How to Help Mentally Disables Children
All children need love in their lives and children with mental disability need more of love, support and encouragement. Love and care is a constructive backing that help the mentally disabled children in strengthening the sense of confidence, self-assurance and determination to not to give up in their entire life. It is the responsibility of the government to take care of mentally disabled children in the society and laydown policies whereby mentally disabled children become the useful member of the society. A combination of policies by the government and a strong support from the parents can help achieving the goal of improving the mental health of these children and give them self-sustenance.
There are ways to help children with mental and learning disabilities. Parents need to remember that they should not try to cure the learning disability of their child but give their child the social and emotional tools to survive through the challenges in the life. When equipped with these tools, the child can grow spirited and stronger. Mentally disabled children benefit from the same teaching practices used to teach people with learning challenges. Policies and strategies adopted by the government need to be supported by the parents and have characteristics covered in the subsequent paragraphs.
First strategy to be formulated by the government is the introduction of progressive learning approach. The approach is characterized by many models of learning. Learning tasks are divided into small phases. Each learning phase is introduced as one task at one time. It helps students learning quickly and do not put them under pressure. After the first phase is completed, the next phase of learning is started.
Second strategy by the government should be to modify and renew the teaching approach. Old method of teaching involving long verbal discussion and spoken lectures are not effective even for a healthy audience. For mentally disabled children, there has to be a modern method of learning. Most of the people are kinesthetic learners, and learn well by performing the task. Doing the task with own hands is a total contrast to learning through spoken lecture. A hands-on approach is particularly good for the children with mental disability. Government policies should include the establishment of special school for educating such children through hands-on learning. They learn well through observation and authentic information. Students will quickly understand gravity when teacher drops something on the ground instead speaking about the concept and gravity in the class for one hour. Teacher can do even better by asking a student to experience the gravity pull by dropping something on the ground.
Third suggested strategy is resorting to the process of teaching through visual aids to the mentally disabled children. Visual aid is the best way to help children with mental disability and provides the best learning environment to the children. Visual tools are helpful to students in understanding the behaviors expected out of them in varied circumstances. An example of using performance chart to gauge the students’ progress is an effective way of learning and educating the student. The students can also be assigned tasks through charts to evaluate their on-task behavior.
Fourth strategy is the implementation of a system of immediate and direct feedback of the children with mental disability. It will help making a connection between the behavior of children and the response of the teacher. A learning point may be missed due to delayed provision of feedback and makes it difficult to make the connection between cause and effect.
It is the government which has the authority and resources to formulate the policies, implement them and facilitate parent who is already in mental agony due to their mentally disabled children. Managing the special children at home by the parents is not a feasible and comfortable option for the parent and they are unable to manage it. Government must provide the environment and facilities of the standard where mentally disabled children can learn to face the challenges of life and parents of these children are at mental ease.
Works Cited
Tammy Reynolds, B.A., C.E. Zupanick & Mark Dombeck. Effective Teaching Methods for People with Intellectual Disabilities. 2013. Web. 24 May. 2014.
HelpGuide.Org. Helping Children with Learning Disabilities. Practical Parenting Tips for Home and School. 2013. Web. 24 May. 2014.
Ministry of Children and Youth Services. Mental Health Services. 2013. Web. 24 May. 2014.
