Like Stars on Earth (Every Child is Special) is a movie about an eight-year-old boy who has

been misunderstood by his teachers as a trouble maker and a lazy boy and his struggles at
home and school and how he overcame his struggles with help from his art teacher.

At the beginning of the movie, viewers can understand that Ishaan is different from the other
kids. Ishaan gets lower grades than his classmates, gets into fights, and skips school. Because
of that, Ishaan seemed like a kid with a horrible attitude by his teachers and family. Nobody
tried to understand the meaning behind Ishaan’s behaviors. Ishaan’s teachers fail to
understand that there are individual differences between students, and everyone develops at a
different rate; therefore, not everybody can be held to the same standards at schools. Because
of this, Ishaan’s parents send Ishaan to a boarding school where he meets with the art teacher
that helped Ishaan. This part of the movie was very emotional and enlightening. In this part,
we could see that Ishaan was trying his best but still could not understand the lessons because
he was confusing numbers and letters because of his learning disability. At this point, Ishaan
was really depressed, he was not talking with anyone, and he stopped painting altogether.
Ishaan’s depressive behaviors went on until the art teacher of Ishaan understood Ishaan’s
problem and helped him with his lessons. At first, the art teacher encouraged Ishaan to help
him express himself, and then he spent hours of his time each week trying different methods
to teach Ishaan the alphabet and numbers in a fun way so that Ishaan could stay at this school.
Thanks to the art teacher’s efforts, Ishaan showed great improvement in his lessons and
managed the get praises from his teachers and parents. The efforts of the art teacher showed
how important it is to give enough support and care to a child. This film has affected my
perception of students with special needs. I have always thought of them as different, not in a
terrible way, but in the sense that they require more assistance than other students; therefore,
they should go to special schools. However, after seeing this film, I understood that many
children with learning impairments had the potential to be far more successful. They struggle,
though, because they want someone to help them embrace who they are so that they can
blossom and grow. It is difficult to believe in yourself when others see your uniqueness as a
flaw. This film does an excellent job of making the viewer understand the struggles of a
dyslexic student and how he is seen by others.

The movie focused on how dyslexic children can read and write just like any other children if
their teachers show a little bit of patience and give assistance. But besides that, the movie also
provides a lot of information about child development and the way children are raised in
schools in India which is not so different from our country as children here are also raised to
compete with each other. In this regard, the movie is important from an educational
psychology standpoint.