Remedial course available for teachers this month

Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 13, Issue 606, 3 October 1995, Page 3

Remedial course available for teachers this month

By

Michele

Monaghan

Have you ever suspected something wasn't quite right with your child, an otherwise normal child, except he gets things back to front or has trouble concentrating, spelling, reading or doing simple sums? It may be this child has a specific learning disability, a disability that SPELD can pin-point and provide tutoring to help fix the problem. "You can't cure a learning disability. It will always be with that person, but there are other ways of teaching that person," remedial teacher Jan Savell said last week. A three-week course starts on 17 October in Palmerston North on the SPELD way of using different strategies to compensate for particular disabilities. 'There are four SPELD tutors in T aihape that I know of, two in Waiouru for soldiers only and no one at Ohakune. There is a desperate need for them," Mrs Savell said. To become a SPELD tutor you need to be a qualified teacher. The course is also open to teacher aides, but they cannot be SPELD tutors. "As a teacher SPELD training really adds a dimension to your teaching and gives you a better understanding of the difficulties pupils have," Mrs Savell said. For children to get SPELD tutoring they first have to be tested. The test takes about three hours and includes testing co-ordina-tion, auditory memory, visual discrimination, visual recall and lateralisation (left/right). "It' s really important if you are suspicious to get this test done. The earlier the better. A learning disability is a physical thing, just like if you broke your arm. It's not just that the child is lazy or stupid, it's a specific neurological problem," Mrs Savell said.