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Teaching at Home

Teaching at Home

Olga Holland

(2005)

Additional Information

Abstract

This book offers inspiration and encouragement for parents of children with Autism or Asperger syndrome who are considering home schooling their children, and also provides useful pointers for teachers and carers.'

- Link: Autism Europe

'In this resource for parents, Holland describes an approach to teaching children with autism and Asperger syndrome that she developed with her own son, Billy (who now participates in a gifted and talented program). She offers practical advice on such issues as understanding body language, adapting the teaching environment, devising homework schedules, and coping with distractions.'

- Book News

Faced with the apparent inability of her autistic son Billy to learn and socialize with other children at school, Olga Holland decided to teach him at home.

Where traditional educational approaches had produced limited results, the author's own method of teaching succeeded, over a period of two years, in enabling Billy to pass the test that allowed him to enter a class for gifted children.

Teaching at Home explains the author's approach, focused on adapting to the demands of Billy's atypical mind and respecting his vivid imaginative world while attracting and retaining his attention. The author describes her use of sensory and memory techniques, social stories and humour, and gives useful advice on issues such as understanding body language, adapting the teaching environment, devising homework schedules and coping with distractions.

This book offers inspiration and encouragement for parents of children with autism or Asperger Syndrome who are considering homeschooling their children, and also provides useful pointers for teachers and carers.


Olga Holland was born in the former Soviet Union, where she was trained as an economist. Due to her insistence on exercising her constitutional rights as a Soviet citizen, she was labelled a political dissident, and in 1986 the authorities suggested that she emigrate. She moved to the US, where she married and had two children. Her son, Billy, born in 1993, was diagnosed as autistic when he was four years old. He now attends mainstream school with an aide, and is in a public school class for gifted and talented children. Olga is the author of The Dragons of Autism, also published by Jessica Kingsley Publishers.

Table of Contents

Section Title Page Action Price
Preface viii
List of abbreviations x
list of tables xii
List of figures xiii
Notes on the contributors xiv
INTRODUCTION A.S. BHALLA and AMULYA K.N. REDDY 1
Technological transformation 2
The Indian rural economy 5
Some salient features of case studies 10
Scope of the volume 16
PART ONE: CONCEPTS, ISSUES AND POLICIES
1. The commercialization of improved technologies in
rural areas
K.N. KRISHNASWAMY and AMULYA K.N. REDDY 23
Interactions between technology and society in mixed
market/non-market economies 24
Classification of rural technologies from the viewpoint
of commercialization 28
A model of commercialization of rural technology 30
Barriers to commercialization 35
Concluding remarks 42
2. Effective design and diffusion of rural technologies
ASHOK KHOSLA 44
Traditional technology 45
Frontier technology 46
Appropriate technology 48
Sources of innovation 50
Adapting technologies 51
Organizational initiatives for innovation 57
Conclusion 62
Appendix: The technology package 62
3. Policies for rural industries and rural technologies
DEVENDRA B. GUPTA 64
Rural industrialization 64
An assessment of government programmes and policies 70
Programmes 71
Policies 76
Rural industry and technology policy 83
Conclusion 85
4. Institutional aspects of the diffusion of renewable
energy technologies
R. BHATIA 87
The diffusion of renewable energy technologies: an analytical
framework 88
Renewable energy programmes in India 91
Organizations involved in energy questions 96
The role of institutions in technology diffusion 100
Institutional innovations for improved implementation 106
Conclusion 110
PART TWO: CASE STUDIES
5. Experiences of the Khadi and Village Industries
Commission in technology transfer
YASHWANT A. PANDITRAO 113
Origin of the KVIC and fields of activity 114
The role of KVIC in research and development and technology
transfer 116
Lessons from the KVIC experience 130
6. The role of non-governmental organizations in the
diffusion of rural technologies
DEVENDRA KUMAR 133
Sources of technology for NGOs 133
How NGOs select rural technologies for diffusion 135
Experience of NGOs engaged in rural technology dissemination 136
The role of training 141
Conclusion 142
7. The diffusion of biogas systems
R. BHATIA, R. LICHTMAN, A. PEREIRA and W. TENTSCHER 145
Technical and economic status of biogas systems 145
India's National Project on Biogas Development (NPBD) 148
Rethinking the NPBD's diffusion policy 159
Conclusions 161
8. The Pura community biogas plant (Karnataka)
K.N. KRISHNASWAMY and AMULYA K.N. REDDY 164
The experience at Pura 165
Individual versus collective initiatives 169
Conclusion 172
9. The ASTRA stove (Karnataka)
K.N. KRISHNASWAMY and AMULYA K.N. REDDY 174
The origin of the ASTRA stove 174
The ASTRA stove technology 175
The idea generation phase 178
The research, development and design phase 181
The dissemination phase 181
An evaluation of the large-scale diffusion programme 186
Implications of the ASTRA stove experiment for technology
generation and dissemination 188
10. Mini grain mills
K.N. KRISHNASWAMY and AMULYA K.N. REDDY 190
The limitations of Western technology 190
Alternative technology 192
Design criteria and cost considerations 193
The dissemination of mini grain mills 196
Conclusion 200
11. The small-scale farm machinery industry in Uttar
Pradesh
S.C. MISHRA 201
The industrial economy of Uttar Pradesh 201
The farm machinery survey 203
Technological change in the Uttar Pradesh farm machinery
industry 214
Marketing agricultural machinery 217
Conclusions and policy implications 219
Notes and references 222
Selective bibliography 231
Index 235