Providing lifespan services to individuals with special needs...
Strides Newsletter Archives
Academy of Teaching Excellence
The Right Approach to Training
The training programs and seminars offered by ATE have been making a great impact both at the state and national levels. Our offerings in topics relating to Special Education, ASD, and Early Intervention have been especially sought after.
V-Excel was chosen by the State Commission for the Welfare of the Differently Abled - Tamil Nadu to conduct a one-day training program on "Early Identification of Children with Autism". This was held on the Sept. 13 at the State Resource and Training Center, K.K. Nagar. As for any V-Excel's program we had a huge response and the numbers exceed the maximum 40.
We had nearly 60 participants, most of whom were special educators from various special schools, parents and also students of M.Sc. (Counselling and Psychotherapy), of Tamil Nadu Open University.
Mr. Joseph Xavier, Asst. Director Technical of State Commission for the Welfare of the Differently Abled, inaugurated the program. He highlighted the different schemes of the Tamil Nadu government. The program had an interesting array of topics. Our participants had a new perspective on child development when Mrs. Gita Bhalla spoke about the 12 Senses.
Mrs. Lalitha Sridhar gave an insight on the therapeutic aspect of the intervention of a child with ASD and Mrs. Maria Josephine spoke about the "Why of Early Intervention"
At the end of the program, certificates were issued to all the participants by Dr. Prof. Raja Mohan of Tamil Nadu Open University. In his valedictory address he appreciated the work by V-Excel and the need for such information dissemination.
Other News
Along with this work ATE was busy applying for a new RCI course on "Certificate Course in Care Giving". We are also focusing on offering Continuous Rehabilitation Education for the registered RCI professional.
Counseling & Assessments
All About Me
September we saw many consultations and counseling cases being referred. The counseling course first batch got over and second started. The second batch will conclude in October. In the second batch the students will get familiar with techniques like CBT, Gestalt, Parenting and Relationship Counseling. The classes have been very interactive and students are preparing now for the assessments.
Our counseling desk work with corporates has been increasing and in September we met 20 at the client site and 10 at our center for follow up. Most cases are to do with relationships and family conflict, The general coping resilience seems to be on the ebb and most of our counseling gets focused on making them emotionally strong.
The school closed for Navarathri on 24th, so we didn't have play therapy after that, but before school closed they did have their scheduled play therapy and individual sessions. Many of our grade five and grade 3/4 children have started communicating with the help of typewriters. Counselors usually facilitate their communication and expression of emotions. It had been exciting to see more and more children speak this way. Many a times this gets converted into a counseling session. It's important to know that the children like in counseling need to develop trust with whom they are writing. They need to know how the information is handled and hence sometimes they prefer to type or share only with some.
We met parents from our remedial section, our EI section and KLC and our new YES facility. One of our counselor conducted a parent support group for YES parents and it was successfully attended. We had parents of 19 children attending the group. After conducting and talking about de-stress and conflict handling the forum was opened for discussion. Many want guidance on property laws and inheritance. So one of the parents is consulting a lawyer to know more about it.
The groups for the trainees at YES and our production unit received their individual and group sessions of art therapy as well individual counseling. With the YES trainees they did a very interesting activity! The theme was "All about me" so over four weeks, they took one aspect every week....Physical- they drew themselves; etheric they sculpted with clay; astral- they spoke about their personality and character and ego - they spoke their own essence. It was very exciting for the trainees also.
Our music therapy continues. The children have renamed as JOY THERAPY!
The individual art therapy sessions are going on and progressing well. We will terminate a few as they have shown progress in the bearing and overall emotional balance.
Early Intervention
Happenings at EI
In the month of September many young children started attending play schools from Vijayadasami day. Parents training has been undertaken by the special education team. The focus has been on communication and training on self-help skills. The success of the programme has been that lot of children are toilet-trained, are able to communicate their needs and have started eating by themselves. Due to this, sensory issues of many children have become better. Group play sessions have been conducted by the therapist with focus of improving social skills and interactive play. Children have settled in school and are able to interact with peers. Periodic counseling for parents is going on. This has been started with the aim to empower parents on handling specific behavior issues. The month closed with completion of observation by parents followed by review meeting and have programme.
A Parent of a child who was discharged from the programme last year come to thank the Early Intervention Unit. The child came from U.S 3 years ago with absence of speech. At present child is in regular school U.K.G. Speaking and communicating well. We are planning to start, group session at both Erode and Tirunelveli Centre.
Kaleidoscope Learning Center
Onam & Navratri
The first term reports were sent to the parents and filed on the 22nd of September. The report at the end of first term is a significant document for the new admissions as it serves as a baseline data for the forthcoming terms. For the older students in school , this report includes the goals that a parent wishes for his ward and the teachers incorporate these goals into the daily curriculum.
The month of continued festivity, saw Onam celebrations on the 8th of September where the whole school participated in making a "pookolam". The parents sent the colourful flowers and the children filled in the forms with flower petals under the guidance of teachers.
This was followed by the Navratri celebrations on the 22nd of September where the traditional golu was arranged and the school danced the dandiya and came dressed in festive clothes.
On a rather impulsive but hugely applauded note, our teachers decided to put up an impromptu dance drama recital on the afternoon of 23rd September. They involved some of the children and with mimimalistic costumes and props , they performed a short version of the Ramayana which is very characteristic of this season of Navratri. It was our very own version of the 'ram leela' that is traditionally performed. It was greatly appreciated by all including some visitors from cognisant who made a visit to he school that day. Great work Harini and Priya and the rest of the team!
Two in-service lectures we given by Gita for all V-Excel staff on two consecutive Fridays. These were on Child development with a view to understand disability from that angle, and the second lecture demonstration was on Movement and learning.
Field visits included a visit to Semnozhi Poonga by grade 3and the pre-vocational class. The pre-vocational teachers Ponrajam and Nirmala also arranged for the students to visit the theosophical gardens and a terrace garden in Besant Nagar. The students and teachers came back with numerous ideas of how to grow vegetables on the roof top and are excited to try the same in the new premises Sharda. This was all part of the Food and Health block that was being taught in the class.
The group of children who go farming had a new experience of working alongside a group of mainstream students from a nearby corporation school. It was a beautiful opportunity for inclusion and we hope to do this regularly.
V-Excel Educational Trust
Tarang (Chennai) - The Ramayana through Puppetry
V-Excel organized a Puppet show by the internationally renowned Puppetry artist Mrs. Seetha Lakshmi. She performed the Ramayana through Puppetry on 19th Sept. at Bharathiya Vidya Bhavan, Mylapore.
A puppet is one of the most remarkable and ingenious inventions of the man. It has been said that a puppet has to be more than his live counterpart for it is definitely the suggestive element that is more captivating and enduring in a puppet.
In Sanskrit terminology Puttalika and Puttika means 'little sons'. The root of Puppet is derived from the latin word 'Pupa' meaning a doll. India is said to be the home of puppets, but it is yet to awaken to its unlimited possibilities
Puppetry has been successfully used to motivate emotionally and physically handicapped students to develop their mental and physical faculties. Awareness programmes about the conservation of the natural and cultural environment have also proved to be useful. These programmes aim at sensitising the students to the beauty in word, sound, form, colour and movement. The aesthetic satisfaction derived from making of puppets and communicating through them helps in the all round development of the personality of the child.
Stories adapted from puranic literature, local myths and legends usually form the content of traditional puppet theatre in India which, in turn, imbibes elements of all creative expressions like painting, sculpture, music, dance, drama, etc.
Occupational Therapy
Stopping Bruxism
A 7-year old boy, a KG student of KLC was continuously and audibly grinding his teeth. The grinding of ones teeth, also known as bruxism, has an impact on gums and teeth and this was also true for him. He kept things in his mouth, bit everything and had frequent seizure episodes. We could not use oral massager since it was contraindicative on him, so we introduced treated an aluminium peg into his mouth. When he moved his mouth, the peg generated a softer sound instead of the audible grinding. During the first session, he was confused but at the end of therapy session he was able to correlate it with his teeth grinding. He was given for 12 sessions for 10 minutes twice a week and now this teeth grinding has completely stopped. His mother said it emerges very rarely and only during temper tantrums.
V-Excel Remedial Center
VRC is steadily working with 30 children now.
We had meetings with the Counseling department for 2 children who come for both play therapy and remedial classes. We discussed their progress,difficulties and goals for future and parents were advised accordingly.
We also met 5 parents to discuss the progress of their children and plan their goals for the next few months. One of the parent was advised to pull out their children from mainstream school and put in a special school as the child needs specialized individual educational plan and environment to learn and also to handle her behavior and emotional issues.
One of our children has been admitted to KLC for the second term. He was with us for school readiness program. Over the last few months we worked on his attention, sitting tolerance gross and fine motor skills, task completion and basic communication skills.He has shown improvement and is ready to be integrated to school
Satellite Centers
Nashik
This month we had two more new admissions in school and the strength is now 33. One new Occupational therapist Mrs. Payal Mehta joined our therapy team. She holds a Masters degree in OT from Nagpur University.
This year on Sep 5th, to mark Teacher's Day, a picnic was organized for all the teachers and therapists of the school and training center. We visited a very spectacularly beautiful hill-station called Bhandardara, nestled in the Sahyadri mountain ranges.Lofty mountains, lush greenery and roaring waterfalls were a treat to our eyes. Unlike other hill-stations the country, the beauty is untouched and truly breath taking during monsoon season. We saw the Pravara river and the majestic Wilson dam standing on it. The whole land had murky streams criss-crossing a midst of lush green paddy fields. We hired two boats and went around the tranquil blue Arthur lake. We experienced a cool spray of water in the Umbrella Waterfalls. We had loads of fun, danced in the rain and generally had a lovely day eating hot masala corn-cobs and posing for photographs.
On September 18th, Mrs. Maya Sanghi, a consultant speech therapist who visits our center once a week, addressed the teachers of the school about "Developing communication in non-verbal children"
Vocational Training / Youth Empowerment Services
At Sreyes, with the advent of September, there was a lot of activity.
Suddenly there were new orders for jute bags and sling bags made of gada material. This made the interns doing block printing also fully occupied. The whirring of the sewing machines could be heard through the day. The unit with the very busy girls looked very much a commercial work place.
The unit received orders for paper cups and leaf plates too and the paper cups were finely finished in record time!
The steady flow of work at the vegetable cutting session lent a professional tint to the activity. The Golu and dussehra celebrations added color to the activities. The interns actually were part of assembling the metal steps, bringing down the dolls from the loft, uncovering them and arranging them on the decorated steps.They made floral lamps from waste water bottles to add to the decorations.
On the 1st October, the occasion of Saraswati puja, they set up the whole unit to receive their friends from Kaustubham as well as other invitees . They put together pouches of goodies to be given to the guests . Kaushik who was in charge of handing these goodies was so proud of his work and his friends that he talked about their work and asked for orders to be placed for the products.
Saturday was a day of work together with the trainees from Kaustubham when they cleared it all.
Though the Golu is an annual feature, this year saw the group take initiative and involve themselves entirely in the process. Occasions such as these give us surprises about their ability @communication and communication.
From YES
The September was a very good productive month at YES. We have now started fitness for all trainees. The therapy room has been shifted upstairs. And have also converted the therapy room for fitness. Now we have two treadmills, three static cycles and other fitness equipment. Grinding has started and we have started making rice powders and rava.