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Updates
A one-day workshop on ‘Providing Counseling Support to Families of children with ASD’ was held successfully on the 7th of March 2009. The purpose of the workshop was to discuss the needs and concerns of the families of the children with ASD. Professionals from Bangalore, who are in the field of disabilities and counseling presented their views and experiences in working with families of children with ASD. Parents of children with ASD also attended and shared their concerns with the professionals. There were good inputs from the presenters and panelists alike. In consensus with the professionals and parents, it was decided to consolidate the proceedings of the workshop on issues and concerns faced by the families and work towards building effective strategies to solve them.
An in-house workshop was held for the staff of Com-DEALL on the 27th & 28th of April 2009. The workshop trained the staff on ‘Leadership and Management skills’. It was successfully conducted by Mr. Mathew & Ms. Sowmya from FIVE, Chennai.
An interactive workshop was conducted on 28th August 2009 at Com-DEALL, Bangalore, on the topic of ‘Inclusion in early school years’. 20 school teachers, special educators and parents participated in the same, along with a representative from Sarva Shiksha Abhyan (SSA). Each speaker shared their experience and difficulties faced in inclusion of children with ASD. A healthy exchange of ideas and suggestions came up. A follow up on the same will be carried out with school managements and the concerned government officials.
National Meet
The National Meet was successfully conducted on December 12th & 13th 2008. It was attended by participants from all over India and some from abroad. These included Speech language pathologists, occupational therapists, psychiatrists, psychologists, educators, special educators and parents. The first set of 4 intervention manuals developed by us was released at the Meet along with a couple of CommunicAids and a book on Children with Communication Disorders, by Dr Prathibha Karanth. The Meet, which was aimed at disseminating information to a larger audience, provided a platform for healthy discussions amongst the various professionals
The following are some feedbacks we received of the Meet:
- It was SUPER! Many Congrats. Hope we can see it across the country. Wonderful Team . Thank you
Poonam Natarajan, Chair person, National Trust, Delhi.
- Excellent National Meet. Kudos to the exemplary documentation efforts!
More videos, demonstrating the activities and managing small and large group sessions. More information on Com DEALL – admin/unit management, team building, balancing documentation with hands on work with children, session planning, what and how the SLPs and OTs made the mental shifts from one on one sessions to small/ large groups, and how do professional plan for each group sessions and for each month.
Deepika Gopalarao, Speech Therapist, Al Noor training centre for children with special needs, Dubai, UAE.
- Congrats! Good and interactive National Meet. I like the work Com DEALL is doing very structured and systematic. Good luck!
Punam Mhatre, Special Educator, Cochlear Implant Habilitation and Infant Training Centre, Mumbai.
- Commendable work, very thoughtful and well supported with documentation and research study. Looking forward to more similar publication relevant to the Indian scenario.
Sudha Ramamoorthy, Principal, Day Centre, Vidya Sagar, Chennai.
- Excellent! Commitment, professionalism were seen in all the presentations. Hats off to all the staff of Com DEALL and Dr. Karanth for the great work.
Vani Nagaraj, Project Coordinator, IRC, Bangalore.
- Congratulations on the launch of a wonderful program. Quality of the materials - very relevant. Quality of attending professionals provoked good professional interaction. Would like to be kept updated on future releases from Com DEALL.
Isphana Al Khatib, Director, Al Noor training centre for children with special needs, Dubai, UAE.
- It has been educative and an eye opener. I am a teacher in one of the well-known mainstream schools and I have also done my LD course but there is so much more to it. Only suggestion would be to make the mainstream teachers also be aware, understanding and helpful. So have more workshops.
Sunitha Rajkumar, Vice Principal, Cathedral High School, Bangalore.
- Excellent content. Well organized. Kindly develop training module for professionals to reach the unreached children.
Suman Kumar, Lecturer - Speech & Hearing, AYJNIHH, ERC, Kolkata.
- The Meet gave me the feeling that my child is going to be in safe hands. (Com DEALL Team). It also gave me the opportunity to meet so many eminent people working for autism.
Sudha, Parent, Bangalore.
- The only Meet that I have come across that has complied with "Time" – the meet commenced on time and wound up on time. CONGRATS!! Has been an extremely enriching experience. The question answer sessions were informative where in a healthy debate on various aspects of learning was discussed with no unpleasantness. Healthy debate and constructive criticism was the core factor in facilitating purposeful, meaningful discussions. Hearty Congratulations to Dr. Pratibha Karanth and her dedicated young team of professionals. Please extend Com DEALL services beyond autism to reach children with other disabilities like CP, LD, Downs, MR etc.
Nandini Bhandakar, Special educator, Dhruvaa, Bangalore.
Upcoming Events
Com-DEALL Partners with National Trust, Delhi to conduct training programs on early intervention in different parts of the country in 2010.
At the request of the National Trust Com DEALL will be conducting three 5 day workshops on early intervention for children with ASD in Allahabad, Aurangabad, and Ludhiana later this year.
'DEALL Day', a day signifying the establishment of DEALL, will be held in December 2009.
Workshop on Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) will also be conducted by DEALL in December 2009. It would include professionals with experience of AAC for ASDs.
There are vacancies for Speech-language pathologist and Occupational therapists. Those interested in our work are welcome to contact us at our head office or are welcome to email us (please get in touch with our coordinator Ms Nirupama Srikanth).
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