Category: Learning with your Child at Home

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BloggerSaathi Learning with your Child at Home

Cooking Together

This week’s Parentsaathi lesson is on cooking together. It is a part of my series of lessons on creating experiences together. Cooking is an enjoyable activity for parents and children to do together.


Tips
1. Focus on enjoyment rather than on teaching specific skills. Skills will gradually develop over time.
2. Assign clear roles to the child based on their point of learning.
3. Repeat the same cooking activity multiple times and introduce variations gradually.
Tip 3 will be explored in more detail in my next lesson on cooking together.

Cooking together


Why are ordinary experiences so challenging for our children?
I posed the above question in my previous post and I will continue to ask this question. Once we understand why experiences that we take for granted are often extremely challenging for neurodivergent children and adults, we can see why parents need to be mindful about how they engage their children in ordinary experiences.
Today, I want to share an ordinary experience of making idlis together. It sounds easy. Think of a child who has difficulty motor-planning, is unable to ask questions as needed, has difficulty planning tasks etc. This activity is not so simple.


How do we solve it? We often prompt the child, give detailed instructions etc. But does that approach prepare them for life?
An ordinary but memorable moment for us. Ananth is increasingly taking initiative, wanting to make choices, planning, moving about with ease, and using language to clarify information as needed. We are back to some ordinary experiences so he can practice and refine these skills that seem to be coming together.
Example: Kitchen Explorations: June 2022 Rama (R) and Ananth (A)
Date: 06/29/2022
• A: What are we having for dinner today? initiation
• R: idlis
• A: Can I make the idlis?
• R: Sure. You make the idlis, I will make sambar. Can you get the batter from the refrigerator? initiation
• A: Where is the pan for pouring the batter?
• R: It is in that cupboard. I will get the idli cooker.
• A: Pours the batter and says “Keep it in the cooker now.”
Tags: creating experiences, cooking, parenting challenges, enjoyment, TAHD, roles, life is theater

Author Dr Dasaratha Rama
Dr. Dasaratha Rama is a professor and home educator. She was the editor of a monograph on service-learning published by the American Association of Higher Education. This monograph was a part of a series of monographs on service-learning published by AAHE. She was also an Engaged Scholar with the Campus Compact, an association in the US dedicated to higher education civic and community engagement at colleges and universities. She has served as the Chair of the Teaching and Curriculum Section of the American Accounting Education. She is a certified leader in systems thinking, mapping, and leadership under a program offered by Cabrera Research Lab. She is currently doing a certificate in Theater Arts for Holistic Development (TAHD) from RASA (Ramana Sunritya Aalaya).

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BloggerSaathi Learning with your Child at Home

Celebrating Birthdays

Why are Ordinary Experiences so Difficult for our Children

The focus of my lessons is on creating experiences together.

Why do parents of neurodivergent children have to be mindful of creating experiences with their children?

To answer this question, we have to ask:

Why are ordinary experiences so difficult for our children?

Starting from this lesson, I will focus on one or two experiences in each lesson and talk about how various therapies and educational approaches have helped us move forward in addressing challenges and in developing unique solutions!



In this video, I talk about some challenges that Ananth faced with birthday parties.

For the last two years, we have developed our own unique way of celebrating birthdays! Thanks to Shilpi Mayank-Awasthi for encouraging Ananth to narrate The White Peacock story on his last birthday. This led to another birthday celebration with a dance this year!

We had fun celebrating the birthday with family, friends, people from our neighborhood, members of the LIFESMART community, and members of SpecialSaathi community.

Rethink birthdays and celebrations!

Every celebration is an opportunity to

L: Enhance daily learning (Ananth had been practicing the story/dance regularly to perform on his birthday)
I: Share interests (Ananth enjoys dance and storytelling. We are now using celebrations as opportunities for Ananth to share what brings him joy with others)
F: Family interactions (Each celebration provides a way to enhance interactions with family members in a meaningful way when we celebrate in a way that builds on Ananth’s interests)
E: Engagement with Community (Each celebration provides a way to enhance interactions with community members in a meaningful way when we celebrate in a way that builds on Ananth’s interests)

Read the article below. As mentioned in the article, many neurodivergent individuals are monotropic with interest areas where they are motivated to spend much time. All of us are motivated by our interests. But how about those whose way of being is monotropism? Should celebrations be redesigned for neurodivergent individuals?

https://neuroclastic.com/its-a-spectrum-doesnt-mean-what-you-think/

Author Dr Dasaratha Rama

Dr. Dasaratha Rama is a professor and home educator. She was the editor of a monograph on service-learning published by the American Association of Higher Education. This monograph was a part of a series of monographs on service-learning published by AAHE. She was also an Engaged Scholar with the Campus Compact, an association in the US dedicated to higher education civic and community engagement at colleges and universities. She has served as the Chair of the Teaching and Curriculum Section of the American Accounting Education. She is a certified leader in systems thinking, mapping, and leadership under a program offered by Cabrera Research Lab. She is currently doing a certificate in Theater Arts for Holistic Development (TAHD) from RASA (Ramana Sunritya Aalaya).

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BloggerSaathi Learning with your Child at Home

Enhancing Parent-Child Interactions

Enhancing Parent-Child Interactions: Lessons from Relationship Development Intervention (RDI) – 1


We started RDI in 2003. Twenty years later, RDI’s effects continue to be felt in our lives. In my view, one of the biggest contributions of RDI was to learn how autism disrupts the rarent-child relationship. We learned many techniques to restore the guided participation relationship between parent and child.


Creating Experiences Together
The seed for the Creating Experiences Together series of ParentsSaathi lessons was planted in RDI where we learned how to engage the child at different developmental stages and to nudge development forward. In this series of articles, I will be focusing on the effects of RDI on parents and RDI’s enduring effects on how we learn together.


Parents Become Directive, Infants Disengage
According to Dr. Gutstein, “While the relationship between parents and typically developing growth-seeking infants continues to evolve in a positive direction that between autistic children and their parents becomes increasingly problematic. By the close of their second year, almost all future autistic infants have moved from passivity to more active avoidance and emotional disengagement.”
RDI brought a change in mindset that helped me focus on the parent role and interactions. I started focusing on techniques to engage Ananth at his point of learning while nudging development gradually over time. We started focusing on building the foundations of guided participation which parents take for granted but we had to address in a mindful way.


Becoming LIFESMART with RDI
Throughout the series of lessons on RDI, I will explore how RDI enables us to become LIFESMART by addressing the four LIFE goals and enabling us to do the right SMART projects to support learning and development.


Address LIFE Goals
L: Implement effective Learning processes and routines
I: Discover and nurture Interests
F: Enhance Family interactions
E: Foster Engagement with the community
Define SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Time-framed) goals
RDI gave us a systematic approach to defining goals for learning and development. These goals included parent and child goals.
 
Preparing for Work and for Life
RDI and homeschooling planted the seeds for Ananth and me to learn together. Starting from guided participation between parent and child, we evolved our experiences to include guided participation with many mentors. Today, these experiences are showing a path forward for employment and an enjoyable life in the future.
https://specialsaathi.com/2023/12/09/how-can-we-create-jobs-for-neurodivergent-individuals/

Author Dr Dasaratha Rama
Dr. Dasaratha Rama is a professor and home educator. She was the editor of a monograph on service-learning published by the American Association of Higher Education. This monograph was a part of a series of monographs on service-learning published by AAHE. She was also an Engaged Scholar with the Campus Compact, an association in the US dedicated to higher education civic and community engagement at colleges and universities. She has served as the Chair of the Teaching and Curriculum Section of the American Accounting Education. She is a certified leader in systems thinking, mapping, and leadership under a program offered by Cabrera Research Lab. She is currently doing a certificate in Theater Arts for Holistic Development (TAHD) from RASA (Ramana Sunritya Aalaya).

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BloggerSaathi Learning with your Child at Home

Developing Whole Body Communication with Indian Natya

The last week has been eventful!
Movement and Storytelling Activities Ebook
We completed version 1 of our e-book “Movement and Storytelling Activities.” This e-book is the first in the LIFESMART Parenting e-books on Learning with your Child at Home. It includes 10 activities based on Theater Arts for Holistic Development (TAHD) developed by Dr. Ambika Kameshwar.

View the e-book here:
https://www.canva.com/design/DAF1T4EklI4/TId-adhgXwDHva9ApAjSmw/edit?utm_content=DAF1T4EklI4&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link2&utm_source=sharebutton


Thanks to Morpheus Nag for the beautiful picture of a mother and child that helps us convey the message of the book. Learning with your child at home is about connection!

Bridging the Neurodivide
I also participated in a panel discussion on Bridging the Neurodivide hosted by SpecialSaathi.



Ananth’s Birthday Session on SpecialSaathi
We were excited to end the week with a session hosted by SpecialSaathi on Ananth’s birthday. This session included
1) a dance by Ananth,
2) a message on learning with Indian natya/ Theater Arts for Holistic Development (TAHD) by Sri Ujwal Jagadeesh, and
3) a presentation by Dr. Rama on Whole Body Communication using Indian natya

This session is also Parentsaathi lesson 3.

We are grateful to Shilpi Mayank Awasthi for these wonderful opportunities. The TAHD way is a fun way to celebrate birthdays! SpecialSaathi has made it possible to celebrate Ananth’s birthdays, in this way. These events are a way to bridge the neurodivide by bringing together family members, LIFESMART community, and SpecialSaathi community.

Author Dr Dasaratha Rama

Dr. Dasaratha Rama is a professor and home educator. She was the editor of a monograph on service-learning published by the American Association of Higher Education. This monograph was a part of a series of monographs on service-learning published by AAHE. She was also an Engaged Scholar with the Campus Compact, an association in the US dedicated to higher education civic and community engagement at colleges and universities. She has served as the Chair of the Teaching and Curriculum Section of the American Accounting Education. She is a certified leader in systems thinking, mapping, and leadership under a program offered by Cabrera Research Lab. She is currently doing a certificate in Theater Arts for Holistic Development (TAHD) from RASA (Ramana Sunritya Aalaya).

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BloggerSaathi Learning with your Child at Home

Learning with your Child at Home

In the second lesson, I introduced the theme of Learning with your Child at Home. I will organize future lessons around this theme. While some parents decide to homeschool their neurodivergent child, others send their child to school.

Regardless, learning with parents at home is important for the development of any child. Parenting a child with developmental delays and learning challenges requires a mindful approach to parents and children learning together at home.

I will start presenting specific concepts, tips, tools, and techniques on various topics from our next session. The next lesson will be presented as a special event hosted by SpecialSaathi on Ananth’s birthday as part of their events for International Day of People with Disabilities.

Given Ananth’s experiences, I have become a strong advocate of sustained, consistent whole body movement practice for neurodivergent learners. Whole body movement facilitates whole body communication! I am excited that my SpecialSaathi lessons started at such a time that I could do a couple of introductory lessons before digging deeper into the first topic that I want to address!

Stay tuned for our lessons on whole body movement and communication and other topics.

We are also writing our first LIFESMART ebook on learning whole body movement through Indian natya. We plan to release this e-book on December 2, 2023.



Author
Dr. Dasaratha Rama is a professor and home educator. She was the editor of a monograph on service-learning published by the American Association of Higher Education. This monograph was a part of a series of monographs on service-learning published by AAHE. She was also an Engaged Scholar with the Campus Compact, an association in the US dedicated to higher education civic and community engagement at colleges and universities. She has served as the Chair of the Teaching and Curriculum Section of the American Accounting Education. She is a certified leader in systems thinking, mapping, and leadership under a program offered by Cabrera Research Lab. She is currently doing a certificate in Theater Arts for Holistic Development (TAHD) from RASA (Ramana Sunritya Aalaya).