"What if the question is not. 'Why am I so infrequently the person I really want to be?', but 'Why do I so infrequently want to be the person I really am?"
V-Excel News
Our Annual Day was the star event of this month. With rigorous practice sessions for the past two months, our teachers and children worked
really hard to see that the program becomes a grand success, and so it was! Katha Sagar, a potpourri of stories, was staged by children from
different service units of V-Excel. Greatly applauded by all, this musical program was based on a theme that every person, however small, is
valuable and matters in this world.
We were extremely lucky to have four special guests for the show who were unique in their own ways. Major General (Retd.) Ian Cardozo, Chairman –
Rehabilitation Council of India; Ms. Amanda Murphy, Founder of Teddy Trust; Mr. Bryan Dalton, Chief of the Consular Section in American Consulate;
and Mr. Christian Fabre alias Swami Pranavananda Brahmendra Avadhuta, Director of Fashions International, were the dignitaries who shared
their personal experiences, reflecting strength of character and courage that steered their lives. Our heartfelt thanks to all of them!
Kaleisdoscope Learning Centre
The event which was long awaited finally happened and a thoroughly professional production called "Horton hears a Who" was on stage. The
feedback from parents and guests has been overwhelming! It cannot go without recording that while a lot of energy was spent in getting the play
on the stage, the production pre and post event was even more praiseworthy. The entire staff of KLC and the designated staff spent hours with
the children, feeding them and methodically handing them over to the parents. It is at moments like these when the heart feels full and the
soul satisfied, when the show continues long after the curtains are down. The children excelled and the staff was one with the children on stage
and many guests including our special guest from US Consulate commented on the non directional approach our teachers took. Back in school, the children
got back to their original rhythm and are settled well into the old routine of their respective classes.
Academy for Teacher Excellence
Our teachers-in-the-making volunteered with ushering during the Annual Day function. In keeping with the spirit of a cohesive
team, they bought sarees of the same (blue) colour and really enjoyed assisting around during the function.
The trainees completed their second case study and started off with their third case study from the last week of this month. The
students were also assessed for their practical sessions during this month. They worked on the different files for their practicals
and managed to complete some internal assessment tests.
On 25th February, the students visited ‘We Can’ school as a team with their Coordinator. The visit gave them an insight and
demonstration of how VBA (Verbal Behaviour Analysis) is put to practice. It was an extremely fruitful field visit.
Early Intervention Unit
The focus of the Early Intervention Unit has been on various aspects of home training program. The home management program
consisted of sensory diet and skills training in different areas of development. This involves active role of parents
and an ongoing partnership between parents and the therapist.
The home program is child specific and we keep the following in view:
follow-up activities are based on the development level of the child
parents’ ability to carry out the program
degree of social acceptance
child needs love and care at an optimal level
child should not become helpless and passive in nature
All the children are special with their abilities. Developing and guiding these abilities should start at an early age.
Sensory diet is very important as the brain must properly process information from the different senses to develop concentration,
organization, self-esteem, self-control, capacity for abstract reasoning and for neuro-muscular development.
Research shows that children who experience variety of stimulating exploratory activities move up in their development
quotient; we hence try to give as many experiential activities as appropriate for the child.
Bridges Learning Academy
Annual Day practice continued to be in spotlight during the month of February. The process taught the children
the values of team work, patience, and persistence. The enthusiasm and confidence levels of these children were at
an all-time high. They were so ecstatic about their ability to perform, that it made all of us feel that the effort was worth it!
After the euphoria surrounding the Annual Day had subsided, it was back to the grind – lessons, tests and hard work.
Some children are being prepared to write the entrance exams for mainstream schools where they are likely to be integrated,
while the others are busy catching up on their lessons.
V-Excel Remedial Centre
The school Annual Day was celebrated splendidly! Students of our Red Group were a part of the play ‘Horton Hears A Who’
that was staged on the grand day. The students enjoyed their costumes and did their roles fabulously. Our teachers
worked at their creative best for making the backdrop of the stage. A lovely outdoor scene finally designed blended
beautifully with all the stories planned for the evening.
The students came back to their regular schedule after the Annual Day and they started doing their stories, occupational
therapy and play therapy. VRC Remedial team has resumed to carrying out its usual program.
Rural Outreach Program
A review meeting was conducted in Chennai in which all our twenty Special Educators, three Occupational Therapists
and ten Day Care teachers participated. Notes were exchanged on various issues such as inclusion, distribution of
appliances, number of camps held, progress of the children, and success stories. An analysis of the previous versus
current year’s work was also undertaken. Our Managing Trustee Mrs. B. Sundari, who conducted the meeting, discussed
the improvement areas and new things that can be done in the forthcoming year.
Planning for next year was combined with the above meet. This included resource planning, individual and team
feedback about work, operations of Day Care Center, conveyance for the attending children etc. Talks also involved
requesting the government to add one more Day Care Center and two Resource Rooms, with minimum basic equipment,
but closer to homes for increasing participation.
There was a RCI workshop in Pondicherry which provided upgraded inputs for ensuring renewal of permanent number
for continued eligibility of registration. Five of our Special Educators got the benefit of this workshop.
Vocational Training Unit
The month revolved around the Annual Day (17th February) held at the Narada Gana Sabha in Chennai. We had about
three weeks to practice, prepare the props etc. The whole process taught us a lot, especially how to work in a
structured way within the boundaries of one’s responsibility. For the students, the preparation was therapeutic.
What makes it all worthwhile? – the joy of working together as a team and the final miracle, in spite of our
previous anxieties, where everyone performed perfectly! We owe a big thanks to Mrs. Usha Ramdas, the movement expert,
who brought grace and elegance to everyone’s performance.
Our new student Bharadwaj is 42 years old. He is being trained at the screen printing unit. With Ashwin and Vishal
who are 25 years old, the Unit is learning a lot while facing a different kind of challenge.
Counseling and Assessment Unit
This academic year our Counseling Department started many ventures in different fields. We started counseling
corporate executives from April 2009 and within a year have been able to reach almost 300 people, people who have
shown willingness to help themselves. It is very clear and encouraging seeing that the stigma attached to
mental health care is slowly lifting.
The other sector that we have recently entered is health care and there too the response has been picking up. This is
an entirely new area where counseling is being provided before surgeries, chemotherapies etc.. It necessitates helping
people who are diagnosed with terminal illness, sudden life changes due to surgery or accidents and helping
their family and caregivers to cope with it. We are well aware of the sensitivity involved and work with these
situations delicately.
This year also saw us attending significant workshops on Anthroposophical Diagnosis and Biography. We also co-hosted
a workshop on Child Development and Art Therapy. It was a great learning experience and very enriching, both in terms
of personal and professional growth. We hope to have these workshops as a part of our continuing education and development.
Contact Info :: India:
V-Excel Educational Trust
#1 Norton 2nd Street
Mandaveli Chennai 600 028
Tel: 91 - 44 - 24620243
91 - 44 – 24956373 E-mail us or visit us at www.v-excel.org
Contact Info :: USA:
Academic Concepts, Inc.
1403 Merrywood Drive
Edison, NJ 08817
Tel: (732) 572-3748
Tax ID: 22-3632715 E-mail us
Volunteer Info:
Volunteers are an integral part of our success. Our most pressing needs are in the areas of occupational and speech therapies, and
as teacher aides. We also require assistance in library management.
If you have any of these and are interested in volunteering at V-Excel, please contact us.
India Autism: Trying Tradition
In India, old ideas are giving new options to treating autism. Liz Neisloss reports on that country's approach.
Curative education with anthroposophical orientation was initiated by Rudolf Steiner, the founder of anthroposophy, in 1924.
Today curative teachers working out of anthroposophy are active in many different areas of curative education?in curative
education schools and homes, life communities, psychiatric clinics, specialist kindergardens, early learning support
and advice on upbringing given at home, and in social therapy work with adults.
Curative education is an interdisciplinary approach to the education and support of children and adolescents with special needs.
Like Waldorf education, curative education is based on Rudolf Steiner’s spiritual-scientific view of the human being, anthroposophy.
Methodology
The methodology is based on intensive investigation of the phenomena - disabilities, unusual characteristics, disorders
- where anything that does not appear 'normal' at first sight means that specific tendencies have grown dominant and
often also out of balance in body, soul and spirit or at the social level. Thus a 'hyperactive' child will have a
marked emphasis on the external movement aspect, whilst the interiorized movements of directing attention and listening
- anatomically based on a continuous process of movement interiorization and concentration - are poorly developed.
Another example are compulsions. Independent of a possible psychic origin or a connection with characteristic
neurobiological processes, compulsions may be seen as a memory process acting right down into a physical that
has become one-sided, so that the process of forgetting tends to be weak. There are numerous polarities, processes
and levels in the human being. To assess these in a differentiated way is the purpose of an 'anthropology' for
curative education that takes its orientation from anthroposophy. These processes must again and again be brought
into balance and equilibrium so that health may arise as a 'whole'. Such an approach, taking its orientation in the
phenomena, does not exclude medical and psychological diagnosis but takes it further in such a way that the way in
which a person's disabilities come to expression is not merely classified but speaks to the perceptive ear in the
language of the phenomena.
