People are like stained-glass windows. They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in, their true beauty
is revealed only if there is a light from within. Elizabeth Kubler Ross
V-Excel News
Typically, the month of August every year ushers in a cycle of festivals and celebrations. On August 15, Independence Day, was
celebrated with great enthusiasm. Mr. Ravi Krishna, a noted Film Director hoisted the national flag. This was followed by the
singing of patriotic songs by our own children from the special school, LD centre and Vocational unit. A group of teachers rendered
two well-known songs in Tamil and in Hindi. Some student volunteers from SRM Engineering College added more colour to the day by
performing some traditional dance sequences. We are very grateful to our trustee Mr. Kandaswamy Bharathan for having joined us in
this celebration with his wife.
Many of the Hindu holidays are traditionally based on the cycle of nature. They are the signs of change of seasons, some celebrate
the harvest. Onam, the harvest festival of Kerala was celebrated on August 29. The teachers made the traditional “pookalam” followed
by the “Kaikottu kali” dance performance by them around a flower carpet.
V-Excel Outreach Program
Our Founder-Director Dr. Vasudha Prakash and Mrs. B. Sundari, our managing trustee, teamed up with Mr. S. Hariharan - Vice-President,
Infrastructure, I-Flex Technology Solutions, to distribute notebook diaries and stationery to the children at Villupuram. They went
to six schools and gave out 2,100 diaries. The principals were quite pleased and very hospitable. They honored the team members with
shawls! The bright inquisitive eyes, beaming faces, beautiful smiles, and enthusiasm of the children were a real sight to see
and enjoy!!
Academy of Teacher Excellence News
The Convocation 2007 - The Academy of Teacher Excellence was started in January 2002 with the vision of preparing and
shaping teachers for children with special needs. The Sixth academic year for the one-year Diploma Course has drawn to a close and
we at V-Excel, with a feeling of great pride and fulfillment presented eleven graduating teachers with prestigious and well-earned Diplomas
in Special Education. During this occasion several students who undertook our short-term courses were presented with certificates
in Autism and Learning Disabilities. The Convocation function was held on 15th August 2007 on our premises. The Chief Guest of the
function was Mrs. Revathi Shankar, an eminent educationist and an erudite individual who has worked with various schools in Baroda.
She spoke about the teaching profession in general and special education in particular. She recited a beautiful poem, ‘One’, which
still lingers in our hearts!
Kaleidoscope Learning Center (KLC) News
Clay modeling – On August 31, Mrs. Margaret Butch, trained the teachers on the use of clay. This was a novel experience and we
hope that this in-service training will help them in taking this important sensory material to the children.
IEP – These concluded with every parent meeting all the personnel involved with their wards.
Au revoir – Vyshnavee, our wonderful teacher in Prep A left on transfer with her husband. We will miss her bright presence.
Play therapy and group therapy sessions - have started in a big way in school and we hope to see good results after ten sessions.
V-Excel Remedial Center (VRC) News
Friday field trips have become a weekly feature for children who are here during the morning. Along with the two autism-specific
groups, individual children have also joined in the learning experience. The destination being one, the goals for the trip and
the skills being taught vary from child to child. We have addressed the following in the course of our project - object
identification and generalization, shopping skills, social skills, waiting tolerance, turn taking skills, management of time and
money, taking responsibility for younger and weaker children and compliance to authority in varied settings.
Communication in children with ASD has taken on a new dimension with the children beginning to express their inner fears, as
well as preferences, thoughts and ideas. Many of them are reaching out to the teachers to guide one another to direct their
education as well as deal with their core difficulties.
Snippets from our classroom:
Sri Hari and Sri Charan both individually expressed displeasure at the offhand comments by people in their environment
about their weight. We used this opportunity to guide the children to try to accept the differences in the people and how
not to get affected by the environmental factors.
On a specific day, Zubair was aggressive towards Vinay and Vinay laughingly was making fun of Zubair.Although they were
great pals they were driving each other up the wall that day. The teachers worked to resolve the conflict. On exploration it
was found that Vinay enjoyed the rough games and Zubair had misunderstood the intentions of Vinay. Once they understood
each other, they became close friends once again. This taught us that conflicts are a part of our children’s lives and
effective communication and negotiations resolve these conflicts.
Bridges Learning Academy
Group singing sessions, art classes and play therapy are continuing as usual. The students are benefiting from occupational
therapy which they are continuing to attend on a regular basis.
It is heartening to note that most of the students are preparing well for the ensuing round of tests.
Students were taken to see a movie, Ratatouille, which was thoroughly enjoyed by one and all.
V-Excel Center for Research and Rehabilitation
Independence Day celebrations were held at Sreyes. Students were present when the flag was hoisted. They sang patriotic
songs and distributed sweets to the guests present there.
The students are progressing very well with Block Printing. They are now using the Blocks and fabric paints to print on textiles.
Clay modeling classes are now enjoyed more by the students as they are able to roll out and even spread the clay and use
cutters of various shapes to make their class more productive.
We are happy to welcome our new staff Ms. Mukta who will be training our students on the computer.
The workshop conducted by the Polish psycho-educationalist Ms. Margo concluded on a successful note. It helped the students
develop a better bonding and stressed the importance of sharing.
Counseling Unit
Group sessions are also conducted for the development of appropriate emotional expressions and recognition of expression
for VRC and KLC children.
Appropriate social behavior and etiquette are discussed through stories for BLA children. It is satisfactory to see children
really enjoying these classes and activities. Many a time they would discuss their issues and seek guidance.
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.
Parent Statements
We never feel like we can sit back and relax. We can't just sit back and relax and give up.
When I see what he can't do, I try to go through all the different techniques. I give him a reward - I do all that good stuff -
and when he still won't do it, it's frustrating.
People look at you as if to say, "My God, are you ever a horrible parent. Can't you control that child? What's wrong with you?
Spoiled rotten brat. If he were mine - if he were mine, boy, would I ..."
Being out in the community with him where people know him can be a really positive experience. They know what to expect and they
know what not to expect, and they know how to talk with him - to be very direct and help.
He does not learn intuitively at all. I spend a lot of time focusing on things that will be needed later on. I don't know if
the skills are age-appropriate or not, but I keep on plugging, keep on trying.
With everything else involved in raising an autistic child, I tend to give the least emphasis to his diet. I figure a lot of
normal kids survive on rotten diets and I have only so many hours in a day. There's just no time to force-feed him every meal.
Routines have become our way of life, even down to the way a napkin gets folded. If the routine gets interrupted for some reason,
we pay the price - crying, screaming, you name it. And it usually takes re-doing the chore the "routine" way before he calms down.
Our two daughters have been able to accept him as he is, but his brother has had a very difficult time. We should have had family
counseling when we started down this road, but I put up this shield all around us and vowed to take care of everybody. It was a
huge mistake.
