"The barriers are not erected which can say to aspiring talents and industry, 'Thus far and no farther.'....."
Ludwig van Beethoven
V-Excel News
This month saw a very special concert by none other than our very own Founder-Director Dr. Vasudha Prakash, accompanied by her daughter Aditi Prakash. Both of them have trained for years in Carnatic as well as Hindustani Classical music, and had selected a beautiful and distinctive set of numbers to sing. The melodious blend of bhajans and a variety of familiar songs had our children listening intently, enjoying and swaying! It was indeed a delicious treat for all as the academic year came to an end.
We had the Town Hall meeting on 9th April, a meeting where all the staff and volunteers of V-Excel assemble to share their experiences and views on the year gone by. This year we involved everyone in brainstorming sessions addressing different challenges faced by the organization. We recognize that we are the agents of the change we want and this can be achieved only by pledging to make a positive difference in ourselves and our environment. It was a very unique sight to see so many heads at work in one place!
We are shortly starting a center in Solapur, taking under our wings a parent initiative program already running there. The present team of people involved is an extremely sincere, simple, dedicated group of people who had come to Chennai for a four day training program. We took them through each of our service units and the respective Heads shared with them the goals of the service, children's profiles and challenges, the specific work involved, challenges faced etc.. We are very grateful to Mr. Dilip Kulkarni, a retired senior professional from Oracle, who has not just taken lead on this project, but has also taken up complete financial responsibility for the Solapur center.
Kaleidoscope Learning Centre
School closed for children on 5th of April for the summer break. Parents went armed with reports and some activities which were planned in conference with the teachers to make the summer vacation more fruitful and structured. Most were encouraged to spend the vacation in their native villages and small towns away from the hustle and bustle of the everyday city life. Many of our young enthusiasts were advised about keeping a scrapbook to record and make notes of their interesting experiences.
Teachers spent one week in school, after the reports were handed out, sorting, cleaning and putting away things for the summer. This additional week also served as a time for reflection, for learning new skills and for fresh planning. Some of our teachers attended a workshop on hand work and learnt many new crafts which will add to the repertoire of activities for the children in the coming term. School reopens for teachers on 1st of June.
Academy for Teacher Excellence
IGNOU contact sessions for the one year course on "Early Childhood Special Education Enabling Inclusion' have gone into the second phase. The students have started getting hands on experience to take case history and also to assess a child with disability. For this purpose the students were taken to 'Andhra Mahila Sabha' where they spent the entire morning talking to the parents and taking case history of the children. For many of the students it was a first time experience to interact with the parent and their child.
All the students of this batch have expressed that as the course is progressing, they are finding it an entirely new learning that has not only broadened their vision but also made a personal transformation, and given them a new perspective towards teaching children with special needs.
May month has been a relatively quieter month. Being summer, most of the students have taken time off from their contact sessions to go on vacation. Some others have started working on their assignments.
Early Intervention Unit
A year-end review meeting with parents of all the children in early intervention program has been done. As many as 80 individual meetings are completed.
Parent observations, a periodic practice where parents get to see how their children receive therapy and are trained inside the therapy room, was conducted for all children in the Unit.
Mainstreaming is the key goal of the Early Intervention program and we are happy that this year too some of our children have got admission in regular schools.
We had four hearing impaired children from Bala Vidyalaya requesting for therapy as well as speech and language facilitation. All the four children have done very well and three of them are ready to be discharged from the Center.
Home program and work sheets are being prepared for the all the children for the summer break. We need to involve parents actively in this process since our target group is young children between 0-7 years.
With increasing need for enrolling more children, we need to boost our resources and require more special educators and therapists. Suitable applications are welcome.
Given the nature of recent cases received for consultation, we are contemplating starting an Infant Stimulation Program for children who are three months to a year old. This can be a very significant service since an early diagnosis and treatment immensely helps the child develop as per the milestones and have a holistic growth.
V-Excel Satellite Centres
The Tirunelveli Center is shifting location in the nearby area from the next academic year. Mr. Kashinathan and Mr. Padmanabhan from Sri Shringeri Sharada Peetham are assisting us to see that things are settled well. We would like to sincerely thank Mr. Sivaramakrishnan for very generously allowing us to use his personal premises for two years. This helped us greatly in establishing a base and serving children with disabilities in the region.
Keeping our long term interest in developing our services and resources in Erode, we conducted campus interviews in April for interns and addressed the final year O.T and P.T students at J.K.K College in Erode. We have hired a therapist and a Special Educator in Erode to meet our growing needs there.
Our Nashik Center is doing very well and we have seen overwhelming response over the past year. Ongoing customized center-based programs were designed and for the short summer break, home programs were given to every child. Given that the outcomes with special children getting remedial education and occupational therapies are tangible, parents are able to appreciate the positive difference brought about with need for timely identification, focus and attention for children with special needs.
The parent body in Nashik is an involved partner and has requested us to consider starting a special school there. We have begun planning in that direction. We have received some contributions in cash and kind from the local people and we would sincerely like to thank them for their support.
V-Excel Remedial Centre
The onset of summer brought along several students who possessed varied degrees of learning problems, but nevertheless bright in their own ways. We worked with as many as five students of varied abilities for conducting a comprehensive remedial assessment. Several schools also took advantage of the impending holiday season and advised their students performing at less than expected levels to get a formal assessment done for checking for learning disabilities, if any.
Our stream of remedials continued with several other children with an average academic lag of a few years. Particular disturbing were two cases from grades IV & V, but possessing academic abilities of levels reminiscent of pre-primary rank. This is of concern, especially since the gap in academics is around 6-7 years as against the normal lag of 3-4 years. This suggests a deep deficiency in their ability to keep pace with the normal tempo of learning. However, their social and emotional interaction as well as regional linguistic ability is age appropriate. While two children have levels of 'pre-primary'. While both the children have the potential to match up gradually with intensive remedial sessions the other one has exhibited mild autistic traits which in turn require separate attention.
In the forthcoming year, we would like to conduct -
Group remedial sessions on a regular basis
Workshops for parents to understand LD and other related problems
Engage needy parents in group art therapy with KLC parents.
Vocational Training Unit
Individual meetings were held with the parents to share children's progress reports. Parents' idea of a suitable vocation for their wards was also discussed in great detail.
Holi was celebrated with colours, diyas and sweets. John was the chief guest for this celebration. He had an activity session with the students which all of them enjoyed.
Order of thamboolam bags for two different weddings was executed and delivered before schedule! Trainees worked till the end of April for completing the bags.
The academic year concluded with a parent talk meeting on the last working day. The topic for that day was 'Development, health and sex education". It was well attended and parents had an enlightening interactive session.
We had internal discussions with the teachers and skill trainers for planning the new year and everyone enthusiastic contributed ideas for ensuring that we move the young adolescents towards independence.
Counseling and Assessment Unit
Report writing and year end meetings marked the month of April, although we continued to have our regular counseling sessions with parents and external clients.
Regular schools send to us children who underperform consistently or have behavioural and psychological issues that they would like professional advice on. This month we did two consultations and subsequent did testing for children from Chettinad Vidhyashram.
We completed our departmental evaluations. Since we work across all service units of V-Excel, we had requested them too for evaluation of our work. We would like to thank them all for their frank feedback and will make modifications that will enhance our functioning and service to the children and the parents.
We also did planning our work for the next year during the summer months. A core committee meeting was held to bring certain issues and questions to the forefront. It was just a beginning and there was a consensus that we need to continue this process to bring in more clarity and direction.
Our counselors were involved in two workshops held on account of Mother's Day at Cognizant. The primary focus was on parenting and children's issues.
During the Orientation program arranged for the Solapur team, we shared different aspects of our work such as curriculum, counseling, and issues to be conscious of in a special education center. Our best wishes for successful launch of the Solapur center.
Contact Information
V-Excel Educational Trust
#1 Norton 2nd Street
Mandaveli Chennai 600 028
Tel: 91 - 44 - 24620243
91 - 44 - 24956373 E-mail us or visit us at www.v-excel.org
V-Excel Center for Research and Rehabilitation
(In assocation with S.V. Sarada Foundation)
50 Sreyes, M.G. Road
Shastri Nagar, Chennai 600 041
Tel: 91 - 44 - 24522061
91 - 44 - 24521986 E-mail us
Academic Concepts, Inc.
33 Pine Street
East Brunswick New Jersey 08818
Tel: (732) 619-7944
Tax ID: 22-3632715 E-mail us
