Providing lifespan services to individuals with special needs...
Strides Newsletter Archives
Academy of Teaching Excellence
"Vocational Training" was the topic chosen for this month's Continuing Rehabilitation Education (CRE) Program. Every organization needs to conduct at least one CRE program in a year. The ATE Department had already conducted one in February 2014, and this was the second one organized from November 18-22, 2014.
We had 20 participants and among them, we had three from Gujarat, one from Dehradun. Some from down south from areas such as Thoothukodi, Nagerkoil, Thiruthani and Chenglepet.
We had experts from Vocational Rehabilitation Centers, former Director Mr. Namrashiman and Dr. Santhanam, Dr. Vasudha Prakash, a team from Worth Trust a Vocational Rehabilitation Center from Vellore, a panel of Persons with Disabilities, a job recruiter Mr. Rajasekar from V-Shesh and Mrs. Maria Josephine were the trainers and speakers.
The participants gained much insight into the Government policies and schemes in the area of disability with a focus on the kinds of tests being used to test the aptitude of PWDs for vocational rehabilitation.
Worth Trust shared their vocational rehabilitation training programs for physically challenged and the hearing impaired youth. They are producing many components for different industries and also manufacture wheelchairs.
A panel comprising of Chandramouli, aged 25, of V-Excel's Youth Empowerment Services, Parasnathan and Priya aged 30 and 38 respectively both with Cerebral Palsy shared what they have done about their education, the odds and the hurdles they have faced in life to get to where they are today. Chandramouli said that he would also like to have a job as he as completed his high school.
Paras is a personification of confidence. Because of his mobility and speech challenges he is being turned down by many employers, though he has completed his Diploma in Computer Science.
Priya a non-verbal young lady. A video was shared on her life highlighting how she is independent in her life skills. Priya can make greeting cards and also paint. She would like to market her artwork and have it be a source of income for her.
Mr. Rajasekaran highlighted what his organization was doing for the differently abled, in job training and placement.
The 5 day training program provided a lot of information dissemination and assimilation of knowledge. Krishna Kumari said, "I found the CRE program very interesting and helpful. I have always been passionate about working with children with learning disability. I presently am working with children with LD in a remedial set up. I liked the feeling of being taken to a vocational setting as a useful participant, since it gave me great insight into their life after 18 years. Also, it was quite informative knowing all the government policies and updates.
It was great meeting the 3 champions (Mr. Chandramouli, Mr. Paras & Ms. Priya), their motivation and willpower is a great learning for all of us. The entire experience has been informative and stimulating. It empowers us so we can get back in the trenches again to help our students and their families.
I wish Maria and her team at V-Excel much success as you continue to bring it forward."
At the end of the program all the participants came up with several plans of action they would like to implement, as well as to keep in touch with the group. Some of the plans were:
- Job Training.
- Sheltered workshops.
- Formal Employment.
- Non Formal Employment.
- Entrepreneurship.
- Parent Awareness on Government Schemes.
- Assessment of the Special needs persons.
- Research local Employment availability.
- Research market for raw materials.
- Industry for persons with disability.
- Register for the disabled.
- Employment awareness.
- Employment Exchange.
- Special School Personnel Training.
- Community Awareness.
- Rehabilitation Training.
Kudos to them for this spirit, and plan of action, which came about due to the training received on all 5 days. Hope they will come together and implement their plans successfully in whichever schools or organizations they are working in.
Counseling & Assessments
Mrs. Parimal Pandit, the head of the Counselling and Assessment Unit received her International Anthroposophic Psychotherapy Certification this November in the International Postgraduate Medical Training in Mumbai after completing the academic requirements of the International Federation of Anthroposophic Psychotherapy (Dornach, Switzerland). It was moment of pride as there are only two other Indian psychologists who are similarly certified.
Regular work-
Our individual play therapy, group play therapy, art therapy sessions continued for KLC, YES, Sreyes and Remedial sections. Every week 10-12 children receive individual play or art therapy. A group from KLC and YES also receives music therapy. They really look forward to the music therapy time.
Three more children from KLC have started writing with our counselors. They actually write with pencil sometimes and sometimes type on a typewriter. It's liberating for them to be able to communicate.
Corporate Counselling
The weekly counselling desk was manned by two counsellors and they met 21 associates, some of whom came for a follow up.
Regular Counselling
Parents, teachers and external clients continued their sessions with the counsellors. Overall we had 12 external clients for counselling.
The weekly group session with the Pudiador children continues and slowly the children are learning the boundaries of space and behaviour.
Workshops
Two psychologists along with Dr. Vasudha conducted a workshop on Guilt-free Parenting in an IT company. Fifty associates attended it and there was a very positive feedback about the usefulness of the program and the topic chosen.
Early Intervention
Mrs. Lalitha Sridhar, the Coordinator of our Early Intervention programme, presented a paper on "Meeting the Needs of Young Girls with Development Delays (birth to seven) - Findings from an Outcome Evaluation" at the International Conference on Women, Child and Social Welfare (ICWCS-2014), Indian Institute of Sciences, Bengaluru on November 17th, 2014.
New assessments and parent training happened in the month of November. At present, we have a 1-year old baby (Down's syndrome) attending the Early Intervention programme. The goals for the baby are to facilitate physical development milestones. This is achieved by intense therapy and facilitation through play and educating the parents. A young child aged 2 has achieved a very important development milestone. He is able to stand without support for few seconds and take his first steps with assistance. When we started the Early Intervention programme the child was at the basic development level (lying prone). The child has improved well and soon will take independent steps.
The SI room of Early Intervention department has got additional materials and equipments which are in the process of being installed. The group programme on Saturdays is going well with the Early Intervention team members coming up with creative means to facilitate end goals. The group programme with children from Pudiyadhor with a focus on developing social skills is being undertaken by the EI team every Saturday afternoon.
Kaleidoscope Learning Center
In the graph of every school and unit, there comes the part when the oscillation goes downward which may not be detrimental but it surely calls for a time where more awareness is needed in conducting even the most mundane everyday tasks. November , for KLC has been a tough month for children and teachers alike. Ill health , Latha Kannan our grade 6 teacher losing her father in law, new premises for the children , many domestic issues arising for many children saw KLC in a bit of a down ward spiral where there were more meltdowns, and incidents of rage with some children. All in the school had their hands full trying to keep the emotional and physical balance in school. Thanks to the teachers and counsellors and therapists for their timely help and for hanging in there.
Santa visited a bit early in the season this year, and said he just came to bless the tree at school and ho ho ho with the children for a brief hour so that the Christmas spirit could be heralded with gusto. So on the 17 of November, Micheal Kokinos our own special Santa from Australia visited and the children and teachers sang and danced with him for a joyous hour and a half. Thank you dearest Santa. We promise to keep the spirit of Christmas going in the new premises.
A few teachers went for a week long residential training IPMT to Bombay and met on 21st November to give an account of the teaching to the rest of the staff. It was educating and uplifting both.
We have shifted our farming park from Kotturpuram Tree Park to East Avenue Kesavaperumal Puram Park which is off Greenways road and a lot nearer. So we get more time to farm. Grade 5 inaugurated the park on Thursday. Thanks to Nizhal and Shobha Menon in getting us the permission to work in this park which is more convenient and compact. We will be continuing our work there under the guidance of Nizhal and its team.
Niharika from the counselling department did a session on clay work with the teachers on 7 November and the other Friday meetings included text reading( Kingdom of childhood), child study and exchange of ideas amongst the staff.
Dr. Lakshmi Prassana visited the school on the 27 of November and later addressed the teachers on adolescent needs and interventions and shared her observations after spending a few moments in each class. She loved the layout of the classrooms and encouraged the teachers to bring true interest and joy in their work to complement the physical environment.
V-Excel Educational Trust
Tarang in Bangalore
Our second Tarang concert in Bangalore featured the renowned Hindustani vocalist Mihika Bolongady. She was accompanied by Madhusoodan Bhat on the harmonium and Sagar Bharathraj on the tabla.
India Inclusion Summit
We were represented at the India Inclusion Summit in Bangalore by Mrs. Ajita Panshikar and Ms. Sangeeta Goel. The event was a huge success and the organizers had done a phenomenal job in defining and showcasing what they meant and felt by "INCLUSION".
Inauguration of our Solapur Centre
The events surrounding the inauguration of our new centre in Solapur are best expressed by our donor-partner Mr. Dilip Kulkarni, who writes,
Dear Gopal, Raghavendra, Sunita,
( and others namely Dipa, Ketaki, Pradnya, Kanaki of our centre who are not marked on this mail )
( and others who tirelessly work for us namely Dr Tapsale, Dr Vaidya, Vishnu, Shantisagar, Vishwanath, and so many of them, who just throw themselves in for the good cause )
Heartiest congratulations for making our first major, public, inspiring, leading, step of inaugural function a really momentous one for all those people who came in for it. It was a fantastic piece of preparation, organisation, execution by your entire group, with no limits on time and work, in addition to duties at home for everyone of you.
The entire function was an amazing piece of energy personified, moving around and spreading itself into everyone else to join in.
Vasudha and Jayanthi have charged up the entire audience of eminent people and parents, and made our future tasks easier, removing all barriers, if any, of our acceptance by those who matter.
All good vibes, and no ill, like we have in temples in the first Aarti early in the morning......
A big thank you to all of you...please do convey to all those whom I have mentioned and also to those whom I have missed....
May God continue to give you endless energy ....
Cheers,
Dilip
Occupational Therapy
The new Sensory Integration room was completed with all the accessories. Children now enjoy their sessions in the new environment. In fact, many seem to prefer the SI room to the therapy room.
We now have colourful puzzle-tile flooring fixed in the therapy and SI rooms.
Five new assessments were done; most of them were from Sishya School.
Rescheduling of sessions with most critical children of KLC was done after a meeting between Suba Naresh, Lalitha Sridhar, Gita Bhalla and KLC coordinators. Therapy sessions started from 9.00 a.m. and the children have settled well during these sessions.
V-Excel Remedial Center
The coordinator of VRC, Mrs. Jayanthi Srinivasan, shares with us an instance where the socio-economic background of a child had an adverse impact on the child's learning skills and how with consistent support, progress was made in rehabilitating the child.
Meena is a pretty, bright-eyed girl from the underprivileged section of the society. She was brought to us for an assessment due to attention issues, distraction, learning difficulties and behavioural problems. During our assessment and subsequent remedial sessions we observed that the girl possessed learning skills but her learning was severely deterred by her environment. She was restless and angry and could not pay attention to tasks on hand.
We worked with her on specific goals. Initially our focus was on calming her and boosting her confidence and self-esteem. We could see that even small appreciation and encouragement made a big difference in her attitude. She was sent for group play therapy sessions and also exposed to art activities which had significant positive impact on her behaviour.
Slowly she relaxed, smiled a lot and started enjoying the sessions.she made good progress in reading and writing.
We got feedback from her caregivers that her concentration is much better and is showing interest in studies.
Satellite Centers
Nashik
Another integral part of special education is visiting of the kids' homes by the teachers and psychologists. Home visits can give teachers the insight they need to help the students succeed. This year's home-visits were carried out from November 1st to 14th. This month, home-visits of 12 children were covered and reports were submitted by the Psychologist.
Assessments of the children were carried out from 6th to 11th Nov 2014 and reports were prepared by the therapists and special-educators. On the last day of the term, these reports were sent home for parent's perusal.
Mudra therapy - a seminar by Mrs. Suman Chiplunkar on Mudra and its health perspectives was organized on 22nd November for the parents, teachers and therapists of the school and training center. Mrs. Suman stressed on the fact that the nerves in the human body carry electromagnetic powers. "These are emitted through the tips of our fingers, nose tip, toes, etc. Our ancient yogis evidenced that creation comprised of Panchamaha (five fundamental) mudras . And the entire universe is made up of five elements (Pancha bhoota). These five elements need to be balanced for a healthy life in an individual. It was logically concluded, then, that the five fingers on the human hand were manifestations of five outer elements in nature. For instance, the thumb denotes agni (fire), the index finger vayu (air), middle finger stands for aakasha (space), the ring finger depicts prithvi (earth) and the little finger jal (water)."
All the attendees gained a fair knowledge of several kinds of mudras which can be easily practiced in daily life, as a cure for common ailments.
Erode
Erode centre has settled down in the new premises. We are getting children referred by doctors and schools in and around Erode. School teachers are empowered to handle children with minimal development and behavior issues. Addressed a group of parents on handling behavior issues at home. Tirunelveli centre has started the group programme and is slowly settling down.
Vocational Training / Youth Empowerment Services
Activities at Sreyes VTU took up a new line this month of November. While "Sharada" was being set up, Gita felt the need for pin up boards and she approached us to make a sample of the same with papier-mâché. The interns took up this new product with great enthusiasm. A sample was made and after approval, they started the process.This activity proved very different and special since it gave work to persons with varying degrees of skill. Tearing of paper, soaking in the correct promotion of water, grinding to a particular consistency, adding the requisite propotion of additives, taking a uniform quantity of mashed material for every board, flattening, sizing,jute fixing, finishing. Each of them took great pride in their contribution and for the first time in the history of the unit, ALL the interns were meaningfully employed towards ONE product.Somehow it brought about a different work place chemistry which was a beautiful experience. As each board was wrapped in paper, being packed for delivery, there went around a collective smile of pride among the interns.
This is the special story at Sreyes.
Other than that, the usual tailoring, bead work and craft activities happened. It was a month when Green Peppers moved their office and hence, there was no vegetable consignment to cut.
In spite of on and off rains and thin attendance, there was cheer and briskness in the unit.
From YES
Since Friday the 21st of November the trainees from YES are going twice a week to work in a new park. The park, in its present condition, has been maintained very poorly and is filled with weeds and rubbish. The field of work starts with cleaning the park through collecting all the rubbish and other debris from the grass. Subsequently we will be digging the soil and planting new trees.