Education

Education wing of Govt. Institute for Mentally Retarded Children has following sections :-

Primary Group :-Primary Group have 4 section (Primary A,Primary B,Primary C,Primary D)

Secondary Group :-Secondary group have 3 section(Secondary A,Secondary B,Secondary C)

Primary Group:

 the target is to make the child independent in his day-to-day life as possible as he can. The goals are set in receptive language and expressive language, reading, writing, number, time, money, activity of daily living, domestic and recreational skills.

The main attention is focused on functional skills which a child needs in his/her daily life. While setting goals the attention is paid on child’s chronological age, mental age, child’s need and parents expectations.

If a child has behavioral problems like hyperactivity, destructive behaviours, or injurious behaviour, then the behaviour is observed and listed out. The goals are set for the management of behavioural problems on priority basis. The behavioural modification techniques used are ignoring, restructuring, time out, token economy etc.

While teaching functional academic goals the following principles are followed like simple to complex, known to unknown, whole to part, concrete to abstract and using the methods like chaining, prompting, cluing, modeling and fading and shaping.

Reinforcement is a very important part while teaching a mentally retarded child. Very simple language and short instructions are used while teaching a skill. Consistency is also very important aspect of learning. It should be present in between school, home and society, so that learning part could be applied.

After three months the evaluation is made for each child to see how much skills he has achieved. Then another goals are set or the same goals are repeated if needed. The files, annual reports are maintained on regular basis.

For children’s overall progress, they are send to yoga, sports, music classes and the children with physical and speech problem are sent to occupational therapy and speech therapy as per schedule.

Primary Group A:

There are 10 children in Primary A section having I.Q between 20 to 62 aging between 8 to 12 years. The students in this section are either promoted from Play Group or directly admitted . Their assessment is done on (FACP- Primary) scale which contains various domains like personal, social, academic, recreational and outdoor. Students of Primary A section have been taught various skills in simple to complex manner and according to their assessment long and short term goals are selected for 3 months based on current level. Mostly the goals are selected regarding the functional academics.

        After completion of 3 months the evaluation is done for next programme planning or continuation of previous programme.

Primary Group B:                         

There are 10 students in Primary B class. Their age group is 7 to 12 years. The intellectual level of this group is mild to moderate but some children of severe category are also placed their better adaptation.

The assessment procedure is being taken on the basis of approved check list which is FACP( Functional Assessment Checklist for Programming). It covers different areas of Self Care, dressing grooming, Toileting, eating, Behavior, Receptive & Expressive language and basic areas covered under functional academic like reading, writing umber, time, money concept. In recreational activities, fun games, thumb painting, brush painting, thread painting, paper cutting & pasting are being done.

        Management of problem behavior is also an important part of teaching programme.

Primary Group C:    

There are approx 11 children in Primary C having I.Q between 35-52 aging between 8-12 years. Most of the students are promoted from pre primary group who have attained the age of 8 years.

Initially students are observed for the period of 15  days who comes directly for admission in primary section and then their assessment is done on (FACP- Primary) scale which contains various domains like personal , social academic, recreational and outdoor. Students of primary section been taught various skills in simple to complex manner , and according to their assessment long and  short term goals are selected foe 3 months based on current level, environment, interest , and intellectual functioning of the child.

After the period of 3 months the evaluation is done again for the selection of goals or if the goals are not achieved repetition of same goals are done.

Primary Group D:    

There are 13 children in the Primary –D Section. All the children in this group are of severity category having I.Q level from 35-20 and age upto 15 years. Looking towards the severity level of the group the focus for teaching/ training is always on the areas of activities of daily living i.e toileting, eating, dress, grooming and bathing, but some part of functional academic , social skills and co-curricular activities are also taken as the part of programme planning.

After completing of 3 months for the short term goal , the evaluation procedure is implement for next programme planning or continuation of previous programme.

Secondary A & B

In academics they are taught reading, writing, numbers, money and time skills. For example, in reading, they are taught match objects with pictures, matching of colors, identification of colors, identification and reading of name, address etc and in writing, copying of own name, writing of name, address etc. In activities of daily living, they are taught eating manners, dressing skills and grooming skills which is necessary for grown up children. They are taught, receptive and expressive skills, domestic skills like dusting the furniture wearing clothes, tying shoe lashes, brushing and bathing. in co-curricular activities children are taught yoga, cricket, table tennis, badminton, athletics, art and craft etc. All the activities are done with the help of teaching strategies like shaping, prompt, fading modeling, chaining. Reinforcement  also help to motivate the children. Task analysis and procedure  help  to write down the skills step by step which are taught to the children. By all these functional academics, children are prepared for the pre vocational training. Children also go for speech and physiotherapy according to time table.

Secondary C

Secondary C class is having severely retarded children. All children are above 14 years of age. Personal file of each child is maintained. Parents can get all information of their child. 6-7 sub-tasks are selected for short-term goal i.e. for three months. Once the child learns first task, we move to another but if she/he doesn’t learn the task, the same will be taught in coming three months. Main stress in this section is on ADL’s (Activities of Daily Living). In dressing skill, children learn buttoning/unbuttoning, wearing of shirts, pants, shoes etc. In eating skill, they learn chewing, use of spoons, napkins and eating independently. In personal hygiene, they learn brushing, combing, washing hands, use of soap, use of handkerchief etc. Different teaching strategies like task analysis, chaining, fading, prompting, reinforcement, timeout, rewards, matching etc are used. Parents of each child are kept informed what teacher is teaching their child. They follow the same pattern of teaching at home also. These students have less attention span and poor eye hand co-ordination, so 4-5 activities have to be planned in a hour for each child. Children also go for speech and physiotherapy according to time table. Music, yoga, games, sports are also there for the children. They are taught those activities which are important and useful to them in their day to day life.

Play Group :

Thus Play Group forms basis of further training in these children.  

Autism Section :

improve their communication to social environment. Social Stories, different festival activities, music & Yoga, outing are planned for these children. Family members are also included. Teaching materials are planned according to activity and need of the child. Moreover we try to cover development of child in this section.

Pre- Vocational Section :

In this section training of the skills like cutting, pasting, tiring, filling, timings, weighting are given, which are a prerequisite for the vocational section. The FACP Pre vocational I, Pre-Vocational-II is used for their assessment, long term and short term goals are selected for 3 months based on urgent level and interest.

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