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The Aurally Challenged Child
Another sensory handicap, the sense of hearing is almost as important as that of sight. Especially as life is meant to be enjoyed in all its flavours. Unfortunately, if a child is born deaf, he is not able to pick up basic language skills and is classified as a deaf mute. In fact, the degrees of deafness are classified as:

Born deaf and therefore speech deficient
Partial impairment of hearing capacity
Loss of hearing due to accidents or injuries

His method of communication also depends on the degree of the affliction. This means that those who are born deaf will not be able to learn a language and will have an added speech deficiency. And those with a partial impairment will be extremely slow learners but can be assisted with hearing aids. Whatever the cause, the result is the same. His method of communication is disturbed and considered abnormal and deeply affects his social and future economic life.

Causes of deafness
The most common causes of congenital deafness are prenatal infections such as high fever, typhoid, and influenza during pregnancy. Later in life, deafness can occur due to severe throat or nose infections, extremely high fever, meningitis, encephalitis or even accidents or injuries. In such cases, it is even more difficult for the child to adjust to the loss since he has already tasted the joy of all his senses and has to understand his new limitations that are totally different from his earlier experiences.

Rehabilitation
These children have to be placed in special schools that are expert in providing special training through technical personnel. Emphasis is placed on providing auricular training to accelerate and improve language comprehension and consequently acquire the ability of speech. Auditory training and the art of lip reading are taught to those with partial hearing problems, so that they can finally be trained to join regular schools. On the plus side, it has been observed that the aurally challenged child has higher powers of concentration, more energy and is also extremely cautious. Good abilities to get ahead in the world if provided with the right opportunities.

But before one sets out to educate this child, it is necessary to ascertain the damage or the degree of affliction in order to provide the right facilities and learning environment. For this we require sophisticated apparatus for diagnostic purposes in order to classify children according to their capacity of hearing and facilitate the entire learning process. If groups are formed, and children taught together, depending on their capacity, probably with the help of hearing aids, then social interactions are also possible. If the child is taught individually, he might still not have the confidence to communicate with the rest of the world.

Once the child is rehabilitated, and some are even able to join regular schools, teachers should explain the basic acoustic problem of the child to the other normal children in the classroom, and instill in them a sense of compassion and consideration for this special child, and ensure that he is not ridiculed or made fun of in any way. Parents should also try to treat their child as normally as is possible and help the child to adjust to the world around him. There are many programmes available to the parents of such children to help them to understand what they are dealing with and to get timely help and assistance to help their child overcome his deficiency.

The Mentally Challenged Child
Mandira is a 5-year-old girl who is not toilet-trained as yet. Her father finds her an embarrassment and does not invite his friends over to the house. Her mother is quite sick of training her and the maids of cleaning up. They finally decided to take her to a doctor where they found out that her growth was retarded due to a mental deficiency. This meant that she had a low I.Q. No wonder her teachers complained about her so much. Until now everyone thought that she was just a little slow on the uptake. This is what normally happens in borderline cases. They sometimes go undetected for awhile.

How do you rate mental deficiency?
As explained earlier, this depends on the I.Q. of the child. There are many psychological tests available to measure the intelligence or mental functioning of the child. So when the mental age is divided by the chronological age and multiplied by a hundred, what you get is the Intelligence Quotient or the I.Q.

An I.Q. above 140 is the sign of a genius. An average to very intelligent child would score between 100 - 120 and a dull child would score between 80 - 90. Mandira's case was a borderline deficiency and she scored between 70 -84. So we can safely say that those children having an I.Q. under 80 are mentally deficient and therefore challenged children.

A classification of the mentally subnormal
CLASS I.Q. LEVELS
Borderline cases 70 -84
Mild cases(educable) 55 - 69
Moderate cases(trainable) 40 - 54
Severely deficient 25 - 39
Highly severe below 25

Causes and effects of mental deficiency
One of the strongest factors is hereditary. Besides this there are a number of environmental factors that contribute to mental arrest. Most common of which is brain damage, malnutrition or infection during pregnancy or even an excessive intake of drugs and RH incompatibility. Whatever the cause, if the handicap is very severe, the entire development of the child gets affected - physical, social and emotional along with mental. Some of these children can not perform the simplest of tasks that we all seem to take for granted. Simple things like walking straight, eating or toilet training. A great amount of patience and tolerance is required to supervise and handle such a child.

How should one deal with such a problem?
The earlier the problem is detected the better it is for you and your child. Sometimes parents try to hide the fact until it becomes apparent to all, and by then it is too late to get timely help. There are plenty of child guidance centres and special schools around to provide the perfect environment to aid in the development of the child. But if these facilities are not utilized, a mentally deficient child will definitely develop severe social and emotional problems as well.

Parents should try to accept the fact that their child is mentally challenged and help him or her grow to the full potential that he or she is capable of. Some people try for a miraculous cure and expend a lot of time and energy in search of a divine elixir. Even though such an attitude is understandable, it does not show any results. That time will be better spent in admitting your child to a special school or sheltered institution where he can get professional help.

Such schools teach the child how to survive and progress in our world. Special skills are taught to them to help them make good use of their time and lives. Each child is given a task that suits his or her mental growth. Sensory training and perceptual knowledge is stressed on and children are taught utilitarian tasks that will help the child to be more independent. This is normally taught through drill and repetition over a period of years.

Besides schools, parents and family members at home also must provide a secure environment for the development of the abilities and interests of the mentally retarded. Parents should not feel awkward and should help their child to socialise with family members, relatives and friends. Subnormal children need more love and affection than the normal child does or they tend to get frustrated. They might not be able to express their needs. So it is up to you to anticipate what they want and give them all the love and strength that they require to help them develop to their full potential.

The Visually Challenged Child
When a little baby is born, he cannot speak. He tries to understand his surroundings with the help of his senses, especially those of sight and sound. Can you imagine his disability growing up without any of these two, especially sight, which can be called his portal of learning? Can you imagine his deep sense of frustration as he grows up? He will not be able to automatically pick up things like other children. But still, his needs are the same as theirs. His loss is a physical one and but for this he is normal in every other respect. But rarely is he treated so.

The blind are treated as burdens to their families and society, when; if properly trained they can live perfectly normal lives. At times the degree of blindness ranges from total loss to a fair degree of vision. Therefore all blind children can not be educated or treated alike. Their individual problems and needs, need to be taken into consideration. It is a known fact that a person with a sensory handicap is gifted with a talent or innate ability that needs to be tapped. You should encourage them to learn and master their disability and lead a fairly independent life. They can even be taught to take care of themselves and earn their own living.

Nowadays, many of the visually challenged are being absorbed in the work force and in industries, because of their abilities, reliability and sincerity. In fact they are even preferred for certain jobs. I will never forget the case of a man who was hired as a typist in a firm he was pitied by all his colleagues because of his lack of vision, and he hated that feeling. But the others would not understand why he rejected their sympathy. Then one day, something went wrong with the electricity and all the work was stopped. All except this typist who gaily went on typing. On hearing that the lights were off, he laughed and asked them all whom was the one with the problem? He had managed to turn his disability into an ability. Hats off to him.

How do we help the visually challenged?
Special schools are set up to teach these children braille and other manual skills. But besides this, they need to be socialised to help them to fit into society and get over their deep-rooted feelings of insecurity and inferiority. This depends on the parents, extended family as well as peer groups. Do not treat them with pity. Give them opportunities to grow instead. They might not have external vision, but internally they can see better than you and me.