"Each handicap is like a hurdle in a steeplechase, and when you ride up to it, if you throw your heart over, the horse will go along, too....."
Lawrence Bixby
V-Excel News
Thirty-five Primary teachers from across 17 schools in Chennai benefited from the workshop undertaken by V-Excel as a part of the Kuruvila Jacob Initiative (KJI). The workshop was the first of the three-module program planned for resource development in schools. This interactive workshop was completed over a three day period - 14th to 16th February; Dr.Vasudha and Mrs.Gita Bhalla delivered the lectures while Ms.Neha and Ms.Puja conducted the activities.
The two-day workshop was conducted for rural teachers of Isha Vidya School at Cuddalore, focusing on child development and identification of children with various types of learning disabilities. The school is run for children belonging to economically challenged backgrounds. It was encouraging to see that the teachers were extremely open and eager to understand how they could help the children with learning difficulties in their classrooms.
Kaleidoscope Learning Centre
It has been an interesting time for the children in school. While Grades 4 and 5 have been exploring the animal kingdom and the Egyptian civilization respectively, the children of Kindergarten have been celebrating the seasons of harvest and spring with delightful songs about flowers and stories about birds. Grade 3, in the meantime, was living the story of Ramayana. The story of Sita's swayamvar was celebrated with aplomb; the whole classroom was converted into a palace and decorated with flowers strung together by the children. Food was served ceremoniously on banana leaves, in a traditional manner; the picture of the deities on the blackboard completed the scene of the marriage of Sita and Rama. The children in school are benefitting largely from learning through such experiences and making their own living images of the content taught. Even for children for whom imagining is a problem, real experience and detailed observation is helping in concept formation. The children of Grade Upper 4 have been learning the basic steps of Kalari, a martial art form, as part of their lesson plan on the great epic, Mahabharatha.
The parents of Grades 4, 5 and Prevocational were addressed this month by Dr. Vasudha. The aim of the meeting was to learn about their perspective of their childrens' future and to guide them build realistic expectations so as to evaluate practical, viable options. As an organization, this will enable us to gear ourselves for the forthcoming year and cater to their requirements.
The week of 25th February to 1st March was celebrated as 'colour week'. Each day, a certain colour of the rainbow was explored through a multi-fold experience of that colour. So children wore purple on Monday, ate purple cabbage, beet root and brinjal for lunch, painted with purple and sang songs about the colour purple. A story about the shy docile violet was told in school. In this way, each colour was sampled and explored, making it a complete experience for the children.
Academy for Teacher Excellence
On 2nd February 2013, we commenced the IGNOU Course on "Early Childhood Special Education Enabling Inclusion". Dr. Zareena Begum, Assistant Regional Director of IGNOU, formally inducted the students to flag off the program. Her speech was motivating and she encouraged them to have a clear vision in serving the children with disabilities. As many of them are also parents of special children, she urged them to look beyond their child and serve others too. We have 33 trainees for this course.
The course necessitates contact session on two Saturdays a month. As we also have students from Solapur, we have planned contact sessions there. Two of our staff, Parimal Pandit and Maria Josephine, will be the resource persons. The classes will be conducted in the local language of Maharashtra (Marathi). The group of eight that has enrolled from there also includes parents of special children.
Plans are underway to conduct a 'Parents Awareness Training Program' by IGNOU, which is a six month course.
Early Intervention Unit
As an ongoing part of our resource development, we conducted in-house training and also sensory integration assessments for all the therapists. Such practical sessions help them in refining their work and improve their understanding of the children's issues.
The focus for the month has been on parent review meetings. Identification of children to be discharged this term is in progress. Given that we work with very young children, and there is significant mainstreaming in regular playgroups and schools, we required to give the parents suggestions about schooling for their children this academic year.
Also, children are being given feeding training sessions to promote independence. This helps to improve their essential eating process - biting, chewing and swallowing food and generally strengthens their oral muscles. The effect of this feeding session is also translated into spontaneity in producing speech and helps in communication.
V-Excel Satellite Centres
We welcome Ms. Mythili, the special educator, and Ms. Priya, the physiotherapist, who have joined us at our Erode Center
Since it is a new Center, we feel encouraged with parents expressing satisfaction with the way the program is being implemented. There was a consultation and review meeting with 40 parents this month, which was done individually.
The operations at the Tirunelveli Center are progressing well. The biggest challenge there is the travel time for parents to bring in their children and we are considering a possibility of extending the session duration.
On February 19th, a short seminar on CFGF diet was organized in Nashik for the parents of newly enrolled children in Nashik. At the end of the session, one of our existing parents, Mrs. Kedare spoke about the benefits of the diet, and the behavioral changes she has seen in her child.
A five year old child with ADHD who could not attend regular school has been with us for the last 8 months taking Sensory Integration (SI) and Neuro-Developmental Therapy (NDT). We are really happy that last month when he attended interviews for admission in two reputed schools, he did very well and now been offered admission in both the schools!
Dr. Deepam Pawar, who is doing his MOT (Neurosciences), is helping out with the therapy sessions at the Center.
Two more children with reading difficulties have joined the remedial program at Nashik.
V-Excel Remedial Centre
A trip to the planetarium was the highlight of this month. The complex has a science park and huge children's play area, besides programs such as a 3D show and a star show. 12 VRC children, 3 of their siblings and 8 teachers formed the group. The children were extremely excited to see the models exhibited. It was heartening to see the efforts made by them to read the names and other information displayed. The 3D show was very child-friendly and was thoroughly enjoyable. The cosmic show about stars and planets had highly technical commentary, but the children were awed by the virtual tour of the night sky. We had a sense of pride when we saw our children so disciplined and well-behaved in a new environment.
We completed three new assessments and three progress reviews during the month.
One of the children in the group has recently joined VRC. He is a quiet little child, very shy and reticent and always withdrawn due to several emotional factors. One day he said "I do not know how to smile". He was reluctant to come on this trip and clung to his mother. But we coaxed him and took him along. During the few hours at the planetarium, we could see him slowly relaxing, getting curious, exploring the environment, holding hands with another boy and "smiling". He made our day!
Rural Outreach Program
Awareness generation for dispelling ignorance among rural masses is an important part of our work in the disability sector. Various superstitious and religious beliefs are deep-rooted amongst the villagers and this affects their outlook and towards special children. Keeping their experience in this context in mind and recognizing that there are many people in cities too who believe in these misconceptions, we have requested special educators from the rural outreach program to conduct a street play at our upcoming January megafest in Chennai. They will be performing the play in the regional Tamil language, at least two-three times on the day.
Vocational Training Unit
The students of the Vocational Training Unit seem to enjoy the work they are doing. Their involvement in making different things was evident; further, the student counselor confirmed it when she said that the students themselves shared with her that their work was interesting.
Experiential learning is a major part in the vocational unit curriculum. The students were taken to an overnight trip to Pondicherry along with the teachers and volunteers for two days. They visited Aurobindo Ashram and a special school there. As a part of the occupational and vocational skill observation, they were taken to a sugar factory, an organic farm sprawling over 12 acres and a textile unit, all in Pondicherry. The students thoroughly enjoyed their trip and were on their best behavior.
Counseling and Assessment Unit
February month was a busy month with corporate workshops and counseling desks going on in full swing. One of our psychologists attended the fourth level of Biography workshop in Hyderabad.
One of the IT companies that we run the counseling desk for asked us to conduct workshops for managers on 'Mindful Feedback'. This was followed by making the counseling desks available immediately for associates who received negative feedback and who may need some support to cope up with it. We had these workshops for managers in Chennai, Kolkata, Mumbai, and Coimbatore. A counseling desk was provided for Coimbatore associates for two days. The response and feedback for all these sessions was very good and the company felt it was very useful and they were thankful to us for supporting.
The counseling department conducted an in-service training on Charcoal Painting with the special school teachers, for seeing how the concepts of darkness, light and the world of colors in between came to life. It was a great experience for them, psychologically, to feel the darkness and colours after the hectic month of activities.
Our regular counseling sessions continued in February and saw an increase in the inquiries through Just dial. These clients come with a wide range of issues and we are glad that we are able to provide them with timely support.
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.
33 Pine Street
East Brunswick New Jersey 08818
Tel: (732) 619-7944
Tax ID: 22-3632715 E-mail us
