Sensory integration is the ability to take in information through senses

Dr.K.Govindaraju with Care-takers

"Sensory integration of intellectually challenged, simply put, is the ability to take in information through senses (touch, movement, smell, taste, vision, and hearing), to put it together with prior information, memories, and knowledge stored in the brain, and to make a meaningful response. Good sensory processing enables all the impulses to flow easily and reach their destination quickly. Sensory integrative dysfunction is a sort of `traffic jam' in the brain. Some bits of sensory information get `tied up in traffic,' and certain parts of the brain do not get the sensory information they need to do their jobs, “Said Dr.K.Govindaraju in his inaugural address of one day seminar on ‘inclusive Education’ to Special educators for disabled/ / children with special needs on Saturday in the training centre of SEVAI, Trichy .He further said that it has been estimated that at least 3% of the world's population are physically and intellectually challenged children. This could be various types of disabilities ranging from single disability to multiple disabilities. India has a large undetermined population of persons with disabilities. Dr.K.Govindaraju further enlightened the activities of a special school run by SEVAI namely ‘Arivu Sudar’ (A lamp of knowledge),  a school for  intellectually challenged and Rehabilitation has 50 children is run by SEVAI as residential School in SEVAI centre attaining the goals of indentifying  poor mentally challenged children and develop them to carry out their basic education for mainstreaming and inclusion and personal needs, train in special vocational skills so that they contribute to the family who consider them a burden.To counsel parents and provides psychological and social support and to  integrate the school children with our society. Each child is trained according to his/her abilities.  Arivu Sudar imparts such training so as to make every child self-reliant and reduce the burden for their parents to achieve this objective the curriculum includes training in toileting, grooming, eating, to provide vocational skills like tailoring, computer arts work, greeting cards etc.,There are 50 special children belonging to low income families trained by the school. The school provides academic, vocational, medical and psychological support to the children and their parents. Children are assessed based on skill and practical ability and put in three categories, Mild and Moderate. Self help skills and self-hygiene for the children are provided with a special focus; Need based training for every child, Motor activities and development, Physiotherapy for spastic children,  Language skills – speech therapy, Reading and Writing skills,  Arithmetic – Time and Money concepts,  Psycho-social intervention for parents, Parental Counseling for handling the children, Guidance and Vocational Training,  Sports and Physical excellence. The first and best step in Disability Management is the "early detection"! "Early detection" goes a long way in minimizing the level of disability in the child. This has to be done soon after any baby is born. For most children, sensory integration is a naturally-occurring ability that develops through childhood activities. But those with cerebral palsy, Dow n ’s Syndrome, autism, mental retardation and other learning disabilities need special stimulation .Room is designed to help these students improve their learning capabilities and enable them to gain better social, community, academic and motor skills.SEVAI  Sensory Integration Room, which looks like any child’s playroom, is equipped with the latest apparatus and tools for the development of special needs children.It has a platform swing, a flex disk, a bolster swing, protective mats, trampoline, bean cushions, rocking board, target panel, sensory stimulation kits and lots more. The centre was set up by experts hired by the company who are specialists in learning disability to provide 30 children at the school with innovative ways of learning to stimulate their mental growth. Some warning signs of inherent disability are : unusual colour of the baby, the delayed cry of the baby, respiratory distress; no response or delayed response to external stimuli, etc.Every week, SEVAI ARIVUSUDAR's trained personnel fan out to Hospitals, Public Health Centres and to remote villages to screen new born babies for any signs of inherent or oncoming disability. Babies with high risk signs are then given appropriate intervention - and the parents are counseled accordingly.SEVAI ARIVUSUDAR strives to train children so as to include them in mainstream schools in an integrated and inclusive setting. In keeping with our policy that parents are partners in the progress of the child with disability, several parents are involved in the center in various capacities from minor support staff to executive level staff according to their training and experience. In addition, several parent self help groups have been formed under the Tamilnadu Women's Development Corporation for the planning of the future of their children with disabilities. The teachers share in the planning, implementing, and grading of lessons. This is great for all the students, not just those that fall under the special education umbrella. The one-on-one teacher to student time is increased because there is literally an extra teacher in the classroom’. Earlier Ms.P.Chitra, Director, SEVAI presided over the seminar.Dr.Deivakumar welcomed and Dr.Banu proposed vote of thanks. Kris