Providing lifespan services to individuals with special needs...
Strides Newsletter Archives
Academy of Teaching Excellence
Winds of Change
The winds of change blew strong and hard at ATE this last academic year, as it metamorphoses from a teacher training resource centre, to a space where the community at large will gain in knowledge and experience. Leading from the front of this new path was ATE’s successful completion of the RCI recognised IGNOU course – a one year distance learning programme for ‘Certificate in Early Childhood Special Education enabling inclusion in MR’. “We had 33 students enrolled, both in Chennai and Solapur. This extensive training programme brought out the best in our students, who put in a lot of hard work in their assignments and practical sessions. On behalf of ATE, not only do I wish them success, but hope they will put what they have learnt into practice to help children and parents in the years to come,” said Maria Josephine, Coordinator, ATE.
Following close behind this programme was the three-month Parent Awareness Training programme, also through distance education. The response for this programme was overwhelming, to say the least, with 21 students from Chennai, 19 from Erode and 14 from Tirunelveli! It only goes to show how there is a palpable need to address the concerns of parents of children with special needs.
Perhaps ATE’s biggest feather in the cap this year was the organisation of the Continuous Rehabilitation Education Programme on the theme of ‘Autism Spectrum Disorder and Inclusion’. With over 40 participants (a first-time record!) registering for this three-day programme, it was where professionals, organisations and parents shared a common platform to discuss the intrinsic value of inclusion for growth in the future.
Apart from these, ATE ventured into several short term courses, such as the one for Volunteers and Care Givers, a course for rehabilitation professionals, and one on First Aid for over 60 participants. The success and warm reception of these short term courses has paved the way for a year full of exciting courses for special educators, regular school teachers, students and individuals from the corporate sector. For the full list of courses, write to maria@v-excel.org.
Counseling & Assessments
Road to Education
On April 5, thirty teachers from Pudiyador’s six centres walked into V-Excel for a training session on understanding a child. Pudiyador works extensively with underprivileged children of fishing communities, bringing back the interest in education and learning through various academic and extracurricular activities, meticulously planned through the year. Faced with 30 of Pudiyador’s teachers, all extremely committed and enthusiastic about the work they do, V-Excel’s C&A Unit certainly had its work cut out for them. “The challenge for our counsellors was that even though the teachers knew what to teach, how to teach and how to organise a class, they had little exposure on how to treat a child. In other words, they were confused about why some children were receptive to them while others were not, why some were misbehaving in class, and why some were good at their work but still playful and distracted,” explained Parimal Pandit, Head of C&A.
The workshop took the teachers through the psychology and the scientific study behind the various aspects of each individual, especially from childhood. Examples from recent research were shared with the group to highlight new understanding about how children function and how an adult could engage a child's interest and curiosity. “The participants had several questions, clarifications and insights to share. They were glad to receive this new information and could see how it was relevant to their everyday lives as well,” added Parimal.
Other News from C&A
Record Accord
To say it’s been a phenomenally busy month would be accurate in the case of C&A. With year-end review meetings and planning the next academic year, C&A also had a record number of consultations this month! They conducted assessments for 20 children, including those referred from regular schools based on their yearly performance and those looking for admissions into KLC. In addition to this, C&A also undertook assessments of all trainees at V-Excel’s Youth Empowerment Services (YES) centres (Mylapore and Adyar), in preparation for the launch of a new syllabus at the Mylapore centre. C&A has also started consultations for children aged 5 to 7 years.
Regulars
C&A’s corporate desks were full this month as they met 24 people, mostly youngsters with career vs higher education issues or general disillusionment with the nature of their jobs.
One of C&A’s counsellors is attending her third module of Art Therapy in Australia with Anthroposophic art therapist, Sally Martin.
Early Intervention
Thank You for the Music!
It was the annual day at Oxford Matriculation Higher Secondary School in West Mambalam for their kindergarten children and Rafael Joshua M was part of the performance. It involved being a part of a group of children and performing some basic movements to music. Rafael, who came to the Early Intervention Unit with sensory issues, ended up giving quite the confident performance! "Our team took the music and the costume from the school and familiarised Rafael with them for two to three days. Despite his sensory issues, on the day of the programme, he kept his costume on for the entire duration of the show!" said Lalitha Sridhar, Coordinator, Early Intervention Unit. "The parents were very happy as it was a joyous moment for them, and commended the work of the early intervention staff. Rafael has now graduated from his kindergarten class."
Kaleidoscope Learning Center
Child Study
When working with over 70 special children, every teacher at KLC has a unique experience to share about the children they work with. During the course of the year, however, there are some who are especially hard to understand, and so, KLC’s child study practice was born. Over a period of three weeks, a child who is chosen is carefully observed and studied to try and understand the child better. “A picture of this child is built with factual observations, current difficulty, medical history, family history and educational background, all of which is presented by the class teachers. Other teachers/therapists working with the child share their comments too. The child is then observed silently and at the end of the week each teacher/therapist puts down her observations of the child in the form of a landscape. The child is then taken into the meditative nightlife of teachers/therapists. They write down their thoughts/messages/dreams over the week and accordingly alter their observational landscapes. The therapeutic suggestions for each landscape is discussed by all teachers/therapists, and their new landscapes are presented. Each session is documented and filed by the class teachers,” explained Gita Bhalla, Coordinator of KLC.
“We have found that in brining one child to the centre over three weeks, a lot of healing happens. The issues which the teacher presents on day one usually subside. Our teachers also get answers to understand not just this child but other questions they themselves carry. Over the last year we were able to do five child studies,” added Gita.
Other News from KLC
Flavour of the Month
Consolidating, reviewing, meetings, documenting, report writing, planning, more meetings, clearing and cleaning, and many more meetings was the flavour of the month at KLC! Children received their year-end dossiers containing details of their progress and samples of work done in the year on April 8.
About ten of our students from the Prevocational and Grade 6 group will be moving on to V-Excel’s Youth Empowerment Services centre in Mylapore, starting June 2014.
New admissions at KLC were allotted classes and we welcome two new teachers on board.
V-Excel Educational Trust
Primary Rules
Over the years, V-Excel has carved a niche for itself in the intrinsic connection between healing and education. That all education, whether it is for special needs children or regular school children, can impact growth, development, sensitivity and creativity, is something V-Excel advocates passionately. And going by the response we have been receiving from schools in and around Chennai, the message is beginning to resonate with one and all.
Recent cases in point are the workshops conducted at NSN School in Chrompet, Chennai. Arranged by Mrs. Radhamani, Principal of NSN group of schools, the two workshops – one for kindergarten teachers held between the 3rd and the 5th, and one for primary grade school teachers held between the 21st and 23rd – were very well received at their Chrompet branch. “The teachers enjoyed all the hands-on activities they were exposed to and could readily incorporate it in their classrooms. It was gratifying for us as well, because seldom do you come across a group so motivated,” said Dr. Vasudha Prakash, Founder & Director of V-Excel Educational Trust.
Chitra Prasad, Correspondent and Principal of NSN Chrompet said, “Most workshops are for the head and is full of information that you gather. We have many such workshops. But this one was transformational. We have a new way of looking at children and education.”
Town Hall Meeting
It began with the entire staff of V-Excel forming a huge circle, moving in rhythmic steps to the sound of a drum beat. As everyone moved in sync with each other, sometimes holding hands, sometimes holding warmth, sometimes holding a thought or sharing a smile, it became the perfect way to begin this year-end annual meeting. It became the symbol of togetherness, of completion and hope, as each one truly felt the impact of the work they do in serving the needs of a special child.
This was followed by a secret ballot that was set up to gauge the overall response to the year gone by. It was heartening to see that the maximum votes were registered for “positive”, with a few votes for “average” and none for “negative”! Thus began the Town Hall meeting!
Every department had the opportunity to share their success stories with the rest of the team. This was an important exercise as each one realised that no work is ever done in isolation, but in fact, each one is always working in tandem with the rest of the departments, much like the circle time witnessed at the beginning. Some stories made us laugh, some surprised us, some brought out the sheer grit and determination of our teachers, and some made us introspect, but in all the voices we heard, what rang out the loudest was the sense of pride. With an inspiring and heartfelt speech by Dr. Vasudha Prakash to close the Town Hall meeting, it was truly a meeting of the hearts and minds.
Sing Along Seattle!
Geetanjali, Seattle’s Tamil music band, recently hosted a music concert to raise funds for 'ASHA For Education', a volunteer-driven organisation that reaches out to underprivileged communities in India. As an organisation, they believe in the strength of education and over the years, have been a great source of support for V-Excel’s work in special education too. As part of their four-hour music extravaganza, that saw a packed house with 800 music enthusiasts, ASHA trained the spotlight on V-Excel. “An hour into the programme, we presented ASHA and V-Excel. We played the 20-minute film on V-Excel titled ‘A Symphony of Silence’ (watch the video here: http://www.v-excel.org/potpourri/videos.shtml). When the film ended, there was a standing ovation! Many from the audience met up with us after the concert to know more about V-Excel and ways in which they could extend support,” said Anand Raman, one of the volunteers at ASHA. Currently, ASHA funds $14,000 towards V-Excel’s annual expenses.
Occupational Therapy
Goal Setting
For every individual with special needs, whether they are a part of the V-Excel umbrella, or attend after-school sessions on a need-basis, Occupational Therapy is one stop that is a necessity to growth and development. Their work includes working with a child's sense of balance, everyday life skills, understanding physical difficulties and working in a step-by-step manner to ease those obstacles for an enriched and independent life. "One of our best practices is that we speak a lot with our children, especially those with speech and language difficulties to trigger their sense of communication," explained Suba Naresh, Coordinator of OT. "Facilitating speech happens along with other therapy goals, and it is something we believe can be done across all departments, wherever the child goes."
Other News from OT
- Therapy assessment was done for all our trainees at our Youth Empowerment Services centres in Mylapore and Shastri Nagar
- Five new assessments were done for children at the Remedial Centre
- Summer OT sessions are progressing well with 10 children.
V-Excel Remedial Center
'Monitory' Results
In today’s world of instant gratification, extreme peer pressure and unfettered exposure through multi-media, children face the biggest challenge of staying the course of learning and identity. It is fairly common to find in a class of 30, at least one child who finds it difficult to concentrate, to pay attention, to read or write or maintain friendships. While most children pick up the threads of confidence after an initial phase of unpredictability, there are some who do require professional help. In our experience at the Remedial Centre, we found that if a child's performance in a regular school in reading, writing, or math is erratic, or is far below that of his classmates, and despite special help, he continues to have trouble, then this child requires continued support for a period of time before they can reach their maximum potential. “At VRC, we do a comprehensive assessment of the child’s skills using formal and informal tests with scoring so that we are able to find age and grade level at which the child is functioning. Then our goals are set for three months and are further broken down to tasks under different skill areas. Activities are planned based on this. We review the progress every three months and proceed based on the child’s response. This helps us to monitor closely,” explained Jayanthi Srinivasan, Coordinator, VRC.
As we often reiterate, it isn’t about focusing on the child’s disability that success is achieved, but in perceiving that every child has a unique ability and if we are able to recognise it and show it to the child, then as the cliché goes, the sky is literally the limit.
Satellite Centers
Family Ties
When Tamanna Patro, a three-year-old diagnosed with Idiopathic West syndrome, came to the Nashik centre for therapy, she would always cry. "A couple of weeks later, however, she started making eye contact and even smiles once in a while," said Jayanthi Ravi Vishwanath, Coordinator of the Nashik centre. Tamanna is part of the early intervention programme at the centre and works with Dr. Nalini MPT. She came with several issues, such as being afraid of walking by herself even though she could, suffering from fits at least once a week, wearing glasses for myopia with -7 and -11 dioptre power, and battling weight issues due to the medication being administered to control her fits. "For us, at the centre, it has been hugely inspiring to see how her parents are going out of their way to keep Tamanna happy. She is lucky to have her parents who have accepted her so beautifully. Her mother has taken an indefinite sabbatical from her lucrative job at HAL, and her father makes it a point to play with her every evening after he gets back from work. It is truly motivating to see such parents, especially in the field of special education. We wish the best to them, always," added Jayanthi.
Other News from V-SAT
Nashik
From April 15 onwards, all the children are being assessed by their class teacher to mark the progress they have made since Dec 2013. Simultaneously, therapists are also assessing them and preparing home programmes to be followed during the summer vacation. Admissions for the special school are ongoing.
Erode
We are delighted to share with our readers that the Erode centre has successfully completed one year! To commemorate this milestone, we have begun a Parent's Support Group for parents of children with special needs. It is open to even those parents whose children are not attending our centre. The group will meet every month and different people who work with special children will address the group.
Write to lalitha@v-excel.org with 'Parent's Support Group Erode' in the subject line for more details.
Tirunelveli
With quite a few children aged 15 and above at the Tirunelveli centre, plans are afoot for a pre-vocational and functional skills training group. Watch this space for more!
Solapur
As reported last month, we have finally found a larger, more suitable space for a special school in Solapur. Work is going on in full swing to finalise the details and set up the school. If you would like to fund equipment or help in any other way, write to info@v-excel.org
Vocational Training / Youth Empowerment Services
The Power of Teamwork
At V-Excel’s Youth Empowerment Services (YES) centre, one of the crucial aspects of learning is the Activities of Daily Living (ADL). When a trainee enters the unit at the age of 16 approximately, primary attention to ADL is given during the course of the vocational training programme. “This is around the time that trainees attain puberty and the group needs to be sensitised in a lot of matters . One example is that of a 16-year-old girl who couldn’t stand the sight of blood. To even imagine learning to manage her menstrual cycle was a nightmare for her mother. The trainee also had a lot of sensory problems in addition to that and hence was resistant to hygienic management of her menstrual cycle,” recounted Usha Rajagopal, Manager, Vocational Programmes.
YES had a special educator work specifically with this trainee to sensitise her to the concepts of growing and physical changes that happen during puberty, and then introduced the subject of menstrual cycle. A therapist also worked on the sensory issues and helped the trainee cooperate, while a counsellor spent individual time as well as in a group to help the trainee deal with it emotionally. “The trainee’s friends, who were already empowered, shared with her the hygienic process during special sessions, and we also made sure her parents were completely clued in to what we were doing at the centre. Today, after four years, the trainee is not only able to handle herself hygienically, but is also able to travel, be normal and talk about it in her own way without getting upset. This, for us, is a huge story of the success of teamwork and perseverance,” added Usha.