Yatish was about two and half years old and I was taking him
to the Early Intervention Centre at Sophia Opportunity School, Bangalore. He
was a bit bored with playing the same toys in that place and the therapist in
desperation brought out some felt numbers which were meant for older children.
Yatish was so fascinated with them it was almost to the point of obsession. But
there was method in this madness. The therapist laid out the numbers and read
out aloud one, two, and three and when she asked him can you give me one, he
gave the correct number. We all thought it was a fluke and asked him other
numbers and every time he gave out the correct number. This was bizarre. Here
was a child who could hardly keep his neck steady, use his hands properly, had
any trunk control, but his mind worked like magic. This started his fascinating
journey, into the world of numbers.
He progressed from single digits to double digits and from
even numbers to odd numbers, missing numbers, subtraction, addition,
multiplication as also the concept of zero. To date, I have never taught him
anything. He just knows and it seems that in the deep recesses of his mind, he
has everything worked out.The biggest challenge was to give him an avenue for expression. I had limited resources. His severe disability and his co-ordination challenges prevented him from using computers without appropriate modifications, as also lack of qualified people who could help him. We were left to our own devices. He had two tools which I could use. One was his pointing. He was getting good at it and then he could grasp. We would write a sum on paper and give him a few choices and he would point at the correct answer. (He had a 100 percent strike rate!) . His favourite is multiplication. He has a special ability for that. He can easily multiply 3 digits numbers and give you an answer in a matter of seconds. We also worked with custom made flashcards. We painstakingly made flash cards of each of his lessons.
Yatish is like my Vodafone pug. He goes wherever I go and does whatever I do. I had this habit of reading the Sunday newspaper and Yatish used to be on my lap, and he always seemed like he was engrossed in reading the newspaper. I was quite amused and asked him to point at a word in the newspaper and lo he did it. This was creepy, I am sure he would never have heard about that word. It was impossible. Then I tried with few more words and he would get it right every time. I figured out that he would concentrate on the phonetics and the way I said the word to figure out the word. Over the years he has gotten better with it and is part of the spelling team in his class today.
Yatish’s comprehension has increased substantially and
whatever he lacks in his physical ability, he makes it up with his superior
cognitive abilities. He never gives up on trying. When you give him a new
gadget, he spends hours together figuring out how the stuff works. Mobiles are
his favourite and now his touch screen computer and his touchpad. We are
extremely happy with the way he has made progress.
The day is not far off when he can do all his lessons on his
computers and take on the academic challenges. As of now I am waiting for him
to hone his skills on the computer and do more productive work.
