Inclusive education

✨*My inclusive memories* 🧐

We discussed inclusive education yesterday. It’s an essential component of every classroom. We usually notice children with physical challenges, cognitive and learning difficulties, stress, depression and other psychological ill health. But every child is unique in many ways.

When I started this job, I noticed that children had many challenges in learning, along with some behavioural issues. In multigrade classrooms, this is even more common than in regular ones.

So I tried an approach of listen, respond, act.

First, I let the child speak freely in class, and I listen carefully to their words. This helps the child feel connected to me and builds trust and an emotional bond between us. Listening goes much deeper than we think. It includes observing tone and attention, and offering trust through eye contact or a nod. Listening helps us understand a person’s inner views and true emotions too.

When a child trusts someone, they become easygoing and are no longer shy or afraid to speak. They also listen to the words of the person they trust. Next, I respond to what they’ve said and ask a few questions. My tone is casual and gentle, so the child never feels they’re being quizzed. It should feel like a normal conversation 💭💬🗯.

Through this, we can see a child’s difficulties and strengths, what truly makes them happy, and what makes them angry, sad or even depressed.

Then I take action based on my observations. If a child is distressed by something at home, among peers or in the community, I speak to them personally and explain their situation and how it could affect their growth. If they don’t listen, I help them avoid certain conversations. For example, I keep them busy with a task, or steer them away from the person who is distressing them, doing it smoothly so they don’t feel singled out.

In many cases I’ve had positive responses, and sometimes negative ones too. When the response is positive, I start giving parents activities to do with their child, along with guidance on how to speak to them.

After taking action, I go through the three steps again to assess the child’s progress. It continues like a circle, whenever I meet the same situation.

🗣️🗣️🌟🌟🌟

There have been many successful moments in my class. The most memorable is Tharun’s story.

Tharun has a vocal problem and couldn’t speak like other children. When he was in 1st grade, he had a different class teacher, and I had little interaction with him. I assumed he was a typical child.

When he reached 3rd grade, I noticed he was different. He wasn’t speaking to anyone, almost all the kids were avoiding him, and some teased him with a nickname. He was very depressed. During my first introduction activity, he spoke only a few words, and that’s when I realised his problem. His vocal issues are very difficult to cure. I spoke to him personally and understood his difficulty. He had been moody for many days because nobody spoke to him properly.

I asked his previous class teacher about his academic performance. She replied immediately that he can’t speak and has no knowledge, so there was no need to bother about him. I was shocked by everything he had been through. I spoke to his parents right away, and they said, “Please just keep him in school, madam, we don’t need anything else.” They didn’t seem to care about him either. I didn’t know how to help him feel at ease in my class. So I called him over, spoke to him personally and encouraged him: “You can speak more with me. Share all your memories and feelings with me.”

I let him speak whatever he wanted. He came to me every day and told me many things: what happened on his way to school, at home, how he was feeling. A few days later, he slowly got a grip on a few words and tried to speak like the other kids. Whenever he spoke in class, I praised him warmly and encouraged the whole class to appreciate his efforts. I asked the children to interact with him more: “He’s a normal child like all of us, and if we help him, he’ll do much better in academics too.” Most of the kids became friendly with him, without giving him any special treatment. I also asked everyone at school to call him by his name. This made him feel safe and normal. Soon, to my surprise, he started telling me so many things.

I also called his parents to show them his performance and speaking abilities. They were surprised and asked what they could do at home to help him speak more. I told them to listen to him more often, never stop him from talking, and treat him like a normal child.

On a special day, all the kids were giving speeches, and it was Tharun’s turn. He didn’t feel it was anything special, because to him it felt normal. But the parents in the audience felt differently. I told them about his journey from being unable to speak to becoming a confident speaker. They applauded him, and they encouraged him to do well in academics too.

Guess what! By the end of 5th grade, he could read Telugu fluently and write his own sentences. He’s still a good student of mine. He greets me every day on his way to school, speaks very politely, and asks for holiday project work and story books to read 📖.

Every child has the ability to overcome their challenges. We just need to awaken it through motivation or the right strategy.

This is one of my successful inclusive classroom moments.