LAHORE – Parents and teachers should help the Foundation for Rehabilitation & Education of Special Children (FRESH) in identifying slow learners for their proper education and training, FRESH Chairperson Ashba Kamran said on Monday. She said that inattentiveness, distractibility and learning disorders interfered with the child’s academic progress despite presence of a normal IQ.
Even if the child does have special learning difficulties, he would face difficulties in learning, Kamran said. She said that to learn, a child should tolerate frustration, as some subjects were hard to understand and could not be mastered without extra hard work. In addition, a child should pay attention to learning, as intelligence was not enough, she said.
The FRESH chairperson said that if the child could not pay attention to what was being taught to him, it means that he was not mentally present there. She said that elementary schools require a good deal of repetition, practice and drill.
A child, who could not force himself to complete tedious and disagreeable school tasks, would face trouble in mastering reading, spelling, and arithmetic, she said. Kamran said that slow learners were likely to stay behind and become an underachiever. As the child gets further behind, he would experience more frustration and criticism from teachers, parents and fellow students and his parents would nag him for not doing his homework, the FRESH chairperson said.
She said that the child might be placed in a catch-up class or a special learning disability class. He would regard himself as stupid and might be taunted as a “retard” by other children, Kamran feared.
The FRESH chairperson said that the organisation was working exclusively on educating and training slow learners to transform them into viable human resources for society. She said that a large number of children educated and trained at FRESH were already working at leading national and multinational organisations and the foundation was proud of them.
