Movement therapy...
Thursday, October 29, 2009

While every child with autism is a unique individual with his or her own particular personality, set of behaviors and degree of severity of delay, there is a fundamental pattern that is part of the autism spectrum. Most of the children with ASD or other childhood disabilities have movement or motor problems. Sometimes motor problems or difficulties are neglected because of other prominent problems like speech delay and social isolation.

Researches have proved that persistence of primitive reflexes and fixed motor patterns may be responsible for learning difficulties in children with ASD, ADHD and other disabilities. So, movement therapy, reflex inhibition or rhythmic movements or motor repatterning therapy can help child to learn better from his environment.

Most of us don’t know that sitting still is a tough and actually a complex brain mechanism requiring certain developmental processes in proper function. If functions are not proper, then to sit is something like sleeping. So, to be active and alert the child must move. For those children who have poor initiation or whose arousal level is too high they need movement therapy even in the class room. For example, doing an activity on the therapy ball or on the water bed.

Somebody correctly said “what we call thinking is [actually] the internalization of movement. Cognition and movement are really the same.”

Posted byNeeti at 11:46 PM 1 comments  

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Sensory awareness month
Wednesday, September 30, 2009


From the Vedic science to the modern science, Senses are given utter importance for human development. For overall development senses play an important role. We can not even think our life if we don’t have or have a disturb sense.

Senses don’t work alone. Sense organs sense the sensation or stimuli and brain turns the sensation to perception. Perception is a form of learning. Most of us have near to normal functioning of all senses in coordination. But, sometime because of known and unknown reason the process of sensory process get affected which may further leads to problems in routine life. If problem is minor and mild it can be compensated but if processing is effected on larger scale may affect our functional and occupational life.

Children with ADHD, Autism, Cerebral Palsy, speech disorder, brain injured, Down’s syndrome, dyslexia and other learning disability and neurological disorders do have mild to severe degree of sensory problems. However sometime children with normal development do have sensory issues.

Let’s make Sensory awareness month a campaign to arise awareness about sensory processing disorder among parents, teachers, community and professionals. This will not only help in creating awareness but also make us to understand our children behaviour in better fashion rather than thinking the behaviour as odd.

Sensory integration therapy looks like organised and structured play which has an objective or goal. SI activities provide the right challenge (not too difficult and not too easy) so that the child is motivated to achieve the goal.

Posted byNeeti at 4:18 PM 1 comments  

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Project report "Eye Care, I Care" at Vijaya Bharthi High School
Tuesday, September 29, 2009




It was a milestone for Sakshum to screen 1000 children for vision problems under the project “Eye Care, I Care”.


On 19th September 2009, students of the Vijaya Bharthi High School, Hyderabad from X to IV were screened for vision problems. Out of 305 children who were screened, 20 were found having vision problems. The screened children were referred to LVPEI for further evaluation and treatment.


15 volunteers actively participated in the event. One group of volunteers educated the children about the importance of eye hygiene, nutritional diet, proper light and posture during studying and prevention of corneal injury. The other group of volunteers screened the children with vision problem with E chart. The teachers were trained for screening the new admissions and rest of the children. The teachers were also counselled for maintaining the proper lights and early detection of problems in students.


The teachers and volunteers found the event useful for prevention and cure of the vision problems in children. Thanks to all the volunteers, teachers and LVPEI.

Posted byNeeti at 10:54 PM 3 comments  

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We are working...

Trying to put smile on faces we are try to do our best. please support.

in reference to: Welcome to Sakshum... Cultivating dreams (view on Google Sidewiki)

Posted byUnknown at 11:30 AM 0 comments  

Primitive reflexes and their inhibition with therapy
Sunday, September 20, 2009

Every one is born with the set of some primitive reflexes which are known for the survival of the child. These primitive reflexes help the child to protect, to assist feeding and for survival. During a developmental screening the child is checked for these primitive reflexes. Presence of primitive reflex indicates the functioning of Central Nervous System before 1 yr of development. After first year of development these reflexes should be integrated to develop more sophisticated set of reflexes called Postural reflexes. Hence the primitive reflexes form the platform for more specific and sophisticated functions like speech, intelligence and cognition.

Absence of primitive reflexes before one year or prolonged persistence indicates the problem with the nervous system or brain functioning. It not only affects the motor, speech and social functions but also affects overall learning. Inhibition of primitive reflexes leads to lateralisation of brain which as physically be seen as hand dominance, speech, interest in maths or music, writing and reading.

Some times due to some reasons the child behaves odd. Inspite of average intelligent and normal physical development he struggles to pass the exams, poor hand writing, aggressive, hyperactivity, inability to concentrate, poor listening skills, clumsy are few common features.

According to the theory of Neurodevelopment, any missed developmental sequence may develop a physical, psychological and behaviourally problem. The treatment is recapitulation, which means the child has to go through all the developmental stages which guide the normal development. Abnormal reflexes are to be inhibited with special skills and physical exercises to guide the normal development. Most common reflexes which are to be integrated, ATNR, STNR, Moro’s, Grasp reflex and TLR.

Children with Autism, Cerebral Palsy, ADHD, Developmental Delay and other behaviour and psychological like emotional unstable, poor handwriting and confusion, dyslexia and poor reading habits may need reflex inhibition therapy.

Posted byNeeti at 6:29 PM 2 comments  

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Massage for children
Friday, September 11, 2009

In India most of the children are massaged during their developmental period. Massage is not a new concept specially in Eastern and African countries. It is believed that with massage the child develop better strength, coordination and weight bearing. It is to soothe, relax and calm down the child.

Physiologically, touch is the first sense developed to the human. Gentle and loving touch is healing. Babies are known to grow poorly or fail to thrive if physical and loving touch is not sufficient. According to TRI (touch research institute) in Miami, "Every child should be massaged at bedtime on a regular basis"

Massage proved to be best for relieving stress to all of us and same for children as well. It boosts the immune system, tunes the tactile system, and at subtle level make the child daring and courageous. It elevates the mood, reduces anxiety and make children comfortable and happy.

Massage plays an important role for the children with developmental delay, sensory processing disorder, Autism, Hyperactivity, ADHD, preterm and prolonged illness. Deep pressure along with proper massage calm down the system and organize the child activity. Children with Autism and ADHD with associated hyperactivity requires lots of pressure and touch to decrease the sensitivity and improve attention span. It boosts the self esteem and reduce the fear. It improves the motor skills and regulates the sleep pattern. It helps in developing self and body image which indirectly help in organizing the child activity. However, for special purpose parents may need professional guidance for strokes and directions.

Posted byNeeti at 3:55 PM 1 comments  

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Yoga for children...
Friday, September 4, 2009


Yoga is an art, science and in broader term it is a way of living. It is not only for the adult to maintain the fitness and flexibility but it can be done for the children after 5yrs.

Generally we assume that childhood is an age for play and relaxation. A child in his childhood does not have any stress and if they are playing well they should be physically fit. But, it is not so for all children. In this competitive world the child develops a tendency of jealousy, hatredness which is another form of stress. Because of studies, sedentary life, irregular food habits and staying in nuclear family add on to mental and physical stress.

Yoga under the guidance of a qualified professional helps in developing the right personal and social conduct. Yoga asana and breathing exercises helps in gentle relaxation and develop the control of body. Yoga includes the gentle and self guided stretching and bending which helps in physical development. For children yoga is generally fun-filled group activity with slow, gentle and rhythmic movements. Physical development means toned body, development of immunity, restoring the beauty and charm. On the subtle level it helps in various body functions like circulation of blood, respiration and digestion. However, children should not be forced to do that but it is designed as a play for them with the help of yoga expert. It helps in developing the healthy regime for the tiny tots. The physical aspects and the guiding principles of yoga like yama and niyama helps in developing the moral values.

Micro yoga is quite beneficial for the children initially which helps in developing the flexibility of every joint and prevention the falls and injury. Initially the session is for short duration varying from 20 to 30 min, depending on the age. Later it can be gradually increased.

Along with the maintaining the fitness it helps in educing the childhood anxiety, fear of competition, asthma, obesity and other chronic ailments.

However Yoga for children should be practiced under a proper guidance and after proper assessment. Initially for sometime few children may need a personal attention in few of the postures and movement. It should not be tried too rigorously.

Posted byNeeti at 2:40 PM 0 comments  

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Hand Dominance... its relevance
Friday, August 28, 2009


Handedness is an attribute of humans defined by their unequal distribution of fine motor skill between the left and right hands. Some are left handed and some are right handed. However, there are 2 more types of handedness seen, Cross dominance and Ambidextrous. Cross dominance means the child uses one hand for one particular activity and other hand for other specific activity. Ambidextrous is a unique quality that a child can perform a particular skill with both the hands with equal quality. Crossed dominance and ambidextrous is not a problem every time until it affects the function.

Handedness is comprised of hardware (musculoskeletal, strength) and software (neurological), interacting to produce an efficient action. Handedness depends on neurological inhibiting of the recessive hand, so that the dominant hand can develop the precise, corrective, rapid movement without any competition from the non-dominant hand. Generally hand dominance is established at the age of 3 to 4 yrs but as late as 7 yrs. It is important to develop the hand dominance. However most of the child does develop hand dominance spontaneously at age but sometimes children with developmental delay and autism may have problem with it. Parents often have concerns that their children can write from both the hands but not sure.

To develop hand dominance it is important to know the preferred hand of child. Parents and teachers can observe the child in various functional activities. Observe child closely for preference of hand, control, strength and stability. Observe the child in unconscious and sudden or alone without interfering or biasing. It gives a better idea than intentional observation which sometimes becomes biased. Sometimes poor shoulder stability leads the child to keep on shifting the hand which gives a wrong expression of poor hand dominance.

Many activities like horizontal and vertical eight can help in finding the midline orientation and laterality. Bilateral hand activities like scissoring, hammering, tearing the paper, screwing, unliding the bottles, pick up games, lifting heavy objects, push ups and pull ups can be done. Observe the child preference and effort during movements. Once if it gives the idea of hand preferences stimulate that side with graded finger and shoulder exercise.



Posted byNeeti at 10:51 PM 0 comments  

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Reading habits...
Thursday, August 20, 2009


To develop reading habits in children with special needs is always a concern for parents. Reading habits are very important for academics. Most of the special need children have poor visual function i.e. fixation, tracking, sorting, depth perception and discrimination. Many a time poor sitting tolerance and hyperactivity make the reading habit a daunting job for the educators and parents.

Tips for developing reading habits

  • If hyperactivity is diagnosed as a sensory issue, resolve it with guidance of Early interventionist or occupational therapist.
  • Work on developing the visual functions like sorting, matching, tracking and visual discrimination etc. this can be done with lots of visual cues and visual supports.
  • Most of autistic children are visual learner, so use this strength to develop reading and matching skills.
  • Read lots of story books, depending upon the age and child understanding level, the books can be selected. This not only creates the interest in child but also helps in improving further the visual memory. Repeat the story of the child favourite character and then keep on adding the new concept. For e.g. if the child likes “POOH”, create a story with some more pictures to teach the social skills and other functional activities.
  • Be patient as it may require lot of time and efforts. If you are patient the child tend to calm down easily and that further helps you and your objectives.
  • Bed time is best time for some children as they are calmer during that time.
  • Always remember every child learns with difference pace as every child is special 

Posted byNeeti at 3:32 PM 0 comments  

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Fine Motor Control
Thursday, August 13, 2009


Most of the children with developmental delay (including CP, Autism, ADHD, poor attention, SPD, Down Syndrome) have poor fine motor function. For parents and children it is major concern as it affects the child overall performance varying from play, academics, writing and activities of daily living (ADL). Fine motor development is essentially associated with the hand function or in other words fine movements. But, it is not only the hands which are responsible for the effective fine movements. The other gross motor aspects like shoulder movement and shoulder stability, back mobility and back strength are equally important. It has been seen that parents and even professionals tend to forget the gross motor aspect.

Whenever there is poor fine motor control, the therapy plan should start from the shoulder and back stability exercise. This other way helps in better posture, core stability and better functioning of fine motor control.

Use of therapy ball, full range of shoulder movements (extension, flexion, rotation and circumduction) should be designed and practiced in the form of functional activities like drawing a big circle on wall or on floor in clockwise and anticlockwise direction, stair climbing etc. Various asanas like bhujanasan, tadasan, sarpasan should be practiced if the child understands the commands and above 8 yrs. Younger ones should practice under proper professional guidance. Asans in whole help in developing core stability, flexibility and relaxation

Fine motor activities like tearing the paper, crumbling the big sheet of newspaper, pegs activities, screwing and unscrewing movements, scissoring activities, pasting and folding, balancing, play dough activities, movements with the elastic bands in fingers, art and craft activites with different textures materials, strengthening of various grips and grasps (palmer, pincer, cylindrical, spherical, diagonal volar grasp and tip to tip grasps) etc.

Sometimes poor hand functions are associated with poor visual information process or poor visual perception. Activities should also includes eye hand coordination and midline and laterality orientation. other aspects like fixation, tracking and discrimation

Posted byNeeti at 11:37 PM 0 comments  

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One year of smiles!!!
Monday, June 15, 2009

So, happy to share that Sakshum has completed one year of its Child Education sponsorship project last month. Sakshum started sponsoring 3 children of a physically challenged roadside sketcher last year.

The information can be found at this link. All these children passed with good marks and we decided to continue to support them for this new academic session as well.

This year we are planning to sponsor one more children and will soon update on that.

Please reply us at info at sakshum dot com or look at contact us page at www.sakshum.com if you want to contribute for this program by paying the educational expenses of one or more children fully or some part.

Posted byUnknown at 6:15 PM 0 comments  

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Tree Plantation drive
Monday, June 8, 2009

“The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The next best time is now. ~Chinese Proverb”

Sakshum has celebrated its 1st birth day on 7th June 2009, with tree plantation in a Mandal Parishad School, Siddique Nagar, Kondapur, Hyderabad. According to the founders “we should celebrate our occasion by planting the trees”. The idea was to plant trees and inculcates the planting habit among the school children. The volunteers had given the orientation to the students about the importance of plants, their protection and uses.

GHMC (Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation) is running mass initiatives to promote greenery in Hyderabad for last 1 year. GHMC is working with a many NGOs, and other organizations for plantation in and around the city. In the drive volunteers had dug the holes and planted the trees. They involved the students and teachers as well. The students were divided into the batches and a tree was allotted to every batch. The students along with the teachers had taken the responsibility for maintenance of trees. The students were told to submit a monthly report on their trees; this would help in active participation from the students. School children were very excited to participate in the plantation drive. They all cleaned the land and watered the plants with the volunteers. They were happy to see first few trees and plants in their school compound.

According to a volunteer, “Working as a corporate employee, we spend most of the time in the offices; we do regret and feel bad when we see a cut trees or people talking about global warming. Today planting a tree gives me an immense satisfaction”.

Thanks to all volunteers, students and teacher for their efforts and special thanks to Mr. Salman and Mrs. Vijaya for sponsoring the event.

Posted byNeeti at 1:11 PM 0 comments  

Happy birthday Sakshum
Tuesday, June 2, 2009


Sakshum is 1 :)

A ‘Birthday’ is just the first day of another 365-day journey to achieve a new destination. Enjoy the trip!!!

When a child is born he is helpless. Neither he can walk nor can he talk. He is totally in a new world of love, surprises, failure, success, achievements and appreciation. As he grows he achieves his milestones with great effort, practice and help. By the age of 1, he can express, can make his presence loud and struggles to achieve further milestones. During this first year he lays a foundation for his entire life and this progress makes his first birthday special.

“Growing old is mandatory; growing up is optional. ~Chili Davis”

Sakshum(http://www.sakshum.com) in Hindi means “being capable. With the idea of bringing a change in life of people with special needs, a year back Sakshum was born.”. It was a new world for all of us. Fortunately, we had a team of 5 members who were dedicated and still working for Sakshum. Initially, it was hard for us to streamline ourselves as we wanted to achieve things fast. We were unorganised. But, pursuance helped us to move ahead. Few professionals, mentors and CSIM streamlined our ideas and helped to turn in action.

Today after a year, Sakshum(http://www.sakshum.com) has achieved few milestones. Sakshum is running 4 active projects and 1 is under pipeline. 4 projects are:
  1. Eye care I care: this project focuses on screening school children with vision problems and creating awareness about healthy vision. The screened children with vision problems are provided with spectacles and required treatment. In past 3 months 522 children are being screened in various schools and 59 children are being provided with treatment.
  2. Eye Donation Awareness: In association with EBAI (Eye Bank Association of India) Sakshum(http://www.sakshum.com) is promoting eye donation to reduce the corneal blindness. Till now 250 people have pledge for their eyes. You can pledge your eyes here
  3. Sponsor a child education: Sakshum continues to support the children who can’t study because of poor financial background. Sakshum is sponsoring 3 children education. You can sponsor a child here
  4. Creating awareness about prevention of disability among children: Sakshum(http://www.sakshum.com) actively participates in creating awareness in govt hospital and community during prenatal screening. Sakshum volunteers conduct lectures for parents who have children with special needs for parenting tips. Sakshum maintains a blog(http://sakshum.blogspot.com) and forum(http://forums.sakshum.in) which shares information about disability, and various other treatments available.

Other project is to establish a holistic, Trans-disciplinary and specialised centre for children with special needs and “At risk”. Sakshum(http://www.sakshum.com) envisions enabling every child with special needs to develop to his full potential. This project is still in pipeline.

On the sakshum 1st birthday volunteers are planning to plant 50 trees in a school campus which is a gift for our young generation. Plantation will be done with the children to inculcate the habit of plantation and healthy environment. Sakshum(http://www.sakshum.com) efforts have been appreciated by many people whose lives are changed with the help of sakshum.

Sakshum(http://www.sakshum.com) wants to extend this opportunity to thank all the volunteers and other subscribers and appreciators whose sincere efforts could bring a change for the better world.

Posted byNeeti at 9:00 PM 0 comments  

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Project Eye Care I Care event report from Parvath nagar school
Wednesday, April 22, 2009


On 18th April 2009, with collaboration of Sakshum another event of the project 'Eye Care I Care' was successfully completed at Parvath nagar school, madhapur Hyderabad. There were 10 volunteers who screened 117 children in this govt school. Mr. Veeru from LV Prasad Eye hospital helped in detailed assessment and referral to LVPEI for further diagnosis.
Out of 117 children 7 were found with vision problems varying from visual defect, refractive error and cognitive challenged. The child with visual defect
was directly referred to LVPEI for vision rehabilitation and for disability concession and certificate.

Volunteers found this activity an important event as early detection and treatment can improve the vision and academic learning.
As a matter of fact Sakshum has screened close to 600 children so far and found 58 children with vision problems. Beacuse of dedicated volunteer efforts in this project we have been able to direct these children for proper diagnosis and treatment for a better future.

Please continue to support us....

Posted byUnknown at 12:06 PM 0 comments  

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World Autism Awareness Day
Wednesday, April 15, 2009

On 2nd April 2009, thrusday, Niloufer Hospital for Women and Children, Lakdi ka Pool, celebrated World Autism Awareness Day (WAAD). On the occasion of WAAD, an interaction session among parents and professionals was arranged. Dr Usha gave an inaugural speech and Dr Kalaknatha discussed about the dietary management for the children with Autism.

Dr Neeti took a detailed session on Sensory Integration and use of home activities for sensory issues. Most common problems, like oro motor dysfunction and sensitivity, hyperactivity and attention deficit. Parents asked lots of question regarding the sensory issues and behaviour problems. Some parents shared their experiences for various skills development which could be beneficial for other. One parent discussed the success story of his child who is now mainstreamed in regular school after continuous dedicated efforts for 3 years.

At the end of the programme, a checklist for early signs designed by Department of Child Psychiatry, headed by Dr Usha Naik, was distributed to various other hospital’s Paediatrician, Neurologist and Physicians so that the child is detected at earliest and refer for Early intervention.

These kind of team work and collaborative efforts definitely upgrade the detection of Autism at earliest and helps in social integration.

Posted byNeeti at 12:06 PM 0 comments  

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An appeal from Sakshum
Monday, March 23, 2009


Dear all,



Summer 2009 is in fulll swing , most of the lakes, ponds are showing up the dried earth now. We have our eyebrows raised about stocks of water for our sundry daily uses leave apart for drinking purposes. But have we thought about drinking water availability for birds ?
Newspapers are glut with figures of dying birds due to thirst. That is good enough reason for us to give a thought to this menace for this cute and quiet fraternity.
Request you all to start putting up a small clean pot of water on their terrace at the most visible and cool corner and clean and fill it daily. Sakshum's volunteer Vinay Jain is already practicing this since last couple of days and have personally seen birds sitting on the pot to satiate their thirst..
By watch it's going to cost you 3 minutes but believe me it can save 3 lives...So make your minutes invaluable.. ...

Be Good and make others Good....

Posted byUnknown at 9:06 PM 4 comments  

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Managing a Hyperactive child
Sunday, March 8, 2009


Most of the children with Autism, Learning Disability and ADHD have some or other sensory issues varying from vestibular system to tactile to even oro motor system. Problem with sensory process and modulation results in various clinical outcomes. These symptoms include hyperactivity, attention deficit, poor understanding of verbal cues, preoccupation and poor sitting tolerance and so on. If the sensory issues are not managed they hamper the child learning process. Sensory diet works for the children who are hyperactive, tactile defensive, poor vision coordination, and other sensory issues. The child should be received with sensory information in structured way.

The plan should be designed with the assistance of Early interventionist or Occupational therapist. The children under 3 should get consultation with Early interventionist. The treatment plan includes:
 Physical play like hopping, jumping, running or chasing games, swinging and swimming for the older children.
 Tactile play with sand, paints, water, shaving form or froth and with textured toys
 Symbolic play
 Oro motor strengthening exercise like blowing, sipping smoothes, hard sucking, chewing etc
 Vibration and deep pressure are calming and relaxing
 Hand aerobics for hand fidgety and to reduce preoccupation

Divide the activities and schedule the child’s day according to the child’s need. Before any sitting work, provide for compressions and physical activities. this way the child will be more attentive and learn better.

Posted byNeeti at 10:56 PM 0 comments  

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Oral Sensitivity....handle with care
Thursday, February 26, 2009

Mouth is one of the sensitive parts of our body. According to Freud, the child learns a lot from his mouth or oral area till 1 year of his age. This is called oral stage. A child till 1 year takes most of the objects into his mouth and discover about it. They are just not playing; also they are learning to prepare themselves for more demand put during chewing and speech. Freud even mentioned that few of the psychological or behaviour problems are due fixation or under exploration during oral stage.

Few children have oral issues. These issues could be because of hypersensitivity or hyposensitivity of mouth or oral areas. . Oral hypersensitivity is defined as an "excessive or adverse reaction to oral stimulation" (Fraser, Hensinger, and Phelps, 1990). In many children there are no specific causes but the children with tube feeding in early days or direct stomach feed often have oral sensitivity. Children with Autism, cerebral Palsy, Down syndrome’s or other developmental delays do have some tactile and oral sensitivity. These children suffers with feeding problem, poor face and mouth hygiene, brushing problems and do have difficulties in speech and communication.

Parents are mostly worried as child denies or does not participate in feeding, brushing or likes a particular type of food, and utensils etc. some times the situation becomes more problematic when child become aversive of oral stimulation and vomits out or become aggressive. It has been seen that children with oral sensitivities do have other tactile sensitivity like excessive ticklish, under/over sensitive to pain, drooling or other body part sensitivities.

 Never give a sudden touch as it increases the arousal level and child becomes more uncomfortable. Always tells the child about the steps you want to perform on the child. Music like ringing a plate attached to the spoon and tell "Here comes the food", or visually placing the food on a bright colored plate and tell him open your mouth “aaaaaaa”
 Slowly desensitise the child for different textured, temperature and taste of the food.
 Make the activity more playful, and start touching the hand, back, head and slowly moves to the mouth
 During the other activities like grooming and bathing etc let him to touch you or vice and versa. Use of different types of toys is also recommended.
 If the child is very young or less than 8 months encourage thumb sucking, foot mouth play and other clean toys.
 Wash or wipe the child face repetitively with warm cloth, this is relaxing
 Deep pressure before feeding, brushing and other times of the day to desensitise the oral sensitivity.
 Work on the oral movement like licking, blowing, sipping, spitting, tongue movements inside the mouth and outside as well.
 Some children do respond well to vibratory brush or massager.
 Encourage the child to reciprocate the game which involves touch to various parts with rhymes or songs
 Take a help of an Early interventionist or Speech therapist for feeding problems



Posted byNeeti at 10:10 AM 0 comments  

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Integrated and Scheduled Play for Autistic Children
Friday, February 20, 2009

In recent research it has been found that a children with Autism show improvement in his all developmental areas like Speech and communication, social interaction and behaviour if they are provided the Scheduled and Integrated play. Integrated and Structured play are the kind of intervention target to develop and promote social and communication skills. Structured play group children show more positive effects than the controlled group where the children were not provided integrated play sessions.

Despite of number of opportunities or children for play, the children with Autism or with Social difficulties do not naturally play, pretend, participate and coordinate in social activities with other children. Problems conveying and interpreting social-communication cues make it difficult to join peers in play. Because of both communication and social problems the child tends to withdraw himself from the group and enjoys to play of his own. Many children spend their precious time alone, preoccupation with some material or in pursuing repetitive and rigid activities. Without appropriate intervention, they are at high risk for being excluded from their other peer groups and leading impoverished play

The Integrated Play or Structured Play groups are designed to support children with social and play difficulty. Play groups can be arranged at home, school or other community parts or societies. Initially the parents may need a professional help of Early interventionist or Play therpaist who can guide the play as facilitator (play guide). Children meet regularly in small groups with a theme play. Each group is customized as a part of a child’s individual education / therapy program. Through a costumized system of support, emphasis is placed on maximizing children’s developmental potential as well as intrinsic desire to play, socialize and form meaningful relationships with society.

This not only helps the children with Autism but also sensitise the community about their difficulties and hence helps in social inclusion. An equally important focus is on teaching the peer group to be responsive, accepting and inclusive of children who relate and play in different ways.

Posted byNeeti at 7:57 PM 4 comments  

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Learning Disability
Thursday, February 12, 2009


Children with learning disability, the most common of the psychiatric disorders that appear in childhood, are often the subject of great concern on the part of parents and teachers. It is estimated 5-6 % of school children have learning disability. ADHD sometimes associated with conduct disorder, behaviour problem, emotional instability, and drug abuse.

Learning disability it is not a single problem rather it is combination of multiple problems. Attention deficit, un coordination, poor balance and clumsy, poor friendship, self activity and poor academic performance etc are common problems.
Learning disability may overlap to mental retardation. Generally, a LD child, the intelligence scores in average limits. He can talk properly and sensibly but can perform good in academics. Some signs of learning disabilities present themselves in early childhood which is beneficial because the earlier a problem is recognized, the sooner an intervention can be made, allowing for a better prognosis. Like poor walking, left right confusion in wearing shoes, delay in speech, difficulty in writing and shoe lacing etc

Learning disability could be of different kind like mathematics, writing, reading, motor dyspraxia and poor speech and language coordination.

Various theories for the causes of the Learning Disability have been explained. Theories vary from the brain damage during birth, sensory problem to environmental and family issues. Sometimes, they may be an obvious cause but sometime it is not. Most of the children with learning disability don’t have physical problem so it sometimes take more time to get proper diagnosis and treatment. The problem is problem in different perception and interpretation of codes

As a part of treatment, learning disability response well to multi mode approach including medications, therapy and child and family counselling. Relaxation and physical training is also beneficial.

Apart from the medications it needs a plan therapy if various areas:

  1.  Give lots of visual inputs with enlarged view of objects in various colours and let the child to do in big sizes on the chart papers, on sand or on wall.
  2.  Improve eye hand coordination
  3.  Teach the left and right concept
  4.  Give small, clear and loud commands which are easy to comprehend
  5.  Work on discrimation skills like sorting the objects and phonics and alphabets for younger kids
  6.  Be gentle and patient
  7.  Work on sensory systems and their development (may need a specialist consultation)
  8.  Improve physical movements for better coordination and balance.
  9.  Since the child have poor attention so start working on the objects which child like, initially start the session for short duration and then increase gradually.
  10.  Find the child preference in learning ie auditory, visual or kinaesthetic and work accordingly.

Posted byNeeti at 9:38 PM 1 comments  

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Eye Screening Event
Sunday, February 8, 2009


On 7th Feb, Sakshum volunteers with collaboration of LV Prasad Eye Institute conducted the Eye Screening event in St Issac School, Hafeez pet near Kondapur. This event was under the project “Eye Care, I Care”. During the event, the children from the classes IInd to VIIIth were screened. 232 children were screened and 18 children were being identified with some kind of vision problems. Those identified children would be referred to the LVPEI for their further evaluation and treatment. Free spectacles would be provided for the children with vision problems.The children were also counselled about the healthy practices for vision. The nutritional importance of Vitamin A, Good reading habits and Eye Care was taught to children. Chocolates were distributed among children.Mrs Seema, Murli, SP Murli, Ashish, Vivek, Neeti, Mohaan and Kirthiga were the volunteers from Sakshum and Mr Veeru from LVP Eye Institute. Seema, Murli, S P Murli, Ashish, Mohaan and Kirthiga performed screening with Mr Veeru. Neeti took the charge for Healthy practices and Nutritional counselling and Mr Vivek arranged logistic.

Posted byNeeti at 3:06 PM 1 comments  

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Play... A Platform For Learning
Sunday, February 1, 2009

Play is an integral part of child development. During first few years of child age, he spends most of his time in playing and learns through it. It is the child’s work and he enjoys it because it is fun. Play is a way for interacting yourself and with environment. Toys are the aids or props to assist the play. Play may or may not require toys.

There are different developmental stages for the play but most important is that the child should enjoy it and learn from it. Play provides the platform for developing the other milestone of development. It helps in improving communication, social skills like turn taking and sharing, physical and fine motor development, cognition and emotion. Other important skills like joint attention, competitiveness, leadership and team building.

Play is the spontaneous activity which most of the child learn by themselves, but for transition it into skill it may need guidance or skill training. Play becomes different for the child with developmental delays. It becomes ritualistic, repetitive, non spontaneous, purposeless and rigid.

Most of the Children with Autism have problems with play. They have problem because they have difficulty in imagination, joint attention, fine motor, understanding the language, or sensory problems.

Play therapy is the specialized area where the play is taught as per the child ability. To make some children to learn play may need early interventionist or occupational therapy assistance but for some parents themselves can work. It may need patient and creative ideas from parents. Professionals can help you to make the process easy as they helps in treating the child issues like the sensory problems or fine motor problems. Professionals also guide about the required play for the child. Various types of play are Physical play, Water play, Sand Play, fine motor play and pretend play


Tips for the parents:

1. Keep the session short initially and then increase the time.
2. Be patient and gentle
3. Start up with simple toys and then go next level.
4. Buy the toys by seeing the purpose rather than the price tag
5. Start up with the activity or play which the child like and then add one more similar activity with different purpose
6. Play should also be purposeful
7. Give the child to explore and imagine, wait for the child’ anticipation
8. Never dominate the play, start up as assistant and then after building rapport with the child.
9. Add music or rhyme in the play session
10. Always end the session with a good note or the activity which child enjoys

Posted byNeeti at 3:01 PM 2 comments  

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