Letter of the Day | Chess can be beneficial for children with special needs
Published:Monday | March 13, 2023 | 12:11 AM
THE EDITOR, Madam:
Among challenges that we are facing, is that of addressing the plight of children with special needs. Hundreds of our children are abused daily due to the failure of parents/guardians to recognise, accept and make provisions for children with special needs. Sadly, even some of the nation’s schools with a majority population of ‘troubled students’ often fall short of the mark in addressing the fact that these children need to have access to proper psychosocial assessment and intervention.
The minister of finance and the public service, Nigel Clarke, shared his thoughts about establishing Jamaica among the world’s leading countries with chess masters. “He has allocated $40 million to the Jamaica Chess Federation through the Ministry of Sport to get the process going” ( Jamaica Observer, March 9).
The success of any transformation of education, especially to students with special needs, requires tapping into creativity, self-motivation, critical thinking and motor skill development within each child. We believe that such possibilities exist within the classroom through the playing of chess.
In a 2019 Special Education Conference & Workshops hosted by Church Teachers’ College, my colleagues and I demonstrated how the playing of chess contributes to skills like concentration and decision-making strategies in students of special needs, and that it may be transferred to academic subjects like mathematics.
According to the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis, “There are a couple of studies that examine the potential benefits of chess for students with special needs. In one study, special education classes in Germany were randomly assigned to have one day of math instruction replaced with chess instruction for a school year or continue with five days of typical math instruction. The researchers assessed students in the treatment and control groups before and after the intervention in the areas of mathematics calculation and concentration abilities. At the end of the year, the two groups did not differ in concentration or written mathematical tasks. However, in the areas of counting and calculation tests, the students who participated in the chess program performed better.”
Through the playing of chess with students of special needs, we have seen remarkable improvements in educational outcomes; as such, we believe that playing chess is another alternative means of positive reinforcement of educational skills development.
The opportune time has come for the Jamaica Chess Federation, Ministry of Sport, and Ministry of Education to encourage and promote chess among children with special needs, which has the potential for Jamaica to produce chess grandmasters.
DUDLEY MCLEAN II
Mandeville, Manchester