"Service is a smile. It is an acknowledging wave, a reaching handshake, a friendly wink, and a warm hug. It's these simple acts that matter most, because the greatest service to a human soul has always been the kindness of recognition."
Richelle Goodrich
V-Excel News
V-Excel is celebrating its decennial year with a major advocacy event for children with special needs. This cultural extravaganza named Portraits of India will be held on 10th January 2013 between 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. at the YMCA Grounds in Nandanam, Chennai. The event will be attended by icons such as Bombay Jayashree, our brand ambassador, Girisha Hosanagara Nagarajegowda, the Silver Medalist for High Jump at the London Paralympics 2012, Mrs. Aruna Anand Viswanathan, among others. The festival will include exhibits, performances, food, games, and sale of Indian craft made by our children and other small cottage-industry owners who will be exhibiting their products. The highlight of the event is to invite the city of Chennai to a glimpse into the world of disabilities through a poster exhibition. This will also be a platform to impart information on the different kinds of disabilities and to educate the city on how to approach, interact and accept people with differences. Entry is free for all special children. For more information visit, http://www.v-excel.org/docs/megafest.shtml. We sincerely hope you can join us on this significant day.
A music concert was organized on 23rd November in the V-Excel campus, Mr. Vedanth Bharadwaj, a singer, guitarist and a music composer was the performer of this month. His experience of playing for special children showed in his comfort of being in their midst. Our children were really excited and started dancing to the tune of his guitar. Special thanks to Vedanth for his presence.
Diwali celebrated on the 8th of November was an enjoyable and well-attended event by our children and their parents. Such occasions serve as a great reminder that children are children after all, irrespective of the developmental condition; the joy of togetherness and celebration is universal!
Kaleidoscope Learning Centre
The performance for the megafest, the great Indian parade, started with children moving into their parts very naturally as if pre-ordained. The music has been undergoing a few changes and so we have a few quick fishermen who have learnt their part well but a few dazed kitchen workers who are still getting used to the changing tunes! It's always a wonder to watch the children ease themselves into the roles, imbibe the movements, learn the songs; each day holds a new revelation.
The teachers are busy collecting material for the exhibit stalls and making suitable props wherever required. We thank Poornima, our communications developer, who has readily put her creative hands and fingers in all pies being baked. The school has become a hub of activity with the costumes getting ready and a lot of cutting, pasting, sawing work getting props and products ready for the cultural festival.
The Friday meetings have seen Chinmayee being the child study case, John's in-service throwing further light on the twelve senses, and the counseling department having a self-help kind of enriching activity for their session. We also had a book reading session on 'The school as a journey' and the rich and detailed text is providing many ideas for the teachers to make their classes richer in content and experience.
Mother's Day was celebrated as 'Monsoon Showers' on the 6th of November. Mothers showed great enthusiasm, commendable creativity and sportsmanship in playing games, acting, and performing in groups with monsoon as its theme. We thank the mothers who came for the event and hope to see you all in such encouraging numbers for all school events.
Academy for Teacher Excellence
Volunteers' Training, the brain child of our Director Dr.Vasudha, started off on 3rd November 2012. We had a mixed group of participants - parents, staff, and volunteers, who have been volunteering at V-Excel. Three sessions are already over; the training will conclude on the 1st December. Interaction during the course of the training revealed how much the participants were looking for such a course. We have decided to run more of these courses to enlighten our parents, staff (office) and volunteers in sensitizing them on various issues in connection with care of the differently-abled.
Next on our agenda is the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) approved courses which will commence on the 16th January 2013. There are two courses starting simultaneously - a one year 'Early Childhood Special Education - MR (Mental Retardation)' course and 'Parent Awareness Training Program' a three month course. Both these are run as Distance Education courses, which give flexibility to the participants do complete it at their own pace. We see this as a wonderful opportunity for the parents of V-Excel as also for those keen on working closely with very young children. More details about these courses can be accessed at http://v-excel.org/progs/ignou.shtml
The second module of the second level of the Counseling course started and participants had to present cases they had seen for counseling. This is basically for their skill practice and to give them an idea of how it is to carry out a session on their own, plan a therapy and select a particular therapy. Subtle issues about transference, boundaries are being discussed and explored.
Early Intervention Unit
It's the first time in V-Excel that a formal evaluation has been initiated. Early Intervention program being the one implemented across different cities has been chosen for the purpose. The project is funded by Sametric Research and involves an extensive analysis of the impact of our program on the lives of children with developmental delays and disabilities. Assessing the effectiveness of our systems and procedures is also an important part of this work. The project aims to gauge success of our EI program and make recommendations for enhancing its sustainability and replicability.
Each child that comes in has a unique condition and hence requires a unique development and education plan. Ten new children have been added to our Early Intervention Program at Chennai of which two children under the age of one have been taken in for assisting in motor development.
Play sessions for various groups of children have been conducted this month. More often than not, we underestimate the importance of play. For our children, we consciously plan out play such that it facilitates communication, social development and peer interactions in an easy, enjoyable fashion.
V-Excel Satellite Centres
Our Erode centre stated functioning on 1st October with 12 children coming in for the intervention program. The team at Erode consists of a therapist, a special educator and an Admin Assistant. More enquires have been coming in for the intervention program and we intend to first establish our service before taking it to the next step.
The Nashik center has been facing some difficult times with respect to getting trained resources, a constant challenge in the field of special education. We are seeking some professionals to come forward and lend support to the children.
Tirunelveli centre celebrated Children's Day by conducting games for children and parents. It was a fun day for the staff, children and parents, all happily mingling with one another.
V-Excel Remedial Centre
We have completed three new assessments and have started remedial work with these children. One child is from Singapore and has come for a vacation for eight weeks. We are working on her English language skills and other related areas through everyday remedial, home program and play therapy. We are putting in our concerted efforts and hope to see a tangible change in these areas.
Two new children have joined the morning session of which one is a eleven year old boy who has never attended any program/school. He has minimum basic skills and hence poses a great challenge.
Children's Day was celebrated with much interest at VRC. Children were engaged in group art work based on themes - one was 'Reaching out' and the other was 'What VRC means to me'. Their responses ranged from free, relaxed, happy, easy learning etc. It was really heartening to note that every child finds this learning environment enjoyable.
Rural Outreach Program
We have invited our special educators for performing a street play at the Megafest to be held in January 2013. They have regularly conducting street plays in local language in the villages for awareness generation on disabilities, especially due to ignorance in the rural areas.
As a part of this year's Diwali celebrations, we distributed sarees and dresses to the Villipuram Special Educators. They were very happy to receive the gifts.
Vocational Training Unit
Students enjoyed the Diwali celebrations held at V-Excel. Many of them had come with their siblings and parents to be a part of the festivity. It is always a pleasure to see the beautiful convergence of faiths and cultures on such occasions.
Preparations for the Megafest are in full swing. We all worked hard to design a wide range of products to choose from; the shortlisted products are now getting ready in various units. We are very happy to see busy hands of the students churning out creative things and glad that their abilities will be presented favorably at the cultural festival.
Social inclusion, especially for employment, is a great challenge and we strive to equip them on all fronts so that they can cope with the outside world. A few students are expected to be ready for employment by the end of this academic year, so our student counseling and training sessions are now focused towards work ethics and standard practices towards employment.
The students of the vocational training unit thoroughly enjoyed the monthly Friday music concert by Vedanth Bharadwaj.
Dr. P.S.Lalitha, an Alternative Medical Practitioner, with the knowledge of Reiki, Pranic healing, Crystal Therapy, Magnified healing, Magneto Therapy, Acupuncture (Traditional & Sujok), visited the unit. She shared many interesting experiences with us and spent some time understanding our work at VTU. She congratulated us on our commitment and efforts in empowering the young adults.
Calendars for the New Year are under process and we request anyone interested in placing orders to get in touch with us.
Counseling and Assessment Unit
We concluded our second module of Art Therapy for our parents. Over time, this group has really come close; they went for a movie and planned lunch and window shopping together. During the session, deeper issues were explored with respect to their art work. The whole exercise seemed truly worth its while when some of them said it's like a tonic for them for the rest of the week!
Our regular work with school children and parents continued. We had more cases of follow up from our corporate clients, and are in touch with a few other potential clients for establishing counseling services for their companies.
The counseling department met Dr. Elaine Walker from the USA and she guided the counselors on how to organize data for research. She also shared the rubric on which to record the data so that it will be easy to select variables and carry out qualitative and quantitative data. We look forward to putting our records things together and embark on a research project shortly.
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
