Hi, I am Vandita Uniyal. I am a student of M.A [Hindi} from D.A.V. College. I am doing a part time job as a cooking instructor in Latika Vihar. Latika Vihar is a one of the great project of Latika Roy foundation. One day while reading the local newspaper I got to know about the Assistant Teacher Training Course being conducted at the LRF Training Centre. I wanted to join this course so I asked my Project Head Shaila Brijnath more about it. When she heard that I’m interested she was very happy and encouraged me to join the course. Since my friend Archana was also interested we both joined the ATT course together. We are really thankful of Shaila Didi and Jo Didi for encouraging and helping us during the ATT course.

In the course there were 20 students of different age group and backgrounds but everyone was friendly and helpful in nature. We all got along very well and I have made some close friends from the course. Mrs. Manju Singhania is the Project Head of the LRF Training centre and she was our guiding force throughout the period of our training. She was the one who told us that every child whether they are typical or special has different feelings and is unique, and as educators it is important for us to have a quality to understand and hone their uniqueness and feelings.

Every teacher who taught us was brilliant and open about sharing their experiences of working with children with special needs. We learnt about various disabilities like Cerebral Palsy, Spinabifida, Mental Retardation, Autism, Learning Disability, Polio, Hearing Impairment, Visual Impairment, A.D.H.D and Down syndrome. We were taught the principles of teaching, the importance of play and inclusion, task analysis, sensory integration and child development.

We visited many specials schools like Karuna Vihar, C.V.T, Sharp Memorial School, Bajaj Institute, Cheshire Home and Raphael. I thoroughly enjoyed visiting these schools and learnt a lot from them. The management of all the schools was great and all the children give their best. The one thing which I noticed was that every teacher has a quality of creativity, a quality which I believe is extremely important while working for children with special needs.

As part of the course we had to get practical training so after completing our syllabus we all went to special and mainstream schools to teach the children. As I am interested in cooking and have been teaching that at Latika Vihar I was sent to Karuna Vihar to teach the children how to make fruit salad. I also conducted a story telling class at Sneha School. This was a good learning experience for me.

After the practical classes our teachers at the training course told us that we had to do a group and an individual presentation on one of the topics that we had studied. My topic for the individual presentation was Mental Retardation. Post the presentation we were required to give a final written examination.

I am really thankful of Manju Ma’am, Vandana Ma’am and Sunita Ma’am for their precious advice. I think the main idea behind the training was that nothing is good or bad in the world but thinking makes it so and after having attended this course I agree wholeheartedly with this philosophy. I hope that there will be a day when I truly feel that I understand the needs of a special child and will be able to do something of relevance for them. On that day I will say, “Yes, I am a success in this field’’.

Article by Vandita Uniyal.