A still from the movie Taare Zameen Par

Jamshedpur, Nov. 7: Until recently people were unaware of dyslexia and would treat kids with inability to spell words, read or illegible handwriting roughly. But post Taare Zameen Par, things have changed for the better.

People want to read, understand and help children with this learning disability. Taking a step further, Narbheram Hansraj English School today organised a three-day workshop to help teachers and parents understand the inability and take care of these kids.

Geeta Dalal, an educational therapist from Mumbai, touched the steel city to make the participants at the workshop understand the story of these children. About 120 teachers from 11 schools participated at the seminar.

She enlightened the participants how to cope with the children and to access the intensity of dyslexia.

“Many of us are unaware that some dyslexic children have become world famous like Agatha Christie, Walt Disney, Albert Einstein and Abhishek Bachchan. The inability has not come in their way of success. It is important that people accept these kids but the Indian society lacks it. This is what I want to teach parents,” said Dalal.

The common notion among people is dyslexia means mentally challenged but it is not so. What people have to understand is that children can overcome this inability if parents and teachers take good care of them. The teachers and parents should worked on their positive traits instead highlighting on their incapability.

Dalal said, even boards like Indian Certificate of Secondary Education (ICSE) gives concession to these children but hardly any school adopts these facilities. “The ICSE board gives 15 minutes of extra time for every hour and a writer for a dyslexic student but few schools adopt it,” said Dalal.

These kids can be good in creative filed, auditory perception and imagination.

“Visiting a psychologist is still considered a taboo but if we want a child to succeed and know what he/she is good at then consulting a psychologist is essential,” she added .

“We have made it compulsory for the teachers to attend the workshop. I hope after the session teachers and parents will understand their children better and will help them in achieving their dreams and not restrict it to academics only,” said Ruma Bose, the vice-principal of the school.