Gyaan Budhwar- Mala

Mala Chinnappa gave us a talk on ‘Education of the Special Child in the light of Spiritual Science’. Her understanding of Rudolf Steiner’s Anthroposophy, Curative education, Waldorf and Camphill schools was explored during the session. She began by explaining that she was still in the midst of the 7 moduled course spread over 3 years. These modules represent seven divisions of seven years each in the life of a human ie 0-7 years, 7-14 years and so on, each division focusing on certain areas of self-development. For example she said, the period 49-56 years is the time one gives back to society what one has assimilated, a time for sharing wisdom, for example.

Steiner developed a model of education for special children based on the study of Theosophy. Karma and reincarnation are key theories of this system and Mala expounded that the spiritual soul takes a human birth but then gets cut off from its spiritual self. This spiritual soul has planned everything for the human including who its parents will be, and other life details so maximum experience and learning can happen for the soul through the birth. This process is cyclical and happens till the soul wants to enjoy the physical life, after which it stops.

Curative is a literally translation of a German word (Steiner being German) ‘healing’. Movement, Rhythm, art, Music and story telling are the soul food which forms an integral part of the education and healing in a day of a person involved with this education- be it student or teacher.

While Waldorf schools are for mainstream kids, Camphill schools are for special kids and adults- a boarding facility with live-in teachers and volunteers.

There are about  a 100 Camphill schools world over, though he number is fastly diminishing. The growth and change that one expects in such schools is for both student and teachers/volunteers. It’s a method of life where one is in harmony with one’s own body and nature, fulfilling our higher purpose in this life.

Mala sang some story- songs to show how both morality and facts could be taught in a playful way. She also showed how movement helps us sense our etheric body and helps the ‘prana’ flow well.

Eurythmy movement was also briefly explored.

In all we got a taste of this unique model of special education which connects us and our kids to our spiritual selves. As Mala put it, we are not humans having a spiritual experience but spiritual beings having a human experience. 

Thank you Mala for an unforgetable session.

SAND Cafe

Support Alzheimers N Dementia Cafe- the first dementia cafe in Chennai was started at Mitr on feb 13th. This is for caregivers and any patients in a position to come.

We had live music and children with special needs cook and serve us snacks.

This cafe will run only once a month as a meeting point for others in the same boat, to make friends, relax and gain strength from one another.

Our second meeting was a musical one with Sudha and other care givers singing and Vikas playing the keyboard.

Gyaan Budhwaar-Priya's session

We start a new series of talks by special moms who share their knowledge and their life learnings on various aspects. Priya Sasi lead the first two wednesdays with her wonderful understanding of how a behavior could be due to a sensorial reason and what one can do in such circumstances.

We had an audience of moms absorbing the information and discussing their views.

Following is the article on this topic written by Priya for those who missed being present or want to learn more.

Handling behaviors  - Differentiating between problem behavior and sensory behavior

Behavior is the most common word used in the world of children with special needs.  Anything the child does can be a behavior or simply a verb in English language, is a behaviour. These behaviors gain more importance when it badly affects the child's learning.  As a mother of child with behaviors, I would rather define behavior as a difficulty faced by the child wherein a parent or therapist can help the child to deal with the same. Children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders depict two types of behavior, sensory  and problem  . It becomes very important to differentiate between these two, to appropriately intervene.

Sensory Behavior : Unlike the neurotypical brain, an autistic brain receives and processes input from seven senses namely visual , auditory, olfactory, tactile, taste, vestibular(movement) and proprioception(balance).  Many times these inputs are being registered as, ‘ insufficient’ or ‘excess’  resulting in  behaviors of seeking and avoiding.

A child who pokes his eyes is getting  insufficient visual input and trying to compensate by poking eyes. On the other hand a child who is covering eyes even from a dim light is getting visual input as excess and hence is trying to avoid it.

A child may scream or bang his head hearing normal sounds in the environment as common as mixie or a cooker whistle because child receives this auditory input as excess and unbearable.  My son used to respond with a loud laughter for a sudden starting sound of a two wheeler or an auto . Though we think these behaviours are bizarre, many times its associated with the senses .

A child who registers smell with more sensitivity can have a tough time to get toilet trained and a child who registers smell with less sensitivity may indulge in inappropriate social behaviours such as continuously touching their private parts and smelling it.

A child who registers tactile input with less sensitivity may avoid wearing slippers and satisfy his need for feeling different textures with a bare foot. A child may avoid messy foods to avoid that sensation . My son has craves for the oily  fumes which comes over dosa, but learnt to make dosa very easily because of this craving.

Most of children who feel their vestibular input less will be constantly is on the move or spin or rock to get vestibular sense compensated. Some children may also be dull as they feel their vestibular input as excess.

Flapping is the most common behavior seen for a proprioceptive input.

A child can also get the same from a sense of balance and hence most children like skating and learn it faster than other skills.

So a sensory behavior will always be connected to seeking or avoiding a particular sensory input while a problem behavior will in no way be connected to satisfy a sensory need .

 Once a behavior is identified as a problem or sensory, it can be tackled by the appropriate method.  Sensory behaviors are addressed by occupational therapists as sensory integration technique and problem behaviors are tackled by behavior modification technique by the special educator.

Solving  the mystery of a behavior may be initially bit tough but if we have a sound knowledge about sensory issues, it becomes easier as days pass by and it requires a careful, continuous and efficient observation of child . Over these years I have intuitively learnt to use their sensory need as a teaching tool and I find it as the most efficient teaching tool for a sensory smart child.

Priya- mom to Pranav.

Art Based Therapy workshop by Gitanjali Sarangan

We had this lovely workshop by Gitanjali- who runs Snehadhara school at Bengaluru, which showed a  bunch of 40 moms how movement, dance, theater and music could be used to teach children in a non-obstrusive and casual manner. http://snehadharafoundation.org/

What will stay with me for a long time is teaching opposites thru music..'Iwill sing loooouuuud.. I will sing soft...I will sing out...I will sing in...'