INTRODUCTION

ABOUT THE ORGANISATION

Anbumalar Social Service Vision is a social service organisation started by Mr. P. Selvaraj, the
Founder and Secretary in 1998, and registered as a society in the year 2000 with the aim of serving
the vulnerable, marginalised, needy sections of society. Anbumalar reaches out to the marginalized
and the under privileged with the aim of transforming them into useful and economically independent
individuals in society and to teach them to serve one another in love in order to live a fulfilled life.

WHY THEY STARTED

Denial of privileges and rejection/threat of rejection is often the portion of the poor and the
marginalized even the mentally challenged. Specialized services and treatment, love and care are
often denied these souls. In such a situation, an outstretched hand which assures love, care and
support is as promising as the blossoming of a flower, in their lives. Anbumalar in Tamil language
means, literally, love flower! The founder says that he came up with the name Anbumalar to denote
the loving service that is to be rendered with a pleasant face which is to serve one another in love.

MISSION STATEMENT
To enable mentally challenged children become accepted and productive members of society through
holistic development processes.

OBJECTIVES
1. To enable tangible improvement in the cognitive capacity of the mentally challenged children in
our care, under professional guidance through the special school.
2. To provide skill/vocational training for trainable mentally retarded children, after assessing their
abilities.
3. To impart skill training to the needy family member of every mentally challenged person in our
care where possible, towards improvement of the economic condition of the respective families.
4. To provide micro- credit to skilled/ enterprising, needy family members of every mentally
challenged child under our care where possible, to enable them to start a small business.
5. To serve as a centre of dissemination of information, research and advocacy for and regarding the
mentally challenged and other related conditions, towards dispelling stigma associated with such; and
to develop more effective ways of rehabilitation.

ACTIVITIES
Anbumalar was born with a long-term vision to reach out to the most vulnerable of our nation,
particularly children with disability. Anbumalar as a mother organization, in fulfilling its broader
vision, began one of its pioneering initiatives with a Special School that caters to the needs of
mentally challenged children across the city of Chennai in Tamilnadu.
Currently, Anbumalar Special School provides the following services under its holistic development
model of intervention for the mentally challenged, completely free of cost:
1. Special education
2. Early intervention care and support
3. Vocational training and self-employment guidance and support
4. Speech and physiotherapy
5. Family counselling
6. Medical care and referrals
7. Sports & games
8. Extra-curricular activities
9. Food and refreshments
10. Transportation
11. Institutional linkages and referrals
12. Educational support to siblings of mentally challenged children
13. Initiatives for economic development of the families of mentally challenged children
14. Integrated and inclusive rural community development initiatives
15 Community based rehabilitation

ACTIVITIES
PRAYER

CLASSROOM

LUNCH

MARCHING

CANDEL

PAPERPLATE

TEACHING STRATEGIES FOR CHILDREN WITH LEARNIG

DISABILITIES

Children with learning disabilities show greater learning when techniques like task analysis, peer
teaching, cooperative learning, learning corners and multisensory approach are used. The following
strategies would be helpful to both the parents and teachers when trying to teach such children
STRATEGIES FOR READING SKILLS

Prepare the student by presenting new concepts and vocabulary

Guide the student in to reading a story by asking questions which bring up the purpose or goal
of the reading
Develop or strengthen skills relating to the material through drills or worksheet activities
Assign work in order to apply the skills acquired during a lesson
Read aloud to students regularly
Devote a few minutes every day to sustained silent reading
Use writing activities that provide opportunities for the teacher to model writing strategies
and skills.
Include journal writing as part of the students individualised educational programme
Provide meaningful printed materials in the instructional setting (e.g. dictionaries, categorised
lists of words)
Establish a network of communication with other teachers, and thus using holistic techniques
in working with such students
Let the child read aloud (oral reading). If the child makes mistakes they can be easily
identified by the teacher and corrected
Reading can be done with peers or with parents (paired reading). This will enhance the
confidence of the child
Reading in a group (choral reading). Here they get both auditory and visual stimulus to
correct themselves
Use colour-coded textbooks (e.g., green equals start, red equals stop)
Have a small group of class read aloud simultaneously

STRATEGIES FOR WRITING SKILLS

A sufficient amount of time should be allocated for writing. (E.g. four times per week)
because students can learn and develop as writer only by writing.
Expose students to a broad range of writing tasks. Students should participate in writing
activities that present highly structured problem-solving situations as well as activities that
involve self-selected and expressive writing.
Create a social climate conducive to writing development. Teachers need to be encouraging in
as non-threatening environment and should try to develop a sense of community by
promoting student sharing and collaboration.
Integrate writing with subjects such as language and arts so as to stimulate the writing skills.
Help students develop the processes central to effective writing. The composition process of
writing can be divided into a series of discrete stages (e.g. prewritten, write and rewrite), and

students can be taught appropriate task-specific and met cognitive strategies (e.g. selfinstructional strategy training).
Help students develop explicit knowledge about the characteristics of good writing. Students
should be given exposure to the characteristics of various literary compositions either through
reading or teacher presentation of writing or live models that incorporate a specific skill or
style.
Help students develop the skills and abilities to carry out more sophisticated composing
processes.
Assist students in the development of goals for improving their written products.
Goal setting and having students evaluate their own writing according to specific criteria can
help students accurately monitor and evaluate progress.
Tape alphabets forms to the floor, Have students walk or hop around the form. Have them
reproduce the form with coloured yarn.
Have students use a stick (broom handle) and their bodies to form the letters.
Spray shaving cream can be used to form large letters. Paper provides a suitable surface.
Have students use a torch light beam to trace letters on a chalkboard.
Have students form letters in wet fingerprint/paint/sand.
Use colored directional cues such as green arrows and red dots.
Help students to form an association for a letter they have difficulty remembering
Have students orally describe their movements as the letter is being written. This provides
auditory reinforcement.

STRATEGIES FOR MATHEMATICS

Use manipulates such as buttons and beads. Let the students drop beads into a clear plastic
cup and count while seeing how many beads represent the number. The child also gets
auditory input to support this concept.
Use visuals. Materials for younger students usually have a generous display of visual
illustrations. Materials for older pupils tend to rely more on abstract presentations. A teacher
may need to supplement teaching by drawing and constructing visual representations.
Try providing verbal reinforcement with visual material. Describing the computation process
while working problems along with clapping activities are other examples of verbal
reinforcement
Try using tactile presentations. These can be materials such as sandpaper number or paper
strips of various lengths used to demonstrate concepts such as more or less. Another type of
tactile presentation is to trace a number or problem on the back of the students hand.
Use colour cues. Colored chalk and marking pens can be used to indicate these steps and
direction of the process. Highlighters can be used to call attention to process signs (+, X) and
clue words (more than, times).
Provide a sample problem for each assignment. The referent problem can be particularly
helpful for students with memory difficulties.
Relate class activities to increase temporal awareness to time. Using phrases such as in five
minutes earlier today and yesterday will provide some basis for understanding time.
Calendar work is useful, particularly in regard to special events and holidays.
Reduce the number of examples in the assignment. Some work pages are overwhelming to the
pupil because of the sheer numbers of examples. They may also loose their place because of
figure- ground deficits. These pupils are also slower in their rate of production.
Use display charts.

Play tallying games. Develop word problems based on game scores.

Have students use playing cards to develop games that require arithmetic computation.
Apply measurement in the classroom. Chart the growth of class members (a long-term project
for certain ages), the growth of plants, and other measurements. Have students estimate
distances, weights and possible answers.
Have students use an abacus to facilitate their calculations.
Reinforce high rates of correct responses.
Set a rate goal.
Chart performances and terminate daily practice once the goal is achieved.
Tell students to work faster.
Challenge students to beat their last rate score.
Teach students to use rules. (e.g., any number times 2 are double that number).
Drill difficult problems with flash cards.
Play instructional math games.
Teach students the relationship between addition and subtraction or multiplication and
division when they are learning the respective facts.
Use colour-coded textbooks (e.g. green equals start, red equals stop)
Use concrete manipulations.
Use meaningful examples and materials
Have students use graph paper to help organize numbers and columns on mathematical
assignments.
Teach key vocabulary in mathematics.

STRATEGIES FOR ATTENTION DEFICIT AND HYPERACTIVE DISORDER

Reward the student for being prepared by allowing him/her to participate in favourite
activities, conferring classroom privileges (like making the child monitor of the class)
Establish routines for placing objects especially routinely used objects such as books or
assignments.
Point out to the salient features of the assignments (topic sentences, headings or table of
contents)
Provide the student with a list of materials needed for each task. Limit the list to only those
materials necessary to complete the task.
Enhance the clarity of instructions. Repeat as often in a clear, clam tone.
Shorten the task by breaking one task into smaller parts to be completed.
Make tasks more interesting.
Increase the novelty of the task by using a game format
Use high interest curriculum materials.

GENERAL INTERVENTIONS

Show, demonstrate and model.

Utilize multisensory learning.
Break information down into smaller units.

Utilise peer tutoring and cooperative learning.

Use a developmentally appropriate approach.
Make information as concrete as possible.
Provide a small group of instructions.
Read test materials to the student.
Find out how the student learns best, and utilize this learning channel.
Provide opportunity for continuous success.
Use consistent vocabulary when teaching a new skill
All students should be encouraged and given time to work collaboratively and solve problems
up to whatever levels they can attain.
Give students a chance to share and justify their thinking in different ways.
Make greater use of problem driven tasks and open-ended questions.
Increase expectations for students reasoning, and encourage multiple solution strategies.
Lay greater emphasis on inter student dialogue and collaboration.
Make less use of teacher directed instruction.