Help for children with learning challenges

On Saturday evening Literary Specialist Sandie Field-Kellman recommenced her Sandie’s Early Education Drive (SEED) Literacy Workshops at the St George Secondary School. The educator — with close to three decades of experience — says this programme was prompted by the mounting learning challenges experienced by the island’s children.

With the motto Literacy a Tool for Life, it was during the midst of COVID-19 that this developmental programme was  birthed and officially launched in May of last year. At that time, her team focused on urban areas and some of the districts visited included Nelson Street, New Orleans, Greenfield and the Pinelands community. “It was to sensitize parents who have children who need help in literacy,” she said. Among their goals was to dispel the misconception that literacy is only about the inability to read.

At the bedrock of the project is providing parents with the tools to help their children in the learning process, rather than leaving that task solely at the hands of the educational system. “We teach them how to teach their children so that they themselves will become also involved in things they did not know either,” the educator stated. “We want to help our parents to get onboard to be able to take up the deficit where the teacher maybe would miss.”

Parental involvement is pivotal to their children’s success. Her programme operates on the premise that the parent should be the child’s first teacher. “I am one that believes that teaching starts at home,” she noted. In the first workshop for the year the focus was on the parents and they were introduced to teaching through puppetry and creating word charts. In the coming weeks the children will be joining them as they utilise some of the devices that they have been taught. Primarily these two-hour sessions are focused on the children.

“The more parents we have on board to come to learn these different mediums and other avenues maybe our child in another year would have a better understanding on their vowels and their consonants. They will understand how to set up essay writing, how not to use ‘a’ when it should be ‘an’.”

Field-Kellman acknowledged that children face many learning challenges, including dyslexia, autism, memory retention and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). This recognition propelled her to start the charity to assist these children who are in dire need of help. The prevalence of a dislike for reading is also of concern. She said, “For the last year, we have been doing workshops to help you the parent to learn different mediums of helping to teach their child at home rather than only depend on the school and the teacher.” She pointed out that within the school system a teacher has close to 20 children in the classroom, and within that group there are children with challenges. Unfortunately, the teacher is unable to give everyone the level of attention they need.

In the initial stages, each child undergoes diagnostic testing to determine what their deficiencies are and a report is provided to the parent. She indicated, “We will streamline a curriculum for that particular boy or girl so that that child would be on a trajectory to know where he or she is going.”

These lessons include showing parents how to use everyday household items, which can be recycled and used in the learning process. “Everything is a teaching aid,” Field-Kellman assured. “There are different ways and different strategies that you can teach literacy.”

The programme will extend beyond the classroom, with nutrition and keep-fit sessions taking place at the Bay Street Esplanade. “I do not think that children should only learn in a classroom. I believe that children can learn through play, through songs, through so many things, hiking, using words. I think that this programme is really geared towards that,” she added.  Other activities may include a camp. The development of the participants is paramount. Focus will be placed on building self-esteem, how to articulate, enunciate and speak standard English. Encouragement is also given to learn a new language.

This project relies heavily on volunteers from here and abroad with those having speciality skills leading specific sessions.

The charity is seeking sponsorship so that the children can get what they need.

Interested parents can contact Field -Kellman at 258-6075/624-7638. (STT)