Prayatna: Fun way to combat learning disability

Chennai: A unique feature of Prayatna is their play-way method and use of visually appealing teaching aids to make learning a joy for children. They also have a book club that establishes a connection among books, lives of the kids and the world around them. 

Reading and Spelling Enhancement kit (RASE) was launched by the organisation to enhance phonological awareness (ability to segment words into smaller sound units) and orthographic awareness (ability to recognize spelling patterns fluently).

The games are divided into three categories
1.Consonant blends that introduce all two letter blends and diagraphs,
2.Word families that provide practice for sorting words according to their vowel sounds and
3.Vowel sounds that introduce children to all short and long vowel sounds. 

Explaining the game, one of the teachers said, “To recognise words with silent letters like ‘n’in autumn and ‘l’ in could, kids have cards with slashed silent letters. When they find the right silent letters for each word and place the card on a toy tree, the background slowly changes from summer to autumn. This fuels the interest of the kid and helps them learn better."

The centre has conducted workshops in a number of schools on topics that include learning difficulties, effective reading, language instruction and motivation. The programmes and games encourage children to make eye contact, recognise emotions in themselves and in others, and encourage them to communicate in socially acceptable ways.