Read easy with the Dolch Project

Mr and Mrs Dursley of number four Privet Drive were proud to say that they were perfectly normal thank you very muchrdquou00a0This first line from Harry Potter and the Philosopherrsquos Stone is just the beginning of a riveting series which millions of teenagers across the world continue to devour Attempting to read just those opening lines however would cause 14yearold Vinayak Narayanswamy enough frustration for him to give up on the book altogether The teenager suffers from SturgeWeber Syndrome a rare neurological condition hersquos had since birth which hampers his physical and mental development Vinayak with the aid of the special needs section at the Vasant Valley High School in Delhi has managed to improve his reading skill But as is the case with every child with a learning disability LD he is still reliant on words from the Dolch list also referred to as sight words refer to box This leaves him with little reading material to choose from when he walks into a bookstore Vinayak Narayanswamy who suffers from SturgeWeber Syndrome has difficulty learning to read and is gradually recognising sight words The Dolch Project an initiative by 29yearold copywriter Bodhisatva Dasgupta aims to alter this reality Through a Facebook page wwwfacebookcomprojectdolch Dasgupta backed by Grey Worldwide the advertising agency he works at has openly invited people to write stories for children with a learning disability using the 220 Dolch words Taking the initiative About a year ago Vinayakrsquos father Bala Narayanswamy who works as a market researcher sent out a mass email to his network of colleagues suggesting the idea ldquoThere are thousands of books out there that children with learning disabilities LD might enjoy But the trouble is that none of them are culturally appropriate For instance therersquos a lovely Australian series of books that begins with a story about a cook at the zoo While this is a universal story book no 16 talks about clamsrdquo exclaims Bala Every time Vinayak tags along to the bookstore with his father and brother he buys himself a book too ldquoHe really wants to read but he is unable to decipher most words So most often he makes up his own storiesrdquo explains his mother Geetha Although Vinayakrsquos condition is a rare and an extremely complicated one thousands of children across the country suffer from several other learning disabilities ldquoMost times when a child with an LD comes across a word he is unable to pronounce or recognise his brain makes an effort to read it trying to decode it Sometimes the effort is so exhausting that the child loses his train of thought missing the meaning of the entire sentence Think of how much the child would struggle if every fourth word was one he didnrsquot recogniserdquo explains Joyeeta Dutta Special Educator Ummeed Child Development Centre Realising the need of the hour Narayanswamyrsquos email titled lsquoStories for Vinayak requested his friends and colleagues to spread the idea of writing stories using Dolch words in the Indian context When the email reached Dasgupta it touched a chord and he decided to take up the initiative ldquoSave for the larger institutions schools in the city lack a separate special needs section with welltrained teachers As a result most children with an LD end up feeling inadequaterdquo says Dasgupta Manish Kinger writer of Rahul Can Run Booked Taking Balarsquos idea to the next level Dasgupta aims to compile all the stories he receives into a book ldquoIrsquom already in talkswith several publishers all of whom have loved the projectrdquohe reveals happily u00a0Launched a little over three weeks ago the project has received a positive response ldquoAt the end of two weeks we already had 30 stories Technically we already have enough for one book u00a0But the entire process will take at least four months or so and in the meantime Irsquom encouraging as many entries as possiblerdquo says the copywriter who insists that pictorial references are just as important While he uploads each of the 500800 word stories along with a little drawing he insists that this is just a sample of what the final copy will look like envisioning more detailed illustrations for the upcoming book ldquoWersquore not targeting a child who grows up reading Secret Seven or Hardy Boys Probably the last thing he she might have read was A for apple B for ball The idea is to slowly pull the child into the reading culturerdquo he explainsu00a0 The next step Motivated by the encouraging response Dasgupta and his colleagues at Grey Worldwide hope to take the Dolch books to the less privileged ldquoWhile awareness of these disabilities is gaining momentum in the cities those in small towns continue to suffer helplesslyrdquo rues Dasgupta ldquoA lady who runs a school in a remote coal belt in Chattisgarh wrote on the Facebook page She said she had a few kids with a learning disability Irsquove promised to send across copies of the books once theyrsquore publishedrdquo he says u00a0But getting a book published isnrsquot the end of the road for Dasgupta ldquoIt is necessary to have a Dolch list in regional languages too Creating one in these Indian languages and getting regional authors to write keeping those words in mind would be the logical next steprdquou00a0 What is the Dolch List The Dolch List is a list of 220 words and 95 nouns compiled by Edward Dolch in 1938u00a0It is a compilation of the easiest most common words used in childrenrsquos literature Dolch words are also referred to as sight words These are simple words that children recognise visually and not analytically or phonetically A child with a learning disability would know what the word looks like but not be able to spell it out This also leads to the child confusing similar looking words with each other mdash for instance ldquowasrdquo and ldquosawrdquo Dasguptarsquos tips gtgt Familiarise yourself with the list before you begin writing Take a printout and keep it accessible while you write continuously cross checking difficult words gtgtu00a0Try and stick to the list but yoursquore allowed a 20 per cent concession of nonDolch words After all the child must be encouraged to learn new words too gtgtu00a0Remember yoursquore writing for ages seven to 14 Keep in mind most 14yearolds yoursquore targeting have the reading ability of a 10yearold Writing it right One of the stories uploaded on the page titled Rahul Can Run is a heartwarming tale of a dejected little boy who is given a new lease of life after a stranger tells him he is the fastest runner there can be Gurgaonbased Manish Kinger also a copywriter claims he took less than five minutes to write the story ldquoI took a quick look at the key words before I began writing While I was typing my story I made an effort to keep it simple and wrote like a child wouldrdquo says the 27yearold ldquoI thought about what Irsquod say to a child if I had just five minutes to say it I wanted it to be something that would make him feel better about himself and wrote the story conversationallyrdquo explains Kinger who reveals the story is an extremely personal oneu00a0ldquoGrowing up I was also a victim of conventionality I was never good at maths something my brother and father excelled at Back then it took me a long time to gain confidence in myself mdash my inability to play a sport didnrsquot help either I took the conventional path mdash graduated from engineering college and took up a software job It wasnrsquot until a friend played the external trigger and pushed me to pursue writing that I finally found my true callingrdquo Kinger reveals candidly His story he hopes will encourage children suffering from learning disabilities to understand that everyone has at least one special ability