Categories
CreativeSaathi parentsaathi

Imitate, Repeat, Memorize

A Journey to Bharat through Natya – 1

View the video below. It is in Tamil but anyone can watch the movement! It is the Tamil version of If you are happy and you know it… It is created by RASA. How do children learn these movements? While the video shows the end-product and the learning process, I see three key components in learning movement and dance:

  • Imitation is important for learning purposeful movement. Imitation is the first step to learning. Read the article by Simmi Vasu here.
  • Repetition is another important step in learning. While we don’t pay much attention to the role of repetition, Ananth’s Bharatanatyam experience made me tune into the importance of repetition as an important tool for learning.
  • Memorization is yet another tool for learning that does not receive enough attention in these days. The focus is on innovation and creativity. However, we cannot be very creative if have not mastered the basics! Fluency is needed for creativity.

As a professor for over 30 years, I have seldom had conversations on imitation, repetition, or memorization! In today’s classroom. A lot must be learned quickly. Imitation, repetition, and memorization are slow processes. A journey to Bharat through natya is not just Ananth’s journey. It is my journey too. I have reconnected with many processes that may not be in fashion today but seem as important for learning today as when we were growing up.

Join us for a conversation on the role of imitation, repetition, and memorization in the Theater Arts for Holistic Development (TAHD) approach in our 100-Day Theater Lab on Facebook here.

While I didn’t the imitate, repeat, and memorize process in action for the above video, I got a chance to observe it closely during RASA Day 2022 practice.

Simmi Vasu identifies the following types of imitation:
Gross motor
Fine motor
Oro-motor
Doing actions with objects

Which of these types of imitation is needed for doing the activities in the two videos shared today?

Acknowledgements

Thanks to Dr. Ambika Kameshwar and Dr. Vaishnavi Poorna for sharing resources for this blog post. I was mentioning how I played If you are happy and you know it with our one year old grandson. I also mentioned that I see If you are happy and you know it as TAHD. They said that they had created a video to make this point and the idea for this blog post took shape!


Creative artwork by Vinayak Raj

The artwork for this blogpost is done by a talented little CreativeSaathi associate Vinayak Raj of 12 years from Greater Noida.


Author– Dr.Dasaratha Rama

Categories
BloggerSaathi specialsaathi

Music , Rhythm and Autism

Music , Rhythm and Autism

While individuals with autism face many challenges including communication and repetitive “tick-like” behaviors, they often excel in music….Percussion activities are a big boon for kids/adults with autism in many ways 

It helps them to work with consistency in day to day tasks and chores as it has preliminary affect on concentration, attention ,focus, behavior and at times communication.

It improves rhythm ,dexterity and timing

“A drum circle is a rhythm-based event that utilizes a variety of hand drums and percussion instruments to empower a community of participants with the ability to create beautiful, spontaneous music.”

In addition, percussion activities can give non verbal children a voice and a means to express their emotion through the rhythm, tone, and volume of their drumming.

Sensory acceptance:

It is surely a sensory “rich” experience. It assists with reinforcing body awareness, touch, vision, and hearing skills. There have been reports of children becoming less sensitive to loud sounds after participating in such activities

Motor skills are enhanced.

Participants who are  playing percussion instruments  utilize eye/hand coordination, vestibular movement and visual perception. Motor skills emphasized include coordination, strength, and endurance as hands and arms are moving and the body is swaying to the rhythm.

Percussion is not only by means of tabla , drumming is the best to do this ….

My blog  is based on a research study By Robert Damm, PhD. …

Creative Efforts and Research Enthusiast – Heena Sahi

Categories
changemakersaathi parentsaathi

My Journey So far..

Getting your first born diagnosed with Autism- a lifelong condition which would require support of various degrees to deal with the day-to-day life is a daunting news for the first time parents to say the least.

Like thousands of fellow mothers, I too went through a haze in the initial years, with flurries of doctors, therapists, this test, that test, running from pillar to post, trying to make sense of life, and this mystery called Autism, trying to find ways and means to “get through” to my son Ammogh.

Yes, that is the name of my son- Ammogh which means Lord Ganesha or “the precise way of doing a thing”. Both the synonyms sounded like irony to me for neither hearing the ominous news of having your child labelled with a strange disorder felt “shubh” neither were we- as parents, able to figure where to begin in the first place, forget doing the precise thing!

Twenty odd years have passed ever since we got that diagnosis, and a lifetime of learnings which has enriched us as parents. In these years I realized that there is no end to the human potential, irrespective of any label- special need or otherwise.

For a person who could not sit still, eat on his own or hold a pencil, today my son has not only crossed all those milestones but is also learning to live independently with minimum support. As mother, I too have learned to be far more patient and compassionate to fellow human beings. I guess to do things precisely one needs to be persistent first:))

So, lets take a 360-degree view of our situation as parents of special need children.

What does a single mother of a special need child want? – Support.

What does an individual with special need want? – A peer group, opportunities and equal rights.

What does a family with a special need child wants from society? – Understanding, empathy and inclusion.

As a society there are gnawing gaps in what we as parent’s community expect for our children and what is offered to us, we are living on the margins and not at all happy about it. General ignorance, taboos, lack of good policies, governmental apathy, commercialization of education system which does not care in investing time on our children are few of the issues which can be rattled off at any given time. Stress is compounded by the lack of social, financial and emotional support.

But enough of that! For the list of woes is endless, so let us begin afresh!

I was always week in math but one equation taught in the school is still relevant to me which is – minus plus minus equals Plus!! I know that the challenges faced by our community are humungous and one can easily get overwhelmed by it! Creating support system for each other can bring a lot of relief . “दुख बांटने से कम होता है और सुख बांटने से बढ़ता है

I realized very early in my life that in order to carry on this arduous journey I will have to build support system for myself as well as my child, so I started working towards it -one step at a time. By talking to a random stranger staring at my son, sensitizing the neighbors in the immediate vicinity, by writing on various forums, joining forces with fellow parents, forming groups, association, becoming part of the larger parent’s organizations, making my voice heard, by becoming voice for the voiceless. For I believe in one thing- if you do not get support then become support for someone and the universe will send someone for you.

Four years back with my husband’s steadfast support I founded a Trust called ALAP: Assisted Living for Autistic Persons with the purpose to look after persons with Autism who would require lifelong support in some way or other. Today we provide short/long term respite to the families in a residential setting, teach independent living skills to the residents, providing them with all kinds of opportunities for their individual growth. They have their peer group, an inclusive space set amidst the mainstream where they get to interact and engage with people from all walks of lives, they are very much “visible” and are contributing a great deal in sensitizing the world about themselves.

The ALAP mothers get together, go for lunches, let their hair down, are lot more confident as they too are equally involved in capacity building, of their children as well as each other’s. For inclusion we must reach out to each other within our own community before we expect anything from the society at large.

So, to build a community here are the baby steps that can be taken:

Look around and see if there are few parents in similar situations, form a group;

Meet regularly, share information, experience, resource, and knowledge;

Become support for each other, if need be, baby sit each other’s child, give respite to fellow parents;

Travel together, go for outings together as you will get the comfort of having each other’s support and understanding in a hostile or not so understanding environment, be ears and eyes for each other’s child. As they say -safety in numbers;

Invest in good support staff and nurture them equally well, for you will always need them more than your relatives;    

Seek guidance from senior parents, for they have covered more miles than you and their wisdom and guidance can make you understand your child much better;

The truth of the matter is that we cannot gulp life in one go, we must savor it sip by sip, assimilating, digesting it slowly. Yes, it gets overwhelming, I learned to take a break from the daily humdrum time to time, away from the daily stress and found my “me time.” In that process I discovered my own inherent strengths and rebuilt my life with new fervor.

I do hope my journey and my learnings resonate with you all in some way or other and you too discover your own super powers, for only a happy and empowered parent can build a steady future for his or her special need child.

More power to us all!!

Neena Wagh

Founder- ALAP: Assisted Living for Autistic Persons

Writer, Playwright, Poet, Filmmaker, Translator

Categories
parentsaathi Resources Story

THE LIGHT BOX’S MAGIC STORY

THE LIGHT BOX’S MAGIC STORY

MIND IT, THAT’S NOT WITCHCRAFT MAGIC

Light box is an activity and is literally a magic and enchanting

This is a miracle box if you really struggle with a child to sit for an activity

What I mean is , a child who gets fidgety and shows very poor sitting tolerance

This is an innovative idea to be used when the child able to comprehend table top based academic skills like matching , sorting , tracing alphabet and numbers  , easy board games, crayoning , using pegboards , crafts and art making

This miraculous light box acts like a flat table surface.

You can also call this as your child’s /students working station

You are basically creating a visually stimulating but not a distracting table for the child to engage in various activities or tasks as mentioned earlier

Why I AM BEING SO PARTICULAR about this light box

We all know and are aware that children would not be ready to attend a task by themselves

They won’t comply easily to engage in a task

Then why not give them a space that boosts them to get involved

THIS LIGHT BOX CAN HELP TO PROMOTE INTRINSIC MOTIVATION

Intrinsic motivation is simply anything that we do to for our own happiness and not for an external reward

Light box gives a soothing and warm effect to the eyes

Your child would be happy to see create such exciting box for them

This box can be easily made with minimal usage of resources

Are you ready to create one with me?

  1. YOU NEED A BIG TRANSPARENT BOX MADE UP OF TEMPERATURE FRIENDLY PLASTIC THAT HAS A LID OR COVER WHICH IS FLAT
  2. THIS BOX COULD BE SIMILAR TO THOSE YOU USE TO STORE KITCHEN PANTRY STUFF
  3. NEXT GET GOOD QUALITY STRING LIGHTS OF WARM  WHITE  IN COLOR
  4. THIS COLOR WILL NOT BE STRESSFUL TO EYES AND WOULD HELP IN EYE TEAMING
  5. THE COLOR CHOICE WILL HELP YOU TO EASILY SEE ITEMS TO KEEP ABOVE THE LIGHTBOX
  6. NOW YOU CAN CREATE A SMALL HOLE ON THE LOWER SURFACE OF THIS BOX TO PASS THE LIGHT AND YOUR HAND
  7. PLEASE NOTE KEEP THE SWITCH QUITE CLOSE TO THE LOWER SURFACE FOR EASILY MAUEVERING YOUR HAND TO TURN ON AND OFF THE LIGHTS
  8. THE HOLE COULD BE LARGE ENOUGH YOUR BANGLE SIE TO REPLACE WHEN THE WARM LIGHTS WOREN OFF
  9. YOU CAN TAPE THE TOP SURFACE TO ALL THE EDGES OF BOX SO THAT CHILD CAN’T OPEN IT
  10. SEAL THE OPENING BELOW AS WELL SO THAT YOU CAN OPEN IT BUT OBVIOUSLY NOT THE CHILD , HERE YOU HAVE TO ACT AS A SMART MUM

And you are ready to go my dear !!!!!

Well once you show it to your child ,let them explore and have a good look . It is not a good ideas to bombard them with the task at the very first go. Day 2 or even Day 4 is better day and good opportunity to start your goals

Well now that I have written so much , I would treat you with some wonderful pictures to learn and gain ideas for using this miraculous and magical “ LIGHT BOX”

1

2

3

What lightbox looks like ? you can use to announce a break

Use it for presenting numeracy and literacy worksheets
You can do ample activities like boardgames , playdough, gauging time and so on.

You must think what if my child gets habitual of this magic box and looks for it in school , well you can start a social story “ we can use light box only at home”

Creative efforts and LightBox Experimentor – Heena Sahi

Categories
Story

Points to remember- For parents of newly Diagnosed children.

Original content- Manju K Iyer

Rewritten and edited by- Shilpi Mayank Awasthi

This message goes to everyone who is anyway related to special needs kids or working with parents of special needs kids.

The post is meant to provide you some small tips to help your special needs children.

1. Build the right bond-

Please work on observing, building a bond and connecting with your child.

2. Don’t lose the mental peace and happiness

Our kid is more important than the academics, his behaviours, his stimming or self stimulatory methods, the so-called tantrums as perceived by the society and is inappropriately seen. We need to try working upon mental health, peace and happiness, interests of our child first.

3. Set the priorities and the correct achievable goals –

We should work on small small goals initially as per the child’s age level and his skill level gradually increasing it to multiple and complex goals once achieved the earlier ones. Set the clear priorities what to expect, how much could be done, etc.

4. Trust your child –

  Your kid is first a human being… When you start trusting your kid for who he or she really is. Rest everything will fall in place with time and efforts trust me.

5. Acceptance is the key-

By accepting your kid the way he or she is and the capabilities a new world of possibilities will open up. Dont be scared of the tag that is the diagnosis, be it Autism, Adhd, or any other form of disability for that matter. It is a man made tag. Do not indulge in putting a label or correcting others who do so; as God did not create tags and labels for us. He sees everyone equally. So, accept the challenges bestowed upon you by God, use them as a positive force.

6. Teaching them daily life skills-

Yes, agree that we have to teach them how to live in this society, work with them until they are independent, but only after we accept them and give respect and connect to them as another human. Functional and daily living skills are very important and should be taught right from the beginning.

7. Stepping towards Independence

Try achieving independence together with your child at every step of the journey. Be it simply crossing a road together. Be it going to a local market. Be it visiting a mall and watching a movie together in a jam packed hall. Be it attending a birthday party or a marriage. Be it traveling to another city by bus, train or aeroplane. We can achieve independence and comfort in these difficult and chaotic situations with ease, while we have worked upon all the above points successfully.

7. The learning will follow

The learning will automatically follow once we are ready to accept and trust the child; once we are at peace the child is happy and want to connect and bond with you. The learning will happen eventually.

Thank you for reading the post! Do like and drop a comment.

Original content – Manju k Iyer mam.

Rewritten and edited- Shilpi Mayank Awasthi