Taare Zameen Par with connection to Dyslexia

"A child is a gift of God, a blessing from above, a picture of purity and innocence."

While attending today's online conference on Covid-19: Opportunity to learn, explore and experiment organised by ELTA Telangana, I came across a presentation on Dyslexia and I suddenly remembered about the movie Taare Zameen Par which also talks about the issue of Dyslexia. I got to know many new things which I thought should connect with the movie.

 Firstly we shall discuss about what is dyslexia. The disorder with specific difficulties in reading was identified by Oswald Berkhan in 1881 and the term 'dyslexia' was coined in 1887 by Rudolf Berlin, a German Ophthalmologist practising in Stuttgart, Germany. He used the term to refer to a case of a young boy who had a severe impairment in learning to read and write in spite of showing normal intellectual and physical abilities in all other aspects. Brain takes longer to make some connections and does it in more steps. It especially has trouble matching the letters you see on the page with the sounds those letters and combinations of letters make. (b-d) (top-pot) (mirror image of words) (animal- animl, anml, enaml).

There are 5 types of Dyslexia- Trauma dyslexia, Primary dyslexia, Developmental dyslexia, Visual dyslexia and Phonological dyslexia. There is no cure for it but students can succeed in school or later in life with the assistance of teachers, school accommodations and modifications, support of family and appropriate intervention and instruction.

Children with this kind of learning disabilities are not accepted by the society. They are left behind in academics, they cannot participate in school activities and they also don't have friends or may have 1 or 2 friends only. Dyslexia is a neurological disorder as the brain is not able to process the visual matter effectively. So the child experiences problems to interpret letters, shapes, numbers or any other visual material. Such children maybe intelligent also but cannot express their intelligence in tests. Many people in today's time are not able to understand or accept or maybe do not have knowledge about this problem. If their child does not perform well, they scold them and label the as 'useless', 'dull', 'duffer' and what not. Everyone wants their child to become successful. Some children who are gifted (we do not use the word disabled) face too much pressure from their parents, peers, school that they get emotionally detached from them. Parents should understand that their child is gifted who has a special ability to study and interpret images. They may not be genius in academics but can master other skills like Ishaan in Taare Zameen Par.

Taare Zameen Par is a 2007 released bollywood movie directed and produced by Aamir Khan. The film revolves around the life of a 8 year old boy Ishaan Awasthi (starring Darsheel Safary) who is suffering from Dyslexia. This movie has a wonderful tagline- 'Every child is special.' This indicates that every parent has to understand then only they can discover the uniqueness of their own child. Ishaan, a boy who finds it difficult to match his world of colours, kites and animals to that of the other of his age group who are more into studies and homework. He does not perform well in school and when complaints start coming in large numbers, he is sent to boarding school. There is no difference in his regular school and the boarding school. He is constantly insulted and beaten by his teachers and becomes a laughing stock of the class. He feels lonely and inferior. He finds it difficult to overcome his problem. After some time, Mr. Nikumbh (arts teacher) arrives who realises that he is suffering from dyslexia and tries to help him in every way possible. He makes everyone understand his problem and request them to behave normally with him. He makes everyone realise that he is a special child with unique talent. With time, patience love and care from Nikumbh, Ishaan succeeds in overcoming his inability and gain confidence.

" Every child comes with a message that God is not discouraged of man. Every child is a star on Earth, is special who cleanses the soul, an empty canvas, waiting to be painted with love."

                                     - Rabindranath Tagore

1) Ishaan is a skilful, adventurous, artistic, lovely, sensitive, nature lover and lives in the world of fantasies. He can solve puzzles easily, can paint, can understand poetry (he tells the meaning of a stanza from Hindi poem during class). His problem is he cannot read, write, calculate (surprise maths test), is not able to memorise or answer, cannot follow instructions fastly (when he is instructed to open a particular page number and read a particular paragraph and line). When he fails to do something or he is scolded by someone for something, he feels angry, lonely, abandoned and frustrated at times which can be seen when he kicks the flower pots. He lacks motor skills as he cannot know his tie or tie his shoelaces properly. 

                                                       Ishaan's Painting

2) One of the scene shows large insects moving out of Ishaan's bag to reveal that books and studies seem to be scary to him. 

3) Dyslexics have poor time management, get easily distracted and might lose their sense of time. This thing is shown in the movie when Ishaan forgets to board his school bus and the conductor gets him to the bus. At that time Ishaan is fascinated by the fishes in the school pond.

                         

4) According to Sally S. (2013), Dyslexics have 'vivid imaginations'. They are disoriented in time and space. They are known to be "right brain dominant." This can be seen when Ishaan and his classmates are given a surprise maths test where he does not know what to do. He stares at one question and then goes away in his imagination. While be comes back to reality, he is able to solve only one question which is also incorrect (3×9= 3).  ( VIDEO LINK IN THE BRACKET)

5) BDA (2007) "With proper teaching methods, dyslexics could cope with daily life and in school. However, dyslexia is permanent and cannot be outgrown." This is shown when Ishaan is sent to boarding school where he meets his arts teacher Mr. Nikumbh who helps him in every way possible and uses specialised teaching methods to help him learn better and in the end, he shows tremendous improvement and scores higher grades in all the subjects.

6) Mr. Nikumbh is also shown to be working with children with special needs in another school where he interacts with them on a very simple level ( with love and care). Those students perform in a function which is a very heart touching emotional moment. This shows that children (facing these types of problems)  can overcome these struggles if they are treated in the right way.

7) When Ishaan's parents come to know about his condition, his father comes to meet Mr. Nikumbh and says that they do care for him as his mother has been doing online research on dyslexia. But here, Mr. Nikumbh very gently makes him understand what caring actually is ("khayal karna is ko kehte hai na? Muje ye sun kar khushi hui ki aapko lagta hai ki aap khayal karte hai.") He says that parents' responsibilities don't end with providing the best educational options or materialistic comforts or a luxurious lifestyle. Taking care of your child means to comfort him, be with him when he needs you the most, motivate him when he is dejected, just a hug or kiss is enough to show that you really care.

8) Another thing Nikumbh tells him of Solomon Islands where people don't cut off an unwanted tree but gather around cursing it and indirectly it dies after some time. The same is with a person. Words can make or break a person. A slap will never have the same effect that harsh words have.

9) Some famous dyslexic people are Albert Einstein, Leonardo da Vinci, Agatha Christie, Walt Disney.

International Webinar on ELT & Technology

I got a chance to attend the second webinar organised by Department of English (my favourite place where I earned my Post graduation degree) MKBU, Bhavnagar, Gujarat on 2^nd and 3^rd June 2020 on the topic ELT & Technology. This time I presented a paper and my topic was "The use, advantages and disadvantages of Multimedia technology in English Language Teaching."

Abstract- The paper aims to analyse the use of technology to ELT in the non-native speaking countries and to bring out the problems faced by both teachers and learners of English. The rapid development of science and technology such as multimedia technology has offered a better tool to explore the new teaching methods. It has played an important role in ELT, especially, in the non-native speaking of English situations. It also aims to make non-native speakers of English as language teachers aware of the strategies to use it in an effective manner.

Earlier it was a one day webinar but there were around 90 paper presenters so Dilip Sir decided to extend the event to 2 days. But there were some problems with the weather conditions. A cyclone (Nisarg) was predicted at the seashore so it may disrupt the event but sir is always ready with Plan B. Fortunately everything went on smoothly both the days. As it is said- 'Where there is a will, there is a way'. Sir's dedication towards work has always been appreciable and beneficial not only for him but for others too.

This was my second experience of participating and presenting in an International event. The paper presenters were from different states and countries. All the paper presenters presented their papers very well. Their topics were very different where I came to know about many new concepts and tools used in language teaching like Flip grid and Mentimeter. Plenary sessions were also very interesting as the speakers talked about their real life experiences and the teaching methods were also discussed. The plenary speakers were-

1) Vance Stevens (Malaysia) who talked on "From thinking SMALL on social media assisted language learning to TALIN: Teaching and Learning in IsolatioN."  He showed one image from the past and one of present. Then a comparison was done. In the nearer beginning, there were computers and there was language learning and the two began to converge in the 1970s. Then be showed some images of earlier computers, a spirit copier and typical output. A discussion was also done on Krashen's book "Principles and Practice in Second Language Acquisition" (1981). He then talked about Siemens on the necessity of chaos in learning, learning language by making sense of chaos. A talk was also held on Levy and Hubbard's (2005) Why call CALL 'CALL'? (this term has been in use for 2 decades at the time the article was written). SMALL (social media assisted language learning) was also discussed along with TALIN (Teaching and Learning in IsolatioN). Overall, it was an interesting topic and we got to know many new things.

2) Dr. Ania Lian (Australia) spoke on "Remote teaching and learning of English Language in higher education contexts: Experiences and research from a country where distance learning is be norm, not a calamity." She discussed on what makes leaning in higher education different today where Top 10 skills required in 2020 were told i.e. Complex problem solving, Critical thinking, Creativity, People management, coordinating with others, Emotional intelligence, Judgement and Cognitive flexibility. The first point was the expectations of technology which are HOTS (Higher Order Thinking Skills), Learning by immersion and Self- directed learning. Second point was what is available were it was told about the activities that extend the students' capacity to act in a broad range of contexts, expand their intercultural understandings and values and develop critical thinking. The third point was limitations of what is currently available online and they are Preparation, Scope of activities and Technology Tools.  The fourth point was what can we do today. This too was an interesting session as we got to know about the latest skills which are required and the different activities which take place in different countries (which we can also experiment on our students).

3) Heike Philp (Belgium) interacted on "Is teaching live online the new normal?" An online poll was taken on some questions like How do you feel about teaching remotely, Name the tool/app/platform which can be used in remote teaching for development of 'Writing skills', What other hurdles in using technologies in your local environment are there and how are teachers' ready to use technology. This vote was taken on mentimeter where the speaker can control the questions on the screen. This session was very interactive as after the live poll, every question was discussed in detail and the poll results were also shown where the speaker discussed about her own experiences too.

After the webinar was over, we had to give an online test and then give feedback. In the online test, I scored 30/30 and I got a Certificate of Participation and a Certificate of Paper Presentation. These two days were very fruitful for me and helped me expanding the horizons. All thanks to the organising team and Dilip Sir who never misses a chance to motivate us with his tireless interest and efforts.