"Do not follow where the path may lead. Go, instead, where there is no path and leave a trail...."
...Ralph Waldo Emerson
V-Excel News
This month was one of workshops and presentations. It began with an invitation from Ramachandra Medical
College to conduct a workshop on 'Communication through Movement'. The presenter team was lead by Dr.
Vasudha Prakash and comprised of our Special Educators - Neha Bhalla, Janaki Ashok, Sowmya Sarathy - and
Counsellor Puja Bhalla. This was followed by the Women's Day special at Accenture, where Dr. Vasudha & Mrs.
Ajita Panshikar spoke to different groups on 'Reinventing Opportunity' with a fresh outlook by women
towards work and life. RCI Chandigarh had invited Dr. Vasudha to address the 'Need to encourage research
in Rehabilitation and Special Education', which she did with much aplomb on the 24th & 25th of March.
Year-end evaluations were conducted by all and a meeting of Unit Heads was successfully held wherein
different Service Units were reviewed and their concerns discussed. Mr. Prakash Natarajan, our Advisor,
shared the tedious process of collecting the special education books, assessments and educational material
owned by V-Excel and urged everyone to effectively leverage this rich resource bank. Dr. Vasudha initiated
an open discussion about misconceptions and perceptions around anthroposophy, with an aim to bring clarity
amongst the group and ensure that we adopt best practices and methods while working with the children.
A 'Town Hall' (all staff) meeting was held where Vasudha recognised the contribution of each and every
V-Excelite in shaping the organization. Every department/service unit had a spokesperson who shared the
highlights and achievements of their Unit as well as issues of concern. The meeting concluded with Mrs. Gita
Bhalla leading us through a eurythmic exercise. It was a very touching moment when the entire group stood in
a circle with hands held together, a mark of solidarity.
At V-Excel, it has now become a tradition to have a classical performance by artistes of world class
stature; this month it was Ms. S. Sowmya who captivated the children, our guests and us. She was very ably
supported by Ms. Amrutha Murali on the Violin and Mr. Gopal Krishnan on the Mrithangam. We would like to
sincerely thank this talented trio for sharing a melodious afternoon with our children.
Kaleisdoscope Learning Centre
The advent of March heralds some madness, chaos and closures. The frantic work of detailed reviewing of
every child and the monumental task of report writing begins. While most schools and centers evaluate children
on skill development and give a general graded report, we at KLC produce a yearly document on every child
which is almost like his biography and his total developmental profile. The reports are descriptive and have
nuances of each child in a delicate mix, just as Rudolf Steiner (father of the Waldorf education, a system
followed at our special school) visualized. The reports are very creative and dynamic; the parents and other
teachers can easily get a picture of the child through these reports. It is indeed a labour of love of each
teacher! All the parents had meetings with the Principal Mrs. Gita Bhalla earlier this month and the reviews
were then collated for follow up work.
Holi was celebrated on the 18th of March with a welcome 'Water Day' for the hot season which has
slowly but surely crept upon Chennai. We are really happy that the visiting executive team from Johnson and
Johnson was splashed with this excitement! They were very impressed with the way teachers were one with the
children in making it an enjoyable experience for all.
Students from Prevocational class and grades 3 and 4 went for a day long trekking trip. It was a great
revelation to see how well children in the Autism Spectrum were surefooted but children with other disabilities
needed some urging and help in undertaking this trip. Also it is beautiful to note that when it comes to
the four natural elements (e.g. earth, water), children seamlessly fall in sync with them and no disability
is apparent. A big thanks to Janaki for taking the initiative in making this event happen and to the volunteers
from IIT-Chennai, who helped with this trip.
This month, the in-service on Sensory Integration continued. Also, our teachers were back in the saddle
for the games session from 2-3 p.m., taking it over again from the ATE students (teacher trainees), who
were partially in-charge of it for some time.
Academy for Teacher Excellence
This month witnessed the conclusion of all the Practical Course Work for the trainees.
Apart from the conventional lessons on functional academics, there were some outstanding lessons taken,
focusing on teaching gardening, photography, playing tennis and candle-making to children with Autism. The
trainees really liked these sessions due to their potential creative and practical application.
For the most part, trainees were busy compiling, writing, and editing the content of their Reports.
Different intervention strategies, behaviour management plans, alternative communication techniques continued
to be discussed at length in the ATE Classroom.
It was a joy to see the metamorphosis that each trainee had gone through with respect to the knowledge
and skills they had acquired during the past few months. Besides, their confidence and enthusiasm while
working with special children is commendable.
Early Intervention Unit
The focus of last month has been on year-end review meetings. Parent observations, to personally see
what therapy and activities their children are given also took place in this period. After the review
meeting parents have been asked to give their feedback concerning both admin and professional services.
Much to our satisfaction, most of these responses are positive.
Children are attending interviews and admission test to get entry into regular schools. The schools where
children are getting admitted to are: Kendriya Vidyalaya, A-School, Sri Sankara Higher Secondary School, and
Bambino.
We are happy to completely mainstream around 10 children from Early Intervention Program and for 15 children
we will have Early Intervention Program going hand-in-hand with as well as attend regular schools.
We charted out our requirements for the next academic year. Apart from additional therapists and special
educators to cater to the increasing demand for early intervention, we would like to get more resource material
to work with the children.
Bridges Learning Academy
Children from this Unit basically have learning disabilities and hail from regular schools. They are
mostly from primary/middle school, when they are 'pulled-out' for about 1 to 3 years, depending on the severity
of the issues at hand. Our task is to equip them with coping skills in both, academic and non-academic areas.
We work on time bound programs to see that they are mainstreamed again after acquiring the requisite capabilities
to manage the regular school curriculum.
Final examinations for the current year 2010-2011 will be conducted from April 5th. Not surprisingly, the
atmosphere has sobered down in BLA, with the children concentrating on their studies. Parents of those who
are now ready for the transition, are looking out for the right school to admit their children into.
A 'whole school' meeting was conducted where the year's achievements and concerns were discussed and
exchanged. The sharing of notes gave us a good understanding of issues related to different service units.
We spoke of the children's increased confidence and proficiency as major positive outcomes and dearth of
teachers as a key concern.
V-Excel Remedial Centre
Given that remedial intervention is a time bound program, each term, every student is reviewed in detail
and his/her program is planned accordingly. Being end of the term, this month, the children's programs were
reviewed by the Coordinator. Also, an elaborate review of the year was done. The staff discussed their plans
and gave suggestions for enhancing effectiveness in the forthcoming year.
To enhance our knowledge in the philosophy, John did an in-service training for the staff on Sensory
Integration. The lecture detailed the importance of eight senses and how they can be developed through
various simple activities.
Many of the students who undertake the remedial program are primarily from mainstream schools. With the
academic year coming to a close, our students had annual examinations in their respective schools. The teachers
helped them prepare and wished them good luck for their exams.
Rural Outreach Program
Government officials, supervising the Sarava Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) project, visited two of our blocks in
Villipuram and inspected the Resource Rooms and Day Care Centers. We congratulate our team that tirelessly
works at the grassroots level, for having earned complimenting reports from them, especially for our initiatives
in Vocational Training and Sensory Integration.
This month, with Government support, we purchased nearly Rs. 200,000 worth of Occupational Therapy
equipment and educational gadgets, plus material in five blocks. These resources will be distributed as per
the requirement of individual blocks and is based on the disability profile of special children there.
It is indeed a matter of great joy that this year nearly a fourth of over 200 children across Resource Rooms
and Day Care Centers are getting mainstreamed. The age group of these children is typically 4-14 years.
Vocational Training Unit
Dr.Vasudha and Mrs. Gita interacted with all the teachers to understand their current experiences with
the progress seen amongst the children and seek their views about changes, if any, required for taking the
VT program further. They also addressed the parents of trainees; Gita emphasized the importance of functional
academics and literacy in vocational training.
Railway concession forms for 11 students have been made with extraordinary support from Sundari Aunty.
Mrs. Usha Rajagopal and Mrs. Shikha, visited vocational centers of Vidyasagar and Andhra Mahila Sabha on
14th March and 25th March respectively to obtain first-hand information on various facilities offered by
them for young persons with disabilities. Of particular interest was the functioning and operations of the
paper cup making machine explained by the manufacturer who had come for training at Andhra Mahila Sabha.
Ms. Sangeetha Ishwaran has conducted a workshop on photography for VTU trainees. It is really commendable
that, after its completion, most of our trainees could click pictures fairly well using a digital camera!
Parents Support Group met on 21st March. There were a total of eleven parents including three first timers.
A sharing and relaxation session was conducted by our counselor, Nithya, which was appreciated by all.
We had an overnight stay in Sreyas for trainees and staff of VTU on Friday 25th March. 15 trainees, Nithya,
all the teachers, Dhanpal & Gyan Sekhar (our support staff) stayed over. The highlights of evening were exciting
games, music, dance, camp fire, stories and food together! A skit was presented by teachers. It was a wonderful
and memorable experience for all of us, including the parents. Puja, Neha and Sowmya joined us in the evening
and students enjoyed with their songs and music. The next morning, everybody shared their lovely experiences
before we departed.
Counseling and Assessment Unit
It's almost the end of the academic year! This month was full of evaluations and reports. While writing
the reports we realized how various activities like form drawing and painting has aided BLA children in
developing their academic and emotional resilience. In group play therapy, we observed how the play helped
in satisfying the sensory needs of many and how it helped in catharsis for some. Some children learnt to play,
some to explore, some to interact, some to play imaginatively. The play itself changed from sensory to symbolic.
Other important discovery was unless the sensory needs of the child are satisfied, the play does not progress
to a more creative one.
This year there was a significant increase in our parent counseling and we found that the sessions with
the parents did not just help them cope with their difficulties in life, but in turn, helped in improving
their relationship with their children. Children looked better adjusted after the parent counseling.
We undertook the counseling of the akkas (helpers) of the school and it really helped them in opening up
and expressing their problems. We sincerely hope it has eased some of their internal stresses.
Our corporate consultations are on and always full up. We will start our school visits next month. This year
we have planned to have resource persons from various other disciplines like Art therapy, NLP to conduct
workshops for us.
Contact Information
V-Excel Educational Trust
#1 Norton 2nd Street
Mandaveli Chennai 600 028
Tel: 91 - 44 - 24620243
91 - 44 - 24956373 E-mail us or visit us at www.v-excel.org
V-Excel Center for Research and Rehabilitation
(In assocation with S.V. Sarada Foundation)
50 Sreyes, M.G. Road
Shastri Nagar, Chennai 600 041
Tel: 91 - 44 - 24522061
91 - 44 - 24521986 E-mail us
Academic Concepts, Inc.
1403 Merrywood Drive
Edison New Jersey 08817
Tel: (732) 572-3748
Tax ID: 22-3632715 E-mail us
