ADVERTISEMENTS:
The teacher has to face different types of problems of the students may be of guidance and counselling problems.
There are several cases of counselling which required a trained and experienced counsellor to the following types of problems of the students:
1. The Physically Handicapped, Sickly and Sensory Defective Child:
As these entire problems have a definite medical aspect, the first step should be an examination of the medical record. Then a programme should be worked out in consultation with the parents and school or family physician. The programme should endeavour to meet the needs of the child insofar as school facilities permit.
ADVERTISEMENTS:
The physically handicapped child often needs of lightened programme, restricted activity, and additional rest as well as a type of attitude on the part of the teacher and pupils which avoids giving undue attention to his handicap. Large School system often provides special schools or classes for such children, making provision at the same time for contact with normal children.
Sickly children also are in special need of a regime worked out in collaboration with the parents and the physician. All children with suspected visual difficulties should first be given a visual examination. If the deficiency is correlated by glasses, the teacher should remember that, during the transition period between the discovery of the defect and the adjustment to the wearing of glasses, the child may feel sensitive.
Children who are hard of hearing often require, in addition to being seated near the front centre of the room and care on the part of the teacher to speak in a clear voice, special aid in bolstering their morale. Some ways of accomplishing this will be mentioned in connection with other problems.
2. The Gifted Child:
When special child or classes for the gifted are lacking teacher may help the gifted child by mean of moderate acceleration if he is above average in size and social maturity as well as by an enrichment of his school programme. If he is small or immature socially, only an enrichment of the offerings of his regular class is advisable.
ADVERTISEMENTS:
Through a conference between the teacher and the gifted pupil, a joint plan may be worked out which will allow him to do dependent work at special time during the child day along the line of his special interests. Conferences at stated intervals can be arranged for check-up and future guidance by the teacher. In the secondary school, the gifted pupils. From the stand point of society, however, every effort should be made to foster both his intellectual and personality assists.
3. The Scholastically Handicapped Child:
Despite the fact that dull children are more likely to have a smaller gap between ability and achievement than the children of average intelligence, many schools, continue to push and urge and dull child to better work.
In the elementary school it is often advisable to reduce the level of expectation for these children and give them work better suited to their abilities and needs. Those with I.Q. below 70 to 75 often profit from special classes. In the high school a change in curriculum or a reduction in the number of courses will help.
For those with subject matter disabilities, arrangement should be made for remedial help, taking care that method are follows which arouse their interest and do not embarrass them. Pupils with speech defects should be given individual help. If another school offers courses better suited for their needs, a transfer may be effected.
4. The Shy or Isolated Child:
One must be careful not to push the shy or isolated child into social activities for which he is not prepared, as it may only increase his difficulties. Usually a gradual approach is necessary. One school has found that excellent results are obtained when the child’s first classroom group includes only one other child. This companion is especially selected to be one who is socially inclined but somewhat submissive.
Other schools have found it helpful to enlist the aid of the class leaders in making the shy child feel at ease with them and the other pupils. Later he may be encouraged to attend and extracurricular group having interests similar to his. Tuition in special skills and utilization of special aptitudes may be helpful. Praise, when first used, should be confined to the child’s products, because many shy children react poorly to commendation of their personal qualities.
5. The ‘Inferior’ Child:
Inferiority feeling may frequently be decreased by giving the child classroom tasks whose accomplishment makes his feel important. Special arrangement may also be made for him to utilize and display any special abilities or talent he has, or it may be possible for him to receive special instruction to help him become unusually proficient in some motor skill.
In general, the more opportunities he has for legitimately receiving attention and recognition by the teacher and his classmates, the less he will resort to annoying, attention-getting behaviour. Every encouragement should be given him in his own efforts to reach socially approved goals. The teacher’s own praise, reassurance, and acknowledgement of his personal worth usually aid greatly.
6. The Poverty-Stricken Child:
The child from a poverty-stricken home frequently suffers from poor health and malnutrition. One of the first requirements is, therefore, a physical examination and an endeavour to meet his nutritional needs, Hunger often shown itself in school through irritability, malnutrition through apathy. Both conditions are aided by the provision of school lunches; in addition, some schools find it advisable to serve milk in the middle of the morning or even before classes begin.
ADVERTISEMENTS:
The problem presented by his clothing requires especially tactful handling. It is likely to be dirty, threadbare, ill-fitting, and of course, a sources of embarrassment to the child. Some teachers find a way to give decent clothing to a child’s family without offence; others rely on social agencies. In any case, the possession of clothes which do not set the child apart from others is likely to make an immediate difference in his morale.
The best school will have a difficult, sometimes an impossible task, in attempting to correct personality difficulties deeply rooted in condition of poverty.
7. Children with Unfavourable Parent and Child Relationships:
Rejected children constitute problems which are very likely to be beyond the scope of the teacher. Even child guidance clinics with expert staffs find these children to be most difficult to readjust, especially when both parents reject the child. The parents’ attitudes in such cases are likely to be firmly embedded in their personalities. The best chance for improvement lies in intensive treatment; thus, if there is a child guidance clinic in the community, such children should be referred to it.
If there is but one rejected parents, it is sometimes possible for a teacher, through a judicious approach, to persuade the non-rejecting parent to be more affectionate with the child. The teacher himself may attempt to meet partially his need for affection. Such measures sometimes help to improve the child’s behaviour.
Through going overprotection is also a difficult condition for the teacher to cope with. With mild case, the same techniques that succeed with the shy child are likely to be beneficial. A concurrent attempt to gain the parents’ co-operation in granting the child more independence in his out-of-school life should be of value. In severe cases, referral to a child guidance clinic is usually indicated.
The child who is unfavoured in the home is usually less resistant to the readjustive efforts of the teacher. Sometimes these children respond to techniques designed to bolster their self-esteem and individuality by coming to look on the school as a source of security, even if no changes in parental attitude can be effected.
The most of the teacher is often able to do is to point out to the child, when unnecessary moral conflicts arise, that other people have different positions on the matter. It is obviously unwise to oppose the ideas of the parents. The immoral home is within the province of the family welfare agency rather than that of the school.
8. Classroom Friction:
It is easy to see how the behaviour of many maladjusted children is annoying and disturbing to the teacher and to the class. But when teachers respond to misbehaviour by scolding, nagging, sarcastic remarks, ridiculing, shaming, forcing an apology, threatening, detention after school, assignment of extra work, lowering marks on subjects or tests, non-promotion, demotion, or corporal punishment, they are likely to defeat their purpose by increasing the frequency of the undesirable activities.
When one teacher, however, understands the child’s problem and can interpret it to the others and times it may be necessary for a teacher to suggest that a child be placed under the supervision of another teacher, for there are some children who, for unknown or unconscious reasons are incompatible with certain adults.
Using Outside Agencies:
Every teacher should know the resources in the community for aiding children. Not only should he acquire knowledge obtainable through annual reports and other descriptive literature, but he should also visit the agencies more likely to be serviceable. He should be well oriented to the services performed by family welfare and children’s agencies as well as by child guidance clinics and health and recreational centres.