Strides Newsletter Archives
- Counseling & Assessments
- Early Intervention
- Kaleidoscope Learning Center
- V-Excel Educational Trust
- Occupational Therapy
- V-Excel Remedial Center
- Satellite Centers
- Vocational Training / Youth Empowerment Services
Counseling & Assessments
From Parimal Pandit's Desk
From Parimal Pandit's Desk
This month was full of celebrations and festivities.
VACC: We had 8 new cases for counselling and out of it one is follow up from our corporate desks. We did 7 consultations, and 2 assessments. Its been a hectic month with all the counselling sessions and follow up. Our BVB center is functional and as of now has two people coming consistently for counselling. We had regular follow up of four of our cases and 6 children and youngsters for individual counselling. Its great thing to see that even if the clients move abroad for work or have come back after stay abroad, if they need help they seek us out and insist on skype or phone sessions.
Couple of consultations were done for VTU admissions. We had four counselling desks at two of our corporate companies and there is an increasing demand to have more. We have been approached by a few more companies with specific requirements.
KLC: We had 4 children seen over a few sessions each for individual therapy and our group play therapy with our counsellors continued. Puja, our psychologist, is busy with developing music and the christmas play that KLC will stage. the individual and group music therapy was conducted for a few students, and art and communication with 8 children over multiple sessions. There is marked improvement in them post the sessions. In one of the communication session an 18 year-old child wrote a whole article about use and misuse of computer. You can access it on Facebook.
Our individual work and curriculum work continued with the teachers. One of our psychologists works with TA and it seems to be benefiting quite few of our teachers for their personal development and issues. This month we met 8 parents this month, some for emergency some for behavioural counselling.
VTU: The two counsellors met 4 trainees for individual counselling and two group sessions were conducted. Two staff members were also met. We attended the inauguration of sanitary napkin making machine at Sreyes. The trainees are showing improvement slowly but steadily. The group is settling down and the sessions are carried out with a certain theme.
YES: 16 Trainees were met for individual counselling, art and music therapies over multiple sessions and two groups were conducted. The trainees enjoy any rhythmic work in terms of movement, drama and they many a times ask for art. The individual sessions are benefitting many in terms of making them more social or reducing rigidity and working on their emotions. As the trainees prepare for job skills, and inclusion it also becomes necessary to work with emotional health . Autistic children and adults, anything and every change can result in behavioural outbursts. There was also meeting to address the issue of handling emergencies. Two parents were met for behavioural concerns.
VRC: Four of the VRC Children were seen for play therapy. One child from Pudiadore for individual play therapy was met and in Olcott and Malathy school the counsellors met the children as well as parents. The children at these schools are really being benefitted through the therapy.
Srirangam: Our former psychologist, Anandhi, who is away on maternity leave visited Srirangam center for two days of parent consultations and teachers training. It was great to have our services extended to other part of the state so the consistency is maintained.
A Success Story - Playing the Way Through
When a young 7 yrs old boy with slight ASD features, started play therapy about 2 months ago, he was very resistant. He would not enter the therapy room, he had severe separation anxiety from his mother. Initially, his mother would sit in and around the therapy room, we didn't shut the room door either. During this period he would not play or even look at any toy. He threw tantrums and refused to cooperate. Finally we came to a conclusion that the best way to tackle him would be if she left him and returned to pick him up. The tantrums continued and he even sat outside the room and cried. As of a few weeks ago, I was delighted to note that he stopped crying and started playing! He even asked for drawing material! After that he continues to come for play therapy sessions with a smiling and a seeking spirit, drawing and ready to fully engage. Outside of V-Excel he has improved many manifold. He doesn't mind his mother going out, when she was busy for a week and he hardly saw her he didn't call her even once! He has grown in leaps and bounds and continues to do so. The mother is very happy to see the progress.
Early Intervention
Enhancing Speech and Language Development in children
Speech and language development is an important aspect of early childhood programme. Certain important strategies to encourage speech and language in children between 0 – 6 years is listed below. This can be incorporated by the facilitators in Early Intervention programme and by parents at home.
Birth to 2 years:
• Encourage your baby to make vowel-like and consonant-vowel sounds such as "ma", "da", and "ba".
• Reinforce attempts by maintaining eye contact, responding with speech, and imitating vocalizations using different patterns and emphasis. For example, raise the pitch of your voice to indicate a question
• Imitate your baby's laughter and facial expressions
• Teach your baby to imitate your actions, including clapping your hands, throwing kisses, and playing finger games such as pat-a-cake, peek-a-boo and the itsy-bitsy-spider
• Talk as you bathe, feed and dress your baby. Talk about what you are doing, where you are going, what you will do when you arrive and who and what you will see.
• Introduce animal sounds to associate a sound with a specific meaning: "The doggie says woof-woof."
• Acknowledge the attempt to communicate
2 to 4 years:
• Use good speech that is clear and simple for your child to model
• Repeat what your child says indicating that you understand
• Help your child understand and ask questions. Play the yes-no game
• Ask questions that require a choice. "Do you want an apple or an orange?" "Do you want to wear your red or blue shirt?"
• Sing simple songs and recite nursery rhymes to show the rhythm and pattern of speech
• Use photographs of familiar people and places, and retell what happened or make up a new story
4 to 6 years:
• When your child starts a conversation, give your full attention whenever possible
• Make sure that you have your child’s attention before you speak
• Acknowledge, encourage and praise all attempts to speak. Show that you understand the word or phrase by fulfilling the request, if appropriate
• Pause after speaking. This gives your child a chance to continue the conversation
• Talk about spatial relationships (First, middle, and last; right and left) and opposites (up and down; on and off)
• Help your child follow two and three-step directions: "Go to your room, and bring me your book."
• Encourage your child to give directions. Follow his or her directions as he or she explains how to build a tower of blocks.
Kaleidoscope Learning Center
From Gita Bhalla's Desk
School reopened on the 11 of October after the first term break. We had a small Saraswathi pooja, for good beginnings and to banish all fears and problems, seeking blessings from the Goddess of Learning. Vasanthi aunty performed a small poojai.
We have 2 new admissions in KLC - Krishna Agarwal in Grade 2 and Neelesh in Kindergarten. We hope the children have a good learning experience with us. Ashwin a student of Kindergarten has been included in a neighbourhood school and we hope that he is able to blossom there.
The trainees of Tamilnadu Handicrafts course came to KLC to observe the working of the teachers with the children during Vocational Training Activities from Monday to Thursday, 6 in a batch. A brief introduction to the children, their education and the way we work at KLC was given to them before they entered the working space.
It was again one of those exhilarating moments that we encountered when two of our students Chinmayee and Hari suggested that it was time to bring some real Christmas spirit to town. They gave us an outline of a play, instructed the teachers to build on it and "The story of Christmas", has been conceived and is going through the gestation period. We have started our practice for the Christmas Play during the afternoons of Tuesday, Wednesday and morning of Friday. We had approached Theosophical Society for space for the play and they offered us the use of the Open Stage at Olcott Memorial High School. It will be staged on 20 of December and it will be our offering to mainstream school children especially those schools that we have established contact with during the Blue Blue Sky Choir performances. It will also mark the World Disability month.
Saturday, teachers went to Olcott School to observe the Open Stage and come up with ideas and plans for the Christmas Play. Once back in school the teachers had their weekly meeting with their mentors.
Vocational Activities started on Wednesday for the higher class children. The same batch of children continue their training this term also. New blocks for every class started in right earnest. Uma, mother of Prasad of Grade 6 has come to KLC to train to work with young children and she has been observing the kindergarten class.
The students from SIET college have been coming in to paint the portico wall, and our children have been keeping out of their way and also taking care of the painted wall.
Teachers, Parents and children have started their sessions with Counselling department from this week. Strong support on all fronts from counselling has been a boon to KLC.
Sukrtam have assigned Thursday for their classes this term to avoid clashing with the practice and have started their sessions. Friday afternoon the teachers met for their first meeting this term and after having an invigorating session of movement, continued with sacred space and text reading.
Diwali was celebrated on the 27 of October and the whole family of V-Excel came together in the foyer in a festive mood. Grade 3 tried their hand at making beautiful diyas with white Plaster of Paris and poster colours.
V-Excel Educational Trust
Certificate Course in LD
The closing ceremony of the three-month weekend Certificate course on Specific Learning Disabilities was held on Saturday, 8th October. Fourteen participants successfully earned this certificate. Dr. (Mrs.) Shashi Swaran Singh, Headmistress of the Jaigopal Garodia Government Girls School presided and handed over the certificates.
Ras Garba in V-Excel
For the first time in our history, we celebrated Ras Garba in our premises in R.A. Puram on Saturday, October 8. Though done in a small scale, the colourful event was well-attended. Catering for the event was done by our own staff and students from Cafe Samarth.
Tarang in Chennai
This month's concert in our Tarang series featured a vocal concert Ananya Ashok. She was accompanied on the violin by Gyandev Pappu and on the mridangam by Akshay Ram.
TV Time
Dr. Vasudha Prakash was interviewed on Doordarshan Podhigai on October 18 in a live program called "Hello Ungaludan" from 12.00 noon to 1.00 pm. Viewers called in their questions. This interview was to focus on creating awareness on autism and early childhood. Dr. Vasudha was also on a live program on RAJ NEWS on October 20, taking questions about mental health issues and counseling.
Paper Presentations
Two of our papers were accepted for presentations at conferences. 'The Critical Role of the Early Childhood Educator', authored by Gita Bhalla was accepted at the National Conference on Current Educational Perspectives in Jodhpur. A second paper titled, 'Controlled Sensory Integration Therapy for the Development of Verbal Communication in Young Children with Autism (2 – 6 years)', authored by Lalitha Sridhar, was accepted by the Scientific Committee at the Autism around the World Conference 2016, in Dubai.
Occupational Therapy
Happenings
Success Story
An autistic boy who has mental retardation and hyperactivity is taking therapy program for his motor and sensory issues for years. He never allowed any new therapist to handle him but now has started accepting everybody. Though he is comfortable with elders, he was ignoring other children and was aggressive towards them.. His mother has given birth to a baby girl and the family members were keeping an eye on him always to ensure her safety. He is now sharing his beads with another girl while he strings and stopped misbehaving like hitting her or pushing her down. We got to know that his mother is also relaxed and happily taking care of both of her children in the same room and need not worry about the little baby’s safety.
V-Excel Remedial Center
From Kejal Bakshi's Desk
"For the first time in three years, my daughter could sit in a class without a shadow teacher and was able to handle her sensory needs, anxiety, excitement on her own for three long days. This is a great achievement for me", says the mother of a grade three child with autism.
"Initially, my son, we thought who can't talk, is non-verbal and can't go to any school. After spending two months in V-Excel, he is know eager to learn the world around him, is wanting to talk, makes an attempt to generate and associate sounds to everything thing that he sees", says parent who travels four hours everyday for her child's therapy.
Many more positive stories we heard from parents, as it was the month for progress reports. We spend good quality time in discussing the three month progress,their concerns, behavior to work on and next three month goals are set.
Under our neev project, remedial sessions, counseling sessions are going on. Along with Mrs. Rama Nagarajan - the head of Kaustabham centre, we met the COO - Ms. Anita and Mr. Paneer - State Coordinator for Sarva Shikshya Abhiyan and also Deputy Coordinator to get permissions to work with Government Schools.
Satellite Centers
From Jayanthi Vishwanath's Desk
Special School:
The first term-end evaluations of the children in the special school were completed and the therapy and special education reports were prepared. Many of the children showed marked improvement in the Academic, ADLs, Social, Communication and Physical aspects of development. During the last week of October, the reports were handed over to the parents after a thorough discussion with them by their teachers and therapists, about the child's development.
All the children were given Home program to help the parents carry out some important activities at home during Diwali vacation. The school closed for Diwali on 26th October.
YES - Vocational Training Unit:
A workshop was conducted by Mrs. Prajakta Bhambare for making decorative items and huge paper lanterns used during the festive season. The trainees painted decorative earthen lamps and made attractive paper lanterns and packed them very beautifully.
Obituary:
It is with a heavy heart and profound grief, we inform you of the sad demise of our dear student, Master Siddhesh Bange on 6th October 2016. Siddhesh was a 13 year old boy, afflicted with brain disorder and epileptic seizures. He was a loveable and affectionate child and the only child of his parents. As an infant, he had undergone a surgical procedure in the brain called VP shunting to treat the hydrocephalous condition. We pray for his soul to rest in peace.
From Gopal Jahagirdar in Solapur
October 3 we celebrated Mahatma Gandhi Jayanthi in our center. Hadaga Program was celebrated in our center (The Hadaga festival in Maharashtra is to pray for a good monsoon and a good harvest. As Indra is the god of rain, people sing songs to Indra and pray for rain).
For Deepavali prepration, the trainees decorated and painted diyas, made greeting cards, made of gift packets and Aakash Kandeels, and packed pouches of utane. On 27th October Deepavali was celebrated at our center. The Chief Guests were Dr. Suneel Vaidya (MD Pediatrics and President of Rotary club of North Solapur) and Sri Prakash Aalandkar (Trade Union Leader of Bharatiy Majdur Sangh Solapur).
In this program our exhibition was inaugurated and the products made by our students sold like hot cakes. In this exhibition, the students of Sangameshwar College, Solapur and Creative Group of Solapur and the parents of our students also participated.
On 31st October a bhoomi poojan was done in the plot of Sri Gavande and Pooja was conducted by Dattatray Patil with Ganapati Atharv Sheersh and Sree Sookt. Many students and parents participated in this program.
From Srirangam
Abhyasa Kendra is a vocational unit serving 25 Persons with disabilities. The main activities done in the month of October are as follows:
In the month of October, Pakku mattai thattu unit was started. The machine was fitted on 16th October 2016. Five student trainees namely Jai Chandra Mouli Saravanan, Janakiraman Srinivasan, Vijay Raghavan Muthukrishnan, Sudharsan Varadharajan and Vasudevan were identified to do this skill and are being trained up in this vocation. All these students are interested to do Pakku Mattai thattu under the supervision and guidance of Vadivel Sir, Special educator. Prevocational training is going on.
On 16th October 2016, 40 Students and staff from the vocational units of V-Excel, Chennai visited to Abhyasa Kendra. Both the students mingled together. As it was third Saturday, indoor games such as carrom were played and interaction between both teams took place.
On 27th October 2016, Diwali celebration took place in Sreenivasa nagar, Abhyasa Kendra. During that day, all the students trainees were in colored clothes. Crackers and sweets were sponsored. Trainees enjoyed a lot. They were happy to fire crackers with support of special educators and staff here.
Other activities done in October were:
• Parents meeting conducted on Saturday 1st week. Diet chart was asked to be followed. Punctuality in timing to school was emphasized. The activities done in our vocational training unit was explained in detail.
• The other activities are laundry, kitchen activities , computer training, domestic skills, gardening and arts and crafts. For computer teaching, Sridevi Miss is taking the class. For arts and crafts, Jothi Miss is taking the class.
• All the students in Abhyasa Kendra are interested to learn a trade and enjoy coming to school.
Vocational Training / Youth Empowerment Services
From Usha Rajagopal's Desk
The month of October, being one of festivals, just zipped from one event to the other. The highlight io the month, however, is the setting up of the Sanitary Napkin Project (SNP). The Sanitary Napkin Machine (SNM) was received and Nagalakshmi installed it. On Thursday, 20th October, the SNP was inaugurated in a modest function. Mr. Ranganath, the main person from Grundfos (they are the sponsors of the project), Ms. Mahathi, and Ms. Ishwarya (Grundfos CSR wing) were there for the inauguration.
Our trustee Mr. Radhakrishnan, who has been THE person who not only introduced us to this concept, but also got Grundfos to support us, was there, to our great happiness. Mr. Alex of Equitas and Ms. Shripriya of the Catalyst Trust joined the group.
Our Trustee Mr. Rajagopal, Sundari Aunty and Gita Bhalla were there with us. After a brief introduction to the project by Ajita, Nagalakshmi demonstrated the product making and also its efficacy. This was followed by lighting of the lamp and subsequently a simple 'tea' at Cafe Samarth. Nagalakshmi will be coming to train us in production.
Other happenings:
- Trainees , accompanied by the management staff, went to the IOC petrol Bunk to distribute flyers as part of Daan Utsav.
- A surprise plan of having Cafe Samarth to cater to the Ras Gharba during Dussehra, was welcomed by all and the interns also enjoyed the dance session. On other weekends too the cafe is open and we look forward to more patronage from well wishers.
- Dr. Karthiyayini, our doctor volunteer, completed the recording of medical details of new trainees and also their physical examination. These and other details are being transferred to their IPP online by our volunteer Shoba.
- On the 7th, the Navaratri Golu was open for visit by all. It began as a day of hectic activity for trainees and staff alike. We had the Kaustubh trainees and staff with us in the morning. The forenoon was a time of chanting and prayer. Afternoon, had a special performance on the veena by Sudharshan. He also sang a few songs and thereafter performed 5 pieces of bharatanatyam. The whole of the afternoon from 2- 4.30 he held everyone spellbound. The parents and children of EI came in to see the Golu and receive goody bag all through the day. Parents of the VTU trainees also came in, in the afternoon.
- The trainees of Kaustubh and interns of sreyes went on a three day trip to Srirangam and Thanjavur. The day of their return was a day of excitement as the trainees who went on the Srirangam trip exchanged notes amongst themselves and also shared their experience with their friends who could not go with them.The visit to our centre at Srirangam, and making new friends seemed to be the highlight. They also liked the temple visits and travel with the Kaustubh group of friends.
- Jayanthi and Shoba have had a month of intensive training with the Poompuhar workshop classes. They will be transferring this to the interns as they work with them. As part of this Train the Trainer's program, the students of this workshop, are at every stage being oriented with details needed to sensitise them to work with persons with special needs. They were divided into three groups and posted to our three chennai centres for observation this last week of October.
On the 21st, the trustees of V-Excel left by road to Sringeri for a trustee meeting and darshan of The Mentor T.H. Mahasannidhanam and Sannidhanam. The tediousness of the 18 hour journey vanished when the swami gave us private audience and listened with great interest about all aspects of work done in V Excel. He was very fascinated by the fact that small babies respond to EI and was very happy to hear that EI leads to mainstreaming in cases. While we talked about the vocational activities and production,We also showed them some bags made by the Sreyes interns. The Mutt has placed orders for bags for their 2017 annual Sarada Navaratri Pooja.
The group has almost completed the target set for various products ,produced for the exhibition. So a fresh timetable was made for the next fortnight for the group with The teachers.
Material for dupatta has been bought from Karur by Manivannan. Shanthi began block printing with her team and completed 10 numbers before the monsoon clouds moved in.
Vijay Sravan goes for vehicle wash on the days he is here at sreyes. He also enjoys paper quilling, painting and stitching with wool.
Tarang, on the 26th was a very nice performance by Ananya Ashok, Saket Ram and Gyandev Pappu. Everybody enjoyed the clear melody and refreshing music.
Margaret mam is back after her cataract surgery and all the interns were happy to see her again after. Almost 2 weeks.
The mood for Divali has been set with the exchange of Sweets and wishes.
The trainees and teachers of Vtu joined the fun and joy of fireworks at sharada on Thursday, 27 th evening.the noiseless fireworks was enjoyed by all. They were very happy to receive the 'bakshanam' for Divali. Thanks to all of the team that made the day special.
A special mention about Abhinaya, Prakash, Prabhu and of course Manivannan who put in their best to make the SNP happen. Appreciation to Manivannan for the continuos follow up with Swathi Garments and giving the best of himself and his time in spite of many challenges.
Vasudha's introduction of Dr. Lekha Padmakumar to us happened during this fortnight. Lekha is a Homeopath who is a 3rd generation homeo practitioner.. Her family clinic is in Kerala..Cochi, and she practices in Chennai, Adyar. Lekha has been invited to sit at Sreyes in the Esvi Arogya Shala. She will be available for consultation on Wednesday and Friday, 9.30 --12.30.
From Youth Empowerment Services:
Our Mylapore MLA Dr. Natarajan, IPS has given a project about preparing a booklet in both Tamil and English about the achievements in his first 100 days in his constituency. It is an ongoing project.
We received an order of 5 kg. of cookies from our trustee Shri Radhakrishnan Iyer. Thanks for the encouraging gesture.
On 13th October 2016, from V-Excel vocational training unit, 33 trainees with 12 staff started our overnight stay programme, which is a part of our curriculum. We traveled to Srirangam in a Volvo A/C bus. We reached Srirangam at 8.30 p.m. and stayed at our vocational training centre. On 14th, we visited the Tanjavur Lord Brahadeeswara temple. It is a heritage monument maintained by the Archeological Department of India. Many trainees purchased the famous Tanjavur dolls. On 14th evening we visited the Lord Ranganatha temple at Srirangam. This temple is often listed as the largest functioning Hindu temple in the world.
On 15th morning we visited our vocational training centre in Srirangam. Our trainees interacted with the trainees there and participated in indoor games.
On 26th October, we were invited by Hexaware Technologies, Chennai, to organize a stall in their premises for Diwali. Our staff Ms. Subalakshmi, volunteer Magdalena and trainee Santhosh were there. It was a very good learning experience to us.