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SCHOOL COUNSELLING FOR LD,SLOW LEARNERS,
SOCIALLY DISADVANTAGED CHILDREN & PROBLEM CHILDREN
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Counselling
• Counselling
is a scientific process of assistance
• It
involves relationship between two persons in which one of them(counsellor)
attempts to assist the other(counselee or client).
• Rogers:
Counselling is a series of direct contacts with the individual which aim to
offer him assistance in changing the attitudes and behaviour
School
Counselling
•
School
counselling deeply rooted deeply with the problems and conditions of school and
going students.
•
School counselling takes place in
public and private school settings in grades K-12. Counselling is designed to
facilitate student achievement, improve student behaviour and attendance, and
help students develop socially.
school counsellor
•
A school counsellor
works in primary (elementary and middle) schools and/or secondary schools to
provide academic, career,college access/affordability/admission, and
social-emotional competencies to all students through a school counselling
program.
•
The major
concern of school counselling service is to help the pupil to achieve
self-direction, self-knowledge and self-realization.
What Do School Counsellors Do?
School counsellors, also known as guidance counsellors, were first
primarily responsible for facilitating career development. Today,
the role of the school l is multifaceted and may vary greatly, depending on the
requirements of both the state and each individual school.
The
duties of school counsellors may include:
·
Providing instruction on
psychological and social issues.
·
Vocational guidance.
·
Counselling.
·
Early intervention
·
Special needs services
·
Further, counsellors often help students:
·
Maintain academic standards and set goals for
academic success.
·
Develop skills to improve organization, study
habits, and time management.
·
Work through personal problems that may affect
academics or relationships.
·
Improve social skills.
·
Cope with school or community-related violence,
accidents, and trauma.
·
Identify interests, strengths, and aptitudes
through assessment.
School counselors offer individual counseling to help students resolve
personal or interpersonal problems
1. School
counselling for Slow Learners
Slow Learner
•
Burt: “ A slow
learner is a child who is unable to cope with the work normally expected of his
age group.”
•
IQ of slow
learners usually ranges from 70-90
•
These children
are unable to deal successfully with abstract materials
•
Their span of
attention is relatively shorter
•
Their
reasoning ability is inferior to that of normal children
Features
·
He is a slow learner and feels difficulty in keeping
pace with the normal school work.
·
His educational attainment falls below his natural
abilities
·
He falls far behind other children of his age in
natural abilities.
·
He is necessarily a failure in the academic field
and shows educational.
·
His ability to evaluate materials for relevancy is
limited and has got limited power of self direction
Causes of slow
learning
•
Physical and physiological
factors : Born with poor health, Lack of vitality and deformity, Chronic
diseases and bodily defects. Defective vision, faulty hearing, speech defects,
left handness
•
Intellectual
factors : born with intellectual subnormality ,lack of grasping meaning and
remembering. Suffer also from emotional imbalance and social maladjustment .
a)Family factors :
•
Unhygienic conditions and malnutrition the health of these poor children his adversely
affected . It reduces their learning capacity and thus makes them backward .
•
Illiteracy
•
poverty
•
intellectual inferiority .
b)School Factors:
•
Ineffective teaching
•
Lack of infrastructure facilities
•
Defective curriculum and Examinations
•
Uninteresting
•
Lack of equipment's, facilities and provision for
revision of teachers
c)Social Factors:
•
Peer pressure
•
Bad companies
School Counselling programmes for Slow Learners:
1.
Remedial
Instruction
2.
Healthy
Environment
3.
Periodical
Medical Check-up
4.
Non-Promotion
5.
Motivation
6.
Individual
Attention
7.
Special
Methods of teaching
8.
Home Visits
by the teachers
9.
Maintenance
of Progress Record
Solutions to reduce Slow Learning
A. Compensatory Teaching
Compensatory teaching is an instructional approach that alters the
presentation of content tocircumvent a student’s fundamental weakness or
deficiency. Compensatory teachingrecognizes content, transmits through
alternate modalities (pictures versus words) andsupplements it with additional
learning resources and activities (learning centresand simulations, group
discussions and co-operative learning).
B. Remedial Teaching
This is an alternate approach for the regular classroom teacher in
instructing the slow learner.Remedial teaching is the use of activities,
techniques and practices to eliminate weaknesses ordeficiencies that the slow
learner is known to have.
2. School Counselling for
Learning Disabilities
Learning disabilities are
neurologically-based processing problems. These processing problems can
interfere with learning basic skills such as reading, writing and/or
math. They can also interfere with higher level skills such as
organization, time planning, abstract reasoning, long or short term memory and
attention. It is important to realize that learning disabilities can
affect an individual’s life beyond academics and can impact relationships with
family, friends and in the workplace.
Specific
Learning Disabilities
• Auditory Processing Disorder (APD)
• Dyscalculia.
• Dysgraphia.
• Dyslexia.
• Language Processing Disorder.
• Non-Verbal Learning Disabilities.
• Visual Perceptual/Visual Motor
Deficit.
• ADHD.
Features
• They essentially suffer from serious
learning difficulties which is visible in the acquisition and use of language
• They show lack of motivation,
inattention, inadequate ability in solving problems and information processing.
• They exhibits learning handicaps and
show observable deficiency
• They may exhibit symptoms of hyperactivity
Counselling
for learning disabled children means that is
concerned with the success of special needs students. The essential purpose of
special education counselling is to ensure that special needs students and
their families have access to the appropriate supports and interventions in
order to facilitate improved achievement in a school environment.
In addition to facilitating
academic and intellectual growth, these type of school counselling is concerned with improving a
student’s ability to function in social, emotional, and behavioural capacities.
Special education counselling is a multi-modal discipline in that special
education counsellors must be well versed in counselling theories and
techniques, as well as educational theory, educational law, and special
education regulations.
What is
the Role of a School Counsellor in LD?
The role of a school counsellor
is to help all students, including those with special needs, to achieve their
full potential. Introducing an appropriate individualized education program
(IEP) at an early age can make all the difference, not only in these children’s
academic learning, but in their emotional health and social adjustment and
ultimately in their ability to become productive, contributing members of
society.
The school counsellor is one
person who can help by actively advocating for these children. The following
are some of the other important services that school counsellors provide.
·
Counselling sessions with special education
students.
·
Encouraging family involvement in the IEP. It helps
immensely if the parents or other responsible adults understand and are on
board with the services that have been recommended, including possible
referrals to outside organizations. The special education counselor can also
address specific questions or concerns and inform parents and guardians of
their rights.
·
Consulting with and working with other school staff
to better understand the child’s special needs and what support systems,
adaptations and modifications may be necessary.
·
Collaborating with other school and community
professionals, including but not limited to teachers, school psychologists,
physical therapists, occupational therapists, and speech and language
pathologists, in the delivery of services.
·
Identifying other students who should be assessed
to determine eligibility for special education.
What
are the Education Requirements to Become a Special Education Counsellor?
·
The
educational requirements for special education counsellors are quite different from
those for counsellors that work outside the school system. It is highly
recommended that students begin their studies not in counselling, but instead
with a bachelor’s degree in special education and gain experience as a special
education teacher. To achieve this goal, students must complete a four-year
special education program, including a student teaching placement in a special
education setting. Upon graduation, students will need to pass a written
examination and fulfil the requirements of obtaining teaching licensure in the
state in which they live.
Approaches
used by a school counsellor towards learning disability
• Behavioural
Approach
• Psycho
analytic Approach
• Individual
instructional Approach
• Self
instructional Approach
• Multi
sensory approach
• Technological
Approach
3. School
Counselling for Socially Disadvantaged Children
Education being the most powerful instrument for empowering the Socially
Disadvantaged Groups, the Ninth Plan committed to achieve the same through
universalization of primary education by 2005 with a special focus on
low-literacy pockets and on the educationally backward communities like SCs,
OBCs and Minorities.
Features
(1)Poor Academic performance
(2) Cognitive deficiencies
(3) Apathetic, unresponsive and lack
initiative
(4) Lower achievement
(5) Basic Intelligence
(6) Socially Disadvantaged, and
Identification of Socially Disadvantaged
Children:
The term
‘disadvantaged’ is used to indicate the following observable behaviour:
1. Progressive decline in
intellectual functioning in school.
2. Cumulative academic achievement
deficits.
3. Premature school termination and
high dropout rate.
4. Reading and learning disabilities.
5. Poor language learning.
6. In adequate social learning and
observing in the absence of model.
7. Low attention span and distraction
in learning.
8. Lack of proficiency in higher form
of cognitive learning and transfer.
9. Lack of abstract and state
sequence of events in a learning situation.
10. Inability to classify and form
logical concepts, incapacity to verbalise events and solutions.
11. Lack of analytic ability which is
essential for learning.
12. They show belief in external
factors, i.e., luck chance, late etc. rather than their own self and activity.
13. They cannot delay gratification
immediate tangible and non-contingent rewards are their need.
14. They have a high sense of
avoidance for failure than striving success.
15. They have poor self-concept, low
achievement aspiration and low need achievement including lack of desire for
self-actualisation.
16. Their general behaviour lacks
intrinsic motivation. Insecurity and anxiety are very obvious.
Educational Guidance and Counselling for SD Children:
·
Education aims at bringing change which will affect
the lives of students is & relevant concern for all educators. In the case
of disadvantaged children the challenge is even greater. The likelihood that
these children will overcome the handicaps of poverty in rural and as well as
it slum areas seems to be related as to how effectively the school personnel
assist them. In fact, individuality can be fostered and realized through
effective guidance service and the establishment and development of these
services can be enhanced by an appreciation of the ecology other the individual
and ecology of the school.
·
Considering from all points of view, guidance
activities for the disadvantaged may be organized in small groups of eight to
twelve.
·
The information giving, task orientation and counseling
type of activities will be more effective in small groups for the
disadvantaged, because they will not be inhibited before an adult authority as is
true of an individual counseling situation.
·
Role playing as a technique is most suitable for
guiding the activities of the disadvantaged.
·
Further for helping the rural disadvantaged, guidance
service, programme needs be extended through parental counselling, community
resources clubs and referral to psychologist who should be available at least
in each school complex. Guidance must form a part of the entire educational
programme which students should perceive as personally relevant for them.
·
Social disadvantage is a socio-cultural-economic
deprivation combined with deficit in cognitive stimulation at home which in
then carried away to school.
·
In school, social disadvantage is characterized in
terms of achievement deficits, drop out and deficit language and competence.
Discrimination and isolation accelerate the deficit process.
·
Remedial education strategies, guidance, suggested
teacher behaviour would eventually contribute to reducing disparities,
difference and deficits whenever they arise.
·
Our schools and educational system must develop a
better understanding of the implications of the social and psychological
dynamics of deprivation and translate this understanding into educational
programmes, into the training of teachers and administrators and into planning
of curriculum and instruction.
·
No single device will suffice to counteract or to
remedy the complex factors; those are associated with the education of the
underprivileged.
·
To unlock the hidden potential among these children, a
radical change in curriculum and teaching is required.
·
At least the new curriculums which has been introduced
is constructed in such a way that it is related to the psychological realities
of the psychological realities of the child, is tuned to our social and community
life is geared towards achieving needs and aspirations of our people and the
educational climate that is promulgated in the frame-work is more motivating in
terms of teaching techniques for which orientation of teachers are conducted in
a massive way by NCERT, SCERT and State Development of Education.
·
It is true that it is not the educators function only
to reverse the negative impact of educational deprivation, social and effective
insulation, caste discrimination and economic deprivation.
·
It involves all aspect of the community. The task
surely calls for creative innovation all along the line. The crucial
pedagogical problem involved is that of understanding the mechanism of learning
facility and learning dysfunction and applying this knowledge to optimum
development of a heterogeneous population characterized by differential
backgrounds, opportunities and patterns of social and intellectual function.
4.
School counselling for Problem Children
Most children who are treated for
disruptive behavior problems are school-age: They’ve been acting out in class,
ignoring or defying teachers’ direction, or being too aggressive with other
children. But in many cases these children have been exhibiting problematic
behavior for years before they start school.
Individual counseling: Students
can seek one-on-one help from their school counselor to discuss personal
issues, such as bullying, or seek crisis counselling
Problems
|
·
bullying.
·
learning difficulties.
·
behavioural problems.
·
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·
Depression and anxiety.
·
bereavement/loss.
·
attachment disorder.
·
separation anxiety
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Features
•
Maybe they’ve
been having more—and more serious—tantrums than typical kids their age
•
Maybe they’re
extremely hard for exhausted and frustrated parents to manage
•
Maybe they’ve
been kicked out of preschool or excluded from play dates
•
Their behavior
may be disrupting family life and and putting serious strain on other family
members
•
Conflict over
behavior may be creating negative relationships with parents
•
Parents might
be concerned that they might hurt younger siblings
School
Counselling techniques for problem children
•
Practice
tough love
•
Encourage the
active participation in group work
•
Motivation
•
Develop
positive attitude among children
Advantages
of School Counseling
•
Reduces
and removes barriers to learning
•
Enables
children to achieve their full potential – builds social competence and
academic achievement
•
Improves
a child’s attitude to learning and ability to enjoy learning
•
A
targeted early intervention prevents more costly interventions being needed
later
•
Improves
connection and level of engagement between school and family – strengthening of
family unit
•
Having a
counsellor available on the school grounds benefits children and their
families, teachers and the school community
•
Ease of
access, timeliness, availability of a professional opinion, a credible service
delivered in a place that works for kids are all opinions that have been
expressed by school staff
Disadvantages of School Counseling
·
Time consuming
Reference
http://www.aipc.net
https://www.psychologytoday.com
