On World Heart Day, 29 September 2021, we need to revisit our life style, educational practices and make a shift towards maintaining a healthy heart in these unprecedented times caused by the COVID-19 pandemic crisis. Schools need to treat education a therapy to inculcate positive emotion to keep hearts of children fit. It is being felt that stressful education and cut-throat competitions in schools is causing heart problems at young age now. Also, apathetic exclusive education is inducing learning disabilities and learning-phobia among young children.
Feelings and emotions are the functions of mind but heart and heart-shape are metaphorically and ideographically used in a symbolic sense as centers of emotions and feelings.
An ideograph is a visual symbol that represents an idea, a feeling or a thing rather than the conventional sound(s) of a naming, qualifying or action words.
The depiction of a heart as a symbol of romantic and platonic love has been a part of communication since ages. Later, shape of heart along with some other visual symbols got used as a part of visual learning about various human feelings and emotions as an ideographic language.
Many educators have tried such ideographic symbols with dysgraphic and dyslexic children to good advantages certain lesson studies. It is implicated that there is a need to create literature and learning material which is rich in visuals, pictograms, icons, visual symbols, stick figures, diagrams and minimal line drawings in single colours for children with learning disabilities.
Here, in the inset picture, heart-shape combined with other abstract symbols have been used for communicating various basic feelings ideographically.
Needed is designed learning through multi-sensory experiences and multi-modal communication at foundation stage
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