Disabled persons are not freaks

When a differently-able child comes into this world, parents go through traumatic experience. There are lots of blame games played by close family members and friends, most of the time, mother is blamed for conceiving not-so-normal child. Because of such pressures from society, guilt sets in and mother goes through bouts of depression. She may be forced to give up her social life, personal commitments, her job and other activities to give full time attention to her child.

Lucky are those who get family support and help her pass through the first hurdle of shock and put her on route to acceptance, to help her to accept her child as he is and to think about how best to adjust to such disability, and move on.

Because disabled children are not freaks to be pitied, accommodated or ignored while planning a difficult task, they are also humans who are simply differently able

Some parents are too clingy and protective to their child. They won’t allow their child to grow and be independent. When Harpeet Kaur was admitted to our school SBP-School for Mentally challenged, her mother carried this 11-year-old child to school and we believed that she could not walk. But after month, I was surprised to see her strolling in the school compound. She had overcome her fear of falling and was inspired to follow her class mates.

The differently able person can do wonderful things if given an opportunity. All they need is understanding and compassion, we just need to stand close enough to offer help but far enough to allow the child to spread its wings.

At only five years old, Shayaan Qureshi has come up the perfect response to the many people who stare at him - a big, toothy smile.

"I just look straight at people and smile," said the little Bahraini resident, who was born without arms. "I tell them I don't have hands but I can do everything."

Shayaan has dysmelia, a rare,congenital upper-limb disorder. His family was recently in Dubai to meet a support group for people with special needs and their relatives.

 I had met Malini at Oxford Book Stall few years ago when I had attended Caferati Read-meet. She communicated with me through typing in her machine and I was amused by her sense of humor. I admired the way she has conquered Cerebral Palsy and is the crusader for rights of disabled persons.  She has been awarded the national Award as a role model by the Ministry of Social Justice.

Did I have my own personality? Was I just another disabled girl who needed things done for her? I knew that I was different and trapped in a dysfunctional body, but did others realize I had a spirit and a mind separate from this body? My body did not work like others, but did they realize that my mind was normal? Did they consider thinking that my desires were just the same as theirs? Writes Mailni in her book titled ‘One Little finger’

Live life to the fullest” says Malini Chib, author of “One little Finger’. 

And how can we ignore Stefen Hawkins?

U.S. President Barack Obama talks with Stephen Hawking in the Blue Room of the White House before a ceremony presenting him and fifteen others the Presidential Medal of Freedom on 12 August2009. The Medal of Freedom is the nation's highest civilian honour.

Neither can we ever forget our famous singer Steve Wonders who sang “I just called to say I love you, and I mean it from the bottom of my heart…”

Wonder is presented the Gershwin Award for Lifetime Achievement by United States president Barack Obama

Once the differently abled people who are gifted with special talent are integrated into the mainstream, they are able to compete in the society and show their worth. It’s just the question of acceptance and will power.

Self Advocates Training Workshop

 When Pranita Madkaikar invited me to experience' the self-advocate training workshop' that she was conducting, I was only too happy to accept. I had heard about this 5 weeks workshop that she and Charu Shah were organizing for special students/ mentors and was curious to know how the children had benefited from this program.

I reached the SBP, Centre for mentally challenged school at CBD and the session was on. The children were introducing themselves and the theme was ‘Voting and Elections’.

A group of about eight children (in the mock elections) sat together facing the audience. Each child was given a chance to make a speech; they tried to make promises like leaders, trying to express their will to bring about change when they were elected.

This exercise might be very easy for a normal child who is creative and spontaneous, but with special child it was an effort, it is tough when the thought process and the speech are not synchronized togather. Each child struggled to get his idea across, for a Cerebral Palsy child, the speech was slow and slurred and it was difficult to understand as she struggled with every word. Some just spoke few sentences and some just made few sounds, then there were some who were able to give a speech in 5-6 sentences but the remarkable point was that all children willingly took the mike to say something. Nobody was conscious about speaking on the mike.

That was followed by all children standing in queue, registering for the election, staining the finger, taking the printed paper with the picture of the contestants, standing behind the booth, stamping on the desired picture and dropping their vote in the ballot box.

The whole process was done so efficiently that one could never guess that how much effort and training was involved for them to be able to perform such an act with so much confidence and discipline.

When the children registered for this training, most of the children had no confidence to speak freely.

Hands-on corporate style training was imparted on important self advocacy skills like

• 1. Developing self esteem
• 2. Identifying ones strengths and limitations.
• 3. Listening
• 4. Getting to know each other
• 5. Making choices
• 6. Working together
• 7. Problem solving
• 8. Leadership
• 9. Public speaking
• 10. Reporting abuse
• 11. Health & Hygiene

Different games were played during the sessions to help children interact with each other. Different teaching aids like colored beads, musical instruments, kitchen utensils, picture postcards, fresh fruits and vegetables, and things used in daily life activities were used during the program.

The trainer would explain the activity, the members would be divided into groups, the trainer would pose a problem, children would be encouraged to find a solution, they would later have discussion and interaction in understanding the problem.

The member were encouraged to recollect activities held during the day and were encouraged to relate the learning from the activities

Remarkable positive changes were observed in the confidence levels and expressive abilities of all the self advocates.

The Navi Mumbai & Raigad Chapter of the SASI was officially launched on 21st October, 2011.

23 Adults with Intellectual disabilities from 7 Organizations from Navi Mumbai and Raigad took part in this program. These self advocates underwent a formal 5 week training for this purpose.

These weekly full day training programs conducted at Swami Brahmanand Pratishthan Special School, Belapur and Skills & Ability Special School, Nerul from 17th September to 15th October, 2011, were planned and conducted by Ms. Charu Shah and Ms. Pranita Madkaikar. 7 mentors (one from each of the participating Organizations) and three Volunteers were also an integral part of this training.

Formal elections were conducted and 6 Office Bearers and 2 members elected by the self advocates from amongst themselves took charge of the Navi Mumbai & Raigad Chapter of SASI from 21st October, 2011. The Mentors will continue to be with the team as facilitators, with the self advocates deciding the roadmap for the future. The volunteers too will help the team by maintaining liaison with external agencies.

Funding for operational expenses of this project is being provided by the Maharashtra Chapter of PARIVAAR (PARIVAAR SAHYADRI) and the Parents association of Swami Brahmanand Pratishthan Special School, Belapur. PARIVAAR is a National level Federation of associations of parents of persons with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

SASI (Self-Advocates Society of India) is an NGO that pledges to open up a world of opportunity for people with developmental disabilities by educating its members, families and supporters, and the general public on the abilities of people with developmental/intellectual disabilities.

• - Communities will profit from the contributions of hard working citizens.
• - Families will benefit from the inclusion of their loved ones into their communities.
• - People with developmental disabilities will grow, building their self-respect and confidence in their ability to succeed.

All the children who took part in this program were given the certificate of participation

Trapped in a Body that refuses to Obey- Cerebral Palsy

Prachi looked at me from the corner of her eye and smiled as I entered the classroom. All other children were distracted too. One child got up and limped towards me, stretching his trembling hand towards me. I held his hand tight and guided him to his seat.

“Sit and do your work” I said giving him a soft pat on his head and then walked away towards the seat where Prachi was seated.

Prachi moved her stiff muscles, holding the pencil box under one arm while she struggled to extract the pencil with her tightly stretched fingers. Repeatedly she tried grasping the pencil to slide it out from plastic clasp of the box. Her movements were jerky and abrupt, it appeared to be uncontrolled and without purpose. Her body moved and suddenly she fell off the seat, with her legs in scissor-like position and her hands stiff, up in the air. Her classmates startled, all rushed and stood around her as she lay stiff on the floor, staring at children around her.
“Move back, go back to your seats” I said while I held her under her arms, lifted her heavy body and helped her sit on her seat again.

“You okay? Be careful” I said as I removed the pencil from her box and placed it between her fingers.

Being careful is not easy for Prachi, especially if she lives in a body that refuses to obey her.

Ten-year old Prachi suffers from Cerebral palsy, a condition caused by abnormal development of brain and nervous system due to which there is stiffness in the muscles and constriction of motor activity. She has problems with posture, balance, walking, speech, swallowing and other functional coordination.

“When Prachi was born, she did not cry” says her mother, Anita Chavan, “there was not enough oxygen to reach her brain as the result her brain was damaged.”

All her milestones were delayed; she could not control her head, roll over or sit without support. Over the years, she has shown little progress but she needs help in most of her activities.

Cerebral palsy can result from the damage to certain part of the brain which can be due to prenatal, natal or postnatal factors.

Risk factors linked with cerebral palsy can include Rh factor incompatibility where there is difference in blood between mother and fetus; however this is almost detected and treated in women who receive proper prenatal medical care, sometimes it can be genetic or hereditary condition, There is a bigger risk if there is complication during labor and delivery due to which the brain does not receive enough oxygen.

“She is quite normal in other ways,” says her mother, “She understands everything and is intelligent too. She is quite independent and does most of her thing on her own; I help her only with brushing her teeth and combing her hand.”

During the lunch time at school, her classmate brought for her a bowl of water and helped her wash her hands. She unlocked her lunch box independently and clapped her hands when she saw the Aloo Paratha in her lunch-box. Her classmate rolled out the Paratha into a small cone and placed it in her hands. She started to chew, masticating each bite slowly, with her saliva dripping from the side of her mouth.

The problems and disabilities related to Cerebral Palsy range from very mild to very severe. Their severity is related to the severity of the brain damage.

At the age of 7 months, Prachi suffered from minor fits. Her mom took her for many tests, visiting various doctors and hospitals. At Nanavati, Mumbai, she underwent EEG (Electroencephalography) for the diagnosis of seizure disorder. Physiotherapy was then suggested for relief. Once a year, her mom, Anita Chavan, regularly visits a hospital in Nagpur where parents of CP are given training in physiotherapy to help their child. To help her child further, Anita Chavan has even completed the special education Teacher’s course from NIMH at Navi Mumbai.

While special treatments are given to the child to develop specific skills, the overall goal of treatment is to help the individual to live the life as normal as possible. This can be accomplished by variety of different approaches managed by team of professionals like physical, occupational, psychological, medical, speech therapies, etc.

Physical therapy involves stretching, bending, yoga, and other physical exercises to strengthen the muscular reflexes. The focus is on developing specific skills such as holding the head straight, sitting without support and walking independently. Occupational therapy involves development of fine motor movements like feeding, grooming and personal care. Speech therapy is used to overcome communication problems. Many children with Cerebral Palsy have limited and slurred speech because of the poor muscle coordination of tongue and lips. Medical therapy comprises of all the medical problems like seizures, breathing, feeding and digestive problems and their treatment.

Prachi is mentally alert child and was admitted in a normal playschool in Bangalore at the age of 3 years. When her family shifted to Kharghar, Navi Mumbai, she could not locate any special schools for spastic in her area. “I want to integrate her into a normal school” says her mom, “the only special school for Spastic is in Bandra which is very far. I wish there were more school for such children in my area.” She was admitted to Swami Brahmanand Prathisthan, Centre for mentally challenged in 2010 where she is presently attending regularly. She is able to read and write alphabets and numbers, also knows to read and write her name and postal address and is learning many other activities.

Its play time and Prachi walks slowly down the stair, balancing her weight with both her hands on rails. She is social and follows children to the playroom. While other children run and jump, she squats on the floor, looking around for some Montessori equipment to pass her time.

Ps: National Cerebral Palsy Day is celebrated on 3rd October 2011. This is celebrated in memory of Late Dr. Dr.P. K. Mullaferoze

“Cerebral palsy is a multifaceted problem with many systems of the human body which are affected. This requires a team approach and infrastructure in its management. Sadly this is lacking. As a result of lack of awareness, patients present late, much beyond the golden period when a definite impact can be made by treatment. Hence the need to create social awareness and to sensitize our population and government to the problems of cerebral palsy patients is acute.”- Durga Mallikarjuna

Joys and Challenges of Teaching Mentally Challenged

It is time for games. Each person is given one chit containing the name of the animal. At the sound of the whistle, the participants unfold the chit and make a sound of the animal searching for similar sounds. Whole room is filled with different sounds, some baying, some mooing, some quacking and some barking, within 2 minutes one group has found the family of four meowing cats and is the winner. The winners are the staff of a special school and the game organisers are the parents of special children. Celebration of teacher’s day is in progress and special children are having fun watching their teachers running around making strange sounds.

Teachers around the world celebrate 5th September as teacher’s day. The birthday of Dr Sarvepalli Radhakhrishnan came to be celebrated as Teacher's Day when, one day, some of his students and friends requested him to allow them to celebrate his birthday. In reply, Dr. Radhakrishnan said, "instead of celebrating my birthday separately, it would be my proud privilege if September 5th is observed as Teacher's day". From then onwards, Dr. Radhakrishnan's birthday is observed as Teacher's Day all across India.

The greatest joy is when children show their appreciation to their teachers by singing their favorite song, reciting a poem or giving a rose. But teaching a special child has a joy of its own.

“You experience the purest form of love when working with the special children”, says Sukanya Venkatraman, the Principal of Swami Brahmamnand Pratishthan, Centre for Special children. “They are the most innocent beings that I have come across in my life. They are totally selfless and I have had the opportunity of learning the concept ‘Love without any expectation’ while teaching them. Their genuine appreciation, their thoughtful gestures fill me with wonder.”

In the early years, during her training period, Sukanya was scared to teach the children with severe behavior problems and had no idea how she would handle that, but experience over the years have helped her overcome her initial fear and apprehensions. “More than handling the behavior problems of the children, handling their parents is more challenging.” She says. “Helping them accept their child’s handicap and making them believe in themselves and in their child took the utmost effort. Most challenging is finding the job placement for our well-trained students.”

Swami Brahamanand Pratishthan was founded in June 1990 by Shirish Poojari with just two children. Over the period of twenty years, the school has progressed considerably and has 150 students on its roll. “I am happy to see the development in the children, and see their progress in daily life activities”, says Shirish Poojari, “In our institution, children are trained according to their ability and our goal is make them economically independent but our biggest challenge is funding and keeping the school afloat. When the children are older we are not able to keep them in school for long and there is need for some residential home where they could be looked after and work in the sheltered workshops.”

“My greatest joy is when they bring home the certificate of appreciation, I love working with special children, when I reach home at the end of the day, I am refreshed and active” says Madhuben Shah, the drawing teacher. “I want them to bring out their artistic expression through their painting. My biggest challenge is making them focus to attain near perfection by drawing and painting.” Madhuben teaches drawing starting with basic strokes, graduating to more complex designs. One of their paintings was appreciated by my friend from US and she bought it on line. The children also make beautiful greeting cards and colorful posters.

“Being in their company and working with them is a joy itself” says Sunit Marwah, who is in charge of the vocation unit since last five years. There are various activities in the vocational unit such as making paper-bags, Rakhis, lamps, toran, pillow covers, duster, hand-bags, beaded jewelry, chocolates, ground masalas, etc which are later sold during exhibitions and children are given little stipend for their work. “I like to see the joy on their face on completing a certain articles and this gives me the greater joy. My biggest challenge is taming an aggressive child.” She talks about one particular child, Rohini, who was so aggressive when she came to school, she would throw temper tantrum, fling things and create commotion in school, but with little understanding and love, she has been able to discipline the girl.

“When I came to teach the special children I didn’t know what was expected of me” says 43-old Anita, who has been teaching computers to the special children since last 11 years. “Now-a-days there is wealth of information on internet and it has become easy to plan a proper lesson program and follow the particular format but during those days there were no proper reference books and I had to adopt trial and error methods to understand what works and what doesn’t. My biggest challenge is when the children are not in the mood of doing a particular activity and I am forced to steer my activity to their liking, sometimes I am not sure if the child is hearing and understanding me at all. But my greatest joy is when they are able to follow my instructions and produce good results.” She proudly talks about her student who had won the competition at state level on art work produced on computer.

While teaching a normal child is a challenge, teaching a special child is double challenge. Teaching special children involves parents, social workers, society members and other professionals. It is the continuous process. The children tend to forget easily and they have to be taught again and again till the child is able to understand the concept and use it to his daily life. The simple adding and subtraction is taught in different ways to suit his level of understanding.

It is not easy for parents too.

“I always worried how my child would manage when she starts menstruating, but I am glad that she has managed quite well” says Madhu Verma, mother of 17-years-old Sneha. Sneha is Down’s Syndrome child who surprises her mother by watching ants walking in line, of running after soap bubbles and gracefully shaking her hips to the rhythm of the music. “I have learnt to appreciate her and see the world through her eyes” says she with a smile.

The biggest challenge the parents of the special child face is to plan their future. “My son is 22 years old and the extreme pressure is ‘What next?’. I worry about the guardianship after our existence, of financial investment and how these investments will guarantee their future, about the family life of my son, whether he will be able to nurture a family of his own” says Davis Ipe, father of Neil who is learning some vocation skills at school. “Most challenging is the fact that we are growing older and weaker everyday and to find the perfect substitute to replace parents is our deepest concern.”

The special child unaware of the challenges that are lined up by society, lives each day as it comes, enjoying the present moment. He is unhappy when in pain, aggressive when things go wrong and claps his hand with joy on seeing his smallest achievement. His teacher and his parents try their best to block his pain.Happy teacher’s day to his teachers and his parents!!
 
excerpts from this article can also be found on Women's Web Magazine

The joys of working for no salary

by  Raamesh Gowri Raghavan

The list of joys gained when working at a job with a salary can be detailed as follows:


1.Receipt of salary in bank account

2.Payment of dues, bills etc without late charges

3.Relied at timely payment

These are all I could envision. I have a distinct feeling that nagging bosses, unreal deadlines, conflicting ethics, family pressures, unfulfilled aspirations and suffocating compromises have a tendency to more than cancelling out these joys. Yet, the bills get paid, and that is {insert swear-word here} important.

Then comes the list of joys gained for working without a salary. It could be a bold step into entrepreneurship, or volunteering for charity. I have neither the money, nor the boldness to throw away my job (however I may itch to fling my resignation at my bosses’ faces) and start a business venture of my own. Nor do I have a great idea yet that a venture capitalist will throw money at, though I can dream of unsecured loans by a deluded investor into some grand chicken-egg-chicken-egg-chicken scheme I will think of. So all I can do is select a charity and volunteer for it.

And that, trust me, has been one of the best decisions I ever made in life. (In fact, I think it ranks second only in my decision not to marry or have kids). Five days a week I slog for an ungrateful, underpaying company (as every hard-working employee thinks s/he does), keeping the rational and calculating part of my brain active, while placing the emotional and aesthetic parts of it in a coma. On Saturdays, I switch the rational calculator off, and the emotional aesthete comes alive. I pack my bag in the morning, to catch a local train to Belapur.

For the last couple of years, I have been volunteering every Saturday at Swami Brahmanand Pratishthan, a school for the mentally retarded. Despite its religious-sounding name, it is not affiliated to any math or peetham or trust. It was founded by a gutsy special education teacher, Shirish Poojary, on 7th July 1990 (Guru Poornima that year), and named after her mentor, Swami Brahmanand*. I like this particular Swami for he made no effort to set up a multi-crore religious trust operating several lucrative colleges, lived in modest circumstances in Ratnagiri district, and died as unknown as he lived. His only legacy to the world is this school set up in his memory.

[A note on the phrase ‘mentally retarded’. Some of us try to be politically corrected and say ‘mentally challenged’ or ‘special children’ or ‘differentially abled’ instead. It makes no difference to the children themselves; they will never understand. Besides, it is misleading. Many have suffered, because of genetic defects or because their mother contracted some unfortunate disease while pregnant, or because there was an accident during delivery. It leaves their mental development retarded; often they remain stuck at the mental age of seven or eight for the rest of their lives. They cannot do anything special, or different, nor can they rise to the ‘challenge’. ‘Mentally retarded’ is to me the right phrase, for it immediately alerts the ‘normal’ people around them that there is a problem, and that it needs sensitivity and empathy, not political correctness.]

So what do I do in this school? I’m not qualified to teach the students anything (since I have nothing I can teach them, nor anyone else), so I do whatever is assigned to me. Some bit of blogging the school’s activities (http://sbp-pushpa.blogspot.com/), acting as photographer during school activities, and generally doing paperwork. This includes writing letters to sponsors, updating records of sponsorships, drafting other letters, and a whole lot of similar things. Which I would have considered immensely infuriating had it come with a salary attached. But since it doesn’t, it is very interesting, and gives me a great deal of happiness.

The minus side is that it is a drain on my finances. I have to spend money travelling to and fro every Saturday (and because this is me, snacking on the way). And I have taken up sponsoring half the expenses for one child’s education, which comes to Rs. 12,000 a year. But if I grudge even this, then deep inside, something within me is not human at all. And since I have no wife to be nagged by or no children whose complaints irate neighbours bring home everyday, what am I to do with my salary? After all my insurance premia and home loan EMIs, helping a child along seems like a good idea for the money. My only wish is that I could do more. Which would mean finding a job with a nastier boss, outrageous clients, meaner deadlines and tearfully boring work, because that seems to bring in higher salaries.

The plus side is that I get invited to all school dos, the teachers treat me as a friend, and the founder (Mrs. Poojary, still going strong these 21 years) is quite fond of me. That means I can get free chai and snacks at school (which over-compensates the overall effort I put in). The school dos are a real treat, for while these children cannot cheat, trick, get angry, run for election, lie, plot, complain, deceive, crib, steal or willfully inflict violence (like normal, intelligent people do all the time), they can really sing, dance and remain cheerful through thick and thin. Most Saturdays I don’t get to meet them, because they get that day off, while teachers are doing up reports, holding parent-teacher meetings etc. But the days I do get to meet them, I manage to win a smile from one or a few. That can keep my spirits going for days on end.

And then I can talk to the parents. Dealt a cruel black swan by life, knowing their child will remain a child for the rest of its life. They manage, they cope, they even redesign their lives around their child. While their normal children grow old, find jobs and get married, there is one that retains its innocence forever. One that laughs at the littlest thing, complains about nothing, and accepts its lot with the stoicism that the greatest philosophers cannot achieve. Who will live and die without knowing the evil in the world. After that, who am I to complain about a cribbaceous boss, or cryaceous juniors?

I’ve managed to recruit my parents to the cause. Which means that they do not crib when I’m off on Saturdays, do not crib about how the money could be better used (which means it be spent mostly on them, or saved up for spending on my future children), and gladly agree to do my share of the housework. Not that Saturdays are an excuse to escape the housework (since their agreeing to do housework does not mean they actually do it; it jumps on me the moment I enter the house). Lately they’ve even been willing to buy some of the things the children make.

My sister is still a great critic. That’s because she is in the line of dealing with mentally retarded children herself, and she disagrees with the vocational approach taken by the school. Though I am sure she will come around, as she knows the school better. For who will take care of a child who is abjectly poor, is too mentally retarded to do even simple things like eat its food or go to the bathroom, and to make it weven worse, is a Dalit from a roadless hamlet? It takes a great amount of effort to get them to learn even a simple skill like stringing beads.

But they have an incredible sense of beauty. I’ve seen them struggle to paste bits of paper and thread while making rakhees (which are on sale now). But the choice of colours, the patterns they make, their sense of combination and contrast is unbelievable. They seem to me the very paradigm of the ‘idiot savant’. Incredibly stupid, and yet incredibly aesthetic. A genius buried irretrievably deep by an accident of birth.

I used to think I was sensitive and could understand people. Till I started volunteering at my school. Now I know there is a lot, a great lot I have to learn. To learn to be happy knowing full well I have nothing that is truly mine. To be truly sensitive to the needs and requirements of people who are vastly different from me. To understand that there is nothing superior about me, to not patronize, to not do anything I would hate done to me.

One day I will in fact fling my resignation on my bosses’ faces and work at my school full time. But there is such a thing as a grumbling stomach. Till then, joy is confined to Saturdays. The joy of enriching work at no salary.

cross-posted at Raamesh's FB notes

Parent – teacher relationship

Devang ties his shoelaces, looks for last time in the mirror, takes his school bag and walks down the stairs. His mom watches him from her balcony and waves good bye as she watches him disappear into the crowd. He walks down the narrow lane that is populated. There are shops on either side of the street. He stops at sweets shop and smiles at the shop keeper. He does not speak but the shop keeper understands his gestures and has known him for many years. He hands him one sweet without charging him for the same. Nibbling on the sweet he reaches the school bus stop and waits for the bus.

But he is five minutes too late. Not finding Devang at the bus stop, the bus driver had assumed that he won’t be coming to school.

Devang does not know that he has missed his school bus. He has no concept of time and he waits at the bus stop for five hours till the bus comes back after school hours and bus driver spot him at the bus stop and asks him to go back home. He is a special child. He suffers from Microcephaly, which is a medical condition in which the circumference of the head is smaller than normal because the brain has not developed properly or has stopped growing.

Both teacher and the mother did not worry about Devang because they were not aware that he was at the bus stop for five hours. Both did not know that he had missed his school bus.

This problem can be avoided if there is proper interaction between the parents and the class teacher. The teacher of a special child should be aware of the child’s problem and should find out why the child is absent from school before the school prayer assembly, preferably by making a phone call to the parents to ask the reason of his absence on that particular day.

Keeping and maintaining parent-teacher relationship is the first step towards progress of the child. Parents of the special child should be involved in child’s activities. All the activities that are carried out in school should be continued at home. A proper record of the child’s activities could be maintained by both, parents and the teacher, so that there is a follow-up. If the child is doing certain activity at school but is sitting idle at home, then the progress is slow. Most of the confrontations between parents and teachers result from lack of communication from school to home.

The parents can be informed about the classroom expectations for student’s behavior and work product. They can be informed about the daily schedules at school, what the management and discipline strategies used on each child and what progress has been shown by the child. It is important to keep the parent informed about the upcoming events, units and due dates. They can also be informed about the skills taught and the learning strategies used in the classrooms. This kind of information involves parents and keeps them updated about the child’s activities at school. If the parents have an email, teachers could regularly post information and keep them updated. If the child shows some unusual behavior at school, parents should be informed immediately so that problem can be detected and immediate attention could be given to child.

Interaction is very important between parents and teachers. Sometimes parents have one point of view while teacher have a different approach but to maintain a common harmony is what that determines the progress of the interaction. To create a positive interaction with the parents, it is important that teacher does not wait for the call but makes call regularly to build up the relationship. Talking in positive way, they can get the information from parents about the behavior of the child at home and his relationship with other family members, his likes and dislike, his preferences in his food habits, his relations with neighbors and all other details. The parents should also be given the liberty of communicating with the teacher when the need arises. When the parents know that the teacher has interest in their child she is likely to be more co-operative in positive discussions.

Knowing the child closely helps the teacher understand him better and this in the long run helps her in organizing the lesson plan for teaching him in the creative manner.