Author: Dasaratha Rama

Categories
BloggerSaathi

Building Ecosystems of Learning through a Family Immersion Model

In this article, I describe our efforts to build ecosystems of parenting through our LIFESMART communities. Facilitating the launch of the Ramana Bala Kendra Family Immersion program was an important milestone for us. As our experience shows, parents can play an important role in working with professionals and organizations to create effective programs for neurodivergent children. They can also play an important role in developing and evolving inclusive ecosystems for their children.
Ecosystems are important for parents to be able to play their role and sustain their efforts for many years. Through LIFESMART Parenting group conversations, 100-Day projects, and facilitating efforts such as the Ramana Bala Kendra Family Immersion effort, we hope to grow ecosystems for parents to learn and grow together. We need inclusive ecosystems for intergenerational learning where parents, professionals, and neurodivergent learners can learn together in their own way and at their own pace.


Each neurodivergent learner, each parent, and each professional is a changemaker. It is through the process of integrating them into learning processes in effective ways that we can accomplish significant change. The Ramana Bala Kendra Family Immersion program is one effort to build such a learning ecosystem.


I. Ramana Bala Kendra – Family Immersion Model
The launch of the Ramana Bala Kendra for neurodivergent learners in September 2023 was an exciting moment for us. This event seemed to happen suddenly but it was developing gradually for about a year through conversations in LIFESMART parent groups.
A pivotal point in our journey was when Ananth started learning Bharatanatyam from Sri Ujwal Jagadeesh, a senior faculty member and artist at RMCL. Ujwal is an experienced TAHD facilitator and Ananth’s Bharatanatyam classes are enriched by TAHD. In addition, Ananth started exploring the life and teachings of Ramana Maharshi through Ramana Nritya.
Ananth’s Adventures Youtube channel was launched in January 2023. Ujwal and Ananth shared many small lessons for parents to try with their children. Ananth also narrated stories under the guidance of Sri Ujwal Jagadeesh and Ms. Usha Sankaran, Senior Facilitator at RASA (Ramana Sunritya Aalaya). Ananth’s Adventures has become a critical resource in our daily interactions with the LIFESMART community.
As Ujwal, Ananth, and I learned together from October 2022, I shared many ideas and resources daily in my LIFESMART group. The community had seen many of Ujwal’s videos. Thus, when I discovered the Ramana Bala Kendra announcement from RMCL and shared it, many parents joined. There was enough interest that a separate group was started for neurodivergent learners.
Since the initial cohort of students came from my LIFESMART group, the parent role in learning is a topic that the entire group has seen discussed in different ways over the years. I suggested that the Bala Kendra experience be organized as a family immersion experience. Parents are invited to participate in activities with their child. Thus, they can learn and continue the activities throughout the week. I support the process through our 100-Days of Movement and Body Awareness Lab and by other means.
Watch the overview of the Ramana Bala Kendra experience by Sri Ujwal Jagadeesh:
https://youtu.be/VqcJN-OIaUY?si=3zkH61JkKBBvIoDt
View a sample Ramana Bala Kendra lesson here
https://youtu.be/q9U716jrwOY?si=eILsXGsb7BIKwFaL
A unique feature of this program is that parent perspectives have shaped this program from its inception. We are making efforts to encourage parents to share their experiences. Listen to the perspectives of Ms. Shinjita Joshi-Pant and Ms. Anila Janapareddi.
https://youtu.be/L0yq6YD28Wg?si=qY60zskSC8YDTuNI
https://youtu.be/dbsYs6n4KkM?si=Rd3sLcoM1chRmNYd
Shinjita and Anila are both highly engaged but in different ways given their children’s needs, strengths, and challenges. Despite the differences, the participation by Shinjita and Anila are key to discovering the point of learning for their children and to gain more from the Bala Kendra experience.
Listen to Dr. Ambika Kameshwar’s explanation of the point of learning and its importance in TAHD here:
https://youtu.be/65CcV9ATxrQ?si=ABaU0KJiwQ97nL1h

II. 100 Days of TAHD (Theater Arts for Holistic Development) Lab for Parents with RASA
The seeds for the Ramana Bala Kendra were planted when Ananth became a RASA student.
A critical point in Ananth’s journey was when Dr. Ambika Kameshwar, Found and Director of RASA participated as the chief guest in Ananth’s Bharatanatyam arangetram (first solo performance by a Bharatanatyam student after years of training). While we did not realize it at that time, a new phase had started for Ananth and for us! Ananth had taken a step from Bharatanatyam to Indian theater experience that included movement and dance, music and rhythm, storytelling, drama, and arts and crafts).
I became interested in TAHD and started doing my certification in TAHD. I learned more about the framework and practice. My focus has been on taking TAHD to parents as I believe that the value of TAHD will be better realized in parents are an integral part of the process.
We started a LIFESMART 100 Days of TAHD lab for parents in collaboration with RASA. Since Ujwal was one of the faculty members for this lab, this experience created opportunities for Ujwal to demonstrate lessons with Ananth. Ananth’s experience with Ujwal had started their lessons off in a different direction than a traditional Bharatanatyam experience in yet another way! Thus, the 100-Day Lab played an important role in the emergence of the Ananth’s Adventures channel and other activities.


III. 100 Days of Movement and Body Awareness
This 100-Day project was launched in the LIFESMART community in September. Since the Ramana Bala Kendra was also launched in September, the 100-Day Lab is emerging as a support system for parents of children in Bala Kendra. Parents are encouraged to choose pieces of lessons and incorporate them in their 100-Day experience. This approach helps sustain Bala Kendra teachings. At the same time, it gives parents a concrete set of lessons to build the 100-day experience.

LIFESMART Parenting Goals and Family Immersion
The family immersion model moves away from focusing only on learner outcomes to family level outcomes. The six key LIFESMART Parenting goals are:
– Managing parent stress
– Reducing child/ learner stress
– Build foundations of guided participation with parents
– Encourage independent learning
– Expand opportunities for guided participation with other teachers/ mentors
– Facilitate inclusion
We stumbled upon Relationship Development Intervention (RDI) about 20 years ago. Since that time, developing the guided participation relationship between parent and child has influenced my approach and practice. Over time, I defined six key goals for LIFESMART Parenting:

Given our RDI experience, we started with the goal of building foundations of guided participation. Ananth has been blessed with excellent mentors in piano and dance. Hence, we were also able to expand guided participation to other mentors. Over the years, we realized stress and emotional regulation needed to be addressed explicitly as a foundation without which the other pieces fell apart.
Finally, all these pieces are coming together in addressing the last goal of facilitating inclusion. We refer to our journey as a Journey to Bharat through Natya. It is our journey of connecting to our roots and discovering the foundations for Ananth’s lifelong learning in Indian natya. This journey has opened pathways for inclusion for Ananth.
My support for the Family Immersion Model comes from these experiences. We hope to work parents and organizations like RASA and RMCL to help create ecosystems for parents and professionals to work together.

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 is currently doing a certificate in Theater Arts for Holistic Development (TAHD) from RASA (Ramana Sunritya Aalaya).

Contributor
Ananth Raghunandan is a student ambassador for RASA and TAHD. Ananth Raghunandan will be starting a diploma in Bharatanatyam shortly.

Their journey from homeschooling to collaborators and co-creators continues!

Categories
BloggerSaathi

Celebrating Festivals: Discovering Opportunities for Inclusion


During the Ganesha celebrations in our community, Ananth performed a dance on Ganesha. This was his first dance performance after his arangetram in October 2020. Dance practice had been disrupted for multiple reasons. Eventually, Ananth started learning from Sri Ujwal Jagadeesh in Ramana Maharshi Center for Learning, Bengaluru. This is the first piece he performed under Ujwal’s guidance.



L: Learning daily
Preparing for the dance created opportunities for learning daily. We also made discoveries to enhance daily learning in the future. When working with neurodivergent learners, it is important to adapt the learning process for their needs. I had requested Ujwal to teach the hand gestures and facial expressions separately because for Ananth the usual sequence of teaching foot movements, body/hand movements, and finally facial expressions means that when he is learning facial expressions, he is also doing all the other movements and does not have bandwidth to learn expression.
The video below shows how Ananth learned hand gestures and expressions before integrating them in his dance.



Viewers have noted that Ananth is looking more expressive now. Many reasons. One important reason is how Ujwal explains the meaning of every word multiple times. So Ananth is comprehending what he is showing clearly and that is one important reason for communicating better through body and facial expressions. Now that Ujwal has started pulling out hand gestures and facial expressions, I expect we will see even more progress. Another big benefit is that these storytelling parts Ananth can practice at any time during the day whereas he has a couple of set times for dance practice and that is when he will do full dance.


I: Interests
Ananth has been interested in Bharatanatyam for more than 10 years. Learning with more explanations through storytelling and improving our practice routines continuously helps sustain this interest because Ananth is better able to learn and perform.


F: Family interactions
We continue to support Ananth in many ways. For example, I interacted several times with the event organizers as they planned the event. We chose and shopped for the costume together. His grandmother attended the event. We posted the recording on Youtube channel and shared it with other family members.

E: Engagement with Community
Performing in the event created an opportunity to meet many people in the community. Many people spoke to him after the event. Hopefully, interactions will increase in the future due to such activities.

SMART projects
The dance was a SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Time-framed) project. While Ananth has been exploring this piece for some months, the performance motivated him to practice more and refine the parts that he did not know well.

The objective of performance is not just to demonstrate mastery. The four LIFE elements show the varied benefits of performing in community events. Such events are an opportunity for inclusion. Neurodivergent learners may not have conversations in the same way as their neurotypical peers. But they often have varied skills that can be showcased and celebrated by communities.

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 is currently doing a certificate in Theater Arts for Holistic Development (TAHD) from RASA (Ramana Sunritya Aalaya).

Contributor
Ananth Raghunandan is a student ambassador for RASA and TAHD. Ananth Raghunandan will be starting a diploma in Bharatanatyam shortly.

Their journey from homeschooling to collaborators and co-creators continues!

Join the discussion in our whatsapp group here:
https://chat.whatsapp.com/CjT447ehx9QC5RMN9V6cQt


Categories
BloggerSaathi

How can Parents help Other Parents?

Service learning series

Lessons from the Ananth’s Adventures Project – 1
If you know one individual with autism, you know one individual with autism. We have all heard some version of this saying. This saying is worth questioning as it results in a mindset that can keep parents with years of experience from helping other parents. After all, since your child is so different from mine, I cannot say anything that will be useful to you. Right? I don’t think so.

Our experiences over the last few months led me to deeply question this position and I decided to write this post. As we were doing a 100-Days of Theater Arts for Holistic Development (TAHD) Lab for parents in early 2023, I was stunned when the mother of a 6-year-old child saw Ananth’s video with his teacher. She scaled down the video and patiently worked with her child to introduce the first adavu or movement pattern in Bharatanatyam.

The Parent Advantage
Parents are dedicated. They want to do the best for their child. If that means they must learn some Bharatanatyam and teach their child movement, they will do it! This is an important lesson to keep in mind as parents seek ways to help other parents!

Ananth’s Adventures Digital Tapestry Project

Since we had just launched Ananth’s Adventures Youtube channel in early 2023, this little piece of data was very encouraging. Ananth (25) with over 10 years of Bharatanatyam learning could share what he was learning and a parent whom we have never met can use this lesson with her 6-year-old child!

Parent Knowledge
Parents know! As one therapist used to say, I may be an expert on child development but you are the expert on your child. I trust parents to look at resources on our Youtube channel and figure out how to make it work for their child. We have seen many such instances of people using resources from our Youtube channel with their child!
In fact, this experience has now led to our emerging strategy:
We are focusing on Ananth’s Adventures Digital Tapestry as the core of our efforts to help parents.

What is Ananth’s Adventures digital tapestry? It is an intricate weaving together of Ananth’s varied learning experiences over time!

A random collection of videos will not be impactful. Currently, we are choosing content for video snippets and recording them for our 100-Days of Movement and Body Awareness project. Initially, Ananth’s Adventures started with the Story of the Month by Ananth. Then, we started adding resources on Thinkblocks, Fold, Color, Talk etc. Over the last two decades, Ananth and I have explored a variety of approaches. The Ananth’s Adventures Digital Tapestry is an intricate creation that brings together diverse ideas, approaches, and resources into a harmonious creation for neurodivergent learners, their families, and others.

Theater Arts for Holistic Development (TAHD) is the foundation for this Digital Tapestry project. As Dr. Ambika Kameshwar, Founder and Director of RASA (Ramana Sunritya Aalaya) states, life is theater and theater is life.

In theater, each person plays a role. I am the project manager for this Digital Tapestry project. Sri Ujwal Jagadeesh, senior faculty and artist at the Ramana Maharshi Center for Learning is our TAHD facilitator. Much of the content on Ananth’s Adventures includes lessons and demonstrations by Ujwal or Ananth’s presentations guided by Ujwal. Ananth is the student ambassador for RASA and TAHD. We discovered that to bring the lessons to life, at least one student is needed! Then, viewers can see guided participation in action.

Ananth’s classes have been transformed because of this 100-Days of Movement and Body Awareness project and the Digital Tapestry initiative. During each class, Ujwal and Ananth spend 10-15 minutes on creating video content for Ananth’s Adventures.

Ananth is now participating creating intros and outros and in editing the videos. This project is creating opportunities for him to practice a variety of digital storytelling and video creation skills.

Three Tips



1. Engage parents in thinking about outcomes
We are using the TAHD framework to think about outcomes. Through therapies and other experiences, parents can consider a list such as the one below and identify outcomes for their child.

2. Create, Compile, and Curate Resources
This step is critical for parents to effectively help other parents. Resources on Ananth’s Adventures are primarily intended to help parents and neurodivergent learners. Thus, most of our shares are to help other parents and educators rather than Ananth’s current learning and performances.

3. Encourage and support parents in using resources
We share a video daily and share tips and techniques. Parents are encouraged to consider ways of using the information. Some parents may directly use the activities presented on the video. Others may view the video, read the tips and techniques, and create their own activities.


Outcomes and Next Steps

Last week, we experienced a moment that confirmed that this approach can work. I shared an announcement for Ramana Bala Kendra, a program run by Ramana Maharshi Center for Learning (RMCL). Ten parents of children of various ages and at various stages of development enrolled their children for this class. The class is offered by Sri Ujwal Jagadeesh. Parents understand Ujwal’s approach and also see how his Theater Arts for Holistic Development (TAHD) implementation can benefit their child. This is an early indicator of success of our emerging approach to encouraging parents to explore certain paths. We hope to help more parents in the future.

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 is currently doing a certificate in Theater Arts for Holistic Development (TAHD) from RASA (Ramana Sunritya Aalaya).

Contributor
Ananth Raghunandan is a student ambassador for RASA and TAHD. Ananth Raghunandan will be starting a diploma in Bharatanatyam shortly.

Their journey from homeschooling to collaborators and co-creators continues!

Join the discussion in our whatsapp group here:
https://chat.whatsapp.com/CjT447ehx9QC5RMN9V6cQt




Categories
BloggerSaathi

How Ananth and I Organize Learning with 100-Day Projects


The process of parents learning with their neurodivergent child at home and supporting their child’s development through experiences outside the home is dynamic. While parents have long-term goals in mind, they must observe, see what is doable and worth doing, and decide on next steps. 100-Day projects and daily routines are two important LIFESMART tools for creating structure and order while being flexible and adaptive.

I. Do 100-Day Projects

Short-term focused action has been the biggest challenge I have faced over the years. We are faced with too much information, many competing perspectives, and many goals and skills to work towards at any given time. It is not possible to address everything that needs to be addressed at any given time.
Stay focused on the doable.
We use the 1-10-100 rule as a way to focus on the doable.


The 1-10-100 Rule
Choose one activity and commit at least 10 minutes to it daily for 100 days.
The 1-10-100 rule enables us to focus on what is doable and worth doing at any time. An activity must be of high priority if we are willing to commit to it for 100 days!


100-Day Projects and Daily Routine
Your routine today has taken shape because of what you and your child can do. That is your starting point. Write down how your child spends time throughout the day. Then, think of possibilities for improvements.

The 100-day project is the core LIFESMART practice. It is intended as a tool for organizing short-term effort in the face of unpredictability and uncertainty. Choose one or two of the activities in your daily schedule for targeted improvement with a 100-day project. Ground yourself with a daily routine and 100-day projects. Then, use observation, information from family members, therapists and other professionals, information from other parents etc. to make progress gradually over time.


100-Day Anatomy and Body Awareness Project
Recently, we started the 100-Days of Anatomy and Body Awareness project in the LIFESMART community. While this project is being hosted in the community, each parent/ neurodivergent learner will have their own unique goals. For example, Ananth has experienced therapies such as Masgutova Neurosensorimotor Reflex Integration (MNRI) and learned Bharatanatyam for over 10 years. Thus, our goals will be different from that of a parent working with a young child.


The goals of our 100-Day project are:
1) To practice facial expressions and hand gestures. While facial expressions and hand gestures are a part of every dance lesson, we have requested Ananth’s dance teacher Sri Ujwal Jagadeesh to do the facial expressions and hand gestures while sitting down so Ananth can focus on the meaning of the lyrics and coordinate gestures and facial expressions.
2) A key advantage is that he can create additional practice opportunities. For example, Ananth does not dance after dinner but he can practice seated activities emphasizing hand gestures and facial expressions.
3) To learn and share Anatomy and Physiology songs. For example, Ananth has learned and shared the skeleton system song.
4) To create and share movement and dance videos on Ananth’s Adventures Youtube channel.
The activities in our 100-Day project build on what is already in Ananth’s daily routine. We make targeted improvements to our daily activities throughout the 100-Day project. The intention of 100-Day project activities is to enhance the daily routine.
Consider the four LIFE elements while organizing 100-Day SMART projects:

o L: Learning Daily
Integrate movement, dance, and other activities to learn Anatomy and Physiology, and to raise body awareness.
o I: Interests
Movement and dance have been areas of interest for Ananth for over ten years. Now, there is increasing interest in storytelling integrated with dance.
o F: Family Interactions
Ananth’s Adventures Youtube channel is becoming an integral part of our family interactions. As Ananth learns dance during the 100-Day project, we work together on creating, editing, and sharing videos.
o E: Engagement with Community
Ananth’s Adventures Youtube channel is an integral part of our community engagement efforts.


II. Evolve Daily Routine

A parent role is different from a teacher’s role. Predictability, order, and structure along with flexibility and adapting to change is how parenting works and what learning at home involves. Further, the daily routine integrates activities with parents and other activities to provide a comprehensive picture of how the child spends his time daily. The point of the daily routine is not to be rigid but to provide some overall structure to guide the flow of activities while being open to what happens!
We created a folded circle divided into 12 parts to show activities that address Anatomy and Body Awareness. We track daily progress on this folded circle embedded in Canva.
Our list of daily activities below includes short 10-15 activities throughout the day that emphasize body awareness. Other activities such as reading and coding are not included in this list.


AM
Exercises and Aduvus
Dance
Walk
Hand gestures and Facial Expressions
Hand gestures and Facial Expressions
Cooking and Chores

PM
Dance
Walk
Hand gestures and Facial Expressions
Hand gestures and Facial Expressions
Listening to Satsang shares
Atma vichara


Tip for Parents
Do 100-Day projects to organize short-term actions and direct them towards long-term goals. Use 100-Day projects to evolve daily routine.
Join our 365-Day Exploration group on Whatsapp to learn about LIFESMART and practice techniques such as the 100-Day project. Our goal is to encourage, inform, and support parents in thinking about possibilities and implementing focused and consistent short-term action towards long-term goals
https://chat.whatsapp.com/CjT447ehx9QC5RMN9V6cQt

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 is currently doing a certificate in Theater Arts for Holistic Development (TAHD) from RASA (Ramana Sunritya Aalaya).

Contributor
Ananth Raghunandan is a student ambassador for RASA and TAHD. Ananth Raghunandan will be starting a diploma in Bharatanatyam shortly.

Their journey from homeschooling to collaborators and co-creators continues!

Categories
BloggerSaathi

How Ananth and I Play it Forward Daily

Service learning 3


This is our third article in our series on service-learning. As noted in my previous articles, service-learning 1 and service-learning 2 Service-learning is an approach for empowering neurodivergent learners by encouraging and guiding them in community engagement.


Paying it forward means that rather than repaying someone we give to someone else.
Paying it forward is a useful concept for service-learning. We learn daily from many teachers and mentors. Given the differing abilities and challenges of neurodivergent learners, many educators invest much time and effort learning about and coaching neurodivergent individuals. On the other hand, many neurodivergent learners may not be able to find the right mentors and learning experiences.


Paying it forward is an important mechanism for service-learning for sharing experiences, sharing information about teaching methods and environments that work, recognizing contributions of teachers, mentors, and others, and fostering conversations on inclusion.


Playing it Forward

We have modified the concept of paying it forward to playing it forward. We explore (play) with mentors and others in inclusive spaces, and share our explorations with neurodivergent learners, parents, and others.
This notion of playing it forward drives Ananth’s Youtube channel, Ananth’s Adventures.


Lessons from Teachers

Ananth’s dance teacher, Sri Ujwal Jagadeesh, senior faculty and artiste at the Ramana Maharshi Center for Learning, Bengaluru plays an important role in our playing it forward efforts.
First, he shares many lessons with Ananth on Ananth’s Adventures channel. Slowly, some parents have started exploring these videos with their children.
Second, he guides Ananth in the story of the month video project. In earlier videos, Ananth practiced stories learned in class for creating videos. Now, Ananth integrates movement and music snippets from dance class in his storytelling.
Third, Ananth’s video project has become possible through the efforts of Sri Ujwal Jagadeesh and other RASA (Ramana Sunritya Aalaya) mentors. Ms. Usha Sankaran, senior facilitator for RASA started Ananth off on his Theater Arts for Holistic Development (TAHD) journey. Her storytelling and other lessons helped Ananth develop narration skills for his video projects. She continues to coach Ananth on his video projects.

Dr. Vaishnavi Poorna coached him on three theatre performances. Ananth practiced body language and other skills in these performances.
The work done for over a decade by Guru Harija Sivakumar and Professor Kalakshetra Mohanan prepared Ananth to benefit from teachers and mentors in RASA.

The RASA Ecosystem

Ananth is blessed to have an eco-system like RASA for pursuing his interest in the arts. We are truly grateful to Dr. Ambika Kameshwar, Founder and Director of RASA for creating such an eco-system and for creating the TAHD framework. Ananth is able to chart his path forward with confidence because of what she has created over the last 30 years.

100- Days of Anatomy and Body Awareness Project

Varied experiences in the RASA eco-system as well as prior learning experiences have come together in our 100-Days of Anatomy and Body Awareness project.


This project was launched on August 20, 2023. We are playing forward what we have learned from many others including:
●Our knowledge of Anatomy and Physiology through Ananth’s explorations while he was doing his diploma in Medical Records and Hospital Documentation.
●Our knowledge of Distinctions, Systems, Relationships, and Perspective (DSRP) method and Thinkblocks. Dr. Rama is a certified leader in systems thinking, mapping, and leadership under a program developed by Cabrera Research Lab. She learned DSRP and tools under the guidance of Dr. Derek Cabrera and is happy to be able to play it forward with Ananth through his videos!
●SpecialSaathi eco-system has brought connections and ways to engage other neurodivergent learners. We are very grateful to Morpheus Nag for creating the artwork for this blog post at short notice!
Dr. Rama is also grateful to two mentors who have helped her discover and follow this path. Dr. Edward Zlotkowski, a pioneer in service-learning actively encouraged and guided her initial service-learning explorations. He also invited her to be the editor of a monograph on service-learning which planted a seed that is an integral part of her work.
Dr. Rama is also grateful to Bernard J. Milano, retired President of The KPMG Foundation and The PhD Project for supporting her study of The PhD Project model. The PhD Project is an organization in the US that seeks to diversify business school students by diversifying the front of the classroom. Will such a model have application when we consider the situation of neurodivergent learners?
So far, parents have responded favorably to Ananth’s video and other shares. Some have suggested that he can teach dance to children!

Our Playing it Forward Path
Ananth’s Adventures Youtube channel supports our other service-learning projects. These projects further expand the scope of how we play it forward and engage others in the RASA eco-system.

1. One of our major service-learning projects is to create a series of e-books for Ramana Sunritya Aalaya (RASA). Ananth experiences the magic of Theater Arts for Holistic Development (TAHD) explorations daily. Videos on Ananth’s Adventures Youtube channel are an important resource shared in our e-books.
2. Ananth is now an ambassador for Theater Arts for Holistic Development (TAHD) and RASA (Ramana Sunritya Aalaya). The Youtube channel is an integral part of Ananth’s work as a TAHD ambassador.


Tips for Parents
Engage neurodivergent children/adults to play it forward by doing service-learning projects. Clarify how you can create value for the community and identify the value to learners participating in the project by playing it forward.

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 is currently doing a certificate in Theater Arts for Holistic Development (TAHD) from RASA (Ramana Sunritya Aalaya).

Contributor
Ananth Raghunandan is a student ambassador for RASA and TAHD. Ananth Raghunandan will be starting a diploma in Bharatanatyam shortly.

Their journey from homeschooling to collaborators and co-creators continues!

Join the discussion in our whatsapp group here:
https://chat.whatsapp.com/CjT447ehx9QC5RMN9V6cQt