Tata Interactive Systems brings help to children with learning difficulties

At the end of November, Tata Interactive Systems (TIS) hosted the second annual Tata Interactive Learning Disability Forum (TLDF) - a unique global symposium on LD. Topics at this year’s TLDF included pre-testing in schools; handling the LD student in class, and counselling the LD child and her/his parents; with speakers drawn from all over the world including Lorraine Petersen, CEO of the UK-based organisation, nasen, and Polly Bayrd, a consultant at the Learning Disabilities Clinic in Minnesota, USA.

”Not many schools in Mumbai were aware of learning difficulties – all too often, these children were deemed slow learners. In keeping with the Tata Group’s commitment to Corporate Social Responsibility, TIS adopted the cause of LD students and the Tata Interactive Learning Disability Forum is one of our key initiatives,” explained Sanjaya Sharma, CEO of Tata Interactive Systems, (www.tatainteractive.com).

“It was heartening that the TLDF was instrumental in ramping up the number of schools in Mumbai that recognised LD as an issue – and made the requisite accommodations for LD students – has gone up from about 100 in 2005 to 230 in 2006 and 480 in 2007,” he added. TIS has been instrumental in supporting the LD Clinic at Sion Hospital, Mumbai, one of the few of its kind in the country. It also partners with LD-focused organisations such as nasen and the Maharashtra Dyslexia Association. Some of TIS’s other LD initiatives include striving for changes in medical and teachers’ curricula to include LD in the syllabi.

Speaking at TLDF 2007, Dr Madhuri Kulkarni, professor and head of paediatrics at Sion Hospital in Mumbai, explained that LD often manifests itself via ‘problems at school’ and that, to be successful, remedial education needs the support of the child’s parents or guardians.

Dr Kulkarni added: “LD is a common neuro-developmental disorder which is demonstrated by up to 15 per cent of the school population; has an equal male/female distribution, and is most likely to be familial in origin.”

Further information about the TLDF from http://tldf.tatainteractive.com

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