Prayatna: Everybody is special for this education intervention centre

Chennai: Starting out as a small learning place for children with learning difficulties in Bengaluru in 1998, Prayatna, the centre for educational assessment and intervention, soon spread its wings in Chennai to become one of the famous educational trusts for special children.

It assesses children and provides remedial instruction for literacy and numeracy skills. “The centre works with children who struggle to learn in mainstream classrooms. We cater to the needs of those who have difficulties typically associated with conditions like dyslexia, ADHD and mild forms of autism,” said Dr Aruna Sankaranarayanan, founder, Prayatna.

 It caters to around 150 children at a time with 13 psychologists and Prayatna has assessed closed to 2,000 children and trained over 80 individuals by setting up resource rooms at numerous schools.

 The factor that sets the centre apart from other special education schools is that it has devised and developed a vast array of creative and innovative teaching aids to promote academic skills in children, Dr Aruna said.  These aids are in tune with Indian curriculums and are culturally sensitive to the needs of Indian children.  

 When asked about the kids who soared to great heights, she replied, “Many of our children go on to do well academically.  Rohan (name changed) completed his CBSE with an average of 90 per cent and went on to do a degree in hotel management.  Another alumnus is currently pursuing a Master's program at Duke University in mechanical engineering and plans to apply for a PhD. One student is doing engineering at a reputed college in Chennai and a few have gone on to do vocational courses like animation and catering.”  

 So far, the medium of education has only been English. Now, they are planning to start remedial classes in Hindi as it caters to both Bengaluru and Chennai and soon they would focus on regional languages. “We are in the process of developing unique teaching aids to help children mastery over Hindi.  We also hope to train more teachers and parents through our one-month training program,” she said. 

 Dr Aruna said parent should not label their kids or get frustrated when they have learning difficulties and send them to endless tuition classes. Instead, join them at a remedial centre and watch wonders happening.