Sion Hospital to help out children suffering from Learning Disability

Till now, they were only medically assessed and certified as children with a learning disability. No help was forthcoming from the government thereafter. But all that is about to change. From this month onwards, children with learning disabilities (LD) will receive remedial therapy at the civic-run Lokmanya Tilak Municipal General Hospital at Sion.

The decision to start a remedial therapy section was triggered by survey carried out by the hospital last year, when a little over 2000 children were assessed for learning disabilities by resident doctors. Among those assessed, 1500 were found to have mild to serious LD. Quoting the survey report, a senior doctor at the hospital said, 18 per cent of the kids who had LD were studying in Class 10, while 44 per cent were eighth or ninth graders. A further 26 per cent were in standard five, six and seven while 12 per cent were in primary school.

The hospital thereafter upgraded its pediatric neurodevelopment centre in October 2013 and also introduced a large play area. Speaking to sunday mid-day, Dr. Mamta Manglani, head of the Pediatrics department said, "Children usually go to any nearby medical centre or take remedial therapy from their school. We don't yet have a large team, but we are in the process of building one, so that we can offer remedial therapy to children in the hospital itself."

Dr Mona Gajre, who is in-charge of the LD centre here, said, "We have formed a team of five therapists to give remedial therapy to the children coming in for assessment. There are different types of remedial therapy. Some children need to learn basic skills such as reading, writing and arithmetic. The therapists will help them in coping with their respective difficulties.

The therapy will be given at the pediatric neurodevelopment centre that has been upgraded."