When 23-year-old Saibanu Saikrishnan gets down to teaching, she puts aside the pen, paper and white board. She would rather get her students hopping up and down the stairs and get their hands dirty playing with clay.
Banu is a special educator and visits students at their houses in Kilpauk and Anna Nagar to help them cope with studies. Banu uses techniques that addresses to the individual needs of the student.
“I teach kids with autism, dyslexia and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). I try experimenting with techniques that would be helpful to them. For instance, one of my kids couldn’t place numbers in order.
If someone asked him what comes before nine, he would be able answer that. However, he could count the numbers in order, from one to 10,” says Banu, who took the child to a staircase to practically demonstrate the logic.
“So I wrote the numbers on the flight of stairs and I asked him to move up and down the stairs as we added and subtracted numbers,” explains Banu, an HR professional and a former student of Madras School of Social Work who quit her well-paying job to take up teaching.
Her father was in the field for many years and she wanted to do the same. “I took up training at Madras Dyslexia Association and learned different ways of teaching,” says Banu, a resident of Kilpauk Garden Road.
“I want to spend quality time with the kids. Therefore, I am focussed on finding students in areas that are closer home, which would either enable them to come over to my place or me to visit them at their house,” says Saibanu, who plans to open a resource centre.
She can be reached at 9789899757
