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
"A Road Less Travelled" A two day workshop was conducted by Ms Parimal Pandit for parents of children with developmental disabilities. The workshop was to allow space for parents to see how the challenges bring about and develop unique faculties within oneself and understand where they are in the process.
There were 10 participants and 9 were from two units of V-Excel . The participants really participated whole heartedly and felt they got to see their issues from a different perspective. The various activities like the plant observation and movement with the various elements and the coming down of a child really touched the participants. Going over their biography was extremely healing for many.
Given below is one of the feedback..
"It was so refreshing and enthusiastic to attend the two day workshop conducted by Parimal. It was organised so well that everyone participated naturally with much of involvement in all the group activities. Lots of flashbacks..cherished memories...
Puja made each day so lively, briskly and brilliantly. Her energy was existing all through the day, even in her absence.
All the fellow parents are awesome. Jokes, pulling legs, comments, laughter., tears....what not....we enjoyed these 2 days thoroughly...
Made us look back and have a review about the way in which we approach and handle issues.
Thank you Parimal and V Excel for such wonderful opportunity."
Some felt they got a perspective to look at life. Some felt they got a place to destress and now are ready and energised to go back to the life struggles.
VACC: Our regular work continues with our corporate houses. We had two counselling desks for one corporate and three for another. There have been follow ups from people who are being met at the counselling desks and they are really looking forwarding working on themselves and to overcome their own challenges in life. The current life style and the work culture definitely dishes out more challenges for the people.
We had eight consultations and one assessment. Our individual counselling work with adults and play art therapy with children continue. This month we were also able to meet our support staff for counselling. This was not possible for a little while though aspire to reach out to all within the organisation.
Would like to tell a few stories from our Art Therapist dairies...
It is a wonder at times to watch the art that comes out from people when they are working on their issues and themselves. It is very different from one who is painting for pleasure or interest. There is a real striving- a struggle and a resolution and a leap in their art work and with that a leap in their behaviour.
An eighteen year old boy, in the Autism Spectrum, very aggressive, loud and rigid at home, worked with charcoal over two weeks. His initial pictures revealed his disturbed, emotionally unstable state, with many scratches and many sounds. Through the session he became more relaxed, deeper breathing, quieter and more conscious about light and darkness, tones and shading and then landed up with a picture of a calm, beautiful moon lit night mirroring his own state! His parents also noted a change in behaviour when art therapy, time in nature and counselling were consistent. He was much calmer and less rigid at home.
A young trainee, who seemed very restless and disturbed. when taken for a painting therapy session for the first time reported that he had thoughts in his head all the time, he could sleep properly and he never felt relaxed. He was never able to meet another's expectations and it bothered him. On his second painting, he took a deep sigh and when asked what happened, he said he felt free, relaxed and calm. When he walked down after the session, it was not in a rush or fumble of steps. He walked back collected and sure and stated he felt very good after a long time.
KLC: We have our regular work with individual children play therapy, art therapy and music therapy. The group play therapies are not happening as children are very busy with the Christmas play which is coming up in December. Our Art Therapist Puja has been actively involved in the play as actor, director, musician and mentor.
The teachers mentorship meetings, personal meetings continued. We helped administer INCLEN tool as part of data collection for the KLC students. Met parents for counselling. Also met a two German Volunteers who have been part of the KLC.
Had a meeting with the coordinators to understand the difficulties of teachers, parents and students.
VRC: Had a departmental meeting to chart out plan for a VRC trainee. The individual play therapy for the children in VRC continued. Some of the children who are really regular we are able to see a significant difference in the manner in which they hold themselves, conduct themselves, handle their stress and fears. But unfortunately some of the children are very irregular. In those it takes a long time to see the difference or the change is also not consistent. We met two parents from VRC. For Neev - Our counsellor at Olcott school met 11 children and 3 parents. The parents reported good change in the children's behaviour.
SREYES : This month six trainees were met for individual art and counselling work, some were met twice to work on their inner feelings, anger and behaviour. One parent and one teacher was met. The group work continued. The group work consists of movement and counsellor did relaxation with imagery.
YES: The art therapy and individual sessions with trainees continued. The sessions are given to those who need it . This time there were a couple sessions counsellors took for some trainees who had some behavioural issues or emotional issues. The group work involves music, movement and opportunities to express themselves either through art or painting or simply share feelings and thoughts.
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 Sensory Modulation disorder is a specific type of sensory processing disorder (SPD). This is seen in children with Autism and other development disabilities. This leads to impairment of functional independence, stagnation in development and cause inappropriate behaviour. There are 3 types of Sensory Modulation Disorder
• Over responsivity – exaggerated response of the nervous system to sensory input
• Under – responsivity – lack of response / insufficient response to the sensory environment
• Sensory seeking – craves for intense sensations constantly
Hypersensitivity | Hyposensitivity | |
Tactile Dysfunction | Resists brushing teeth | Needs to touch everyone |
Hates new clothes | Mouthing objects excessively | |
Vestibular Dysfunction | Afraid of heights | Hyperactive |
Avoids elevators | No sitting tolerance | |
Visual Dysfunction | Avoids eye contact | Squints / Cover eyes |
Watching fans and moving leaver | Watching dust specs in air | |
Gustatory Dysfunction | Eats only soft or pureed foods | Lick, chew and taste inedible objects |
Poor biting and chewing | Excessive drooling | |
Olfactory Dysfunction | Irritated by smell of perfume | Excessive smelling of objects, people and place |
Bothered by cooking smell | Certain inappropriate behaviours as in placing hand in certain areas and smelling. e.g., Saliva | |
Understanding Sensory Modulation process will give an understanding to why a behaviour is exhibited. Problem solving will help to reduce / extinct the behaviour so that it improves the quality of life and help in development.
Kaleidoscope Learning Center
From Gita Bhalla's Desk
It's been a month of a few shining stars of KLC shining brighter and lighting up the sky with their creativity. A few of our students triggered the conversation of giving and sharing in a classroom discussion and very soon what emerged from there was a brilliant script for a Play entitled "Magic of Love". The children and teachers of KLC are now producing and enacting this play , heralding the spirit of Christmas on the 19 and 20 of December at Olcott Memorial School. We look forward to seeing all our parents and well wishers there on the day.
Another shining star was Sabari , our ex student who still comes for Music and Art Therapy who took on a new avatar and came as an expert on autism to answer some questions from the teachers concerning some of their struggles with challenging children. It was a unique, solemn affair punctuated with eurythmy and music . The reverence in the room was tangible as Sabari explained sensory issues of Vafir, Gracia, Keshav and others . He suggested some novel strategies like using a cloth to secure and then move a child, and other very simple common sense strategies to address toilet training, getting into ones body completely, working with fears and rigidity.
Five students of JBAS college from the department of Interior design, completed the painting of the wall outside the Sharda Building and we gratefully acknowledge their contribution in creating a warm enlivening space for our organisation.
Classes 5,6 and 7 attended an art exhibition called " Colours in Conversation" arranged by the Svalambana trust. Many of them left their spontaneous remarks in the guest book and enjoyed the experience.
The Inclen and ISAA forms have been filled with the help of the counselling department and have been updated in the students files.
The school coordinator Shashi, attended the 5th International conference on Early Intervention at Madhuram Narayan Centre on the 18 and 19 of November and found it a great learning experience. Gita Bhalla presented a paper called 'Guardian of the Light' at an International conference held in Bangalore on the 7 and 8 of November on "Early Childhood Care and Development" by the Azim Premji University on the attributes of an early childhood educator.
The teachers, as part of the ongoing teachers refresher courses are attending workshops on Autism and how to handle challenging behaviours organised by the management to empower the teachers. We have Geeta Srikanth and Mallika Ganapathy as faculty.
V-Excel Educational Trust
Paper Presentation
At the 4th National Conference of Association for Early Childhood Education and Development “Re-defining the Early Childhood Profession in India: Challenges and Potential” in collaboration with Azim Premji University, Co-sponsored by UNICEF, held on 7-8 November, 2016 in Bengaluru, Mrs. Gita Bhalla presented a paper entitled "The Guardian Of The Light - The Critical Importance of the Role of the Early Childhood Educator and Caregiver in the Development of a Child”
The Road Less Traveled
On Nov. 12-13, the Counseling Unit of V-Excel conducted a two-day workshop for parents of special children. Entitled "The Road Less Traveled", this paid workshop was intended for parents to understand their own faulty patterns as well as strengths and learn how to overcome grief. Comments from Mr. Elangovan, a parent, who attended the workshop:
"It was so refreshing and enthusiastic to attend the two day workshop conducted by Parimal. It was organised so well that everyone participated naturally with much of involvement in all the group activities. Lots of flashbacks..cherished memories...Puji made each day so lively, briskly and brilliantly. Her energy was existing all through the day, even in her absence. All the fellow parents are awesome. Jokes, pulling legs, comments, laughter., tears....what not....we enjoyed these 2 days thoroughly...Made us to look back and have a review about the way in which we approach and handle issues. Thank you Parimal and V Excel for such wonderful opportunity."
Tarang in Chennai
This month's concert in our Tarang series featured a vocal concert by Ramakrishnan Murthy. He was accompanied on the violin by Charumathi Raghuraman and on the mridangam by N. C. Bharadwaj.
Paypal Opportunity Hack 2016
At the Paypal Opportunity Hack 2016 held on Nov. 12-13 in Chennai, we were represented by our tech people Ramesh Gopalakrishnan and Praveen Subramaniam. The logo for this event was designed by one of our own students, Ankit Bhootra. Opportunity Hack 2016 is a collaborative software development event where Indian technologists including those from PayPal will come together to solve day-to-day problems faced by non-profits, committed towards economic empowerment. In this open-format event, technologists may use multiple applications or programming languages to develop solutions. Participating organizations, including nonprofits, small business and government, maybe from different backgrounds working for or towards economic empowerment and similar causes.
Occupational Therapy
Happenings
Success Story
A nine year old boy, who comes weekly once for therapy had been aiming at attracting our attention in all possible ways. He always try speaking, crying, hitting or annoying everyone. He is not particular whether the attention is positive or negative as long as he can catch our eye. Once responded he will behave in an increasingly willful manner in an attempt to assert his independence. He was given some activities during therapy sessions which were chosen by him. He never completes a task before he shift to the next. He never follows any instructions given. If insisted to follow, he cries and starts verbalizing his next interest. He was given withdrawal and restriction of some of his privileges to enhance his tolerance level. After 3 months, we could find him stopped crying and feels comfortable with minimal task rules. Though he has to go a long way in controlling his behavior issues by himself, we consider this improvement as a main step ahead for him.
V-Excel Remedial Center
From Kejal Bakshi's Desk
Few success stories that we want to share –
In V-excel Remedial centre throughout the month we were busy preparing IEP’s for the next term and assessments for new children. We would like to talk about Nawful and his journey upto now. Nawful, age seven looks younger than his age. He came to VRC as he had no academic skills, no speech, no toilet control. He is a child with hyperactivity.
During our assessment, we observed that he is a child who wants to explore everything. He is constantly on move. He is not been exposed to schooling and structure. He does have difficulty in speech but, if worked consciously, he may produce some sounds and words. Our Individual plan was drafted. Our main goal was to work on his speech and that he should produce few sounds like ba, ma, give him language exposure and increase his attention span. He also receives Occupational Therapy.
To support this - Movement that include rhymes, verses and therapeutic actions to it, Speech and rhythmic exercises, exposure to language through rhymes, songs, stories, free play and wet-on-wet painting sessions were planned. Currently, He is very well settled in the class. Nawful is able to say amma, bye, apple. At home also he tries to communicate, he is motivated and eager to produce sounds and name everything around. He also aware of his space and is very clear of the boundaries. He follows one step instructions very well. The mother is very regular. She travels for four hours every day to bring her child to the centre. She always wears a smile of content and carries a heart of trust for us.
In Olcott School, we had a parent teachers meeting on 25th November. We got a very happy and positive response from all the parents. The one main concern for all of us was that the children should eat healthy breakfast before coming to school. This will help them to concentrate and work well. This was addressed by our counseling team followed by one on one meeting with the parent. The success story from Olcott school -
Rahul, tall and fat then his age group studies in fifth std. he lives with his mother. He was referred to the resource room as he did not follow any of the teacher’s instructions, did not have interest in studies, difficulty to read, write. Incomplete note-books. During our assessment, we saw that he is a child with difficulty in listening skills, low sitting tolerance and some behavior and emotional issues which may be the cause for not being interested in studies. He was hesitant to come to the resource room and be with us. Our plan for him was to make him comfortable with us, did lots of movements and brain gym, phonics, activities related to increase in attention span and listening skills. Counseling for the child and mother was also planned.
Over the three months period, a consistent change was observed. Counseling sessions proved fruitful for the mother as well as the child. Emotions of mother and the child were addressed. The actual reason for him to not to listen to the teachers, elders was known. The remedial teacher and counselor worked consciously on it. Now, the class teacher reported positive remarks about the child. He is now interested in studies and listens and obeys the teacher. The parent also shared his behavior at home has improved. The mother now takes keen interest in his studies, is regular in following up with the teacher and counselor. She also now feeds him healthy breakfast before leaving him to school.
In Malathi Matriculation School, this month we had a meeting with Principal, who said that kindergarten and grade 1 children have changed. She sees lots of positive change in them, their communication skills and their motivation towards learning. We are very happy to share about Kumarguru- a fifth std child. Kumaraguru is a 13 year old boy addressed with behavioural and academic issues. He is a single parent boy getting care from paternal aunt. He was referred to our resource room as he had lots of behavioural issues and academic issues.
During our assessment and classroom observations we observed that he touches girl students inappropriately,hence he sits in the corner of the class and is not allowed to play with other children. Academic issues like poor handwriting, difficulty in math, phonic, expressive language. He has low attention span. His speech is not age-appropriate. We then drafted our Individual Education Plan. Our main goal was to work on his bad touch and academic skills. Lots of play way method activities, busy hand activities, Movements with therapeutic actions, brain gym, wet on wet painting, activities related to oral language development were also part of his remedial program. Counseling for parent, aunt and child were also planned. For Kumarguru, pedagogical stories were planned.
Over a period of six months, the child is now showing appropriate behaviour with others. Enjoy playing with peers. He is able to pronounce words better, could do double digit addition, subtraction. Handwriting is improved. He is able to frame small sentences. The child is enthusiastic and eager to attend class. Teachers and parents are happy about his change and improvements. The aunt of the child understood the child’s difficulty and put him in mirudangam class and is encouraging his slogans reciting skill. Teachers allowed the child to sit n play with other children and stopped beating him. They are nowadays motivating him as they can see improvements in him.
Satellite Centers
From Jayanthi Vishwanath's Desk
Special School:
A success story… Arya Chaudhary, is a 7 year old child afflicted with Spastic Cerebral palsy. She was enrolled into our Early Intervention class room in Jan 2014. She used to be a thin, frail looking child who had not attained any of the developmental milestones. In addition to this, she suffered from severe constipation, that she was administered with enema on alternate days. The child had to be fed, cleaned and carried by the care-givers. Her food intake was abysmally low and she cried uncontrollably if she was force-fed.
We began the intervention program in Jan 2015. She was given physical therapy every day and was on homeopathic medication for constipation.
It was a difficult task for the teacher in the school to feed her and keep her clean while it was a challenge for the physical therapist to get her to co-operate during the therapy sessions.. The first milestone of neck-holding was achieved after 6 months of therapy. Thereafter, the progress was slow but steady, that after a year of therapy, Arya could be propped up in her special CP chair with support of cushions. At the end of two years of the EI program, Arya managed to hold her sipper glass to drink water, stand against the wall during the school assembly and her constipation issue showed a lot of improvement.
From June 2016, Arya manages to eat all by herself and her cognition has improved that she managed to ask one-word questions and give one –word answers. In November this year Arya managed to walk independently, around 15 steps, during the therapy session. We sent the video of her walking to her parents. Her mother said, "I have no words to express my feeling of gratitude to your team. I broke down while watching the video".
Other news from the special school:
On November 14, Children’s day was celebrated at school. The school children came in dressed in their colourful best and all the children were welcomed like special guests by their beloved teachers.The teachers organized a cultural program, which included dance and music performances by the teachers themselves. Mrs. Vrundha Lavate, an eminent social-worker in the city, joined us as a Chief-guest for the celebration. All the children were given gifts and home-made sweets. The day was filled with loads of laughter and excitement.
On November 26, Our Regional Director Mrs. Jayanthi Vishwanath was invited as the Guest of Honour for a function organized by the National Association for the Blind (NAB), Nashik. The function was organized by NAB in association with UDIS (You and the disabled) forum of Coimbatore, to distribute scholarships for Higher Education,of the Visually Challenged girls.
YES news:
On 9th November, the inauguration of the leaf / paper dish manufacturing machine was done by the members of the Samvedhna foundation, who donated the machine to the vocational training unit. Speaking at the occasion, the President of the Foundation Mr. Munshettiwar highlighted the importance of keeping the VTU trainees being engaged in meaningful and profitable activities.
From this month, one more vocation has been added to the Kitchen activity – i.e., baking. Mrs. Tasneem has started teaching the trainees to prepare simple bakery products like brown bread pizzas, flavored cup-cakes, mutigrain bread, etc. The trainees seem to be enjoying the baking experience.
From Gopal Jahagirdar in Solapur
November 14 Children's Day celebrated in the center, school and remedial children are participated and Gauri(sunita's niece )specially attended this function and take the leadership of this program.
One new autistic child Vibha has joined for therapy and remedial.
From Srirangam
On 3rd and 4th November 2016, Anandhi Madam did consultation for 10 Student trainees. Parents of these student trainees participated and explained in detail the medical history, schooling and developmental milestones and their expectation about their children.
On 5th November 2016, students trainees from ABHYASA KENDRA played in Srimad Andavan college, Thiruvanaikoil. They enjoyed a lot. Warming up exercises, Ball games, running, catching and badminton were played.
Parent’s meeting was conducted on 5th November 2016. Parents eagerly participated during the meeting. Every Thursday between 2:30 to 4:30 pm, parents those who were interested were asked to make visit to the centre and see the activities done by their children. The need for ADLS training was emphasized. Skills were explained in detail and training in one trade was emphasized. Parents were very eager to know about their children improvement.
On 10th November 2016, made visit to Arivalayam, B.H.E.L, Trichy. In that centre, more than 200 Children with disabilities were studying and doing vocational skills also. Various vocations done there was chair caning, envelope making, pickle making, stitching and ironing shirts, garland making, etc. Visit to this place was good learning for both Special educators as well as student trainees who visited the place. After that visit was made to Maan Park in B.H.E.L, Trichy. All the students trainees from ABHYASA KENDRA enjoyed a lot.
Other activities done in ABHYASA KENDRA are as follows:
Physiotherapy
Student trainees are involved in tread mill and cycling. They do it regularly and few student trainees have reduced their weight. Exercises are good relaxation for these Student trainees.
Workshop on Menstrual Hygiene
On 24th November 2016, workshop on menstrual hygiene was given to mothers of two female student trainees namely Padma priya and Bakya. Both the mothers were taught how to take care of their children during periods. They said that they would surely take care of their daughters as taught by Vasuki who takes class for these girl student trainees.
Gardening
This month, Student trainees were involved in Gardening work. They watered the plants especially spinanch (Keerai) which grew very well. Rest of the plants namely lady’s finger, brinjal etc. are growing. They are very enthusiastic and enjoy gardening work.
Vocational Training / Youth Empowerment Services
From Usha Rajagopal's Desk
The highlight of this month was the Sale event we prepared for, the past couple of months. As usual, the event "Exhibition cum sale" at the Overseas Women's Association was a good experience. We had a spread of 47 products across activities at the tailoring machine, block printing, paper mache, quilling, embroidery, bead work, jewellery making, simple craft, chord and jute products. Special mention is to be made of Kaushik, Ibrahim and Vaithy who took it as their responsibility to get things ready for transporting to venue. Kaushik also did supervisory job while his friends did packaging.
At the venue it was a matter of great joy and pride to see him communicate with the visitors to the stall. Kaushik , did show people the work he was personally involved with. He drew the attention of many to the video on display , which talked about the work at the unit. He also exhibited products made by others and said, "made by my friends". Kaushika father was also there as a volunteer to assist us.
This is a clear example of coordinated work .... At the unit and on the home front. The continued trust and conviction the teachers, communicated about his abilities and work and the exposure the family gave, have elevated him to this level. We, at Sreyes, hope to work towards churning out more Kaushiks .
I made a particular mention of this here since we want to map the growth of each of our trainees. Of course there has been a certain and visible growth in all of them. The exhibition went off well. The execution of the work was well received. Special appreciation to Margaret mam who took this initiative and worked all along to its fruition.
The loom has been set up and the first shawl made. This brought about a volley of activities for the teachers, trainees and admin alike.
Nagalakshmi, conducted training for the making of sanitary napkins for three days. She gave exhaustive theoretical as well as practical training. Shanthi, Uma Swaminathan and Satya, a potential resource person, attended it. On Conclusion, they made a batch of it independently. Plans and timetable for allocation of trainees for the orientation of this new project have been drawn up. Charu has registered with L&T for the annual Arunim sale to be held on 20th Dec.
Counselling was done by Radhika for all the trainees and teachers. Ambika is settling down well. We plan for her to bring lunch . Therapist will observe her and recommend intervention for training in independent meal intake for the teachers to work with. Uma has started her classes in Hospitality, looming and SNP with the trainees. She comes in twice/thrice a week and works with the trainees individually. Jayanthi and Shobha have participated in the Poompuhar training and have learnt to make to make many products that our trainees can be trained on. The Cafe Samarth hosted the MMA meeting.Plans have been made to add GFCF snacks to the menu to make it a hangout destination for our own students and trainees across units.
From Youth Empowerment Services:
In the vocational front we have travelled a long way and very happy to share with you all , that in the printing and documentation technology Ankit, Deepa, Karthik and Gokulakrishnan are independent in all the machine operations.Now they are given training in socialisation and in behavioural modification.
Trainee Krishnaa is doing the typing work for the MLA project.
Weekend courses have been arranged by V-Excel Educational Trust for the staff and parents of V-Excel. Mrs. Geetha Srikanth is taking classes on Behaviour Management and Mrs. Mallika Ganapathy is taking classes on introduction to Autism and basic concepts on Autism. So far two Very informative sessions were conducted.
Ten Hexaware employees are volunteering in YES on alternate Saturdays. There are four Zumba dancers and they are teaching Zumba dance to our trainees.