Workshop for Teachers on Integrating Brain Gym with Remedial Teaching for Children with Special Needs Commenced in Dharamsala
By ATWS Staff Editor
ATWS Dharamsala, March 15, 2024: As a Society can be Inclusive only when its individuals are so, it is high time that we bring a paradigm shift in the education of our differently-abled learners in our schools as children being future seeds of a nation.
In its endeavor to promote Inclusive Education under the National Education Policy 2020 of the Government of India and the Basic Education Policy of CTA for the past couple of years, the Education Department, CTA is conducting a 4 Day Workshop on Integrating Brain Gym with Remedial Teaching for Children with Special Needs for around twenty-five Primary Teachers from 15th to 18th March at the Administrative Training and Welfare Society, Dharamsala. ATWS is facilitating the training with the venue and service facilities.This training aims to strengthen their understanding of children with learning difficulties and enhance their knowledge and skills for remedial teaching through Brain Gym techniques.
The workshop began with a brief introduction by the Inclusive Education Officer of the Education Department, Mrs. Tenzin Paldon la. Explaining the urgency to embrace inclusive education and mainstream special education in Tibetan Schools lacking Special Educators separately, she stressed that regular teachers must clearly understand the background of the children with special needs for their better acceptance.“As a regular teacher, we can accept them better if we understand the psychological and physiological process of the particular child. So that’s why this workshop is aimed at the regular teacher to understand their background, and if we understand them better, we can assist them in our school along with the other children and not separate them ” said Mrs. Paldon la.
Furthermore, she highlighted how primary teachers, being with the students right from the beginning, can significantly scaffold their entire school education and therefore urged them to clear all their doubts with the trainers in the coming days by introducing their background.
The trainers for the workshop are Brain Gym movement facilitators and consultant Instructors, Dr. Mrigank Aggarwal and Dr. Shipra based in New Delhi, the founder of Sensible Child. They have been training teachers in the field of rehabilitation, focusing on children with special needs. Dr. Aggarwal has extensive experience working with a diverse range of cases, including developmental disability, such as Autism, ADHD, and learning disability. Dr. Shipra Gupta, is an Occupational Therapist, a visiting faculty at the Vision Institute of Advanced Studies since 2019. She is also a visiting faculty for B.Ed Special education.
Following the introduction of the trainers, Dr. Aggarwal began with a brief explanation of how Primary Teachers, if sufficiently equipped with tools and techniques for dealing with special needs children can not only manage their problems of learning difficulties but also help their parents in dealing with their kids. He then continued with an activity-based self-reflection by the participants to uncover their definition of “Disability” and special needs children.
Course content in the coming days includes Identifying the needs of learners, Remedial Teaching techniques, Brain gym activity, and Teaching strategies.
