World Class Champions Make Us Proud

This year, our school, Swami Brahmanand Prathisthan, Center for Mentally Challenged, celebrates silver jubilee year. It is the year to mull over its’ existence, to understand the challenges faced by the institutions and to share the joys experienced at the victory achieved by students.

Parents and teachers work hard in developing the strength of a child; it is not an easy task. Every child has his own ability and his own capacity to perform, every teacher has to explore and work hard to improve that field of interest in which he/she shows capacity to improve. But fruits are sweet, especially when they bring back credentials in the form of medals and certification of recognition.

This year is special.

Four of our children were invited to participate in ‘Asia Special Olympics’ held at Newcastle, Australia, to represent our country and they came back with 2 gold, 2 silver and 2 bronze. 

Our happiness knew no bounds. We had a huge celebration to felicitate these winners. There was a special event organized whereby children were given gifts in cash and kind.

Laxmi Shetty brought back 2 gold medals for table tennis doubles.

Laxmi shetty is a very efficient student. She shows skills in every field: in handicraft, in cooking and in sports. Laxmi joined school in the year 1994 at the age of 7. She was placed in the Junior group and after going through all levels she has reached 

Vocational level at 18.

Laxmi is an all rounder. Besides sports, she also excels in art and dance. She started participating in sports competitions since 1996. She showed interest in Table Tennis and her initial training started under Mr. G.V.Shastry who is a National Level TT champion. She participated in many TT competitions from district level to National level.

Some of her achievements are:

2005- State Games- Mumbai- Gold

2005- National Games- Korba

2008- National Coaching camp

2009- National Games- Kolkata-Table Tennis Singles- Gold

2012- State Games (Soft Ball)- 1 Silver

2013- State Games-

2013-National games- Rajasthan, Singles-Gold/doubles-silver

2013- Special Olympics Asia Pacific Games 2013 at Newcastle Australia he won

TT women’s doubles-1 gold

TT mixed doubles-1 gold

In spite of various challenges in her life, her mom, Mrs. Shetty puts in lot of efforts for her daughter. Laxmi suffered ill health few days before she was to leave for Australia and had us all worried. But it was her grit and determination that helped her to succeed.

Shrilak won 1 silver for cricket at Special Olympics at Newcastle, Australia

Shrilak Bhoir is the student of our Uran center called Sweekar . Shrilok joined school at the age of 14. He has shown great progress in his work. 

He is placed in vocational group and is very sincere and motivated to work. He travels independently to school and shows interest in school activities.

His achievements are as follows:

2012- State Games (Soft Ball)- 1 Silver

2012-District Games (badminton)-

Singles- 1 Gold

Doubles- 1 Gold

2012- National Games – Bhopal (badmington)- singles-gold

Doubles- silver

Attended two coaching camps

2013- Special Olympics Asia Pacific Games 2013 at Newcastle Australia he won

1 silver in the cricket match

Yash Mhaske won I silver in 'shot put' event

Mangesh (as he is lovingly called) joined school in the year 1991 at the age of 3. Mangesh was faced with lot of perceptual deficits hampering his confidence.

With consistent training he progressed from play group through various levels till he reached the vocational level at the age of 18.

His involvement in activities like singing/dance/drama helped him improve his confidence. He showed interest in sports and started participating actively in all competitions since 1998.

Some of his achievements are:

2001- District games- 1 gold

2002- State games-1 Gold

2002- National games(delhi)- 1 gold

2005- state games- basket ball

2008- Power lifting National coaching camp

2012- District games- Mumbai- 3 gold

2012- National Games-Bhopal-1 gold/1 bronze

2013- Special Olympics Asia Pacific Games 2013 at Newcastle Australia he won 1 silver in shot put event.

After his training in the vocational section Yash is now employed by Mr. Atul Shah as a office boy in his firm Avro International.

Yash loves to be the leader , he is helpful  and very adjusting. He also participated in the self advocacy program held by Parivaar. This program made him confident and vocal.

The training given at the School along with the parents involvement and contribution has made him independent /confident and contributing member of the community.

Disha Maru won 2 bronze medals for swimming event.

Disha joined school in the year 1992  at the age of 3 years. She was unable to walk, talk and care for her self. With consistent training from school and sincere dedicated efforts of her parents she progressed from play group through different levels to the vocational level.

Besides the school activities she participated in various extra curricula activities.

Her first achievement was at the age of 7 being the youngest participant in the National Music and dance festival organized by NIMH Secundarabad she won a special prize in the solo dance in the year 1999. She was appreciated for her performance by Actor Anupam Kher.

She attended various camps which included trekking, yoga and sports.

At a very young age she started learning to swim. We still remember her fright at entering the pool during her initial stages. Our teacher Rekha,  learnt swimming just so that she could enter the pool with the children. This made a lot of difference and students started learning well. Other teachers also got themselves trained.

Some of her achievements are:

2002- National Games- 2 gold /1 bronze

2005- State Games- 3 silver

2005- National Games- 2 Gold/1 Bronze

2008- State Games- 2 silver

2009- National Games-3 Bronze

2012- District- 1 gold

2013- State level at Kolhapur- 1 gold/2 silver

2013- National Games-Karnataka-1 gold/2 silver/1 bronze

2013- Special Olympics Asia Pacific Games 2013 at Newcastle Australia she won 1 bronze in the 25m relay and 1 bronze in the 50m relay.

We need to make a special mention about the participation of her  parents . Mrs, Maru (who is also our Trustee of our school) always took lot of pains for her training and development. She would not only take Disha for competitions but would also take other students along with her.

Disha is a very loving and caring child who is adaptable. She loves to take responsibilities and lead her friends.

Neuro Linguistic Program Helps bring Change in Behavior

Its always Me, Me, Me, with our eyes closed. But if we open our eyes, there is a world beyond us and they all are seeking help.

There are people who are depressed, people who are under-privileged and then there are those who have limited ability to think. We, with a stable mind, can help them by understanding their behavior and helping them overcome the obstacles.

Mentally challenged person has multiple disabilities too. To help them, first we have to understand what is the behavior we would like to change and what is the desired behavior we want the child to follow. To get the best results it is important to join the frame mind of the child and test the waters to see what their limits are.

You can find useful information in Robert and Denis Sedlak's book "Teaching the educable Mentally Retarded"

Every child is always in the process of observing his/her surroundings and taking in the sensory information. How this information is processed determines how the child perceives his/her surroundings and behaves accordingly.

Neuro Linguistic Learning (NLL) is the new area of study that deals with human communication and the way we think and do things in essence to our mental makeup, our emotions and our senses.

Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) is a very useful tool for instilling positive behavior changes. It uses different areas of brain to create a change in a child. The core of NLP is modeling excellence of top performers as well as explaining how different people organize their thinking, feeling, language and behavior to produce the result they do.

Let me explain with an example.

Suppose you are a great fan of superstar, Salman Khan. Every movie of Salman Khan you will watch. You will observe him closely, studying his behavior, his style, his way of talking and dancing, his tone and the words used, his confidence, his body language. Then you ‘model’ the techniques you observed until they become the natural habit in your own life.

Thus the mind can be trained in the behavior we want to. It can be used for self-improvement too.

A two-day workshop on NLP is happening in Mumbai on 8-9 June 2013 and on 10-11 August at Marol Maroshi road, Andheri. Click here to register.

After the completion of this workshop you become aware of the language you use while communicating with yourself and with others.

You understand the difference in communication at the conscious and the unconscious level.

You develop the ability to perform at your best, to tap your true potential and become a powerful communicator.

You can have a better understanding of how you think, process information and help others to do the same.

You begin to understand why people do what they do and learn to respect them for what they are.

You learn to gain rapport easily with different types of people and are able to influence people for long-term changes in their life.

You learn to adopt some of new thought patterns, new thinking strategies, some of the new beliefs and which would undoubtedly be more effective in your work life.

Basically, Neuro Linguistic programming is the study and practice of techniques that use the mind-body connection and the language to alter human behavior.

You can expect to learn skills and thinking that will enhance the way you manage yourself as well as others, the way you communicate, influence, negotiate and manage change.

For more information on this subject, click here.

Watch your Etiquettes

It is difficult for parents of mentally challenged child to lead a normal life. Most of their life revolves around the activities of their child and it is a blessing if somebody offers help to baby-sit their child so that they can do some socializing.

But often it is seen that most of the people offer help out of sympathy. Many do not have proper etiquette when they are visiting a family of a mentally challenged child.

Some of them ignore the presence of such child. This makes the family very uncomfortable. The right approach would be to talk to the child, say hello or a smile to acknowledge his/her presence. The eye contact is very important which is the bridge to reach out to the child. But please don’t overdo it. The communication is just to convey that you accept his/her handicap and can understand his limitations.

Special children have no patience to wait for long at Doctor’s clinic. If you see the child having difficult time, don’t judge the parents. It is not their fault. Ask if you can help, but if you are asked to stay away, just smile encouragingly and leave.

Inappropriate behavior can manifest itself in different ways but don’t be surprised. A mentally challenged child has lower IQ and an autistic child may be playing oddly. He may grab food you are eating; he may be repeating meaningless phrases over and over again. You have to use your common sense, accept, smile and don’t be judgmental. The less self-conscious the child feels, the more likely the situation is to resolve itself. Parents know their child and they know how to react but if you interfere, you are likely to spoil the situation.

Autistic children and those with Down’s syndrome are bright, creative and thoughtful. Just accept them for who they are and love them no matter how they behave. Those who are non verbal and non-responsive also understand your moods and they will relax if they are comfortable.

If you really wish to understand these children, visit a special school in your area and spend an hour or two observing their behavior and you attitude is likely to change.

Special children are loving people and you will be surprised of the amount of happiness you are likely to bring back home with you after spending a wonderful day with them.