Negative Characteristics :-

1) They are aggressive in nature. 2) They are indifferent to class-work.

3) They show egoistic and jealous behavior. 4) They are over-confident.

5) They are outspokenly critical.

4.7 GUIDING PRINCIPLES OF GIFTED CHILDREN:

1. Schools should provide for extra coaching for fast learners. 2. There must be arrangement for separate division.

3. Schools should help the gifted in appearing for scholarship examinations.

4. School authorities should encourage the gifted children to widen their sphere of interests by making respective provisions in schools.

5. Flexibility in choosing the subject may be provided.

6. Arrangement should be made on both the elementary and the secondary level.

7. While teaching to the gifted, drill must be reduced to the minimum.

8. Project methods may be applied while training the gifted.

9. To teach the gifted, particularly able teachers are required who are themselves of high intelligence well informed and acquainted with the psychology of the gift.

10. There may be special study camp arrangement.

11. Regular special classes may be held for subjects e.g. If a child is gifted in mathematics, he/she may be allowed to attend a special class in mathematics for other subjects he/she may study in regular class.

12. Teacher should foster the development to create hobbies and interests.

13. Teacher should provide horizontal and vertical enrich.

14. Enrichment of learning experiences or programmes should be provided in the school. This helps towards their proper adjustment.

4.8. MAINSTREAMING OF DISABLED CHILDREN:

Education of children with disabilities in India, as all over the world, has moved from segregation, special schools to integrated education. There is a great challenge before India, to make necessary changes to build a more inclusive and generous society. The call of the day for India is to create a society which enables children from all sectors and classes of the society to come together and have a barrier free education. It’s time to examine the relationship between disabled children and analyse a particular form of knowledge production in order to create an understanding of disability and the struggle for a more inclusive and equitable society.

In this direction many actions and steps of implimentation are in progress. Cooperative planning is an educational programming and monitoring arrangement between special and regular educators on behalf of learning disabled students. Without effective cooperative planning between the learning disabilities teacher and the regular classroom teacher, the probability of successfully mainstreaming an learning disabled students into the regular classroom is greatly reduced.

The practice of mainstreaming students with disabilities in regular classrooms is required by law as long as its "conducive to learning." Teaching students with disabilities in regular classrooms is a complicated and challenging task. In some schools, mainstreaming of students with disabilities is used only for those classes in which the child has ability to keep up with peers, In fact, severely disabled students are being placed in regular classrooms where they are integrated only in their physical presence and not in their participation in the classroom learning, where disruption is often evident, and where isolation from other students is not uncommon. Are schools doing this because of an uncritical application of the reigning ideology—the inclusion of all children in mainstream classrooms, irrespective of their specific abilities and needs? Obviously, many academically weak students recognize their own difficulties when they are in classrooms where most of the other students are ahead of them. And strong students are sometimes prevented from progressing at a pace that challenges them because their right to an appropriate education is considered, even by some educators, to be less important because they are gifted and it is assumed that they can cope on their own. Moreover, excellent teachers experience considerable frustration and despair with the wide variability of knowledge, skills, and proficiencies of the students in their classrooms. Lastly it is the combined efforts of teacher and parents to work hand in hand to uplift the disabled children in mainstreaming society.

Check Your Progress

 Identify the characteristics of gifted children.  Illustrate the guidance provided to the gifted child.

 Suggest the facilities to be provided to the gifted children.

 Write a note on challenges faced in mainstreaming of disabled students in regular classroom.

4.9 LET US SUM UP

Guidance can function as supportive device to identify children and provide them Educational guidance and remedial help. The procedure of identification of such students locating their educational needs, problems and remedies has been described in this chapter. The children needs to be identified first and foremost, then only a teacher can perform duties effectively. The guidance to be provided has to be very planned and systematic.

4.10 UNIT END EXERCISE :

Q.1 Who are the differently abled students? How can you identify them?

Q.2 What is learning disability? How can you identify learning disabled students?

Q.3 Write short notes on : a) Mainstreaming

b) Characteristics of gifted children c) Nature of slow learners

4.11 REFERENCES:

 A. K. Nayak, (1997) Guidance and Counselling, APH Publishing Corporation, New Delhi.

 Kochhar S. K. (1987) Guidance and Counselling in colleges

 Panda K. C. (1997) Education of Exeptional Children, Vikas Publishing House, Delhi.

 S. Chand (2009) Guidance and Counselling, Revised Edition, S. Chand & Company Ltd., Ram Nagar, New Delhi

 http://www.inclusionireland.ie/  http://www.mencap.org.uk/

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