Author: jayapalaparti

SOCIAL SKILLS
(Acceptance and Inclusion – 10 ) by Jaya Sudhakar and Siddhanth Palaparti

Friends, especially childhood friends have a special place in our heart. Neurodivergent individuals are no exception – they are generally friendly and long for friends. However they struggle with initiating friendships and sustaining them owing to their inherent communication challenges.

Siddhanth was fortunate to have great friends at school, many of whom have become life long friends and are still in touch in warm ways, every now and then. The supportive school environment, understanding teachers and affectionate friends have been instrumental in carrying forward the friendships over the years.

In Siddhanth’s primary school days, Karan, Somnath and Amit were his classmates who commuted in the same school bus with him. This, coupled with the fact that they all lived in the same residential locality within a radius of one kilometre, helped to strengthen their bonding.

Karan was the mature one, always updating me on important information passed on in school, specially the informal verbal information conveyed by the teacher before any official notice. It could be about the portion for upcoming class tests or about field trips or rehearsals for Annual Sports Day and Annual Cultural Day.

There is this incident which occurred in that time period which always fills me with wonder at his amazingly mature thinking at that young age. I used to drop Siddhanth off in the school bus at the stipulated bus stop. Karan usually would board the bus 2 – 3 stops ahead of Siddhanth. He would ‘catch’ a window seat and on seeing Siddhanth enter the bus, he would call him and offer the seat to him while he himself would sit on the aisle seat beside him.The school bus would then proceed to pick up a couple of more students from our street, take a reverse at the street corner and eventually pass by our building while heading towards the main road. When the bus took a reverse, the bus conductor (helper) would alight and tap the bus from the rear to signal the driver. So there was this very short phase when Siddhanth was amused by the tapping – he would put his hand out of the window and tap the bus imitating the conductor.

After a couple of days Karan telephoned me and reported the matter. He also came up with a suggestion asking me if I could request the driver and conductor to allow Siddhanth to board the bus outside our building gate to avoid being around when the bus took a reverse. I thanked him for the good suggestion and wondered aloud if he could try something else first – maybe he could sit by the window for the next few days and call Siddhanth to sit beside him in the aisle seat. He immediately agreed and implemented the same. The strategy worked like magic and a potential ‘behavioural issue’ was nipped in the bud.

This incident filled my mind with immense gratitude for the nine year old for his sensitive understanding of the situation and his earnest desire to make things better. It also made me ponder about the mindset of many schools which turn away neurodivergent children with the standard excuse that their teachers are not trained to address the special needs of students in an inclusive setting. Like Karan, we come across numerous individuals in our day to day life who have the positive mindset to try and get to know our children better. Very often it is their common sense and practical approach that facilitates the integration of our children in mainstream settings.

Author Jaya Sudhakar

Jaya Sudhakar has done her Masters in Physics and was employed as an Asst.Manager in a PSU. Her son’s diagnosis urged her to seek voluntary retirement from service. She is actively involved with Forum for Autism, Nayi Disha and The Spectrum Autism. Friends,tending to plants, reading, writing, music, movies, travelling and a little bit of spirituality are her perennial energy boosters.

Typing of story in Word and Creative graphics done by CreativeSaathi Siddhanth Palaparti, Jaya’s son

Siddhanth is a budding graphic designer, coder and music lover. He has graduated in computer applications and completed several certificate courses. His work trajectory includes internships, freelancing and voluntary work for social causes. He derives immense happiness from remembering birthdays and wishing everyone for it. Swimming, travelling and playing music on the keyboard are his other passions.

SOCIAL SKILLS (Acceptance and Inclusion – 9 ) by Jaya Sudhakar and Siddhanth Palaparti

In his schooldays, Siddhanth was blessed to have many understanding teachers. Their unconditional support went a long way in building his self – confidence in his formative years.

When Siddhanth was in the 4th grade, I was once speaking to his class teacher, Ms Indrayani Surve in the basement of the school. It was one of the regular weekly Parent – Teacher meetings before school hours. After the meeting schedule, ten minutes prior to the school bell, the teachers would position themselves in the basement. As the school buses would arrive,they would ensure that the students alighting from the buses formed a line while going up to their classrooms.

On this particular day, two buses rolled in early, much before the teachers could position themselves. Siddhanth’s bus was one of the two.The exuberant students rushed out from both the buses.There was a slight chaos.With all the students running at great speed and Siddhanth competing with them, one teacher was genuinely concerned that he shouldn’t get hurt and called him out loudly in a bid to slow him down. Another teacher held Siddhanth gently by his shoulder and started directing him to the teacher who had called him. Siddhanth meanwhile was trying to struggle free from her grasp to catch up with his friends. At this point, Indrayani Madam excused herself, quickly moved to the spot and called out the names of Siddhanth’s classmates. “Karan, Somnath, Amit form a line,” she said. As the boys formed a line, Siddhanth went and joined them. The rest of the students followed suit and soon all the students were moving in a single file. A potentially chaotic situation was diffused within seconds by Indrayani Madam’s out of the box thinking.

In the same academic year, I went to attend a monthly Parent – Teacher meeting scheduled in the classroom.The students were singing songs sung by the contestants in the previous evening’s popular reality show on television. As the bell rang and Indrayani Madam entered the classroom, the students stopped. Siddhanth however continued with a mischievous smile. Indrayani Madam ignored his attention seeking behaviour and started addressing the parents. Siddhanth stopped singing immediately.It was a bit embarassing for me as I caught a few parents turning towards me and smiling.

That day the topic was ‘Hindi Reading’. Although there was a designated Hindi teacher, this particular session was being conducted by the class teachers. Hindi had just been introduced as a language to the students. They had been taught the alphabet and basic vocabulary. On this particular day, Indrayani Madam started calling out a few students to read out from a chart which had small sentences made up of a few words. Facing a new challenge, the students fumbled through the sentences. Indrayani Madam had been walking along the rows all the while. As she passed by me, I requested her to give Siddhanth a chance as reading was one of his main strengths – he was hyperlexic. She obliged immediately.

As his name was called out, Siddhanth walked up confidently to the chart and in a very loud and clear voice, read through the whole chart in a jiffy. The clear distinction between his rendition and those of his classmates was very apparent – he was way ahead of them in terms of diction and fluency. There was a gasp of disbelief amongst the audience and then the entire room broke into thunderous applause. Needless to say Indrayani Madam was also extremely happy.

Looking back, it was the extremely positive attitude of Siddhanth’s teachers that made our journey more enriching – Indrayani madam has a very special place in our heart for the way she touched Siddhanth’s life in so many positive ways.

Author Jaya Sudhakar

Jaya Sudhakar has done her Masters in Physics and was employed as an Asst.Manager in a PSU. Her son’s diagnosis urged her to seek voluntary retirement from service . She is actively involved with Forum for Autism, Nayi Disha and The Spectrum Autism. Friends,tending to plants, reading, writing, music, movies, travelling and a little bit of spirituality are her perennial energy boosters.

Typing of story in Word and Creative graphics done by CreativeSaathi Siddhanth Palaparti, Jaya’s son

Siddhanth is a budding graphic designer, coder and music lover. He has graduated in computer applications and completed several certificate courses. His work trajectory includes internships, freelancing and voluntary work for social causes. He derives immense happiness from remembering birthdays and wishing everyone for it. Swimming, travelling and playing music on the keyboard are his other passions.

SOCIAL SKILLS (Acceptance and Inclusion – 8 ) a blog by Jaya Sudhakar and Siddhanth Palaparti

Schooling experience becomes better for our children with special needs when there is ongoing communication between the parents and the school. Siddhanth’s inclusive school was open to suggestions from the parents and the therapists of the children with special needs. I used to source a lot of print material on inclusion strategies for implementation in integrated schools from the Forum for Autism’s library and share it with Siddhanth’s school counsellors. Likewise the school’s resource centre too would share useful material with us from time to time. Just as much as the school counsellors were eager to update themselves from the Autism workshops which I used to inform them about, they were equally keen to conduct workshops for us parent caregivers to reduce our stress levels and spread positive vibes to motivate us. So it was a constant process of growing and evolving on both sides.


In the early days, the school was open to allow Siddhanth’s occupational therapist to come and meet the counsellor, have a look at the classroom structure and give practical suggestions. Siddhanth’s developmental paediatrician also used to give updated recommendations to the school after every follow up visit. The school used the buddy system a great deal, the class teachers were picked carefully (generally those with more maturity and who were very enthusiastic about being part of the journey) and allowed access to the parents ( of kids with special needs) to join in field trips and the rehearsals before Annual Cultural Day and Annual Sports Day events – basically those unstructured events which changed from the daily routine and had greater elements of unpredictability.This helped to foster better understanding on both sides and made the journey that much easier.


There were monthly meetings with the school counsellor regarding Siddhanth’s Individualized Education Plan (IEP). Besides this there were the regular parent – teacher meetings and Open House for all parents. In the primary section, the teachers used to come to the basement every Friday for 15 to 20 minutes before school hours and we could discuss whatever we wanted with any subject teacher. This provided a good opportunity for me to interact with the teachers on a weekly basis and keep tabs on Siddhanth’s progress. I used to send Siddhanth to school by school bus and then hop into an autorickshaw to meet the teachers at the basement.


I remember Siddhanth’s third grade teacher Ms Vidya always showing a keen interest on his progress in his therapy sessions and was very enthused about supporting him in the classroom setting. If I would say that we were working on his asking for help, she would immediately suggest something like, “Do not send the eraser this week. If needed I shall prompt him to borrow it from his neighbour in class”. The compassionate teacher would also encourage many of her colleagues who were not directly teaching Siddhanth to converse with him whenever possible.


I remember once going to pick up Siddhanth and noticed that while Siddhanth was sitting in the basement waiting for me, he was engaged in deep conversation with another teacher Ms Rekha. She was enquiring from him about his Geography project – a model of a lake that he had made and carried with him to school. Her feedback of the detailed description he gave her was very encouraging to me.


Likewise there were the Open House Meetings at the conclusion of every semester which used to be spread over three hours. Parents could walk in any time during those three hours and engage with the teacher. I usually used to attend it somewhere in the middle of the slot as it was relatively less crowded at that time and I could discuss more with the teacher. Vidya Madam would often send Siddhanth to any of her colleagues in one of the neighbouring classes (whoever was free at that time) while she had a discussion with me. On one such meeting, I remember Siddhanth going over to speak to Rekha Madam. She later informed me that Siddhanth was conversing with her about his plans for the ensuing vacation. He had mentioned about going to Hyderabad but was clueless when she asked him about his ‘native place’. This kind of feedback would give me pointers about the vocabulary and concepts that we needed to work on with Siddhanth.

Developing good communication with the school authorities goes a long way in the acceptance and inclusion of our children in an integrated setup. The next couple of blogs will touch more on how with better understanding of Siddhanth’s social challenges, several well-wishers have intuitively helped him along his journey leaving us with the firm belief that where there is a will, there is a way when it comes to acceptance and inclusion of individuals with Autism in society in general.

Author Jaya Sudhakar

Jaya Sudhakar has done her Masters in Physics and was employed as an Asst.Manager in a PSU. Her son’s diagnosis urged her to seek voluntary retirement from service. She is actively involved with Forum for Autism, Nayi Disha and The Spectrum Autism. Friends,tending to plants, reading, writing, music, movies, travelling and a little bit of spirituality are her perennial energy boosters.

Typing of story in Word and Creative graphics done by CreativeSaathi Siddhanth Palaparti, Jaya’s son

Siddhanth is a budding graphic designer, coder and music lover. He has graduated in computer applications and completed several certificate courses. His work trajectory includes internships, freelancing and voluntary work for social causes. He derives immense happiness from remembering birthdays and wishing everyone for it. Swimming, travelling and playing music on the keyboard are his other passions.