Providing lifespan services to individuals with special needs...

On April 9, the VLC, BLA and VTU teachers attended a session on "Developing Emotional Well-being" to inculcate coping strategies, build resilience and helpful thought patterns. The 1-hour session conducted by Ms. Pradnya Apte and Ms Armin Shroff was followed by refreshing snacks and an informal interaction to build team spirit among the teachers.

On 14th April, we celebrated Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Jayanti. In which teachers gave information about Dr Ambedkar's work. Few students spoke about the Father of the Indian Constitution. Few teachers added charm to the occassion by lighting candles.

On 28th April. 8-9 students performed a short skit on "Social media's impact" The message had a striking impact and the audience appreciated the performance of the students.

On 28th April, an interesting session on Parenting skills and Child development was conducted by Dr Saumil Asher, an occupational therapist from Mumbai working with team CRC for child development and parenting.

Around 40 parents and V-EXCEL teachers attended this session.

The topic of the session was How to keep child engaged during vacation"

He covered the above topic in various headings as

* Reasons behind the Behavioural issues of child
* Vacation challenges for parents
* As parents, how can one connect with the child at various levels with correct perception.
* Correct Algorithm to be followed regarding communication
* Various opportunities that exist around home, that could be fruitfully explored during vacation

He stated that a child shows behavioural issues for many reasons like no occupancy and not fulfilment of their deserving needs, parents stopping children from what they like to do.

He said, "that children with special needs do not require special parenting, they need normal biological parenting and this comes only with acceptance by the parents. Parents can connect with the child with their inner drive and allow child to operate from strengths not weakness. Parents should be an unconditional giver."

Parents should treat child according to their developmental age not their chronological age.

Regarding communication, he said that we should focus more on expressive communication and receptive language before focusing on speech development.

Child's understanding should be enhanced by involving him in day-to-day functions thus giving him functional therapy.

He reiterated that vacations are the best time for parent child bonding where child can be more aware of his house and explore it. Child can learn by imitating other family members.

As a parent one should identify the likes and hobbies of the child and let them do what they like to and get involved with them.

On 30th April, term end evaluation report card along with home program were shared with parents.

Greetings from all of us at the Erode Center!

This year we planned sports day for our children . Sports has always been part of our curriculum . The benefits of any kind of sport are many.

Several studies suggest playing develops a child's self-confidence and self-esteem.We know how emotions run high in sports – whether watching a sport or playing it.

Other benefits are

* Discipline
* Social skills
* Patience
* Perseverance
* Accept defeat
* Teamwork

On 28th april we conducted the sports day with 25 children. The list of games conducted were -

* Brick walk
* Snow ball
* Stone gathering
* Ball throwing
* Book balancing
* Ball balancing
* In out games

Prizes were given to all participants . It was decided to give them a plate and snack box so they could use them in the center. It was a very exciting and joyful experience for all of us.

We decided to give a break of one month to our students but wanted to ensure they spend their time fruitfully and also practise skills that they have been learning . So a Home Program was made for each student depending on their goals that we had planned for each . Simple activities at home to be involved in the daily chores like clothes folding , mopping, gardening ,kitchen activities .For EI children jumping, hopping, running, drawing and painting activities were given as Home Program . We also gave some simple therapy activities to be practised at home.

We also had the opportunity to be a part of the Town Hall meeting conducted in Chennai on 25 th April . We could meet other members, interact and partake in the art activities . We are grateful to V - Excel and looking forward to a fruitful academic year .

2nd April is celebrated as the World Autism Awareness Day and we at V-Excel Learning Center Solapur arranged an awareness program "SAVANGADI" for grandparents. There is always a special bond between children and their grandparents. They always want to help the child. While providing services at the center we found that due to extra care and love or extreme negligence towards a special child, negative behaviour of children was increased hence it was necessary to educate grandparents about the condition and the problems of their child.. Dr. Radhika Honap guided grandparents through her presentation. During the program we realised that 90% of the grandparents were unaware of what problems their child had. Our program was helpful in understanding Autism and how to deal with children at home. Better understanding about our child will help parents for support from elders at home.

Chief guest for the program was Mrs.Chanda Patil Ma'am -Founder director of Tiny Thoughts Nursery School, Solapur running from past 30 years. Grandparents also shared feedback about how the therapies at the center were helpful.

On 5 th April as Autism awareness we printed posters showing symptoms of autism and other disabilities and our services, so that common people could understand and screen the child around them. We displayed them in doctors' clinics which many parents of special children visited. Dr. Manisha Chavan, senior pediatrician and president of Academy Of Pediatrics helped us in displaying the posters.

One of our honourable donors Mr.Baladava and his family invited us to their family function. They wanted to spread awareness among their friends and community about our good work and services. Interestingly, they did not accept gifts from guests instead they collected donations from them in a mud pot and sent their collected amount to V-Excel.

From 18th April to 28th April we have organised a summer camp for our children. Many purposeful activities like Yoga and meditation, Story telling, Pretend play, Kitchen activity, Art, Craft, music and dance, fun games and many other activities are included in this program. Children enjoyed the activities thoroughly.

'Stress Management' Workshop and parents meeting was conducted on 30th April 22. Meeting started with stress management workshop by Dr. Manisha Chavan, senior pediatrician and follower of Rajyog Meditation. Teachers distributed report cards to parents, met them individually, discussed about child's progress ,gave and explained the homework for summer vacation.

Beneficiaries: Children with diverse learning needs attending remedial education at OutReach Remedial Center (In association with Vexcel Educational Trust, Chennai) were taken to IYAL – A Sustainable farm near Pollachi for a day out. They were involved in various activities like sensory integration therapy, tactile learning, nature trial, hug therapy, painting with natural dyes from flowers, interpersonal games and movement based activities along with music.

• 10 students with diverse learning needs. (Direct Beneficiaries)
• 20 Parents of these children (Indirect Beneficiaries)
• 05 Siblings of these children (Indirect Beneficiaries)

Prof. Anand and Ms. Lekshmi Ramesh, visited our center on 25th of March 2022, which helped us to revive the in house and extension activities, for our center children and for teachers of V-excel, satellite centers at Thirunagari and Anandham Learning Center Chennai.

Under the guidance and support of Prof. Anand and Ms. Lekshmi Ramesh, we have revived the school adoption programme for this academic year.

April was a joyful month which began with awareness program, campaigns, beach cleanup, new project and ending with funfilled Townhall and Unit heads meeting.

World Autism Awareness Day April 2, 2022@Sharada

VTU joined the awareness program conducted at Sharada by all units. All the trainees and teachers were present for the event. Group of people as parents, siblings, employers and many more were made to share experiences on the topic ‘My experience with Autism’. VTU trainee Supraja did the welcome address and trainee Pranav’s sibling Harshita spoke about her journey with him. He was very happy and expressed his gratitude by touching her head after her speech which was heartening to watch by everyone.

Campaign for Autism Awareness Day on April 03, 2022 @ Express Avenue

We conducted a campaign at Express Avenue Mall, Chennai on Sunday, April, 03, 2022. All our unit products were displayed and trainees of VTU, KLC and YES were made to handover the awareness badge to the public with their permission and invite to our stall. An awareness audio message from our Founder Trustee was played on the speaker which attracted the public towards our stall. We were there the entire day and received around 1000 footfalls. Our trainees were able to talk about the products made by them and some trainees who have never had good social skills overcame the challenge and felt free by reaching out to public and handover the awareness badges. Thanks to Ms. Gayathri Suryanarayanan and the admin team who organised this event and to the Express Avenue team for giving this opportunity.

Beach Clean Up by Bhumi Trust

V-Excel participated in the Beach Cleanup project organised by Bhumi Trust. Trainees and staff of VTU assembled at 6.30 am at Thiruvanmiyur beach on Saturday, April 09, 2022. Trainees were given gloves and garbage bags to collect garbags from the beach. Teachers were made into groups and assigned trainees and sent to various places in the beach. Trainees collected the garbage of plastics and handed over to the trust. It was a good exposure for the trainees.

Field trip of the month was shopping at Summer Bazaar at Sharada on April 12, 2022

This month due to scorching heat, instead of taking them outside we had shopping experience at Summer Bazaar organised by KLC at Sharada. VTU trainees were asked to bring cash to buy whatever they liked and was useful for them. Uma. our Functional Academic teacher helped the trainees especially non-verbal trainees. They could express with gestures, and it was surprising for parents. In fact a mother expressed happiness that her son had chosen (candle) an item.

Vegetable Packing Project

A new project was proposed to us by Organic Depot team referred by Lakshmi Sudhakaran. While they provide vegetables and carton boxes, our trainees clean, measure, pack and label according to the list provided by them. A demo was given by Organic Depot to VTU and YES trainers. The project would involve 12 trainees both from YES and VTU and one trainer from VTU. Initially we had training for 6 days We started the practice with trainees at their respective units and joint practice was started 3rd week of April. Gayathri, YES coordinator gave an orientation for the Organic Depot team about our young adults. The launch was on April 23, 2022. We packed 15 boxes of various vegetables by weighing, cleaning few veggies, labelling the greens and packing in the respective dividers in the carton boxes. The list was pasted and the boxes were sealed. Trainees enjoyed and were able to follow instruction and a process chart was followed. There would be a trial project and an MoU to be signed between two parties for a 4 month period. The trainees and trainers will be paid salary by the Organic Depot.

Town Hall Meeting and unit Heads Meeting

VTU staff and teachers attended Town Hall meeting held on 25th April 2022 at Shivasundar Villa, Springdale St, Cholamandal Artists Village, Injambakkam. Each unit’s joyous moment’s activities was played and VTU film was well received as reflected real joy presentation of trainees activities. Manivannan was made to talk about the success stories of the year 2021-2022. We recognized our evergreen volunteer Ms. Margaret Buch, 86 yrs old who is still serving us by teaching art and crafts to our trainees everyday. Post lunch all the staff and teachers across our centers were made to watch the movie ‘Ahaan’ followed by group discussions by Gayathri and Charumathi. There was a team activity were in the members were formed into a small groups and each group had to create a masterpiece with the materials provided. It was such a funfilled activity and each and every staff were involved and created beautiful creative pieces and showcased it. The program came to a closure with our Founder Trustee Dr. Vasudha Prakash’s speech.

Charu attended the unit heads meeting. We had group activity and discussion on the topic knowing about your colleague. Dr. Lakshmi Prasanna presented lecture on Three Fold Social Order.

Two students from MSW department of Guru Nanak college started interning at our unit. They were assigned work with two trainees who will work on one on one and train them in specific activities instructed by the trainers. On all other day’s usual activities like yoga, reading, functional academics, tailoring, mask painting, jute products, digitization of records and block printing were ongoing as scheduled.

Counsellor Jayadevi was busy in the first two weeks and started coming from 2nd week and had individual sessions with trainees.

Therapist Vasanth had sessions with trainees and there was good improvement in a few trainees.