SAMAGRA Monthly Report for August 2009

School Name	Total Children	No. of sessions	Average
Herbertpur School	6	1	6
Udiyabaag School	7	1	7
Lal Bahadur School	9	1	9
Sadhana kendar School	31	2	16
Total	53	5	11

Speech Support Group:
Support group meetings were conducted 5 times. Average attendance= 7-8

Clinical Input-
Raghav was given speech therapy 6 times. (Misarticulation)

Abhishek was given speech therapy 3 times. (Misarticulation)

Manthan was given speech therapy 2 times. (Delayed speech)

Ishu was given speech therapy 8 times. (Autism)

Ajay was given speech therapy 2 times. (Stammer)

Rupesh was given speech therapy 2 times. (Stammer)

Parents’ counseling. (Lucky C.P. from Jassowala)

Aman, Anand, Shubham and Raja was given speech therapy one time. (Stammer)

Karan was given speech therapy 3 times. (Stammer)

Parents counseling. (Soni M.R. from Babugarh)

Abhay was given speech therapy 5 times.(Mis-Articulation)

Manoj was given therapy 6 times.(Mental Retardation)

Shubhash was given therapy 3 times.(Mental Raetardation)

Visits:

1^st August screening Lal Bahadur School. Samagra team with Dr.Joyce .(PWS, hearing and eye check)

15^th August visit Dhaulatappar Gujjar village with Dr.Joyce and her family.

20^th August visit Anugrah center with Manpreet and Jai Prakash interaction with special children.

21^st August visit Lehman hospital Manpreet and Jai Prakash for interview with patient.

24^th August Vijay went to Dehradun Chartered Account (C.A.)

25^th August Vijay went to NIVH for bring hearing aid.

28^th August revisit Udiyababag village.

30^th August Sachin went to Parivar institute in Deharadun.(a meeting about Autism children)

31^st August Paramanand went to C.A. in Deharadun.

Others :
Yoga and Meditation class continuous during this month.

2^nd August Dr.Pradeep visited to Samagra.

5^th August Dr.Pradeep visited to Samagra

8^th August given presentation by Mellisa and Katie (Canadian student) about Johari window and Participant observation.

11^th August Dr.Joyce and her family went to Sikh temple Paonta .

15^th August Dr.Joyce and her family go back to Canada.

16^th August Manpreet came from Jammu Kashmir for one week residential stammering speech therapy.

18^th August presentation given by Paramanad, Manpreet and Jai Prakash.

19^th August interaction and interview (about stammering) Manpreet, Jai Prakash, Paramanand with some local man in Atanbag village.

23^rd August Anil went to his home Kerala for 20 days.

Weekly SHG meet

14 members were present for the weekly self help group meet on August 30th, 2009 at Samgra Ahsram. We started with a round of introductions and moved on to imprompt speech, where everybody spoke for around 5 minutes. This activity takes out all the fears of public speaking beacause you need to stand up in-front of an audience and speak ( or you can remain silent too!). After this, we played musical chair, which Amanuddin won.Next came discussion round, where discussed the topic "If god came and asked youto trade your stammering for any other disability, what would that be ? or would you want to keep your stammer?" We had an interesting discussion where we discussed which one is better, stammer or dumbness? And assignment for this week would be to talk to a dumb person and get their perspective on the same. We concluded with feedback session and recollection of what all we have learned during the meet. We all are eagerly waiting for the findings from this week's assignment.

Group Therapy to school kids

Vijay, Parmanand and me (J.P.) went to Lal Bahadur Shastri school (Herbetpur, Dehradun) yesterday, to conduct group speech therapy session for school children. We started with "Stuttering Award" activity, where kids were competing for various awards like longest stutter award, loudest stutter award, best singing stutter award etc. The basic idea was to desensitize children towards their stutter, to promote frienship among kids and us, and to introduce them to various ways to stutter easily. Vijay was a bit apprehensive about doing this activity, as some of the kids may think that they have come here for treatment and not to stutter more, but to all of us it came as a surprise when one of the kid. during feedback session, told that he liked this activity the most! (We also participated but didn't manage to win any awards. Surely I could have won "the ugliest stutter award", if one was there! :)) This was in sharp contrast with what I observed in Pune Self Help Group (SHG) where all the participants were adults and some of them were not comfortable with voluntary stuttering. Next activity was to put down all your creativity on a piece of paper - Painting Competition. we should have also participated in this and we will make sure we do from next time. The kids spoke a few sentences about their painting. We concluded with a feedback session. The kids were not really open, when we asked what they didn't like during the session. Probably they will take their time to open up and see us as as their friends.

Visit to Udiyabag village

We (J.P. and Parmanand) went to Udiyabag for follow-up & evaluation of the various support programs run by Samagra.Also on our agenda was to look for people with speech, hearing & vision impairments. We did found 2 individuals with speech and hearing impairments each. Also we found that both the ladies who were provided free hearing aids, were not using them regularly and so better follow up is required from our side. Also this was eye opener for me, when I found that one family of 4 was living on a daily sum of Rs 65. Also this was an opportunity for us to work on our individual speech. I did feel that I have miles to go, as I was still feeling the time pressure & sometimes was trying to rush through my sentences.

Speech Therapy in real life situations

I took Vineet to a few shops and then to a group of villagers, for him to practice bouncing. Initially he was a bit hesitant to bounce openly but with time he opended up and by the end of our assignment, he was bouncing with great ease and calmness! We concluded with a feedback session.

P.S. - After this, Sachin gave me some tips, on how to be a good counselor.

Last 5 days

22 August : Manpreet went for a mock interview. Ishu, a case of autism was given therapy.
23 August: Weekly Self Help group meeting for people who stammer ( SHG meet )
24 August: Manoj and Subhash, both cases of mental retardation were given theraphy.Abhay was also given therapy for misarticulation.
25 August: J.P. and Vijay went to Sadhna Kendra Ashram to give speech therapy to school children who stammer. Manoj, Subhash, Ajay and Anand were given thraphy at Samagra.
26 August: Raghav was given speech theraphy.

Winter cometh

Monsoons are receding. Water logged fields are a thing of past now. There is a hint of winter in the air. Humidity can still be high at noon. But certainly better weather is ahead. Manpreet was here for a seven day intensive. We feel that there is a scope for McGuire kind of program- but its mechanics and economics have to be worked out..
The girl in the second picture is suffering from mis-articulation. That is why she does not go to school. No one understands what she is saying. Proper guidance and use of a mirror- can and did do miracles.

From the battle field!!

To read this blog please go to http://t-tisa.blogspot.com/2009/08/from-battle-field.html

Visit to Anugrah Intervention Center

Manpreet, Vijay and J.P. went to Anugrah this morning. We as people who stammer always believe the there can be nothing worse than stammer but today we saw that there are lot of other people who are dealing with many severe difficulties and in some cases even worse than stammering .JP and Manpreet were asked to observe an autistic kid and give a presentation to some of the employees in Anugrah. After the presentation, a physcologist gave feedback to them. We learned that its important to involve family in theraphy, which stands true for stammering too. In the evening we watched a movie on stammering where a young girl even though she stammers, gives a speech at her school. We also practised bouncing & prolongation.

Focus Group Discussion

Parmanand, Manpreet, JP and Sachin went out to conduct a focus group discussion with people in Eatenbagh on stammering. It was really an experience to talk to a group of people about stammer. As a good reporter, we all had our questions ready & people opened up after a few questions (some even invited us every morning to join them in there meetings). We were amazed when we came to know that people are concerned with what we have to say and not the way we say it. After thi,s Manpreet & Paramanand went out to interview some more people. We came back & reviewed ouselves using the vedio recording. During the evening we practised fast bouncing using the story of Sholay, where each one of us had to add a few lines & keep the story moving forward, while bouncing at good pace.

CALMS Model for speech Theraphy

Sachin introduced us to CALMS model as a tool for speech therapy. Its an approach where you are not just taking care of the external, obvious speech blocks but also various other factors like emotions, social skills etc. which makes result long lasting.
Please refer to http://www.mnsu.edu/comdis/isad8/papers/kaufman8.html for more details.

Session on Presentation Skills

We organised a session on presentation skills. JP, Manpreet and Parmanand gave a presentation on SHG, AJAX and Tally respectively. The participants were also given feedback on the basis of four parameters - Content, Communication, Body language & Use of audio/Visual tools. The whole activity was video recorded, so that the participants can review themselves. Sachin shared some good practices while giving a presentation.

Speech Support Group has fun!

The Weekly meeting of Dehradun Self Help Group was attended by 10 people. We started with a round of introductions where we had to bounce on our name. The next activity was a role play where we enacted a railway platform scene and boy!, we have got some really great talent in our SHG. Then we had to add our thoughts & creativity to continue a story with full use of our imagination. Ms. Jain (she doesn't stammer & is a volunteer) was bouncing so well that some of our experts couldn't match her. There was also one more young lady who asked for suggestions from group members on what she can do if she meets any one with a stammer and the group gave her some really good ideas like not to complete the sentences, try not to laugh, maintain eye contact etc.. We also had Manpreet from Jammu with us. He has come to Samagra for speech therapy.

गाँव विजिट

डा.जोयस व् उनकी फेमिली गाँव की एक दाई से इंटरव्यू करते इस चित्र में |

Independence Day

“We are inaugurating TISA website on
15th august, The independence day, at 8 am, by requesting a senior
IPWS (Indian person who stammers) and a HR consultant, to share his
thoughts on true meaning of Independence of speech. You are welcome to
visit the website on 15th at 8 am, to read this write up – and then
chat with him thereafter.. and tell us what more would you like to see
on this website.
We will request the SHGs in Chennai, Pune, Mumbai, Surat, Delhi and
Dehradun to write to the local media about the inauguration of our
TISA website - stammer.in
We also request you to visit the website with your friends and family
members and give us feedback. You may do so by logging into the forum
or using the "contact us" form.
We also request you to phone at least three IPWS that day and tell
them about this website.
Finally we request you to tell us the local name / word for
stammering. We are developing a list of such words and put them in a
scrolling banner on the website- to promote general people's awareness
about a problem which affects 10 million Indians."

I M Possible!!!

We (Sachin, Joyce, Ric, Melissa, Katie, Vijay, Rupesh, JP) went for trekking to Balaraj temple situated at a height of 7066 ft. Even though at one point of time, it felt like an impossible task, we all did it (with lots of struggle, jokes and fun).It made us realise as human beings we can achieve anything if we are persistent enough and have hope & patience.

School visit

The Zazaulaks went to see Asokan edict at Kalsi. It is one of the 35 or so found so far by the archeologists- and indicates the extent of Asokan empire in 2nd century BC. JP translated and interpreted for them. Check this link for more information:
http://www.cs.colostate.edu/~malaiya/ashoka.html
Next day, the group went Herbertpur Govt primary school and conducted some fun sessions with children. Mrs Jain also helped in the activity. Melissa and Katie had lot of fun and a chance to observe how children behave in and out of class, in a group and individually, in presence of familiar persons and foreign guests. Parmanand and Vijay faciliateted the session. Some of these children were children with special needs (speech, hearing, locomotion).

Time to give back!

Zazoulaks gave Samagra team a variety of presentations today. Joyce and Melissa presented Jo-hari window through an interactive exercise. Jo-hari window is a tool to develop better understanding of oneself and to ellicit the differences in our and people's perception about our selves. A systematic way of getting feedback and enlarging understanding of our "self". A good tool, if you can take care of your "ego"!
Next, Katie discussed "participant observation" - a tool used by anthropologists to discover inner meaning of an observed behaviour. This can be used quite meaningfully with young children, facing speech and other issues. It needs a lot of empathy, cultural sensitivity, discretion and preparation.
Rick, finally demonstarted his skill with line, shape, depth- by sketching Vijay and JP live. He also explained how, an artist's mind works: how it latches on to the most obvious ("obvious" to him) feature in a portrait and build on that- synthesizing, what is seen by eye with what is known to brain 'anatomically'. JP and Vijay still have to pay him five dollars each!

Udiyabag school: Kho-kho time

First Pic: Melissa conducting an interactive session on Johari window.
Second Pic: Melissa communicating with a child who stammers (CWS). CWS can be very shy and pose serious challenge, if you wish to talk to them. But it is possible to break the barrier using a game or a collaborative activity CREATIVELY. Here the child is explaining to Melissa how the table cricket is played.
second and third pic: The group went to Udiyabag primary school, interacted with children, learned some indian games - like Kho-kho.

स्कूल विजिट

समग्र आश्रम की टीम बाबा भूमन शाह विद्या मन्दिर साधना केन्द्र आश्रम दुमेट के स्कूल में ग्रुप स्पीच थिरेपी का एक दृश्य |तथा दूसरे चित्र में ग्रुप थिरेपी के पहले ध्यान का एक दृश्य |
JP , a volunteer, from Infosys, is seen in the second picture. He is learning how to help children deal with stammering- through group therapy sessions, play and other activities. Since, stammering is a problem of social communication, group approaches give the best results.

Samagra's Monthly Report for July 2009

School Name	Total Children	No. of Session	Average
Prathmik School Udiyabag	4	1	4
Lal Bahadur School Harbartpur	10	1	10
Sadhana Kendra School Dumet	15	1	15
Total	29	3	9.6

Speech Support Group:
Support group meeting conducted 4 times. Average attendance per meet= 10

Clinical Input:
Surendra was given speech therapy 8 times.(Stammer)

Amandung was given speech therapy 2 times.(Stammer)

Ishu was given therapy 12 times.(Delayed speech and language with Autistic feature)

Rabbi was given speech therapy one time.(Mis-articulation)

Vikash was given speech therapy 3 times.(Mis-articulation)

Manoj was given therapy 2 times.(Mental Retardation)

Rijwan was given speech therapy 2 times.(Stammer)

Virendra was given speech therapy 2 times.(Stammer)

Ankush was given speech therapy one times.(Delayed speech language with hearing impairment)

Raghav was given speech therapy 7 times.(Mis-articulation)

Lakshay was given speech therapy 2 times.(Stammer)

Abhishek was given speech therapy 5 times.(Stammer)

Shubham was given speech therapy 2 times.(stammer)

Visits:
7^th July - Visit to Sadhana Kendra Ashram.

15^th July - Vijay's visit to NIVH ( National institute for the visually handicapped) for bring a one hearing aid.

22^nd July - Anil visit to NIVH for bring a one hearing aid.

23^rd July – Visit to Sharp memorial admission for Kamani and Kanchan.(visually handicapped)

Others :
Daily Yoga classes.

1^st July - Sachin went to Pune to conduct a two day session on stammering.

12^th July - Rupesh came from Pounta ( Himachal Pradesh) for 20 days residential speech therapy program.

15^th July - Started sub center of Samagra at Premnagar in Dehradun.

21^st July - Ms. Rishu Jain joined Samagra as a volunteer .

30^th July - Jai Prakash Sunda came from Pune as a volunteer to work in Samagra Ashram.

31^st July - Dr. Joyce and her family came from Canada.

Screening in LBS school, Herbertpur

I am finally here in Samagra. My new home for next six months.We went to Lal Bhadur Shastri Shiksha Niketan School to check kids' hearing, eye seight & speech. Joyce was in charge of testing eyes, Vijay for hearing and JP for speech. While Katy & Melissa were interacting with teachers & students, Richard was busy taking photographs. Out of 120 kids that we screened , there were two kids with weak eye sight, 15 with some kind of speech difficulties, a few kids with wax in their ears and one kid with down syndrome. I felt good for being of any help to the kids & also amazed by the expertise that Vijay has in dealing with young kids. I am really excited about more such trips in future. (JP)
(Ed: JP is a software engineer from Infosys, Pune- on a sabbatical with Samagra. He is teaching us IT skills and learning how to work with children facing 'communication issues'. This is the first post from him. Richard, Joyce, Melissa and Katie are a Canadian family visiting Samagra.)