Providing lifespan services to individuals with special needs...

Greetings from VRC and BLA!

It is a year since we started facing the pandemic, and it still continues. This has not stopped us from moving forward. We are now using both online and offline platform to help our students. The students have learnt to keep themselves safe by following the routines live social distancing, mask and washing hands.

To understand the progress of the children informal testing will be done during the first week of April. The tests will measure both the skills and the academic levels of the children.

Sharing corner:

Story telling for improving social and emotional skills of children:

Story telling has been a part of Indian Culture. Remember the good old stories that we learnt when we were kids. These stories not only helped us to travel in the world of imagination, but also taught us values, behavior, social skills and also become creative.

Let us see how we can use storytelling for our children: (aged between 3 – 5 years)

Some strategies to make story telling effective

Initially pick a story with minimal characters and a single theme.

Use visual aids or props to depict the characters.

You can even try voice over for each character while describing them.

The above will make the listening part more interesting.

Once you finish the story ask the child to recollect the story. It can be done in steps according to the understanding capacity of the child.

• Point out to the characters in the story.
• What is the story about?
• What is the fun element in the story?
• What did you like about the story?
• Would you like to draw a picture related to the story? If so allow.
• Tell the story in a sequence.

Once they are able to tell the story, allow them to discuss about it, create a new story, talk about the messages they received from it.

We can regulate the process based on the quality you wish to inculcate in the child. Use your imagination to make story telling a pleasure at the same time useful for the children.

Tiny steps make a Huge difference!!!

When I first met Anagha (name changed) in august 2019, everyone in the school including the teachers, the helpers and the therapists advised me to be cautious and alert around Anagha owing to her violent pushing and challenging behaviour. They had all tried a hand at rehabilitating her since the time she joined school five years ago at the age of 9. But despite all their best attempts there was minuscule difference in her behaviour and physique. Allow me to provide you with a brief description of her when I first met her so you could understand the situation better.

Anagha was an obese early teenager with 75% Intellectual Disability and speech impairment who was more interested in holding on to her seat most of the time and avoid physical activity at all costs. She would voluntarily get up only to use the WC or to go home when her grandparents came to pick her up. Reluctant to any form of physical activity, and making a commotion if probed outside her comfort zone. Her favourite word and the only answer to any commands given to her was a big fat "no"!

The day I met her, it was a physical activity period and the entire building echoed of her screams as her teachers tried all possible ways to lure her into stepping out in the sun. I also gave it a shot. So after initial introductions and pleasantries to make the teen comfortable, I started playing ‘catch the person’ with one of the teachers while other children were cheering and clapping. After observing for a while, Anagha got excited by this whole ordeal and started to cheer as well. Slowly one of the teachers unlocked her desk and playfully without her noticing, she was alr5eady in the middle of the room trying to catch her favourite teacher. Soon it was her turn to catch me along with her teacher and before she realised, she was outside in the front yard and playing! It’s important for me to mention that due to lack of physical activity and her body weight, she had secondary limitations like protruding belly, lumbar lordosis and foot pronation that altered the alignment of her knees making it even more challenging to run, jump and rendered her insecure of her feet leaving the ground. Her muscles trembled by the end of ten minutes of this activity indicating that she was maxing out on her capacity. This was her first step towards voluntarily involving in a physical activity. She was a difficult child who never got by her therapies with ease.

Soon she was assigned to me and I wanted to know her preferences, her likes and dislikes and met her mother. A very pleasant, hardworking and a motivated mother desperately trying to change her daughter’s habits, we discussed her daily routine, her eating and sleeping schedule and her activity levels at home. We started by making subtle changes in her schedule that now prompted her to do most of her chores by herself and less physical help by her mother. Her diet consisted of home cooked food but included wheat, rice and laddus that she indulged in whenever her mother was away for work. We changed her diet to more complex carbs, increase in protein intake and modified her sweet intake from sugary laddus to a small piece of groundnut chikkis once or twice a week as a reward of completing her daily activity chart. Since she was repulsed by straightforward physical exercises that were more obvious and repetitive, we made her perform chores that she like doing with the help of the pre-existing structures she had in her surroundings. Luckily she stayed in an apartment setup with stairs and a terrace which we used later to increase her difficulty level. Starting from dressing herself with minimal help from her mother, scrubbing with loofah, stacking utensils placed on the floor, helping her mother lift the basket of vegetables and climbing steps in the building were a few to name. At this point, we were only conducting 15-20 minutes of therapy at school that was similar in nature to her chores at home that she liked to do. Slowly we increased her activity exposure and increased the resistance by making her wear weighted jackets and cuffs and modified her shoes once she was comfortable in walking fast. During lockdown, she reached a stage where she loved one whole hour of physical activity without crying or resisting. We started with obstacle training with small storage utensils from the kitchen to make her overcome the fear of leaving the foot off the ground. She not only enjoyed all this but also insisted on video calling me so as to be praised and clapped for.

Now that Anagha welcomed physical activities, we started with squats, lunges and floor activities along with fine motor messy dough activities that she learned very soon. The trick was to seamlessly blend the activities that incorporated in her day to day chores and slowly work our way up to create challenges that she could overcome with repeated practice. All this not just improved her behaviour and her mood, it reduced her laziness, she lost weight and was more cheerful. It improved her general appearance and voluntary involvement. Now Anagha can perform cardio for 35minutes and is being trained for advanced obstacle training on raised platforms and dynamic surfaces. I am also glad to mention that she initiated to jump, can run although slowly and perform squats for 30 reps two sets with the biggest smile on her face!

Erode satellite centre has been working towards the holistic development of their students. The day starts with a prayer. We have a specific prayer for each day of the week. It includes prayer, chanting and singing. As far as academics is concerned grade level teaching has been introduced to cater to the needs of the children.

As part of empowering teachers, peer learning sessions have been introduced. Each teacher selects a topic example ADHD or ASD and talks about it. This is followed by a general discussion.

On Women’s day a few fun activities were organized and the teachers enjoyed them thoroughly.

All the teachers attended a training program on "Mindfulness" conducted by Mrs. Anandhi, Psychologist.

Parents have been giving good feedback about the improvement of their children. This has helped us to move ahead with enthusiasm.

The month began with observation by Lakshmi Sudhakar, Program Director, VTU team visiting YES for the cross center training and ended with making of Tomato Sauce project.

Lakshmi Sudhakaran was here for observation for a week. She introduced Jayalakshmi, who came later to observe and give a report on the trainees.

Started the quilling and bead word in the art and craft category.

Gita Bhalla arranged for a webinar on Mindfullness by Anandhi for all our staff to join and benefit held on Mar 6 and 13, 2021 both in English and Tamil.

Time table for treadmill to all trainees was done by Rishi.

Charu and Mani along with Jayalakshmi visited Gazali's internship automobile workshop . A good feedback was given by the Proprietor Mr. Anwar. He also requested if he can increase his days of the internship.

Charumathi coordinated with admin team for a letter requesting MLA Dr. Nataraj for arranging vaccination for all our staff.

Woman's day was celebrated by the farm team with the staff.

Demo by the bar coding vendor team. This is to train our trainees in data entry of our products, labelling, which can lead to placement in retailing outlets. The project is supported by Grundfos.

Usual routine activities were on with Vivikita packaging and Sneh block printing.

New trainee Sunderrajan joined. He observed and adapted immediately.

Charu and Usha visited YES as cross center visit. It was wonderful to observe all the vocations and the teachers involvement and the hospitality.

Sevalaya team visited VTU for the demo of sanitary napkin unit and to discuss about the date of shifting the machinery and related items to their center.

Tomato Sauce Project At VTU

With large tomato yield received from Sreyes farm – A special space- it was decided to have short vocational project of preparing sauce of it. Immediate plan was executed with help of farm and VTU team with the trainees. Total of 80 kgs tomatoes were used and a big gas stove All the trainees were involved in this project for full three days. The process started from washing, cleaning the tomatoes, boiling, mashing, grinding, measuring, filling and packing. All the trainees enjoyed and a team was formed for each task and assigned according to the capabilities of the trainees. It was amazing to see the trainees enjoying this project for the three full days. The finshed products were distributed to the trainees first, and then to all the teachers, staff and the balance were sold at the Sreyes Farm outlet.