What are the Wilbarger brushing protocol instructions?

By rubbing the brush across the skin, the pressure input target touch receptors and helps a child organize his/her central nervous system. This can calm down any over active receptors that are misfiring and help bring a child’s level of alertness to a normal (calm) level.

Dr. Vasudha Prakash was felicitated by The Bengal Association of Chennai.

This was a women entrepreneur award for those who made a big difference in the society. Her message was very heart touching.

The Bengal Association, now established in its own premises at 29, Giri Road, T.Nagar, Chennai 600017, was registered as a society on 1st March 1929. The founder members started the Association with the objective of pursuing social, cultural and charitable activities, and providing temporary accommodation to pilgrims. It was an endeavor of just seven determined individuals to start with.

Tarang in Chennai

The artiste for the month was Mahanadi Dr. Shobana Vignesh, Head, Centre of Performing and Fine Arts, SRM Institute of Science and Technology. She was accompanied by Shri Arjun Ganesh on the mridangam, Shri Karaikal Venkatasubramanian on the violin and Shri Raga Malika Venkat Subramanian on the tabla.

About Dr. Shobana Vignesh: Dr. Shobana Vignesh is one of the leading performing and recording Carnatic musicians in India. Born into a family with a deep cultural heritage, Shobana had a natural flair for Carnatic music. Her talent in singing was spotted by her parents when she was as young as 3. She has been groomed under the guidance of eminent gurus like Sri. Swamimalai Janikaraman, Prof. T.R. Subramaniam, Sri. P.S. Narayanswamy and Sri.H.M.V Raghu. Shobana appeared as a child star in the award winning movie 'Mahanadhi' in 1994. She also rendered a song in the movie, 'Sri Ranga Ranga' which became a huge hit. Due to her brilliant performance in the movie, she is internationally known as 'Mahanadhi' Shobana.

Annual Saksham Rashtriya Adhiveshan

Our Executive Director, Ajita Panshikar and our Regional Director (West), Jayanthi Viswanath attended the 10th Annual Saksham Rashtriya Adhiveshan held in Jaipur on 29th-30th September 2018.

The aim of the conference was to emphasize on the work related to education, health, employment and rehabilitation of the Divyangs (Persons with Disabilities). Representatives of Saksham from 42 regions across the country attended. It was a well-organized conference with over 500 divyangs and nearly 2,000 people from various fields. There were parallel sessions for various disability areas. Ajita made a brief presentation on 'Understanding Autism'. Ajita and Jayanthi were a part of the panel on Intellectual Disabilities, and there were other verticals too - Hearing impairment, Visual impairment, and the like.

Goody bags for RTR amd Lennox International

Immensely happy to have accomplished the order of making 375 goody bags for RTR (Run T Nagar Run) supported by Lennox International. We take this opportunity to thank the executive team of RTR and Lennox for all the trust and support.

Trainees from two of our vocational training units enthusiastically participated and made this possible right on time. While the bags got ready at Vocational Training Unit at Adyar, Mug printing and screen printing on those bags were done at our Mylapore centre, Youth Empowerment Services.

It gives us great pride and happiness to share, that our trainees were involved in all the activities right from purchase of materials to packing the end products. This certainly gave them a wider exposure and great learning experience.

Thanks again for all the love and support!

An other interesting and diverse month dawned with the arrival of October. On 1 st October, all the teaching staff of the Center were taken on a tour to Mumbai by train, to visit (1) The ETC (Education and Training Center for the Disabled) at Vashi in Navi Mumbai. It is run by NMMC (Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation) and the Center facilitates services from prevention to rehabilitation and so etc stands for, "all disabilities, all age groups, all services, all under one roof." The Center has state-of-art infrastructure, has trained staff, very clean and provides free services to the residents of Navi-Mumbai.(2) Jai Vakeel Foundation and Research Center- a 72 year old not-for profit institution is the oldest Institution in India serving the intellectually challenged population. They provide holistic services to individuals with special needs; under four broad categories:HEALTHCARE – This program includes following vectors - Diagnosis and Therapy; Student Career Counseling; Parent Counseling; Rural Medical Camp. EDUCATION (Ages 6 to 18) covers- Schools for children with Intellectual Disability (Mumbai, Talegaon and Deolali) and Autism Centre. SKILLS DEVELOPMENT (Ages 18 to 50) – Vocational Training Centre and Sheltered Workshop under this program SUPPORT SERVICES – Residential Services and Respite Care for individuals in the age range of 18 to 25. (Photo enclosed)

On 3rd October- the YES trainees were taken on a field visit to Good Luck Cafe. Incidentally, the restaurant is managed by a parent of a special child who is also a trainee in YES. All the trainees received special attention- they were taken on a tour of various culinary areas. At the end of the tour, the trainees enjoyed eating the snacks served in the cafe.(Photo enclosed)

This month our Regional Director Mrs. Jayanthi Vishwanath along with our CEO Mr. Anand Jagadeesan visited two institutions in Mumbai, who were engaged in Vocational activities.(a) Shraddha Charitable Trust -provides vocational training to autistic & mentally challenged young adults. They also provide treatment, custodial care and rehabilitation to the marginalized group of neglected people and wandering road-side destitute. They follow a combination approach of medication, counseling and Vocation training and Occupational engagement. (b)Om Creations Trust:- a workshop to provide holistic rehabilitation to individuals with special needs and thereby promote independence and self-sufficiency. Under the guidance and supervision of specialist teachers and volunteers, they are engaged in producing a range of high quality art as well as food products.

Our Center celebrated Sharadh Navarathri with great zeal and excitement. All the students and staff came dressed in colourful traditional attire. They sang bhajans and Aarti to invoke the blessings of Goddess Durga, played Dandiya- Rass- Garba. The celebration ended with a sumptuous lunch spread.( Pics enclosed)

After Dusherra, preparations for Diwali began with great enthusiasm. Our YES center received a huge order for painted Earthen lamps and colourful paper lanterns. The BLA students and YES trainees showed great interest in painting lamps and folding colourful papers to prepare the lanterns. All the staff in the school and YES worked extra time to help complete the order.(pic enclosed).

Seasons Greetings and Best Wishes for a sparkling Deepavali to all.

From Gopal Jahagirdar in Solapur

1. On 8th and 9th October Mrs. Jayanthi Vishwanath, our Regional Director visited Solapur center. During her visit, one special educator Mr. Suresh Yemul was appointed under contract basis. She did appraisal of two teachers, supervised classroom sessions of EI group and gave feed-back, and had meetings with staff.. She did counseling session with a new parent and generally guided us with our work.

2. On 13th and 14th October we organized ABA training workshop for parents and teachers. Five parents and ten teachers participated in the training program.

3. Our vocational group students visited 'Gosaki Textile' a towel factory and did some stitching work on power sewing machine, counting and made bunches of napkins by sorting towels by colour. All children enjoyed their visit.

4. During this month our children prepared for Diwali Exhibition. They made beautiful Diyas, Aakashdeep( lanterns), Candles,Doormats, Envelopes,Torans,Gift bags, Chocolates and Decorative items. On 30th October, the Exhibition was inaugurated by Dr.Sonali Ghongade - dietitian and Dr.Surekha Kadadi..Dr.Ghongade guided parents about diet. She also introduced Batch Flower remedy. She expressed her willingness to conduct workshop about diet and guide individually.

5. On 29th October there was a festival in Walchand College of Commerce. A group of 5 students put a stall of the items made by our children.

From Abhyasa Kendra - Srirangam

Our Trainees and staff had field trip to Srirangam and Thiruvanaikoil temple on 19th October for Vijayadhasami occasion, it was really good experience for them to learn and adopt the situation, waited in queue had dharsan, it was a wonderful learning experience to improve their social behaviour skills.

Our Staff Mrs. Reka, Vasuki and Sudha had attended seminar conducted by Intact Special School on 27th October - Seminar on Independent living of persons with Intellectual disabilities.

From Outreach Centre - Pollachi

In the month of October 2018, our children in OUTREACH REMEDIAL CENTER, was introduced to Abacus for improving memory and math skills.

To improve the child’s memory, especially when it comes to improving skill sets in math for children with dyscalculia. Our team tried to understand what working and visual spatial working memory is. Working memory is the ability to store and manage information in one’s mind for a short period of time. Visual spatial working memory on the other hand is memory that is associated with what we see in your daily lives. This type of memory is the memory that directly correlates to child’s performance in math. There are many ways to boost and improves one’s working memory. The abacus is one of the oldest calculation tools with columns of beads that can be used to add, subtract, multiply and division.

The most powerful learning occurs when we use different areas of the brain. When students work with symbols, such as numbers, they are using a different area of the brain than when they work with visual and spatial information, such as an array of dots. The abacus and its beads provide a visual representation for children to utilize when they are doing problems. The hand movements and methods ultimately cause more synapses to form in the brain, and the more connections that are made, the greater level of learning that is taking place. The abacus is not only improving working memory but it also makes math, fun and exciting for a child.

The highlight of this month was the field trip on metro rail ride organised for all the trainees accompanied by teachers of VTU Sreyes as part of the experiential learning. We all left in the morning by school bus to Alandur station. All the trainees enjoyed the metro rail ride to and from, Alandur station to AGDMS station. Various details related to the metro rail like how to read the train stations, timings & other sign boards in the platform were brought to their notice and taught . While they were travelling in the metro train also they learnt about the display of lights, automatic functioning of the train like door openings , exit, alighting the train at stations. At AGDMS station, the trainees were taught how to buy the ride tickets, whom to approach for help in times of emergency etc. They enjoyed interacting with the policemen and other metro rail counter staff. In short, the metro rail ride proved to be a unique and great learning experience for them.

The month began with the unit putting up the Navaratri Golu true to its tradition . Staff and trainees from other units were invited to visit and participate in the celebration. Golu decoration and indoor and outdoor park final touches were carried out by the teachers assisted by the trainees. 20 YES Trainees accompanied by teachers and Rama mam visited Golu . Teachers and Trainees of both YES and VTU sang bhajans, followed by dance by VTU trainees and Ms Jaya. The trainees enacted a drama emphasizing the importance of playing games and physical activities . All participated and enjoyed the golu. Vijaya Dasami - was celebrated with total involvement, vibrant and joy. Beautiful colourful rangolis adorned the door entrance and other pathways. In the morning, Special Pooja was performed by the purohit. All teachers and students took part in the Pooja. In the afternoon, it was followed by excellent classical dance performance by Sudarsan. The celebration provided a learning opportunity in many aspects to the trainees.

Teachers Day celebration at Sharada (organised by parents)was thoroughly enjoyed by the teachers and the audience. The teachers completely unwinded as they participated with enthusiasm in good numbers in the games organised by the parents.

The vocational trainers along took 7 students by walk to expose them to traffic signal at Adyar bus depo. They were taught to recognise the signal lights, and cross at the zebra crossing. After coming back to the Classroom at VTU Sreyes, the students could narrate cogently what they saw and learnt. Anandhi, VTU Sreyes trainee helped to manage the stall at Seva Mela 2018 @ Lady Andal School Ground, Chetpet exhibition with Mrs. Kantha Narasimhan, Mrs. Charu Sriram and a trainee from YES.

Ms. Shubha from The Indian Twist took delivery of her products viz.tooth pick holders and napkin holders made of paper mache from VTU Sreyes. She displays the products in various reputed 3 star & 5 star hotels in the city.

Regular production activities were also carried out by all divisions as per the order schedule.

**With Navrathri festival the teachers along with the trainees were busy completing the various orders for this month.
**Paper mache bowls were made by some trainees with little assistance from the teachers.

** Cloth bags for the Run TNagar Run . Also, thamboolam bags of Gada cloth were stitched as per order received during this festival season.

**The Block printing division completed the block printing of the thamboolam bags.

**Desk organisers made out of waste plastic bottles, jute ropes, laces and discarded CDs , and another model with rolled paper were new product designs.

** trainees learnt to make beaded lamp shades

** Macreme lamp shades were made with silk thread as well as with cotton ropes

**File folders were made for the IRA program

** Tailoring division skilled workers started stitching the bulk order of wedding Thamboolam bags of non-woven material.

**All trainees were engaged in removing the shell of the coconut with the help of coconut shell removing machine as part of Navaratri activities.

** Sanitary Napkin production was carried out as usual.

All The trainees had a cycle of OT as a beginning to the proposed regular therapy program. Regular weekly trips to Sreyes farm with 2 trainees accompanied by teacher from Sreyes and 5 trainees from Sharada stayed at the farm overnight. Vegetables –cluster beans, okra, karamani and brinjal were brought from the farm to be sold atVTU Sreyes. This activity provides real time money handling experience for the trainees.

3 new students enrolled for the Foundation course. Two of them were referred by our BLA Unit. The third student is one doing his class 10 in SPASTN currently. Guru Pooja was performed on the Last Thursday. Sastrigal performed a special Pooja, which was attended by the trainees, teachers from VTU and E.I.

Tarang concert at BVB, featuring the classical music performance of Dr.Shobana was mind blowing. Her selection of songs was quite appealing to all. Guests from Akansha Foundation, Bangalore , and volunteers from HexaWare visited us this month.They observed all the activities carried out in various divisions with keen interest. Other regular activities of the trainees getting trained at Automobile shed, art teachers giving training to the trainees on arts and crafts also continued.

October 2018 was a very busy month for YES, since we had large orders in Baking and Printing and documentation unit. We printed on 375 mugs and screen printed on 375 bags for 'Run.T.Nagar'. Run groups anniversary celebrations and supplied it on 13.10.18

On 19.10.18,we celebrated Vijayadasamy in our center. We decorated the vocational rooms with flowers and started the puja with two bhajans.

On 20.10.18, a meeting was organised to explain about the SREYES farm visit to our parents. Shri Rajagopal and Mrs. Usha Rajagopal, explained to the parents, how the visit to the farm, help the trainees' transformation and to an overall development. They explained the different activities to be organised in the coming months like cattle breeding, apiculture etc. The ultimate goal is to prepare our trainees towards an independent living.

On 29.10.18 ,the final lot of 500 boxes of chocolates were supplied to the Chakrath Career Consultancy Services. We have received an order of 1200 boxes of chocolates of 125 gms. each. This is an order which trained our trainees in different skills, starting from weighing the chocolate material, pouring it in moulds, maintaining the correct temperature while freezing the chocolates, packing and arranging them in boxes and to supply them to the customer.

Mr. Nithin Chordia, one of the best chocolate tasters in India, the founder of Kocoatrait-a chocolate making unit has placed an order of printing on the wrapper of his new range of chocolates ,to be launched soon. Of the ten designs given, we have finished printing of six designs of 500 copies each.

Our counsellor visits twice a week. We have on the spot counselling of trainees on need basis apart from meeting parents periodically. Occupational Therapy sessions happen thrice a week. The trainees in need of individual sessions are taken care of by our Therapist.