“Spare the rod, spoil the child,” so goes the English adage. However, unlike wiring in electricity, human brains are wired differently. That notwithstanding, in conforming to the above ancient adage, it is worth recalling that in yesteryears, every mistake committed by a student in school was punishable. Corporal punishment, more so the rod—the stroke of the cane—was the due process of administering such punishment. According to some tutors, failing or not meeting expectations in any test translates to no sparing of the rod.
Well, whether or not corporal punishment techniques, especially caning, worked or not could be a bigger debate for another day.
“Much as the effectiveness of administering the stroke of the cane remains a debate for another day, since such corrective measures are hardly applied nowadays in prisons (correctional institutions), it sends a message of the cane’s effectiveness,” says Kaunda Ogosia in Ururi Midlands Village, Usigu, Siaya.
At the same time, on second thought, Ogosiah vividly remembers that in the same vicinity, in the era when chiefs were chiefs, the late Ogowo Nyanam administered the same dose of treatment to a wayward witch doctor who ended up fleeing the area, with some alleging he abandoned the profession.
Far from the above examples, students are neither suspects, convicted criminals, nor witchdoctors; they are learners navigating education.
And in real-time education, those who trained in teachers’ colleges in the era of the New Primary Approach (NPA), or the philosophy of “never punish a child,” when strokes of the cane ruled schools, my guess is as good as yours.
Consequently, the question of whether corporal punishment was or is effective comes to the fore as mental health practitioners continue to uncover learning disorders (LD). Accordingly, Dr. Paul Nyawanga, a guiding and counselling psychologist who runs the secretariat of Caring Hearts in Ururi Midlands, Usigu, Siaya, is categorical: “A child doesn’t always fail because of being lazy.”
Chipping in, Clinical Child Psychologist and Learning Disorder Specialist Liz Khaemba once said, “Such learning disorders and inabilities make the process of learning difficult.”
“This is so because of the way the human brain processes information.”
She is categorical in her belief that learners with LD are otherwise normal, adding that such learners have challenges in learning specific skills. She mentions they could have difficulties in motor skills (walking, running, handwriting, coordination), language, reading, writing, auditory, and visual-spatial processing.
Gunning towards corrective measures, Nyawanga mentions professionally run transformative bodies. He explains that such institutions work with students with learning difficulties between the ages of four and twenty-four.
“These professionals focus on learning and behavioural challenges,” he says, adding that “these clinics are best placed, through partnerships with schools in the region, to provide crucial assessment and equally important corrective interventions.”
In this respect, Dr. Nyawanga advises parents, guardians, caretakers, and teachers to be wary of labelling a child or student as lazy or disinterested in learning before diagnosis.
“It is totally out of order to label a student lazy or dumb before they undergo a learning disorder diagnosis,” Nyawanga notes.
“That is in case a student isn’t keeping pace with his or her peers,” the psychologist cautions. In addition, he emphasises, “Tread carefully; such a learner could be facing dyslexia, dysgraphia, or dyscalculia, among other learning difficulties.”
Stepping it up, the ‘daktari’ explains: “In dyslexia, learners often present with slow reading speed, poor comprehension, omission of words, and letter or word reversal, among other symptoms.”
“And in dysgraphia,” he adds, “it results in disturbances or challenges in writing, and such learners experience poor organisation of written work, poor handwriting, spelling, and grammar.”
According to Nyawanga, a child with dyscalculia will have a hard road in mathematics. “This,” he says, “is occasioned by impairment to parts of the brain involved in mathematical processing.”
The symptoms list is long, including difficulty grasping basic number concepts, challenges in reading and writing numbers, problems in performing calculations, and the inability to comprehend or undertake word problems.
“Towards arriving at an accurate diagnosis, we carry out a standardised assessment,” Khaemba clarifies. She adds, smiling, “Once we determine and establish the roadblock to the free flow of information to the learner, we begin working smart with the learner, teacher, and parent.”
“This is in line with providing the right targeted corrective interventions, which work best in addressing specific challenges.”
To arrive at the right solutions, Khaemba points out that some corrective interventions include training teachers on appropriate classroom strategies and enlightening parents about the disorders affecting their children’s learning.
“This includes highlighting proper parenting approaches to boost learners’ confidence.”
Such careful guidance is backed by in-clinic sessions and neurocognitive interventions. A parent, Orifa Owadgi, whose ten-year-old child had been a patient at one of the transformative clinics, noted that the intervention worked after his son was diagnosed with dyslexia at nine years of age.
“Better late than never—the interventions have enabled him not only to read better but also to improve his spelling remarkably,” Owadgi said with a smile.
Another parent, Farhere Dahir, confessed that she had almost given up hope on her daughter’s academic performance.
Her daughter had faced disciplinary challenges and struggled with attention and memory, particularly in classwork.
Now, Dahir proudly says, “Three months into treatment, she has moved ten places up in class.”
Afloat and “on cloud nine,” Dahir adds, “She is now performing within an average range, with steady improvement each term. Her confidence has also improved, and she is far less disruptive in class.”
Khaemba notes that most of her referrals come from paediatricians and teachers concerned about learners whose performance is below expectations.
“Children with learning difficulties are neither dumb nor lazy,” she reiterates.
“Neither is it a disease that can be medicated,” she adds.
With this in mind, next time you hear a complaint that a child is slow, think twice before picking up the ‘kiboko’. The ancient adage, “spare the rod, spoil the child,” seems to have lost its place in modern times.
READ ALSO: Train on how to handle children with dyslexia, teachers told
“By and large, on paper, that loss of space in modern times appears easier said than done,” regrets Kaunda Ogosiah, a professional tutor and alumnus of Moi University. He adds that teachers are trained in general psychology during their professional studies.
“In addition, special schools and assessment centres are few and far between in Kenya, so the branding of learners still has a long way to go,” concludes Ogosiah in Ururi Midlands.
By Dennis Ochieng
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