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Strides Newsletter - May & June 2022 - Issue 192

Counseling & Assessments

From Radhika Sasankh's Desk

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Early Intervention and V-Excel Remedial Centre

From the staff of Early Intervention and V-Excel Remedial Centre

International Yoga Day

International yoga day 2022 was Celebrated at EI/VRC in its own way and Style. Yoga is an integral part of our training program. Our children enjoy Yoga as it helps them to relax, rejuvenate and rejoice. A 15-minute Yoga Group Therapy session was conducted in each slot, where the children were introduced to a few Yoga poses.

The session started with a simple Warm-up, Pranayama, and Yoga pose. Some of the Asanas introduced were:

Down Dog pose, Plank Pose, Cow Pose, Cobra Pose, Warrior Pose, Camel, Chair, Tree, Lunge, and Butterfly pose.

Benefits of these Poses

Standing Poses – are great for strengthening the legs and ankles and making a child feel strong and grounded.

Forward Bends – forward bends help to quiet the system and are calming. Particularly good for calming the nervous system of a hyperactive child and also for anxiety.

Backbends – can be very accessible and fun. Backbends open the heart center, increase positive moods and open the lungs helping increase lung capacity. The teacher can support the child in these postures as they may not initially have the strength to come up themselves and will they feel safer and help to build the feeling of trust.

Balancing – excellent for helping the child to find balance and to increase concentration. If in a group class, the students can be encouraged to stand in a circle and hold hands adding an element of working together.

Spinal Twists – they tone the spine and detoxify the organs and increase the mobility of the spine.

A Separate Session for staff was also conducted.

EI/VRC Parent Orientation on 6-June-2022

One of the primary duties of those who work with children is to orient and enlighten parents, to reinforce their trust, faith and hope and to make space for a collaborative effort.

A structured program has been conceived for the year 2022-23. The parent orientation program encapsulated the focus, objectives, and the child-centric approach that we will be adopting this year. We also emphasized that individual attention will be given to each child, in a nurturing environment, to ensure that his/her growth and progress is to the best of his/her potential.

A PowerPoint presentation enlightened parents about the programs and services offered by V-Excel. Parents were sensitized on the topic of Accepting and Supporting by our Unit Head, Ms. Lekshmi Ramesh.

She also shared her vision with the EI/VRC team and presided over a rewards and recognition program conducted to appreciate the team's efforts.

The admissions are steadily increasing and we are busy chalking out new plans to make it more interesting and holistic.

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Kaleidoscope Learning Centre

From Gita Bhalla's Desk

School started, it seemed like after a long hiatus, which not only included the summer vacation , but the sporadic attendance of children which was seen ever since January this year. The admissions continued right through the holidays and after many years we welcomed around ten children in our midst . School started for teachers on 6th of June, and for the children on the 13th of June. We now have 65 children and the structure of KLC has undergone yet another transformation. We had a few teachers resign and once again the balance of the teacher student ratio, the ratio of new to old staff, the ratio of mentors to trainees all needed an overhaul and this was carefully balanced.

The new parent’s orientation was conducted on 16th of June and ten new parents joined the family of KLC . Gita, Shashi, and Neha conducted the meeting and Dr. Vasudha was introduced. She warmly welcomed the parents and expressed her deep learning of so many years which led her to believe that while it’s every parent’s prerogative to choose the best intervention, school program or vocational training for their children , they should also be patient and respect the school and its work. All of which takes time to make its mark.

The residential program at CLAPS, spearheaded by some of our parents had a formal inauguration and parents who wished to move in there have been having their 'grihapravesham'.

Meena our ex-teacher and Anantharaman parents of Keshaav, one of our students, invited the whole body of KLC teachers for their housewarming and it was attended by the teaching and custodial staff of KLC. Small steps in the earthly world but very large movements when seen from the divine world . In the lives of our children and parents and their empowerment. The new project will always have a lot of dialogue and guidance and hand holding, with the trainees whose future will now be in a new campus. We wish them our heartfelt best wishes.

Physical fitness, development , posture, and gross motor skills are essential to the program and two programs have been initiated as a dialogue and we hope to take this further as the plans move further. One of them is Archery, introduced to us by a theatre director Bala and a demonstration was held on 18th June regarding this. In another development , a young enthusiast Nikhil approached and spoke to Ajita and he has proposed a climbing wall to be constructed in the sand pit area which will surely help in the physical development of the students in this building. We hope for sponsorship for the wall construction and appeal to all our friends who might be reading this to generously donate so we could see these useful projects under way.

Party day

The highlight of our second week in school was our Party Day. Over the last two years, Aaqila has been consistently insisting that we have a party, with food and call all friends together. Nothing happened for two years, but this year we thought we could take Aaqi’s idea into consideration as part of the curriculum, and have one day in the 3rd week, of every month, a day that we spend with our friends. Apart from having fun, we thought we would work on, socialising with their peers in a natural setting.

Most "normal" parties make some of our children too excited or too disturbed! How do we learn to enjoy ourselves, in a sensory friendly manner? This means, can we meet the children's need to be with each other, eat together, dance together, play together, work together... they are seeking more time with their friends, as do all children, of this age. So as adults surrounding them, how can we slowly, bring them to a point of taking responsibility to organise, read lists, bring things for the party, cook, clean, care for each other especially those who are running away from the loud music and large crowds! Surprisingly, Eshu, who doesnt like either - loud sounds or big crowds, watched from the corner but was happy in school the whole day. We hope to continue these real-life experiences for students to learn by doing.

Vijay Kumar, our school's skating master, invited all the KLC staff for his wedding reception on 18th June. Many of them attended to wish a wonderful Life ahead with his wife, Vinothini.

Ann Eeckhout, a Belgian teacher, and a mother of 2, came to KLC on 24th June, to work as a volunteer, learn more about Curative education, our children and the way we work with them. She will be here with us for 8 weeks, observing, working with and helping our teachers.

Sand pit and physical therapy

One of the most sought-after teachers right now is Karthick, our young male special educator who teams up with Monesh, our therapist, to really bring to the school, some bright beginning of the day exercises with the critical children. These students who receive external therapy also need additional work on the bodies to calm them down and help them, then to use their time effectively and more purposefully. So, they do hard laborious tasks in the sand pit and this helps them start the day in the right manner.

First day of the New Academic Yearimage
Meena and Ananth's housewarmingimage
Archery demonstration by Balaimage
Skating Master Vijay's receptionimage
Fun Day – a time together with friendsimage
Visit of Ann Eeckhout, to volunteer in KLCimage
Sand pit and physical therapyimage
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Satellite Centers

From Jayanthi Vishwanath in Nashik

We began the new Academic year with a 3- days Orientation program for the teachers of our Center. On June 1st, Ms Suvarna presented a Seminar on Brain gym Activities. Mrs. Anjali Marwah enlightened the teachers on Emotional Intelligence, on June 2. On the last day, Ms. Sandhya Thorat enhanced the teachers knowledge by presenting on New teaching methods and strategies employed in the education of Intellectually challenged students. And Mrs.Pradnya Apte took a session on Self evaluating activities.

On 3rd June, the new premises for BLA was occupied and a small Ganesh Pujan was done to mark the new beginning.

School reopened for the students of all the 3 centers on June 6th. The Teachers welcomed the students back to school with renewed spirit and joy. It was a wonderful sight to behold. An online inter-school Yoga competition was conducted this month. About 15 children participated in the competition. We are very happy to inform, 5 students won prizes in different categories.

Erode

Greetings from all of us at the Erode Center!

The two important days that we selected for the month of June were International Yoga Day and World Environment Day.

International Yoga Day

The pandemic has been an unprecedented set back and has also caused psychological suffering and mental health problems, including depression and anxiety and many more. This has highlighted the urgent need to address the mental health dimension of the pandemic, in addition to the physical health aspects.

People around the world embraced yoga to stay healthy and rejuvenated and to fight social isolation and depression.

The essence of yoga is balance - not just balance within the body or that between the mind and the body, but also balance in the human relationship with the world. Yoga emphasizes the values of mindfulness, moderation, discipline and perseverance. When applied to communis and societies, Yoga offers a path for sustainable living. in keeping with this spirit, the theme for this year's Yoga Day celebrations is "Yoga for Humanity."

We at the Erode center decided to celebrate this day along with our children by educating them the importance of yoga,diet and routine. The asanas or the poses that would benefit our children were chosen and were demonstrated to our students. They were all very enthusiastic in doing them and they were all asked to come in white dress on that day. We plan to make this a continuous one and engage them as a part of the Program.

World Environment Day

World Environment Day is celebrated every year on the 5th of June and aims at raising awareness and celebrating environmental action.

This year's campaign is celebrated under the theme "Only One Earth" with the focus on living sustainably in harmony with nature. It highlights the need to reset the balance with nature through transformative changes.

We took a few aspects to explain to the students that can help them to become a better person and save the environment:

* Reduce, reuse and recycle
* Less usage of plastics
* Plant trees
* Save the trees and the nature
* Conserve the natural resources

As a part of recycling the resources, students were engaged in making cups out of pulp made by grinding used paper and a binding material {fenugreek). The children were taken around to observe the different plants and animals. As it is very important for the coming generation to conserve and protect the environment, every small step towards this is a useful one.

We are planning to include more pre-vocational activities as we have adults who need to be trained on functional academics and some vocation if possible.

Solapur

On 6th June school reopened for teachers.

There was 2 days teacher training for refreshing them. Dhanashri our ABA therapist and Deepmala our teacher gave the training to all teachers. They have covered the topics - Handling the child, observation of child, handling the problem behavior, teaching technics, teaching steps and teaching strategies. It was beneficial for new and old teachers.

School reopened on Monday 13th June 2022 for children. After a long vacation when children entered the school, beautiful rangoli , colourful balloons and smiling faces of teachers welcomed them. Children held their teacher's hand and went to their classrooms very happily.

June month was so busy in consultation and new admissions.15 new parents came for enquiry and 9 children were admitted.

Very happy moment for this year was, from our EI unit 5 children have got admission in different mainstream schools.

21st June 'International Yoga Day' was celebrated with our children, parents and teachers. Mrs. Rohini Bawane -President 'Yoga sadhana Mandal' and other 3 members came to guide us. Sunita Vaidya felicitated them and told the importance of yoga for our children. Mrs. Rohini talked about Ashtanga yoga and importance of yoga, diet, meditation and Pranayam. She guided us as yoga day protocol.

Abhyasa Kendra, Srirangam

After the summer holidays, the center reopened on 1st June 2022 for Teachers and Therapists and for the students on 6th June 2022. This Academic year, we have two new skill trainers and a physiotherapist and this would largely help in our training and giving our best. Since our trainees have been irregular and some of them have also regressed, the first term would aim at re evaluation to understand their current level and accordingly modify our goals.

We have been getting enquiries for our remedial therapies as the schools have started functioning and the teachers are finding gaps in learning.

We could find a new energy and happiness in our students and this is definitely a good beginning. We have planned well for our Pre Voc and the Production unit activities.

Since the trainees have been actively involved in Areca leaf plate making, podis and vadams in limited quantity all these days, they are very confident and many are able to independently function. We are looking forward to more orders to engage our trainees fruitfully.

From Outreach Centre - Pollachi

May-2022
June-2022

May-2022

IRIS Games: An intervention tool for improving visual perception, visual memory and vocabulary skills

Visual perception:

This game has pictures of people in different professions posing in different angles to identify them correctly. It is also an opportunity for the teachers to familiarize the children with different profession and roles.

Vocabulary games:

This game helps the child to classify the sentences associated with each scene. Also the child learns to look for the question associated with the answer picked. This improves the comprehension skills of the child.

Uses:

Iris board games acts as a diagnosing tool which helps to assess and teach children with language based learning disability. It helps in early identification and intervention of special children that lead to improved academic outcomes.

June-2022

Orientation Programme for Single teachers Foundation, Thiruvali Thirunagari

An orientation program was organised by V excel educational trust and Kinchithakaram trust for 20 teachers of Single teachers foundation at Thiruvali Thirunagari on 19/07/2022.

Prof.Anand and Mr.Shiva Prakash from V-excel trust, Mr.P.Bala and Dr.Manju from OutReach and Mrs.Aruna from Kinchithakaram trust under the guidance of Mr.Jagadeesan, Coordinator of Single Teacher Foundation, conducted an orientation programme for 20 school teachers about Specific Learning Disabilities and checklists were shared with them to identify children with learning deficits along with audio visual session.

Vocational Training Unit

From Charumathi Sriram's Desk

May-2022
June-2022

May-2022

May month was getting ready for vacation by cleaning the classrooms by teachers and trainees, closed in the 2nd week with a party organised by the interns of Social Work department of Guru Nanak College.

Trainees and teachers started cleaning the classrooms along with their usual vocational activities. The unit was planned to close for the summer break from the 2nd week of May 2022 and will reopen on June 10, 2022.

Three students from KFI and Guru Nanak College joined as interns at our unit. They were assigned trainees Rahul, Siddarth and Nehal to work on individual basis on activities.

Group of eight ladies from Hindustan Petroleum Limited visited our unit and purchased few of our products.

Therapist Vasanth conducted group sessions for the trainees along with usual individual sessions.

Jayadevi, counsellor had counselling sessions for parents and trainees.

Interns of Social work students of Guru Nanak College conducted their Community Project program for our trainees and trainers. Mr. Santhosh, fitness expert conducted games which was fun filled but was focused on strengthening of muscles, endurance, flexibility, and focus. Every trainee, teachers and staff participated along with the interns from Guru Nanak College. Trainees enjoyed every game and never felt tired.

Summer Break Party

VTU had a closing party on the last day of the summer break on May 13, 2022 for the trainees and teachers. Volunteers from Talent Quest of India and Guru Nanak College organised the party by beginning with bhajan followed by games, antakshari and dance. It was a fun filled party, trainee Lokesh and Supraja could identify many songs during the game and they also helped their peers and teachers. Delicious snack was served to and relished by all.

Vegetable Packing Project

On all Saturdays the project went on as scheduled and the trainees whoever were assigned both from YES and VTU attended in spite of the summer break. On the last week of the month Orient Depot team Mr. Prithviraj paid them the salary for the month they worked. Trainees were so happy. One trainee asked about the bonus which surprised the employer, that trainees had so much information about their job. Trainees were made to sign the voucher which was a proud moment. Few parents called and said it was indeed an emotional moment for them to see their ward bringing home a cover with pay in recognition of the work they did.

June-2022

New academic year began with divine blessings from Ganapathi Homam, followed by Archery demonstration and a sample Music Therapy for teachers and staff. New admissions and vegetable packing added colour.

Ganapthy Homam Puja New Academic Year 2022-2023

VTU had Ganapathi Homam puja on Friday, June 17, 2022 at 3.00 pm. Our Founder Trustee, Dr. Vasudha Prakash, Ms. Gita Bhalla, Prof. Anand Jagadeesan, Mr. Sivaprakash and Mr, Prakash Subbukalai joined the puja from the Head office along with our trainees, teachers, staff and ESF staff.

Archery Demo

Charu attended the archery demo conducted at YES, Mylapore on Saturday, June 18, 2022, at 10.00 am. Mr. Balakrishnan gave an introduction to the materials used to make the bow and arrow. Steps and procedures involved and postures to be maintained while aiming. He made all experience the art of aiming and shooting of 73 the arrow. It was very interesting and developed focus. This should be very useful for the overall development of our trainees. He is willing to train our trainees once in a week.

CSR Team Visit

Ms. Apoorva Manichandar, Consultant CSR, Grundfos Pumps Ltd., along with her team visited our center on June 22, 2022. They saw all the activities, interacted, played games with trainees and also purchased a few products. They were very happy and impressed with our work. They had visited our Mylapore center also.

Music Therapy Demo

Rishi and Charu met Ms. Sujai Krishnamurthy, Music Healer. She has created a Wellness app called Raga Miracle, that facilitates people to gain good health listening to music and practicing yoga mudras. She said that it would be very useful for our special needs community, while listening to specific ragas and using mudras, will calm them down. Also helps in various ailments like insomnia, gut issues, blood pressure, diabetes etc. Ms. Sujai, demonstrated to our staff and teachers on Tuesday, June 28, 2022. Plans are on for individual sessions for the trainees with the parents' consent.

Trainee Saravana Prabu was offered a job at Sreyes Farm, ESVI Sarada Foundation, as Assistant Care Giver. He will be joining on July 6, 2022, and work along with the co-workers. He will be the mentor for the trainees.

New trainees have joined and now getting settled in the unit.

Therapy and counselling started for the new academic year.

Vegetable packing project is held all Saturdays on a regular basis.

Youth Empowerment Services

From Gayathri Suryanarayanan's Desk

May 2022, being the last month of the academic year 2021 – 22, was a short but very crucial month in terms of preparing year closing reports and planning for the new academic year 2022 - 23.

Key highlights for the month of May 2022

Vocational training activities, Counselling services and OT services at the centre
Annual Review – Parents meeting
Action plan and goal setting for the year 2022 – 23
Project - Vegetable packing
Annual break

Vocational training program, Counselling service, OT service

Vocational activities were happening as usual in all the vocations. Attendance was regular and the trainees, in spite of the peak summer weather, participated in all the activities. Our regular activities like Tea making, YES market, Functional Academics sessions and Music and art therapy were happening without interruptions. The volunteer group also visited regularly and conducted interesting and interactive sessions for our trainees.

Individual and group counselling sessions were taking place along with a few parents counselling sessions. OT sessions happened without any interruption

June 2022 marks the first month of the new academic year 2022-23. With renewed energy and enthusiasm, YES center resumed its operations on 06-June-2022. It was wonderful to see all the trainees after the break.

Key highlights for the month of June 2022

Resumption of Vocational training activities after the maintenance break
Homam at the center – To seek divine blessings
Archery demo
Yoga day celebrations
Getting ready for the sale at FIKA, Adyar, Chennai
Production

Vocational training program

After the break of 2 weeks, trainees returned to the routine from 06 June 2022. The day was filled with lovely exchange of greetings and wishes. The center was cleaned, sanitized and all the repair work completed in order to make the functioning of the center easier. As the team was ready with the goals, schedule and the activities it was a very smooth start from day 1. The new schedule included dedicated life skill training sessions, interesting fun activities. Newspaper reading has also been resumed.

Homam at YES

To mark the beginning of the new academic year 2022-23, a simple homam and Guru pooja was performed at the center. This was attended by all the trainees, staff members and a few from the management also. Our Founder Director Dr. Vasudha Prakash and our Managing Trustee Dr. Prakash Natarajan graced the occasion to seek divine blessings for an uninterrupted and a progressive academic year.

Archery demo

Archery training sessions for our trainees are on the cards and hence to decide on its feasibility we had a Archery demo session at YES on 18 June 2022. Mr. Balakrishnan of Nisha Theatre was kind enough to come and demonstrate the nuances of archery. He also elaborated on the equipment needed, how-abouts of the training session and the financials of the same. Selected staff from each unit, KLC, VTU and YES, attended the session. There was a Q&A and discussion session post the demo.

Yoga Day celebrations at YES

To commemorate the International Yoga Day, on 21 June 2022, our trainees performed yoga asanas. As a group we also performed Surya namaskar. We spoke about the benefits of many asanas, breathing exercises and even about practising yoga every day. As a team we took a pledge to perform Surya Namaskar at least 3 times every morning.

Getting ready for the sale at FIKA, Adyar, Chennai

As we were to participate in 'The Marketplace Chennai' at FIKA, Adyar on 02 July 2022, last 10 working days of the month of June were dedicated to making products for the same. Each vocational unit was given exclusive products and numbers. As a combined effort of all the trainees and staff, beautiful products were ready perfectly on time. A few new products were also designed and made. Packing and labelling enhanced the appeal of the products.

Production

We completed 2 orders of mug printing in the month of June 2022. 50 mugs for the organization Caterpillar for corporate gifting. 54 mugs for SNEH for a corporate order for Father's Day. 67 gift hampers were packed at YES for SNEH. We also completed orders for 8 water bottle printing for SNEH.

Looking forward to a more productive, progressive, successful and interesting academic year 2022-23.

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