Calming Activities for Sensory Processing Disorder
: Children with Sensory Processing disorder generally become over stimulated by any situation beyond their control. In this case, calming activities play an important role. It is an integral part of the sensory diet. It helps the child to organise, regulate and promote development and learning.

Joint compressions
Squishes
o Use pillows or cushions and give the child gentle but firm squishes on their leg and arm.
Use of Swings
o Movement back and forth or side to side is best as swinging.
Deep Pressure
Use of Weight Products
o Weight Blankets
o Weight Towel
o Carrying Weight toys
Pushing and Pulling activities
o Tug of war can provide some really great proprioceptive input
Scooter board
o Prone lying on scooter board and moving forward & backward
Therapy ball
o Give squishes with therapy ball
o Rolling on stomach on top of ball
o Balances up and down while seated on ball
Isometric Exercise
o Push hands together
o Pull hands apart
o Chair push-ups
o Pushups on the wall.
 Yard work
o Carrying bags of soil
o Watching with watering can
Climbing activities in the playground.

School reopened for Term 2 on the 3 of October 2017. On Vijayadashami day on the 30 of September, a few teachers along with the administrative staff at Sharda, ushered in the new academic auspicious beginning. New students are usually welcomed and this term a new Teacher Shalini Sharma joined us this term. We hope that she is here to stay and wish her warmly for choosing to be with KLC.

The new term saw the regrouping of students so that they can learn a new vocation and new blocks were started for all classes.
Blue Sky Choir
On 5 October the Blue Sky Choir was invited by Pathshala, the Krishnamurthi school in Tiruvallur. It was an uplifting experience for both the receivers and the givers as there was an understanding and acceptance beyond words and gestures from the students of the school. In our collective experience we have not experienced young students envy our students for being free, uncluttered and totally living with their original skins on! Observations that even great philosophers would fail to note. Students from the choir spent a day eating, walking, watching, interacting with the students of Pathshala and it was indeed a rich exchange on both ends.

On the 6th of October the staff of V-Excel had an opportunity to listen to a two hour workshop held by Dr. Vasudha Prakash who spoke about the "Inner Child". This was an enriching, informative and very interesting afternoon when we got to listen to various subjects from woman’s health, to adult behaviour to differences in the worlds of men and women . Thank you Vasudha for the wonderful afternoon.

The AIMS media conducted their first formal test for the students of the second batch and the parents, teachers and students were all surprised, pleasantly indeed, that they scored encouraging grades .

A proposal for Cafe Samarth on Wheels was put up to the managing trustees as our students are now ready to take up their cooking adventures to the next level.

Field trips galore!
Most of the classes have been for many field trips this month. Grade 4 in their Geography block took a train trip in the MRTS trains upto the beach station. They also went to the temple on North Mada street, Grade 5 went to the beach to experience the different kinds of landforms of India, feel sand to understand deserts, coastlines. They also visited Theosophical gardens to experience coconut picking of Kerala, climb St. Thomas Mound. Grade 7 who were doing a Water block went on a rainy day to the beach, visited a rain water harvesting plant , and created a River Symphony with sounds of Water and a few musical instruments. In the chemistry block , crystals were grown in a jar and examined by the students. Grade 6 was experiencing life in Rome. So the corridors of the school saw toga clad Romans, wreath clad Greeks from Grade 5A, and gladiator battles. These simulations and experiences are richly assimilated by the students besides creating a fun opportunity for students and teachers alike!

Our heartfelt gratitude to Ramesh, who demonstrated the use and advantages of the new email platform - Office 365 to all the teachers of KLC. It was well received and we hope that it makes the work of writing reports much easier between the class teachers and mentors, apart from the mail's easy usage.

In the teachers meeting on Friday, we had Child Study of Gracia a Grade 5B students, but this was re-visiting study. Kavitha presented the child study to all the teachers.

On the 21st, after the mentors met their respective class teachers, we had an in service by Parimal. This was on the interesting topic of trials namely the air, Water and fire trials that we have gone through in life. It was both experiential and reflective. The second part is yet to follow and we look forward to it, and the teachers felt that a lot of sharing took place which both distresses as well as makes connections in the group. Thank you dear Parimal for sharing your expertise with us.

Mrs. Lekshmi Ramesh, the Program Director of our Remedial Programs, received the "SAHYOG" best Teacher Award 2017 in acknowledgement of her hard work and achievement.

A very brief introduction to Lekshmi:
With over 21 years of experience in the education and disability sectors, Lekshmi has lived in different cities and been a head/lead in setting up and running Resource Rooms and Learning Support Centres, guiding a team of teachers and special educators to work effectively. She has got diverse experience in the field of special education – mainstream schools with different national and international curriculum, with a pediatrician and with special schools. This wide experience is an advantage while dealing with children with unique challenges. She is a willing learner and a patient listener, both of which are qualities that set her apart from many others of her stature. Her keen understanding of the slow learners and the curriculum allows her to give her best, keeping in mind the child's need.

V-Excel's Kiosk at Grundfos

A V-Excel product kiosk was set up at Grundfos Pumps India, Chennai on Monday Oct, 9, 2017. Trainees Anandhi, Sriram, Santhosh and Deepa accompanied with our Admin Manager Manivannan were made to handle to the stall and sale of the products. They were taught to communicate and explain the products to the employees.. Anandhi gave a live demo of her skills. We thank the Grundfos team - Ms. Mahathi Parasuram, and Ms. Aishwarya for giving us this opportunity.

A Trek to Kolli Hills

Our Disha Parent’s forum organised trekking for their special children and parents to Kolli Hills. The trek was organised by Mr. Meiyappan who is a professional trekking organisor. Twelve families with their wards along with 2 special teachers had a great time with different experiences and bonding with each families. One parent Mr. Elango shared his experience:

How to name this?
Really don't know how to name this experience of 12 special families with 2 special teachers joining together on a trip to Kolli hills for 4 days.
Awesome? Wonderful? Emotional? Fantastic?
Must be all combined together.
Children enjoyed every bit of travel and the site visits. Preethi and Kailash both were insisting the driver to play songs and clapping, dancing during throughout the travel.
The dominance and courage shown by Vishnu & Kailash on their stage performance on the penultimate day was marvellous.
The tenacity exhibited by all the parents and children in managing those 1000 steps to reach to enjoy the Ahayaganga falls is a standing example of the fighting spirit of the families. We literally felt the presence of Almighty, when we were under the falls and those tiny particles of waterspray flashed on us, with that thumping noise of falling water.
The arrangements and the itinerary planned by Mr Meyappan was flawless and fitted so well to us. Mutual voluntary help by every parent to other families was so natural and our dream to have a community living was trial run in these 4 days. A special appreciation to the hospitality shown by the hotel Silverline retreat.
The local man Thangaraj and team, the van drivers are so kind towards the entire team. Those evenings where all the families played together with random games are immemorable.
It was so spontaneous that Ponrajam, Bharathi and Ambujam started chanting Sivapuranam in the forest, and the whole team was mesmerised. Seriously waiting for the announcement for the next trip."

It has been a month of happenings in VRC. The Morning group of four children have started attending the school model of functioning. They are in group for certain activities and also taken out for individual sessions. We also have a helping staff to attend to them.

There has been several requests for extending our services in other areas in and out of Chennai.The following initiatives were undertaken to create awareness about V-excel and the services and also about Learning Disability.

Assessment camp by VRC
On October 28th, 5 members from the VRC team visited a school in Thiruvattiyoor for an assessment camp. The school Thiruthangal Nadar, serves approximately 1000 children and the team assessed 15 children across grades 1 to 7. The school's management was as enthusiastic as much as our team and had organised the whole event with great care. Mrs. Lekshmi, addressed the parents, while her team under the guidance of Mrs. Kejal Bhakshi performed the assessment tests on the children. It was a good exposure for the team and looking forward to more such opportunities.

A brief report on the Awareness Camp conducted in Pollachi by Outreach Remedial Center, in association with V-Excel Educational Trust. The Awareness camps on Learning Difficulty was organized in three schools in and around Pollachi district. As per their request, VRC conducted the camps in two schools on 7th of October and one school on 14th of October.

The camp in Arokiyamatha Matriculation School was attended by around 400 ,comprising of parents, teachers and the Management. The points dealt with were reasons for poor performance, what is learning disability and difficulty, the pointers, the need for the parents to be more aware of their child's potential and needs. It was followed by an interactive session, where parents were very eager to know more about the ways in which they could deal with their children.

This was followed by an awareness camp in Siwalik Matric Higher Secondary School, attended by around 100. The Principal and the Trustees were very eager to know about the Learning Problems and the ways to address them. The audience was the children who were having difficulties in learning and their parents. The points dealt with was focused on the parents, the students and the ways of bringing about a change.

In Viswadeepthi School, on 14th October, it was an Orientation Programme, focusing on the Parents, Teachers and the students and around 200 parents attended . Parenting tips with real life examples were given, and the slides were in Tamil and English to make it more easier to understand. The study tecniques were explained alongwith Individual Differences followed by reasons for poor performance . The talk was well received by all,and the management was very happy to know all about V-Excel and the services.

Though started with a skeptical feeling how the parents and teachers would respond, the outcome was very encouraging. Looking forward to a fruitful association with Outreach Pollachi.

Here are the happenings from BLA and Neev Schools

Bridges Learning Academy (Gayathri Bhaskar)
October was a month of celebrations and Examinations.The Second term has started for the Primary level 1,2 and 3 and Interactive classes are being organized for level I and 2. For BLA -Primary, the areas to be focused other than the academics are:
1. Environmental education
Students will develop an understanding of the concepts chosen:
· Air
· Water
· Environmental Information by Location
· Greener Living-say "no to plastics'
· Health
· Land,
· Safety habits.
2. Social Skill Development
Teaching basic social skills such as being polite to others, taking turns, making friends, and controlling one’s emotions are basic skills that help students adjust to the structure of the school environment and will become a major part of their lives.

We are happy to announce that Master Hariharan has cleared his X th Board Exam (Samacheer) He had cleared two papers earlier,and now he cleared two - Mathematics - 35/100 and Science 64/100. He is enrolled for XII under NIOS. Two students have appeared for NIOS- October Batch.

First educational visit of BLA
The students of BLA, 14 of them, alongwith 4 teachers were taken on an educational trip - a train journey.They took the MRTS train from Mandaveli to Velachery and back. This was an initiative to make them understand the social and environmental adjustments and rules to be followed.

Nalanda Way - Priya Shankar:
We have started some activities for the children alongwith remedial that would enhance the gross motor and fine motor areas of the children. Children enjoy the bean bag and the stationary cycle a lot even though some of them are unable to pedal. We had some sponsors through Nalandaway visiting and observing our sessions and interacting with the kids. Divya, a special educator from V-Excel, will start conducting sessions (mostly activity /OT based) from November. She will be there twice a week.

Rainy days are here, and so our theme is "Monsoon" for November. Activities are planned across the units of VRC and shall update with all the exciting news!

Special school News:
This month, the school was abuzz with Diwali related activities like making paper lanterns and painting earthen lamps. The term-end evaluation reports of the students were prepared and we found that most of the children had performed extremely well in the evaluation. Parent meetings were held to review the progress made by the children.

On 14th October Teachers Day was celebrated, when the teachers made merry singing, dancing and playing indoor games. Diwali was celebrated with the children, who came in dressed in colorful clothes and burst crackers and enjoyed eating lots of goodies.

Vocational Center News:
The first Quarterly evaluations of all the trainees were carried out during the first week of October. Evaluation work sheets were prepared and the students were assessed on all the areas of development. The reports were prepared and handed over to the parents.

The second week of October was a hectic one for the trainees. They went on a Diwali shopping spree along with their teachers to Big bazaar super market. Thereafter they painted earthen lamps and made paper lanterns in the morning hours. The afternoons were spent on making delicious Diwali sweets like laddu, sev, etc.

Diwali celebration began by performing Lakshmi Puja, wherein all the goodies prepared by the trainees were offered to the Goddess and worshiped. Thereafter the center was closed for Diwali vacation.

From Gopal Jahagirdar in Solapur
2nd October we celebrated birthday of Sri Mahatma Gandhiji

14th October we celebrated Deepavali for students and on this day there was an exhibition of painted diyas, Aakash Kandil gift enevelopes and brooms all of which were made by our students. Mrs. Kadadi president of Inner Wheel Club was the chairperson and and Dr. Chapalkar was the Chief Guest. Both appreciated students' work and they promised us their support for our center.

We started a broom-making workshop for older students. One trainer comes to our center and trains our students.

From Abhyasa Kendra - Srirangam
Mrs. Reka from the Srirangam centre took part in an NGO meeting on the topic Independent adult living program in Arun Hotel, Trichy on 21st October organised by Intact Special School. Special educators from many schools and MSW students from across Trichy participated in this meeting. The one day conference also had delegates from Sweden (Ms. Sophia and Ms. Carolien) who shared information about the rules, laws and the rights involved for persons with disabilities. This conference helped us gather a lot of information on the importance of independent living skills among adults.

The Vocational Unit at Sreyes had an eventful month of October. With two streams of trainees , the production group and foundation group working simultaneously, there are a lot of interesting activities going on.

Daan Utsav :
Daan Utsav was formerly known as The Joy of Giving Week. As a part of Daan Utsav our trainees of both foundation group and vocational group visited our neighbourhood and created awareness . Many residents across our centre welcomed our trainees and gave their old books, clothes and toys. Our trainees collected and sorted the gifts. The items collected were given to the designated centre in Adyar.

Staff workshop:
On 6th October our staff members attend the workshop conducted by our Founder Director, Dr. Vasudha Prakash. The workshop was really a helpful to know the different stages of the human growth both physical and mental.

Field Trips:
Crocodile Park:
On 7th October our trainees visited Crocodile park. They were guided about safety while relaxing / enjoying as well as conducting oneself in public space. Our trainees enjoyed the trip, they also were able to comprehend and express what they saw in the crocodile park.
Traffic Signal:
0n 25th Wednesday all our trainees went for a experiential learning of crossing the road safely and also about the working of traffic signals. The traffic police explained how to cross the road,where to cross the road. They were asked to observe the flow of traffic .Later the trainees were taught to walk safely on a busy road and to cross the road when there is no designated pedestrian crossing . Teachers headed by Uma Swaminathan facilitated this.

Grundfos Stall::
On 9th October our trainees participated in the Grundfos sale . Two of our trainees manned the stall and explained to the visitors about our product and the process involved in the making of the same. They behaved very professionally and participated in arranging the products and winding up of the stall.

Diwali Celebration:
On 17th October we celebrated Diwali in Sreyes. The trainees talked about the festival of light. Facilitated by Radha Naganathan, each of them drew on the black board the different fireworks they like to play with. They took an oath to celebrate a noiseless Divali. Guided by Usha Rajagopal, a drama was enacted where each staff members posed to be a body part and spoke of its function and how to take care of that body part. The trainees were able to understand and elaborate the body parts with the function when asked later as a review. After a joint lunch and music cum dance session the celebration came to a close.

Vocational Activity:
The products for Hexaware has been completed and delivered. The number of trainees being trained in sanitary napkin making has been increased to 4 on a regular basis and 6 more on rotation. The production target has been increased on daily basis.

Couple of trainees of Foundation course are being trained in tailoring. The trainees are been trained in paper bamboo making and in paper bag. They also learnt to do riveting. Shabaz one of our trainees in vocational course is able to do rivet work and washing the bikes.

The Loom training has been started and trainees are attending the classes on their respective allocated time. Lot of Block printing work orders were received and new trainees were also exposed to the activity. The execution was quick and with perfection.

Trainees with limited skill sets are being encouraged to be part of the assembly line process in production. This integration has brought about new face to the production program. The craft section was as active as ever, making quilled coasters, rope coasters, beaded jewellery, embellishing work on bags and dupattas.

The unit takes pride in learning craft from our two octogenarian volunteers , Smt Margaret Buch (Tuesdays and Thursdays) Smt Surya Natarajan (Friday) where the trainers as well as trainees are a part of the process.

The Samarth Cafe caters to the MMA and V Excel admin group as usual on the days of their meeting. The new addition of Chef Ramanujam, a special person adds colour and variety to the cafe.

Therapy and Counselling is happening on a regular basis. Individual therapy sessions as per needs and group sessions are planned for both programs. From the month of October the ADL sessions for the male trainees has been started and the session happens on every day from 01:00 pm to 01:30 pm after the lunch. The topics covered were oral hygiene, face wash and combing.

From Youth Empowerment Services:
From Rama Nagarajan's Desk On 9th October two of our trainees Deepa and Santhosh attended a sale organised by Grundfos. In the Bakery and Confectionery unit, an order of 950 boxes of chocolates was delivered.

In the laundry unit, few new customers including the owner of Natural beauty salon and Pandian Security Services have started giving clothes for washing and ironing.

In Printing and Documentation for for Bharathidasan University Trichy 175 scribbling pads and 185 file folders were printed in screen printing.

Our Counselling Department visits regularly and meets our trainees and their parents.