MDA conducts a number of short training workshops and programmes throughout the year, with a view to providing opportunities for continuing education for professionals working in the field. These programmes include training in the use of a number of tried and tested remedial and assessment tools used at our Centres.


1. Pass Reading Enhancement Programme (PREP)

The PASS Reading Enhancement Programme (PREP) has been developed by Dr. J. P. Das and his colleagues at the University of Alberta based on the PASS Theory of Intelligence (Planning, Attention-Arousal, Simultaneous and Successive Processing). This programme is being used in Canada, Norway, Spain and South Africa. PREP is based on well-accepted theories of child development and cognitive psychology. It aims at improving the information processing strategies that underlie reading, while at the same time avoiding the direct teaching of word reading skills. The programme is structured so that tacitly acquired strategies are likely to be used in appropriate ways.

The programme consists of ten tasks that vary considerably in content and the requirements of the student. Each task involves both a global training component and a curriculum-related bridging component. The global and bridging components are further divided into three levels of difficulty. This allows the child to progress in strategy development and, for those who already have some successful processing strategies in places, to begin at an appropriate level.

A system of prompts is also integrated into each global and bridging component. The series of prompts creates a scaffolding network that supports and guides the child to ensure that tasks are completed with a minimal amount of assistance and a maximal amount of success. A record of these prompts provides a monitoring system for teachers to determine when material is too difficult for a child or when a child is able to successfully progress to a more difficult level. The MDA has been using PREP for the age group 6-12 years, with very impressive results


2. The Feuerstein Instrumental Enrichment Programme (FIE)

Devised by the renowned psychologist, Prof. Reuven Feuerstein, FIE is an intervention programme designed to modify the cognitive structure of students in classrooms and individually with diverse populations ranging from mentally challenged performers to gifted underachievers and adult populations in industrial settings and continuing education. The program aims at correcting deficient cognitive functions and enhancing the individual’s capacity to learn more effectively from direct exposure in formal as well as informal learning situations.

To help achieve this major goal, six sub goals have been formulated:
• Correction of deficient cognitive functions

• Acquisition of vocabulary, differentiated labels and concepts relevant to the FIE tasks as well as problem solving in general

• Production of intrinsic motivation through habit formation

• Creation of insight and reflective thinking

• Creation of task intrinsic motivation

• Shift from role of passive recipient and reproducer of data to role of active generator of new information

FIE has a very wide range of target groups, both in terms of age and initial level of cognitive functioning. In many other parts of the world, FIE is used as a cognitive enhancement programme integrated into the curriculum of mainstream schools. It is currently being used in Mumbai by a number of special schools working with children with a wide range of cognitive and information processing problems. MDA has been conducting training courses regularly, in conjunction with authorised trainers from the ICELP, Jerusalem.


3. The Sonday System

An excellent tool for teaching reading, the Sonday System is authored by Ms. Arlene Sonday, who has been teaching students with Learning Disabilities since 1976. Based on the widely used Orton-Gillingham Approach to reading, it is structured, systematic, multisensory, and ideal for teaching students with reading problems. The System has complete learning plans, word lists, word cards and sound cards, and other manipulative, plus a video instructional tutor and a CD with songs that help children learn.


4. COGENT

Is based on the PASS Theory of Intelligence (Planning, Attention, Simultaneous and Successive Processing; Das, Naglieri, & Kirby, 1994). It is a cognitive and reading stimulation programme that benefits the cognitive development of typically developing children as well as children with special needs, such as limited exposure to literacy, mild developmental delay, language impairment and those at risk for developing dyslexia and other learning difficulties. COGENT is designed to provide alternative routes towards the development of reading and academic skills. The programme is based on broad developmental theories extremely important to cognitive and language development, while using basic cognitive processes described in PASS. It is intended for children aged 4 – 7 years. The COGENT programme is now available through the Das Developmental Centre, Bhubaneshwar.