ridicule and at times give precise
malicious criticisms of each other. However this if taken by the teacher ,children emulate and the children at whom criticism is laid against ,are the sufferers. They eventually become demotivated and withdrawn. This could cause retardation . Criticism is important but if improperly done or overdone can be more destructive.
Competition:Like criticism ,reinforcement of competition can be destructive to children.The teacher who praises and encourages some children at the expense of others in the classroom. Gibson (1976:450) gave a common example which commonly done by teachers in the classroom. The teacher instructs a pupil who has problem in changing fractions to its lowest terms in mathematics to come on front of other classmates . The child walks to the front head down filled with the deadly sense of fear.The fraction problem:9/15 =6/5 according to the said child instead of 9/15 = 3/5.
Then the teacher said my little daughter who is younger than this child instructed to give example on the board can able to reduced this fraction in its lowest term.
If the teacher condemned this child in view of the whole class who really can help this child.Obviously most of the children will applause a louder laughter.In this case the teacher is reinforcing the other children at the expense of one child. The child will not likely feel out of place discouraged and may abandon some of the lesson simply because of lack of confidence both in self and the significant others . What considered simply done even little young children in the sense of most unprofessional teachers is complex because of the cognitive level of development so the teacher should serious make it into considerations.

School Causes of Learning Retardation: Authoritarian Heads and Teachers

An authoritarian teacher believes in giving orders .The learners rarely involved in decision making, they are not expected to question anything, but only to do what they are told. The children will never be free in all this circumstances. The teacher is like working with animals which cannot use any initiative in doing tasks set.
The authoritarian teacher 's interest is to get the work done perfectly. The persons in need are the learners ,doing a set piece of work perfectly is secondary to them. What is important is what they learn from the work. Learning is likely to be inhibited if the learners in the classroom are not relaxed,happy and interested in what they
are doing and feel forced to do the task.
An authoritarian teacher imposes mental discipline on the children instead of dealing with the problems which might require mental discipline. It is outdated traditional education concept that learning has to be painful if it is to be of any good. This concept was fostered not for the good of learning ,but to subjugate the children and community members in general so that they submit to oppression as subjects.How can children learn effectively when they are constantly under the state of fear and everything is being imposed upon them?
Rigidness:Some authoritarian teachers are so rigid in methods they use when teaching and learner learn almost nothing. These methods become an end to the means. Take a situation where the teacher stipulates that if a child have lot of mistakes in a composition ,must re-write the whole composition. The goal of the teacher is to make the learner to concentrate on the exercise ,writing neatly and carefully. But what will happen to the learner who keeps making the same mistakes even after make lots of re-writes. Logically continous repetition of the same mistakes will eventually lead to demoralisation. By being rigid to the rules the teacher is likely to
produce are worried learner who might not concentrate on doing class work and fear might spill to overal performance and cause backwardness.
Freedom of expression:Children can best express themselves under a relaxed atmosphere. They need freedom in the learning situations to create ,consult and converse with their peers. Although some critics argued that giving learners freedom to express,consult and converse freely will lead to chaos and lot of noise in the classroom. Rather my advocacy is chaos is hardly to occur in a classroom where learners are given lot of meaningful work to do, after the teacher can give them clear instruction ,guidance and direction to do their work. Total silence believed by authoritarian teachers isn't meaning there is effective learning taking place.
Children's span of attention range from five minutes to about 15 minutes, so it is very short. They are very active .If conditioned to be listeners only,listening will be inhibited and consequently caused backwardness in some of the children.
Authoritarian School Heads:Not only teachers are rigid authorities dealing with school children hold a hot iron rod. The school heads are indirectly affect children's learning in most schools. Indirectly the authoritarian head expects and instist on the teacher to achieve the key results areas,cover the syllabus,given the stipulated work to children in the time allocated. The head is not concerned with the methods of teaching employed,whether learning is effectively or not. The teacher because of easing the pressure from super ordinate ,rushes through every lesson ,without paying much attention to the learners' learning problems .The teacher because of the strict supervision from the head forced to ignore the individual differences in learners . This is likely to cause backwardness in some pupils ,particularly those who need special attention.
The heads may also directly influence as they subscribed to punishment as a way of instilling fear in the school children. Some authoritarian heads believed punishment in as strong tool to establish their firm authority and adopt a fear repect among school children ,not as corrective measure. In some cases punishment like cunning for a petty reasons like fidgeting in class such malicious actions by the head might have a number of consequent effects.
The teacher should be made responsible for class discipline.The head can and may help to enhance the teacher's authority in classroom ,but whatever action is taken to this effect should be necessary . Authoritarian discipline by the head is likely to make the school children feel uneasy and frightened in class. The children are likely to be always on guard lest the head's big eyes fall on them. The children 's attention and concentration in classroom is likely to be disturbed because of fear, to the pupils who come to school with prior fears and uncertainties, such additional stresses can degenerate into severe anxieties which could lead to backwardness.

Lack of Facilities in some Schools and the limit of the Curriculum develops a useless Education System

Generally,schools especially in developing countries and specifically schools of poor families lack facilities for children to learn effectively. Teachers rely on the chalk board as a teaching aid. Children display natural curiosity about their environmment .The richer the environment the more it provokes the children to explore it. Teachers should be aware that learning can be more valuable in a good environment in a spirit of atmosphere in which the work is done. Where the school lacks learning facilities like charts,computers ,maps ,pictures children will rely on words of the teacher basing on the teacher's knowledge.There is no choice ,the teacher is the source of all knowledge. Lecture ,story telling ,drilling ,dictation and other traditional methods are the only option used as children learn the abstract theoretical concepts. The child is denied any experience of making mental model of reality more complete and true to real life.This way of learning process lead learner to be bored in whatever it is they are told to do.Their progress in learning is slow and completely out. Visual aids in learning situation has motivating effect. They raise and satisfy children's curiosity.Suitable learning aids help to reinforce what the pupils learn.
The mission of schools is to develop pupils' intellectual,artistic ,creative and sporting skills. There are facilities that pupils need to be provided to them to learn and acquire these skills. In co-curricular activities like in ball games ,the appropriate balls are essential and the playing areas should be well slashed ,marked according to the rules of the sporting discipline. If the facilities are not conducive then pupils are not likely to learn the games properly.
An important point to note is that school should have provision of various facilities to enable the children to develop their learning abilities and explore their talents according to their interests. In most of these poor school the main co-curricular activities have been ball games like soccer,netball and athletics. The situation as it stands in the said school ,shows on its own that children have limited choice as far as sporting activities is concerned. We don't want to play blaming game to anyone ,but in short the other sporting activities like tennis,cricket ,hockey ,basket and even rugby are not available in these schools because of lack of expertise and facilities.
Limiting Curriculum: The progress of pupils at school can be retarded by the limitations of the Educational curriculum. The subjects should be designed in a way that they function as an instrument to teach our children how to function effectively in their communities. If the curriculum is meaningful ,the children will be motivated because learning will become purposeful. Where the curriculum is limiting and doesn't relate to the children's experiences,immediate environemtn and aspirations then learning is not likely to be effective. Some children might even lose interest in their social formal Education.For example children taught history of other societies and not learn about their own history. The curriculum is then limiting and meaningless in this respect as it didn't relate to the the child's daily experiences. The limitation of this subject in the curriculum deprived the children of knowledge about their history ,the background of their culture .The children were likely to be retarded in their own history. The taught of local heroes is made to look like they were villains. Whilst the foreign heroes may not be of any signicance to these children. But the children had learn about these foreign history for examination purposes only. There can at times not use this information after school. When the curriculum is limiting and meaningless ,it doesn't cater for the needs of children. Other practical subjects like agriculture is not given much weight especially to those schools where their families rely on agriculture. Due to lack of learning aids like livestock and
crops ,most schools resort to teach it as theory subject. The children on the other hand are not likely to learn with enthusiasm .School Education becomes meaningless if it is not meeting the needs of the community.
The curriculum should be community oriented .Children should be made to learn about their community challenges and identify possible opportunities.

The withdrawal and run away reactions Over anxiousness/Sense anxiety and Education of the Children

At school ,a withdrawn child can be identified through some of the following characteristics :shyness,fearfulness,secretiveness and apathy.A withdrawn child usually finds it difficult to form close friendships and coping with the frightening realities of life,for example ,walking in darkness .The child may turn to day dreaming and hallucinations as a way of escape. Gibson (1976:416)puts this,"Running away as a physical form of withdrawal reaction since a psychological flight from reality often characterises the withdrawn child".A withdrawn child in the classroom can sit back ,in activities like groupwork or oral lessons. The child has intraction problems with peers and will consequently retarded in all learning abilities.
Over anxiousness/Sense anxiety:Hyperactivity may be mistaken for severe anxiety because the symptoms are similar. The severe anxiety child can ba overactive ,restless and unable to concentrate on given work in class.
According to Gibson(1976:420) there are three types of anxiety:
(1)chronic anxiety ,the child appears tense and fearful for over a long period of time.The child is continually under strain and is usually fatigued.
(2)Anxiety attack ,the child becomes extremely agitated .This usually happens when the strain becomes acute.
(3)Panic reaction is the most extremely type of anxiety reaction .The extreme anxiety attack may lead to panic reaction.
Anxiety can retard a child's progress at school. In the classroom situation ,a child is presented with tasks which he is expected to do successfully .Some of the tasks might
be unfamiliar to the child.Take for instance being appointed to be a prefect,class monitor or a group leader. A child who comes to school with prior fears and uncertainties and meets these added stresses might degenerate into severe anxiety.These are some of possible home causes of retardation in children.However we should not close our horizons to quickly believe that only home circumstances are the exclusive causes of retardation in children. Lets say the influence of retardation is more wieder than in the home environment.Even at school some children can affected by school environment to be retarded.As a teachers it is very important to identify children retardation in all social spectrum ,after identified them ,we should give these children their essential help in their groups, if we have large numbers of pupils in this category.Teachers should ultimately dismiss this melicious belief of Tom and Dick that a retarded children are pupils who cannot be taught anything.

THE CAUSES OF RETARDATION: Poor body awareness and Poor ability to coordinate movement and vision

The causes of retardation in school children like natural causes arised home or school and can inhibit learning in school children. It is important to study these home causes and school causes of the special children inorder to position ourself on the helping hand for pupils whenever the need arises.Kuppuswamy (2001)mentions the tripple methods in which the teacher can teach the concept ,test the concept and then teach out of the weaknesses noticed in children .The possible home causes are:
♣the socio-economic and political background,
♣poverty and inadequate care,
♣restriction in language experience,
♣sensory deprivation,
♣parental attitude/early experience,
♣emotional deprivation,
♣socially deprived home.
And the school possible causes are:
♣authoritarian teachers and school heads,
♣lack of learning facilities and limiting curriculum,
♣teacher unprofessionalism,
Before we look at these environments which can cause children retardation ,lets first identify some of the learning disabilities.
Home is the immediate environment the child learns before introduced to formal education at school.
It is easy to identify physically handicapped and severely retarded children well before they enter the school.Some problems of the special children come to light only when a child has entered school and failing to cope with certain task a child is expected to do successfully. The problems that might take a long time for the teacher to identify are mainly in the learning disabilities category .(Glinch in Gibson 1976:387).The identified learning disabilities are:
•Poor body awareness:A child might show signs of confusion in doing tasks which require him/her to arrange things logically or in a sequence.This poor body awareness could be revealed by a child's drawings of human being showing arms extending from the head.A normal child should not have this problem at a concrete operational stage. A child could have problems in writing.Poor ability to coordinate movement and vision.Some children has problem of combining movement and vision.During playing these children might show a poor eye-hand coordination.The child ,for example catches the ball before it reaches .A child show clumsiness inability to follow a moving target and difficulty in judging distance.
Visual inefficiency:Teachers should be aware of children who have vision and yet have an inability to notice particular features in the environment. A child may have problem of seeing when sitting on a certain position in the classroom, especially seeing what is written on the charts or boards.
•Poor listening ability:The child who is poor in listening ,because of difficulties in processing information to keep up with the speaker(teacher).The inability may also be of distinguishing sounds and in some instances the child can be distracted by all kinds of noises.
•Integrating information from several sensory channels:The children with problems of integrating information from several sensory channels may be capable of handling tasks that are mainly visual and auditory ,but find some difficulties in associating them. A child might have problems in associating letters of the alphabet and their sounds.
•Poor grasp of sequence:In the classroom situation teachers may come across pupils with problems in grasping facts in their sequential order.The difficulties may be of remembering ,for example days of the week in their sequential order ,or word order in compound word,viz:ful successful.
•Poor sense of rhythm:The disability is shown in children with problems of reciting poems ,singing ,dancing ,bouncing a ball or skipping.
•Problems in style of learning:A child may be good in analytic and intutive performance and yet have difficulties to remember numbers. This child may not recall telephone numbers,muiltplication tables or dates in history.
•Problems with concepts: Children with concepts problems ,find it difficult to form categories and to recognise differences and similarities between objects.This may be as result of poor development of time,number and space.
•Gaps in general knowledge:The children with this problems may be identified through their inability to learn basic general information .The general information may be ,parents' first names,profession ,number of family members ,their names in sequential order ,the
position of the said child in the family.
Please note that none of these children's learning disability categories is exclusive .In some case other children could have several learning disabilities concurrently.Teacher's implication is to identify the child's root problem and look for strategic diagnosis.

Home Causes of Retardation Socio-economic and Political background has impact on Children's Academic development

The home is the first to model a child's personality and aspirations.When the child
is from poor family,where parents don't have good source of income the wellbeing of the child is adversely affected.
Generally majority of children in rural areas and high density suburbs in urban
areas are from families which struggle to have basic necessities,good shelter ,and lack conducive living standard of living in general.These frequently resulted in unstable home .Instability cause by lack of resources in the home can cause emotional disturbance and deliquency in children and could inhibit their learning in the classroom situation at school.Some of the social problems such as prostitution ,divorce ,unemployment and crimes they do not promote children's moral development. A child who grown up in such environment can be affected emotionally especially when there is violence in the home.
A point to note here is socio-economy and political instability are likely to affect the child' s wellbing in learning and moral development.
Poverty ,inadequate care and sensory deprivation:Poverty can in most cases associated with retardation ,although we realised that not all children from poor families are disadvantaged.Infact handicapped children can also be found found in very rich families.
Poverty is not necessarily a cause of retardation ,but it is likely to do so because of some of its adverse effects on children's development .It can deprive child 's needs for development like health and wellbeing.
Poor parents are hardly to provide their children with enough well balanced nutritious foods.Chilldren who suffer from malnutrition the world over are listless and apathetic. They are living a miserable life in actual fact and oftenly prefer sedentary activities.
A malnutrition victim child is irritable ,unpredictable ,undependable and nervous. Furthermore, malnutrition can affect intellectual capabilities if it occurs during infancy. If it occurs at a later age the learning abilities are likely to suffer detrimental consequences.
The affected children in most case might lack concentration during lessons,being depressed and sorrow.Therefore the malnutrition can heavily contribute to retardation problem in children.The other negative effect of poverty which is likely to affect a child's performance in education is over crowding , as it impede a child's progress in education.
An over- crowed home is rare to find an open room specifically designated for children's learning and playing activities. A child will have problems of comfortably doing homework.In some cases ,over -crowding deprives the opportunity for reading and playing constructive indoor games as well as electronic games which had proved to have more benefits than setbacks if played propery.
Sensory Deprivation realised children like gifted. They possess senses which help them to do something these senses are sight,hearing,tasting ,touching and smelling.These senses are attached the mind where the knowledge acquired is stored.
Depriving senses cause retardation in a child. They perceive through their senses their environment like all of us. Perception is given a meaning through learning experiences . Learning experiences shapes consciousness .Travers in Gibson (1976:146)says,"Even a new born infant can sense the qualities of objects and structures in his environment to a limited degree ,but the ability to attach meaning to these sensations depends on experience."
Therefore a home environment should offer a variety of objects like pictures ,toys computers,electronic games and books. It is the responsibility of parents to provide all
this materials to their children.Teachers also should advise parents during their open days visits to buy additional learnig aids children can use at home to promote learning anywhere such that children developed the sense of learning at any place and any environment not necessarily in the classroom at school alone. A child 's early concept development is mainly guided by concrete experiences.The concepts a child learns first depends on the learning opportunities provided by the family environment and later the community which includes the school.
Most of the children are hardly to find things at their homes which help them to develop concepts like TV,radios,computers ,newspapers and other educational magazines.
The state of affairs existing in most homes especially in remote rural places requires the helping hand of the charity organisations and generous people to assist them.Otherwise they are likely to suffer from sensory deprivation.
Parential attitudes also has a significant influence on their children's social development . If parents believed in disciplinary actions with application of corpral punishment ,the child is likely to feel constantly threatened. In most case this parents don't talk with their children ,let alone to supervise and guide them in having correct habits.The parent /child relationship might produce an aggressive ,hostile,cloak and destructive child.Parents who are punishment -oriented and have low expectations of the child . The child develops a sense of low self-esteem .This child is likely to put less efforts in school work. A low self-esteem children are likely to withdraw from challenging tasks rather than facing disapproval.

Youth Culture Types of peer groups and their influence to Cause or avoid Retardation in Education

Children want an identity and dinstinction from other groups ,for example in dress ,hair style and language. The members of the group mould their aspirations and actions to follow the fashions and hairstyles of their group. A child may become truant
and must have interests to play a truant behaviours in order to be accepted by the peer group. They form social groupings such as cliques and gangs which are in part a reflection of the community. These groupings are characterised by youth culture which distinct from community and even be in opposition to the adult world.(Banks:189)
Youth culture is youth based subculture which the functionalists perspective viewed as a distinct styles of behaviours and interests of the young people within a specific community group.
In language peer group adopt slang,swearing ,dirty jokes ,mischef ,in contempt for rules and those in authority, the breaking of home ties and shifting the loyalty to the peer group ,snobbishness and
discrimination against other gangs and groups of people ,to avoid peer disapproval.
In class work their , work is substandard far below their personal capacity to claim that school bores them as it bores their peers and they verbalise their boredom to convince others to follow their habits.
However there two distinguished groups of peer groups as categorised by Hargreaves(2005) as:
•The conformist academic subculture which is characterised by hardwork ,high standard of physical hygiens and dress , and only wants to do what is accepted and expected from them by the community. They encourage every member to submit to both parents and their teachers.In other words they subscribed to the dos and don'ts of the society and they spearhead the needs and demands of their commuinty.
•The rebellious delinquent subculture with nonconformist dress.Ties are taboo and long hair not well dressed ,both are against the home and school rules. They like fighting and truancy. The child even if is doing well in classroom ,the moment he/she joins the delinquescent subculture is likely to be academically retarded ,socially unacceptable and culturally isolate himself/herself from the rest of the society's norms and values.This is caused by acceptance of peer group which is totally against the society's way of life and resort to its norms and ideas internalised by members of the group into undesirable ,unwanted human beings. They are totally against the normal running of the social culture and developed their aggressive reasons for this cause. Retardation is caused by the sense of failure and frustraction. In frustraction they resort to violence ,theft and holiganism.The child loses interest in school work and hate teachers. The school work drastically deteriorates and they failed to find satisfaction in the community. Morrish (2000) argues that these children steal and resort to violence and hooliganism ,they are motivated more by a desire to strike at a society rather than acquire wealth. These children who feel rejected and frustrated develop resistance and tension against their parents ,teachers and adults in society. The only part of society they turn to is the peer group.Many of the youngsters who become delinquents do so because of frustration ,stress and boredom. They are generally the non-academic children . Poverty doesn't seem to play a major part in causing retardation. Retardation seems to be caused by an increasing spirit of rebellion against society ,of lawlessness as a result of limited aims with a limited capacity for fulfilling the aims, and of boredom because of uncreative existence. The child becomes destructive inorder to get excitement. In the event of failure the underachiever feels a sense of inadequancy and fights to succeed by all means ,though the sense of success is one that society hates. The children who fall victim to the bad infuence of the peer group are looked down upon and are rejected. Peer group leaves delinquents ,most of whom could have been successful respectable citizens had the peer group been of good influence.

Youth Culture Types of peer groups and their influence to Cause or avoid Retardation in Education

Children want an identity and dinstinction from other groups ,for example in dress ,hair style and language. The members of the group mould their aspirations and actions to follow the fashions and hairstyles of their group. A child may become truant
and must have interests to play a truant behaviours in order to be accepted by the peer group. They form social groupings such as cliques and gangs which are in part a reflection of the community. These groupings are characterised by youth culture which distinct from community and even be in opposition to the adult world.(Banks:189)
Youth culture is youth based subculture which the functionalists perspective viewed as a distinct styles of behaviours and interests of the young people within a specific community group.
In language peer group adopt slang,swearing ,dirty jokes ,mischef ,in contempt for rules and those in authority, the breaking of home ties and shifting the loyalty to the peer group ,snobbishness and
discrimination against other gangs and groups of people ,to avoid peer disapproval.
In class work their , work is substandard far below their personal capacity to claim that school bores them as it bores their peers and they verbalise their boredom to convince others to follow their habits.
However there two distinguished groups of peer groups as categorised by Hargreaves(2005) as:
•The conformist academic subculture which is characterised by hardwork ,high standard of physical hygiens and dress , and only wants to do what is accepted and expected from them by the community. They encourage every member to submit to both parents and their teachers.In other words they subscribed to the dos and don'ts of the society and they spearhead the needs and demands of their commuinty.
•The rebellious delinquent subculture with nonconformist dress.Ties are taboo and long hair not well dressed ,both are against the home and school rules. They like fighting and truancy. The child even if is doing well in classroom ,the moment he/she joins the delinquescent subculture is likely to be academically retarded ,socially unacceptable and culturally isolate himself/herself from the rest of the society's norms and values.This is caused by acceptance of peer group which is totally against the society's way of life and resort to its norms and ideas internalised by members of the group into undesirable ,unwanted human beings. They are totally against the normal running of the social culture and developed their aggressive reasons for this cause. Retardation is caused by the sense of failure and frustraction. In frustraction they resort to violence ,theft and holiganism.The child loses interest in school work and hate teachers. The school work drastically deteriorates and they failed to find satisfaction in the community. Morrish (2000) argues that these children steal and resort to violence and hooliganism ,they are motivated more by a desire to strike at a society rather than acquire wealth. These children who feel rejected and frustrated develop resistance and tension against their parents ,teachers and adults in society. The only part of society they turn to is the peer group.Many of the youngsters who become delinquents do so because of frustration ,stress and boredom. They are generally the non-academic children . Poverty doesn't seem to play a major part in causing retardation. Retardation seems to be caused by an increasing spirit of rebellion against society ,of lawlessness as a result of limited aims with a limited capacity for fulfilling the aims, and of boredom because of uncreative existence. The child becomes destructive inorder to get excitement. In the event of failure the underachiever feels a sense of inadequancy and fights to succeed by all means ,though the sense of success is one that society hates. The children who fall victim to the bad infuence of the peer group are looked down upon and are rejected. Peer group leaves delinquents ,most of whom could have been successful respectable citizens had the peer group been of good influence.

A Peer Group:Rules and Norms why children strive to be associated?

The influence of Peer Group on the Special Needs Children discussed in previous blogs we examined the effects of heredity , the home and the school on the special needs children. In this chapter we are going to look at peer group and its effects on special needs children. We shall identify why some children resort to activities which retard them socially and educationally ,through describing characteristics associated with special needs children
A Peer Group:Morrish says ,"A peer is an equal and peer group is a group composed individuals who are equal." Peer means equal in rank ,merit or quality.The peers are generally the same age.They identify themselves with the group. The peer group of children share equal status , provides thought and behaviour to be adopted by its members and it establishes attitudes,opinions and subcultural ideas which they are expected to adopt. All members have a sense of oneness with the group its goals and this can led to a variety of mass behaviour in relation to teachers,heads and other peers.
Induction into peer group which in a way amounts to loss of one's individuality takes
approximately between the ages of seven to 14 years. But earlier in childhood the individual is self -centred ,as growing older she/he realises that there are other people around him/her who have probably more infuential on his/her behaviour that him/her. Later he/she realised that there is need to be in a peer group. In the peer group the child learns to live , play in cooperation and compete with peers. The child develops the sense of self control ,express acceptable feelings ,play roles and learns social techniques. Hence the peer group accept him as an individual who can do something and what he is.
Rules and Norms:Children in their peer group have sets of their own rules which need to be observed by every member. If one don't observe them and breaks one of them will face punisments ranging from beaten,expelled from the group or deprived certain moral benefits. These rules may be modified by common agreement. For instance boys who play social soccer formulate rules which may be different from those set by FIFA , and they vary from one point to another or they can modified to suit the dominant members. The height of the goal post can be measured by the height of the goal -keeper and how high he can jump. Any balls passing above the highest point the keeper can jump and aren't counted as scores,but if the goal-minder doesn't jump or the ball passes at a height which the peers consider lower enough for the minder to have caught it,it is counted as a score.Peers' rules partaining to games are mutually agreed on what is considered acceptable and fair to everyone.
Abraham (1952) once identifies the adolescents ' peer group has freedom they didn't find in the adult world. The freedom from control and over protection.
Although some members of the peer group behave in a way adults may consider silly because the children are not psychologically free to behave in a diferent manner. They have been turned into prisoners of the peer group which controls them ,for example ,the peer group gives or denies and individual status in his own right. He is not identified by the status given him by his own parents ,but by what the peer group gives him. Therefore he must behave in a way acceptable to the group inorder to be accepted ,for example ,as leader of the group.
The member of the peer group cannot afford to ignore the group because of the influence and provision of anchor and comfort during hardy times and troublesome situations in which members share similar problems such as those faced by adolescents during their phase of development and transformation crisis. The peer group is the source of inspiration and make to ease some of the problems either in a constructive or destructive manner.Normally a child can't attempt to isolate from the peer group because this means isolation exposed you to become and adult child who is free from the group's norms. It is difficult because taking that freedom route is hard as children are unable to do their own thinking and take responsibility for their own behaviour. Becoming a free child adult has its own shortcomings like not matured ,socially ,emotionally and intellectually.

A Peer Group:Rules and Norms why children strive to be associated?

The influence of Peer Group on the Special Needs Children discussed in previous blogs we examined the effects of heredity , the home and the school on the special needs children. In this chapter we are going to look at peer group and its effects on special needs children. We shall identify why some children resort to activities which retard them socially and educationally ,through describing characteristics associated with special needs children
A Peer Group:Morrish says ,"A peer is an equal and peer group is a group composed individuals who are equal." Peer means equal in rank ,merit or quality.The peers are generally the same age.They identify themselves with the group. The peer group of children share equal status , provides thought and behaviour to be adopted by its members and it establishes attitudes,opinions and subcultural ideas which they are expected to adopt. All members have a sense of oneness with the group its goals and this can led to a variety of mass behaviour in relation to teachers,heads and other peers.
Induction into peer group which in a way amounts to loss of one's individuality takes
approximately between the ages of seven to 14 years. But earlier in childhood the individual is self -centred ,as growing older she/he realises that there are other people around him/her who have probably more infuential on his/her behaviour that him/her. Later he/she realised that there is need to be in a peer group. In the peer group the child learns to live , play in cooperation and compete with peers. The child develops the sense of self control ,express acceptable feelings ,play roles and learns social techniques. Hence the peer group accept him as an individual who can do something and what he is.
Rules and Norms:Children in their peer group have sets of their own rules which need to be observed by every member. If one don't observe them and breaks one of them will face punisments ranging from beaten,expelled from the group or deprived certain moral benefits. These rules may be modified by common agreement. For instance boys who play social soccer formulate rules which may be different from those set by FIFA , and they vary from one point to another or they can modified to suit the dominant members. The height of the goal post can be measured by the height of the goal -keeper and how high he can jump. Any balls passing above the highest point the keeper can jump and aren't counted as scores,but if the goal-minder doesn't jump or the ball passes at a height which the peers consider lower enough for the minder to have caught it,it is counted as a score.Peers' rules partaining to games are mutually agreed on what is considered acceptable and fair to everyone.
Abraham (1952) once identifies the adolescents ' peer group has freedom they didn't find in the adult world. The freedom from control and over protection.
Although some members of the peer group behave in a way adults may consider silly because the children are not psychologically free to behave in a diferent manner. They have been turned into prisoners of the peer group which controls them ,for example ,the peer group gives or denies and individual status in his own right. He is not identified by the status given him by his own parents ,but by what the peer group gives him. Therefore he must behave in a way acceptable to the group inorder to be accepted ,for example ,as leader of the group.
The member of the peer group cannot afford to ignore the group because of the influence and provision of anchor and comfort during hardy times and troublesome situations in which members share similar problems such as those faced by adolescents during their phase of development and transformation crisis. The peer group is the source of inspiration and make to ease some of the problems either in a constructive or destructive manner.Normally a child can't attempt to isolate from the peer group because this means isolation exposed you to become and adult child who is free from the group's norms. It is difficult because taking that freedom route is hard as children are unable to do their own thinking and take responsibility for their own behaviour. Becoming a free child adult has its own shortcomings like not matured ,socially ,emotionally and intellectually.

Helping the Disabled and mentally disordered Children

Disabled people need just much care and respect as any other normal person demands ,from home ,the school and the community. Through applying methods discussed in the preceeding articles to help some of our disabled pupils.
A disabled person can be identified as one who has difficulty in hearing ,speaking ,seeing ,moving or learning.People who have fits and who behave strangely are
also classified as disabled.These people are hardly in problems of not doing the same tasks done by other people of the same age and sex, age ,walking ,eating ,drinking ,communicating ,looking after themselves , going to school ,taking part in family affairs or working for themselves.
These are the major reasons the disabled people need more help than normal people so that they can also live a normal life .They need education and training so that they can:
•able to move around wherever they want without much assistance.
•go to school to acquire useful skills and ideas which they can use to learn on their own.
•participate in family and community activities to help themselves and other family members as well as developing positive self-concept ,this is very important to fit well in any society .
The disabled people can able to live well and happily ,if these aims are fulfilled as they are less depend on help from other people.
Helping Mentally Disordered People: When a person is identified or suspected to be mentally disordered is detained for medical examinations ,the magistrate instruct the doctors to examine the patient of receiving such information.
The mentally disordered person can then sent to a institution specially for detaining
such people. In the case of being accused of commiting a crime many counties has legislation which prohit that patient to stand trial or conduct own defence.
A person who commits a crime while suffering from mental disorder is not sent to prison .There is provision for being give treatment to specialised institutions as authorised by laws.
In Zimbabwe for example a child suffering from intellectual retardation may be received and detained for purpose of treatment in an institution.
Mental health act (1976:228) "A person shall be regarded ... as suffering from intellectual retardation if s/he is of subnormal intelligence,has reduced capacity of learning or suffers an inability to cope with the accepted normal functions of the society."
The law also provides for the protection of property of mentally ill people when they are seen to unable to conduct their own affairs.Therefore the mentally disordered people ,whether old or young are protected by law. If this law is fully implemented to the children then then plight will be greatly alleviated. We must note that children need protection. It is an act of committing an offence if maltreating mentally handicapped children of any age.

Adolescence as Cause of in Academic Development Retardation

Adolescence is the period of stress and crisis as children undergo physical ,emotional and social changes.The word adolescence derived from the latin word 'adolescere ' which means ,''to grow up''. There are some aspects which we shall going to discuss which might inhibit learning. These points about adolescence and adolescents
should be noted:
♦Adolescence is not reached at the same time by all children of the same age.
♦Adolescents are prone to fluctuating moods.
♦Adolescence is the transitional period from childhood to adulthood.

Children find problems to change from childhood dependence to adulthood independence . The reaching of physical and sexual maturity could cause many problems for adolescents. Adolescents who cope easily with being children ,find themselves being called upon now to cope with the business of being an adult.
Some teachers impress upon the school children to acquire a muture approach to life. At school ,this problem might even worsened by some school heads' approach to adolescents. There is nothing wrong with giving such kind of directives if teachers treat the children with due respect consistently. It becomes wrong when children fall out of line with their teacher's expectations and the ,teacher reverts to subordination of an earlier stage before the child reached adolescence. Conflicts of this nature are likely to throw an adolescent into a state of confusion.
Let us take developmental changes like the growing of breasts in girls ,the beginning of beard and breaking of voice in boys. In early adolescence these changes might embrass the young people. To avoid embarrassment ,an adolescent could withdraw from mixing with others so that they may not notice the physical changes. The physical changes that take place during adolescence can be a cause of retardation. Withdrawal reaction could be the form of aggressiveness . Classmates tease an adolescent because of physical changes and become aggressive . This action could lead to depression and feelings of loneliness. An adolescent deprived of a full and satisfying personal relationship with friends and contemporaries. These characteristics has negative impacts to cause backwardness in school.
During adolescence a peer group becomes very important. It has a very powerful influence on the idolescent. The peer group gives an adolescent a sense of kinship and confidence. The peer group might also influence in matters ,such as speech,dress ,hair style and other forms of behaviours. Some of the peer group demands cannot cause conflicts with the school. The peer group demands influence truency ,abuse of alcohol and drugs.Deliquent activities are at its peak during adolescence. The conflicting and pressure brought upon to bear on an adolescent by the peer group might make ,the adolescent feel restless ,confused and tense. These developments can cause retardation in school.
Adolescents range from around 11 -17 years .It is necessary for teachers to observe adolescent inappropriate behaviour around this age range at school.

Children Protection: Primary Education and basic care!

The child can be any person under the age of 16 years ,however the definition of a child may ,with some other states regarded as any minor under 18 or 21 years old.
A child in need of primary care and education is the one fall in one or more of these problems:
♦is an orphan
♦is a habitual truant
♦has been abandoned
♦guardian or parents don't exercise proper control.
♦guardian or parents are not fit and able to give proper control.
♦is in custody of a person who has been convicted of committing upon or in connection with the child on offence.
♦cannot be controlled by guardian or parents.
♦living in circumstance calculated to cause seduction corruption and prostitution.
♦frequently involved in immoral or victious person.
♦is maintained in circumstance which are detrimental to his welfare or interests.
♦is found in posssession with reasonable excuse of any dangerous drugs to which the dangerous drugs act applies.
There are so many children out there in need of your support,love and care ,but we don't know what to do ,we should help them or refer them to the children rehabilitation centres.
Children need to be provided with food ,shelter ,clothing and primary Education . Above all children need medical care or any care necessary for the health or well-being like any other human being. It is an offence to leave an infant unattended in any circumstances which are likely to cause the infant's physical or mental distress or harmed.
Primary school teachers should be aware or ask for permission to seek doctors to examine children suspected of diseases or allowed to be given donated clothes instead of left wearing dirty clothes which carry fleas ,lice ,bugs or parasitic worms.
The children need to be taken for medical examination,if suffering from diseases or any physical defects.If a child commits a crime and is being taken care of by parents. The parents will be considered guity of that offence. The parents must then pay a fine and compensation for the crime and the damage caused respectively.
Even probation officers or police officers are given the right to remove children from any place to a place of safety if the child is in need of care or if the child has committed an offence.
The government of any state is responsible for removing any forms of backwardness caused by socio-economic inequalities. The backwardness caused by natural causes in Education are now strongly dealt with by pragmatic methods.Thus many states make provisions for establishing institutions specifically to cater for different disabilities which needs special care.
All these established institutions need to take children and enforce the maintenance of basic requirements ,on receiving children and institutions are expected to exercise the care over the children as stipulated by law.
The juvenile courts have been granted the sole right to allow a child to be adopted. Before taking the child ,the court carefully consider the circumstances of the family and the home into which the child is moving. If not satisfied then children remains in the institutions under state custody.
Thus in many countries the laws stipulated that children and handicapped people in general need special care. Teachers should help these children to realise their rights so that they aren't badly treated by anyone. Proper guidance of children the society has great asset for its own future.

The Giftedness in some children as a Problem in their learning and how they are considered as special need children?

We now also familiarise the gifted child as the one who learns much easily ,enjoys self-initiatives tasks ,with very little supervision ,does work in a much stimulated mood and enjoys education.Could the teacher not going to be a stumbling block for this kind of child's behaviours? These qualities easily turned into disadvantages for the gifted child. The teacher can easily ignore fast learners as putting more effort to slow learners to catch up with this fast learners as far as grasping and mastering of concepts is concerned.Therefore the gifted child depite
any advantages can be a problem at school.
In the classroom teachers are concerned with individual differences. Instructions are repeated in different ways and at different levels of understanding . This concludes the teacher's concerns in recognition of the uniqueness of every child in the classroom. The instructions are usually staged to meet the levels of all learners ,that's fast , average and slow learners. The individual help is mostly remedial work to assist the slow learners. The brighter ,fast learners are usually put at bay to wait for the slow learners to catch up with others. They only showered with good marks and praises ,but cannot compensate for boredom. Boredom push
the gifted children to do something that can occupy them .
This may start by talking to other children less able to understand the concepts so that the teacher can make progress. The teacher regards a talkative child as making unnecessary noise. As a means of avoiding the teacher this gifted children condemn themselves into withdrawal reaction and develop the daydreaming habits.
Daydreaming might cause the gifted child to develop a tendency of not bothering to listen to teachers 's carefully prepared instructions and thereby ending up achieving far less than the child is capable of attaining. Daydreaming can lead into some other bad habits. The gifted children may rush through any given tasks with the aim of lapsing into daydreaming about interesting tasks that could be done at home.
A gifted child realised that s/he is always far ahead of the rest of the class in tackling given tasks might sit back and relax. The child develops a show off and eventually become passive. This will obviously cause the child to be complacent ,lose drive and persistence in doing school work. This unfortunate development could be un covered or if the child is matched with intellectual equals.
A gifted acquire unusual information on skills outside the classroom and school in general. Then the gifted will ask questions or give suggestions based on the acquired experiences .
The questions might be outside the teacher's routine approach to the subject.A gifted child can be troublesome not only to the teacher ,but also to classmates. For example in the topic:' food produced somewhere' ,the teacher might be interested in naming types of food produced somewhere. But a gifted child is probitive so may further want to know more about the food listed. The child might probed the teacher where the food mentioned produced in and why not available in other areas? This question could disturb the teacher 's detaile lesson plan and the flow of the lesson and makes it difficulty to meet the lesson objectives. Furthermore the gifted child's deeper probition is lakely to be labelled a nuisance by the teacher and probably treated harshly. The teacher's hostile reaction might dampen and frustrate the gifted child who became quite right away and only resort to use of silence and the brain conditioned to passiviness ,thus being developed into retardation.
The disciplinary problems may also eminate from a gifted child ,who is usually more intelligent above the level of the age. Troublesome in discipline and orderly instructions is common in these children who also referred to as an under achievers or a behaviour problem. Teachers should also be firm to the attention to the fast learners as much as they do to slow learners so that they can help them to nurture their talent to help the community as responsible citizens.

The Giftedness in some children as a Problem in their learning and how they are considered as special need children?

We now also familiarise the gifted child as the one who learns much easily ,enjoys self-initiatives tasks ,with very little supervision ,does work in a much stimulated mood and enjoys education.Could the teacher not going to be a stumbling block for this kind of child's behaviours? These qualities easily turned into disadvantages for the gifted child. The teacher can easily ignore fast learners as putting more effort to slow learners to catch up with this fast learners as far as grasping and mastering of concepts is concerned.Therefore the gifted child depite
any advantages can be a problem at school.
In the classroom teachers are concerned with individual differences. Instructions are repeated in different ways and at different levels of understanding . This concludes the teacher's concerns in recognition of the uniqueness of every child in the classroom. The instructions are usually staged to meet the levels of all learners ,that's fast , average and slow learners. The individual help is mostly remedial work to assist the slow learners. The brighter ,fast learners are usually put at bay to wait for the slow learners to catch up with others. They only showered with good marks and praises ,but cannot compensate for boredom. Boredom push
the gifted children to do something that can occupy them .
This may start by talking to other children less able to understand the concepts so that the teacher can make progress. The teacher regards a talkative child as making unnecessary noise. As a means of avoiding the teacher this gifted children condemn themselves into withdrawal reaction and develop the daydreaming habits.
Daydreaming might cause the gifted child to develop a tendency of not bothering to listen to teachers 's carefully prepared instructions and thereby ending up achieving far less than the child is capable of attaining. Daydreaming can lead into some other bad habits. The gifted children may rush through any given tasks with the aim of lapsing into daydreaming about interesting tasks that could be done at home.
A gifted child realised that s/he is always far ahead of the rest of the class in tackling given tasks might sit back and relax. The child develops a show off and eventually become passive. This will obviously cause the child to be complacent ,lose drive and persistence in doing school work. This unfortunate development could be un covered or if the child is matched with intellectual equals.
A gifted acquire unusual information on skills outside the classroom and school in general. Then the gifted will ask questions or give suggestions based on the acquired experiences .
The questions might be outside the teacher's routine approach to the subject.A gifted child can be troublesome not only to the teacher ,but also to classmates. For example in the topic:' food produced somewhere' ,the teacher might be interested in naming types of food produced somewhere. But a gifted child is probitive so may further want to know more about the food listed. The child might probed the teacher where the food mentioned produced in and why not available in other areas? This question could disturb the teacher 's detaile lesson plan and the flow of the lesson and makes it difficulty to meet the lesson objectives. Furthermore the gifted child's deeper probition is lakely to be labelled a nuisance by the teacher and probably treated harshly. The teacher's hostile reaction might dampen and frustrate the gifted child who became quite right away and only resort to use of silence and the brain conditioned to passiviness ,thus being developed into retardation.
The disciplinary problems may also eminate from a gifted child ,who is usually more intelligent above the level of the age. Troublesome in discipline and orderly instructions is common in these children who also referred to as an under achievers or a behaviour problem. Teachers should also be firm to the attention to the fast learners as much as they do to slow learners so that they can help them to nurture their talent to help the community as responsible citizens.

Some forms of fits Disability in Children and How to Help them.

The familisation study is essential as it shall help us in situations do arise in schools where we suddenly find ourselves facing the problems of child development .There is need to understand and deal with such problems.
The main purpose of having knowledge of handicapped children is that it exposed us to early stages of learning and effective methods of teaching, even in normal children.The provision of learning opportunities through use of some methods of teaching in classroom situation help our learners as teachers to learn effectively. There is evidence that all pupils can enjoy learning if situations are carefully planned and if different professional skills like teaching methods,social perspectives and cognitive development are properly linked and organised in such a way that it create a hormony stimulating learning situation.
Teachers are influential people in the communities where the children live. Many members listen to teachers' good advice. Therefore teachers can also teach the community on how to cope with some of the problems arising from mental ,physical or social retardation.
Children who have Fits: may have fits only once or may have fits on more occasions.
Medicine is very important if fits happen more often as it can reduce number of fits or stop them altogether.If the child given the appropriate medicine can do well.
In some cultural beliefs like the shona people in Zimbabwe they believe that other people can contact and attacked by fits ,if they assist a person suffering from fits. Because of this cultural in many societies people left a number of children with fits to cruelly struggle ,instead of helping them and prevent them from being injured. According to the scientific evidence of fits ,cannot be spread from one person to another. The main role of the teacher is to convince the other children and community members to understand that fits is not an infectious disease and it is nice to help our friends ,siblings or others without fear of being contact the disease.
Children who suffer from fits should be avoided to from being severely injured through:
Prohibt children with fit problem to go on bathing in the river or deep bath pools to avoid being drowned if attacked by fit during bathing.These children should be given special care when dealing with fire.
Fits attacked children should not allowed to climb trees and ladders ,since they may get injured when attacked by this disability whilst on top of ladder or tree and fall dismally back to the ground . It is the duty of the teachers to teach other children to recognise and understand fit so that they know how to look after the friends during fit.
TYPES OF FITS: Minor fit is not serious where the child looks as if is staring without blinking the eyes.The most serious fists is so bad ,that the child falls to the ground and it can suddenly happens with little or no warning at all. The child screams and make very strange cry. At first the body becomes stiff and then gradually becomes loose, whilst arms and legs make unusual movements. Most frequently froth and bubbles of saliva may appear at the mouth. Sometimes the child may bit the tongue ,the saliva may be coloured red with blood. Then this frightens many on lookers ,but they should not be afraid as it is very natural.A fit may last for few seconds or some minutes. The victim is not in pain and the life is not in danger either ,for as long as is not near fire, water or falling in front of oncoming vehicle.
Helander et al (1980:13)say some children may have fits if they show the following signs before a fit:
staring or daydreaming
unusual repeated movements of face or head
head rolls around loosely
eyes roll upwards
purposeless sounds and body movements being made.
In the case that we noticed such children who show any of these signs we can train them to lie down immediately in safe place . These children will not get injured when they finally gets the fit.
During a fit we should not:
try to stop any unusual movements.
give the child anything to eat or drink.
apply anything on the skin to cool or stimulate him/her.
give any medicines or herbs, these things don't help any more at this moment.

Children with Hearing and Speech Difficulties in their Education

Deaf children can be helped to communicate using lip reading techniques.When speaking to these children it is advisable to to make movements of lips very clear speaking slowly so that the children can learn to read what we are saying by reading our lips. We can communicate with effectively with these children by watching the movements of their lips. This method is very helpful to children who are completely deaf. They can use this to communicate with the public.
Deaf and dumb can be communicated using sign language .
The whole community must have the knowledge of signs so that they can communicate with these children. In most cases sign language is only known to the special institutions who rehabilitate and educate these children and is a major limiting factor in the community in general.
However the sign language can be used effectively when used together with other types of language ,for example speech ,body language ,lip reading etc. This helps children's clarification of points , used in isolation it may not be very helpful.
Deaf and dumb children should help to develop other skills through drawing,reading and writing. Long before introduced to formal Education. These skills are good to communicate with others .The entry to school should further expose children to all methods of acquiring language before they start the actual schooling in formal sense.
Because of problems in some of these children to use speech ,lip reading ,body language ,sign language ,drawing , writing and reading to communicate. They should be taught to use pictures to express themselves and understand what other people want to say to them.
There are some situations where the child is able to read but ,has difficulties in speaking . The child must be taught to point words instead of pictures. The teacher should show pleasure when the children do successfully what we want them to do.
The picture language can be used concurrently with other methods to enable children to develop an understanding and learn even more effectively. The method is not suitable to be used on its own,but it can only used when the learner shows a high degree of not being able to cope with work.
All these methods designed to help the deaf and dumb children to succeed ,teachers must prepare thoroughly for the learners. The teaching media must be appropriate thus pictures and drawings of animals ,cartoons ,picture -charts etc. All these must be clear enough to be comprehended by the child.
Moreover the child should regulary taken for medical examination because we can ascertain the degree of deafness. In the medical examinations the teacher can benefits for the tests of hearing.
If severe deafness is dictated parents are advise to refer their children to specialised institutions. The specialised schools like Emarald Hill for deaf in Harare can help these children in their Education. However there may be no special institutions in your area or country ,it is always advised to adopt methods as suggested above.
A child who is losing hearing can be assisted to get hearing aids. Hearing aids make sounds louder and enhance the child to hear environmental sounds.
The said child should always make use of aids to get maximum benefits. The child must be assisted in switching on or off the hearing aid and checking that the media is in good condition to benefit the learner.
In the ordinary classroom the deaf children must be given a seat in the front of the class so as to make vision not interferred with. This is due to the fact that the child rely heavily on sight in lip reading. Sitting in front is also important to see the teacher 's mouth clearly. Hence the teacher should talk normally and not to exaggerate mouth movements to avoid lip reading difficult. The child may get much help if the teacher speak slowly,maintain rhythm of natural speech and speaking more loudly.
Teachers must make awareness campaigns to the community at large to discover and help dumb and deaf children. This is fully going to help the community to help these children at an early age. Teachers also recommend the concerned parents to consult medical examiners to test the children if suspected of deafness or dumbness.
Another way they can help these children with hearing and speaking disabilities is establishing a special class in a normal school or more special schools like St Giles ,loreto schools in Harare Zimbabwe. It is also necessary to have more facilities to teach elementary lessons in carpentry,sewing ,weaving ,pottery ,gardening other other tasks useful in the community.This will fully engaged children in Education as life ,hands on approach ,use of techvoc to empower the learner for own future.

Children with Hearing and Speech Difficulties and how to help Mentally Retarded Children

Children who are born without hearing or those who lost hearing in early childhood due to illness cannot develop their language skills without help. Remember there are many children out there who can hear ,but they are unable to express themselves without help and training. The implications to the teacher is to help these children to develop their language skills. Children who are hardly to hear are known as deaf while those with difficulties in speaking are called dumb. In most cases children who has problems in hearing also has problems in speech. These disabilities usually go hand in glove . Both these handicapped children need to be taught to communicate effectively.
Communication is done in various types such as speech ,expressions on our faces ,movements of our arms and body ,signals with our hands and fingers ,writing ,reading and use of pictures. We can use communication styles to express ourselves to others and to understand others.
A child with hearing and speech problems often feels cut off from other children and feels lonely because they cannot communicate. Teachers ,pupils and volunteers should learn simple ways of communicating with these children. We should call these children by their names when speaking to them . These children will know that we are speaking to them. We must always start only when the child is looking at us.
Some children has little hearing,as teachers should encourage them to use it so that the children can develop it.The little hearing can be stimulated by activities such as listening exercises. The children are involved in environmental noises which produced by cars,lorries ,tractors ,motorbikes ,aeroplanes ,dogs,cats ,drums ,guitars etc. These noises then associated with pictures or written words to enable the pupils to distinguish and discriminate against incorrect responses.Listening skills can be used to explain the differences between words with similar sounds such as 'bird and bed', 'beat and bead' ,'road and rod ' or 'meat and meet'.
Language can be fully enriched by describing activities such as cooking ,gardening ,playing soccer or netball used on its particular place. For instance dribbling the ball in soccer. Describing should takes place only when the children are involved in the exercises. This help the children involved in the learning to effectively learn from direct experience.Take a situation when the teacher walks into the classroom and finds pupils fighting ,this is a good opportunity to teach words like fighting ,bad,good ,trouble and extend to teach morals.
The use of short sentences directly related to the activity and those pupils with hearing problems must imitates speech and this helps much in learning.It is necessary not to press the child if cannot pronounce words correctly.It is always necessary to speak normally as to help children to imitate and also speak normally. When speaking it is good to use gestures to make clear clarifications to those listening what we are really saying, such as make use of head shaking when we say NO!,pointing at them when saying YOU! and pointing at ourselves when saying I or ME!.
It is nice to note that facial expressions should also change with what we want to
say.Our faces can show happiness,sorrow,surprise,depression ,smelling etc. The frequent use of these expressions is essential whenever we are in contact with
pupils. The children later will make use of these expressions through our stimulus and motivates them to use these movements and expressions to express themselves in thoughts ,feelings and needs.
Helping Mentally Retarded Children: A child who is mentally retarded behaves strangely because the mind do not work normally. This child doesn't understand what is happening to him/her. He/she is operating unconsiously as behaving and does not realise the effects of the illness on his/her behaviour and on other people.
These children with mental problems need the help of those normal people with whom they live with .The teacher must understand a person who shows strange behaviour and make efforts to help. The mental development of a person with mental problems takes place more slowly than his physical chronological development. A person who is chronological 15 years older may behave like a three year old child. For us to be able to help them and accept them as they are.

Fits as a Disability in Children and ways to Help them

The familisation study is essential as it shall help us in situations do arise in schools where we suddenly find ourselves facing the fits problems for child development .There is need to understand and deal with such problems.
The main purpose of having knowledge of fits troubled children is that it exposed us to early stages of learning and effective methods of teaching, even in normal children.The provision of learning opportunities through use of some methods of teaching in classroom situation help our learners to learn effectively and teachers to teacher efficiently. There is evidence that all pupils can enjoy learning if situations are carefully planned and if different professional skills like teaching methods of instruction,social perspectives and cognitive development are properly linked and organised in such a way that it create a hormony for stimulating learning conducive environment.
Teachers are influential people in the communities where the children reside. Many community members listen to teachers' advices. Therefore teachers can also teach the community on how to cope with fits and some of the problems arising from this form retardation.
Helping Children with Fits:
If a child falls on the ground because of fits ,we must let the fits run its course and then offer our help later by observing the following points:
♥We must be calm and tell others nearby not to be frightened.We must keep the child on the spot unless the spot is a dangerous like traffic way,near fire ,water or other dangerous position to threaten the health of the victim.
♥We must then fold a cloth and put it under the child's head.The tight clothing must be loosened when the victim is wearing it.When the unusual movement has stopped we must turn the child onto the side so that the tongue falls forward . Any saliva will pour out of the mouth enabling the child to breathe easily,we must stay close together with the child for quite some time after the fits is over to comfort the victim and explain what happens to him/her ,but not frightened or disheartened the child, if the child injured during fits ,we must clean the wound with soapy water and cover them with clean cloth. If appropriate medicine is available we can apply on the wound .This is possible with small wounds .Severe wounds ,burns and deep injuries we should refer children to the nearest clinic or hospital,the child usually becomes tired after the fits and may need to sleep for some time ,so we should give him/her a rest.

The special children needs children in the primary school education system

It is necessary for teachers to understand and appreciate the possible needs of special children because they are going to meet them or have already done so in the classroom.This article will enable us in a number of ways to deal with different forms of disability ,their causes and possible ways of helping the special needs children.
Teachers should be able to identify and explain what are regarded as special needs children .You should also note that fast learners can be regarded as special needs children.
We usually get worried when some of our pupils are not able to perform some tasks set for them. In levels of child development we expect children to do particular tasks successfully.In mathematics for example ,we expect a child in 5th or 6th year of formal primary education to be able to do Addition,Subtraction,Division and Multiplication.If
the child fails to do these mathematical operations we then conclude that the child has special problems which needs special attention.
The problems of a child who lags behind in basic conceptual development and general academic performance is one of the difficult problems we have to face.These children may be retarded in their development or may be affected by social backgrounds,which can be sour family relations or poverty.
These problems are because of the physical or social problems resulted in persistent failure to achieve what the other children can achieve.The permanent failure causes the child to be worried of life ,hate education and the society in general.
Even a fast learner who excel in class activities than the average learners is a special child.Therefore it is necessary to know these special children so that no pupil will be disadvantaged in the learning situation.
Types of Disability and their Natural Causes
There are many natural causes of disabilities in children and the effects on the their education capabilities.Lets discuss the following:
Physical handicaps
Emotional handicaps
Severe subnormality
Mental handicaps
Educational Subnormality(ESN)
Physically Handcapped Children
Physically handicapped children are those children who are:
Blind and Partially (blind) sighted.
Deaf and partially (deaf)hearing.
Physically handicapped and delicate.
The blind and partially sighted have problems of seeing objects.The blind children cannot see anything completely .But the partially sighted can see things very faintly.These people need special teaching methods .The problems arising from partial seeing are difficult to detect.Some children became blind in their mother's womb .
Generally 60% of the cases of blindness are caused by genetic factors.Infections account for 15%,injury and accidents for 15% while diseases account for 10%.Fries in Africa for example carry a disease called onchocerciasis especially in hot areas and can cause blindness.
Ignorance and poverty can lead to some cases of blindness in children because of poor sanitation and hygiene practices .Some mothers don't wash their children's faces results in these children lost sight.This is because the eyes secrete mucus which can attracts flies and then left germs which in turn cause blindness.
Because of religious beliefs some parents don't go to the medical centres for treatments or to take advice from this health experts because of their church doctrines,for example apostolic sects in African societies never go to hospitals.Most of children lost their sight simply by not practicing proper hygienic standards in their homes.