Dyslexia is a neurological condition that impacts reading, writing, spelling and Mathematics apart from other executive functions.Individuals with this condition display a clear disparity between one’s ability to perform and the actual performance. Their IQ is average to above average with unique potentials. This being a hidden disability, evokes little or no attention in a classroom and no empathy in the social circles-be it teacher, parents or peers. Consequently, due to lack of support, these children slip through the cracks, could become school dropouts and sometimes even social-delinquents. Being a life-long condition this child struggles even in his/her adulthood.

According to the statistics, in India about 1 in 6 of the school going children struggle in school academically and emotionally due to this condition. Simple math shows that the number of affected childrenis really large. However, the silver lining is that these children can be provided sustained support by the school teachers themselves. Structured multi-modal teaching, done in the way the child learns, is the best way forward to enable these children to bridge the gap between their potential and their actual performance. These strategies can be imparted to the children with learning difficulties in the course of their regular classroom learning process-earlier the better! This enhances the learning of the entire class hence does not have to be administered selectively.

Madras Dyslexia Association has evolved simple methods of identifying and remediating these young children.To enable this teaching-learning process, teachers need to be equipped with these methodologies. MDA conducts training program towards this objective. Empowered mainstream teachers can facilitate the learning process for children with mild dyslexia within the comforts of the classroom. This inclusive approach buoys the child’s self-esteem. This in turn helps the child scale up his learning and performance. MDA has been working in a concerted manner to conduct training programs to train Mainstream Primary School Teachers. Each of these trained teachers can provide help to about 10 children in her classes in an academic year. Hence in 3 years every teacher would have made a difference to at least 30 students.

Cost and access are the typical barriers for any support system. A sum as small Rs 50 would enable us to impact a child with dyslexia through our teacher training programs. Your contribution would help us overcome the cost barrier and we would enable easy access of remedial strategies to the child through the trained teacher. We are looking to raise money for a batch of 40 teachers at a cost of Rs 1500 per teacher. Each teacher will be able to help 30 kids over a period of 3 years!

Sponsor 1 teacher training: Rs 1,500
Sponsor 5 teacher training: Rs 7,500
Sponsor 10 teacher training: Rs 15,000