Juggle ? Come on, just huggle !

Reflecting back on where I was in my journey as an Educator when the pandemic broke and the normalcy was interrupted, I was eagerly looking forward to achieving a concise certification for my long association with children and their learning differences through a yearlong PG programme on Learning disability in Bengaluru.

The initial confusion had not only left the institute mute and also the uncertainty prevailed around the households, families alike.

On the brighter side, the ‘Me time’ and ‘family time’ that seeped through was a big welcome for our family as we were settling into everything new from our recent relocation from another country.

The little extra time to lull on the bed every morning, as there was no morning rush into school buses/carpools, was so delightful.  We could help ourselves, mostly our minds for a focused daytime work routine. Each person working under one roof independently, maintaining space and sanity was a very big achievement. Adapting to the new norm, totally depending on technology for everything around- Shopping, Work meetings, learning sessions were all fun and challenging enough to keep one motivated through the day.

On the flipside of this situation was missing the connect with the children- the main aspect of Teaching/learning. My worktime slowly made me realise how some online lessons, meetings I was attending got boring and meaningless. Although I pushed myself into accepting the new norm, bringing balance into my working style as an Educator stood very crucial to me.

That is when my new role as a ‘Kannada Teacher’ popped up!

Thanks to our living community, all safe and secluded from corona city vibes. The neighbourhood children’s need to learn the fundamentals of local language, connected me streaming back to the joy of ‘giving and taking’ of teaching.

Soon the Educator in me was found enjoying working part time with children on Language- Sounds, Vocabulary, Fluency, Comprehension and so forth.

Isn’t that what ‘Education’ is all about? Learning along the journey, embracing the change happily and willingly.

Written By:

Lakshmi Prasad

Vision therapy -Online Session

24 November 2019

-Dr. Rekha Chalapathi

Vision has three components sending the information to the eye processing of the information by the brain and making sense of the information

80% of information is Vision. Vision is motor occurs in the brain and is intra sensory.

vision therapy is a top down approach where we start from the brain.

In the visual system is of two types the central system and the peripheral system

when the central system is compromised we see behaviours like rocking back and forth while reading , side vision etc . most of our visual testing checks for this central system.

06% of our vision is central vision and 94% of our vision is peripheral vision which goes undetected it is this peripheral vision which manifest as

level one reading difficulties difficulties in sports like catching the ball

level two visual organisation in depth perception

Central visual compromises results in behaviours like difficulty in copying from the board and running into things

Compensatory functions include bringing things close to notes to walking et cetera

The first step before beginning vision therapy is to check power this is the basic visual skill.

it is very important to check in kindergarten . after checking the power the check is carried on focusing skills which Includes the amount of time we focus and the ability to shift the focus from distance to near and Vice versa.

Treatment for this is based on trial and error and tints are used and polarity is also changed.

Fixation is the next skill that is checked this manifests as poor eye contact, lack of focus and difficulty in decoding linger words.

Pursuit or slow tracking is the next skill that is checked. this is the ability to track the object and manifest as bad handwriting and Inability to catch the ball.

Saccadic eye movements which is the ability to converge vision is the next assessment .

The complete assessment takes two sessions of 20 minutes each
.

Vision therapy is all about observation. Double vision occurs due to a distortion in the overlap at the brain level . it escapes the central vision test and most of the children compensate by using monocular vision.

IT mean what is the ability of both the eyes to form meaningful picture this is correct in wet patch in the eye
.Prism lenses and yoke lenses works wonders .

vision therapy can work for adults as well.

In Bangalore Shankara Eye Hospital at Whitefield and Narayana Netralaya at Rajaji Nagar are the two centres offering vision the

ARTS BASED THERAPY-ONLINE SESSION

An overview of Arts-based therapy -Online session

A complimentary health practice

Gitanjali Sarangan

When we are looking at intervention we are looking at well-being as the foundation. It is a therapy that uses multi art form like music drama dance and play to help the child to meet the academic and therapeutic goals. The basis of a ABT is subtle energy guide . the subtle energy guide includes mindfulness and self-awareness. ABT is rooted in eastern mind science.
ABT Addresses the functions of body , attention,  cognition , narration , social and expressive skills .
It is noticed that when the motor domain is activated their verbal expression is increased. Arts is used used as a language to achieve skills. Goals need to be specific and sometimes as we are working the client may go beyond the specified goal. For example rhythm is used to develop motor planning and auditory integration. Kids are good with rhythm and patterns. Drumming is taught through a template. The children are given counts to begin and to end.This Helps in impulse control.
Story is used to develop  Descriptive speech . puppets are used to develop Eye contact and attention span. Mirrors also help to teach boundaries.
Gradation and grids are put down to understand and plan a program . the four major areas are artistic skills combine art and learning and metaphors.

It is important for practitioners to practice self renewal before starting the session. It helps in aligning for the day. It also creates an intent and achieves the goal.

Each program is divided into a pilot session and an action research session. For group work there is 15 hours of pilot session and 35 hours of action research. For a one-on-one session there are six sessions of pilot and 12 sessions of action research.

The pilot phase helps to get rating or assessment. The intervention is planned at the action research phase.
Home visits are done where one family in the group invites the other members of the group . parents and caregivers are also encouraged to participate and to do drumming and dancing.

Multi-Therapy Session

Conducted by SERPA on 20th October 2019. The session was attended by 23 people (special educators, mainstream teachers and parents). The session which was a one day session covered topics on Occupational Therapy by PREETI PARIKH & INAYATH ULLAH and speech therapy by PONMUKIL VIDHYA. It was an interactive session which explained the therapy process, case studies and also questions of participants were answered by the speakers. .

Annual General Body Meeting-2019

The board members of SERPA had an AGM where the upcoming events, the current status and proposed projects were discussed. The meeting lasted for four hours with many brainstorming sessions to taking collective informed decisions. It has been very fruitful.

Sign Language workshop by Nataraja

13th & 27th July 2019

Summary:

To be truly inclusive, one must take as many steps as it takes! SERPA’s first face to face workshop was conducted over two Saturdays and saw interactive and engaging sessions. The participants had an opportunity to learn and practice sign language. Participants ranged from children to special educators to parents.

humdrum-rudiments of music

8th June 2019

Serpa conducted an interactive online session for special educators & parents of children with special needs, a one of a kind session which helps communicate and bond with children, especially non verbal.  Who needs words when actions can speak? This session was an answer to the question “ How do I interact / engage with this child who won’t talk?”.