Augmentative communication

The Interview with Dr. Gayathri Narasimhan, founder-director of Prakramika Institiute.

1.  How did INVAS happen? And why did you think a curriculum was necessary?

         A journalist and a software professional, I transitioned into special education space. An incident that occurred during the covid period was the catalyst for the birth of INVAS. It was during this challenging time, one of my friends moved from Muscat to India. She had two children, one neurotypical and the other neurodivergent. The neurotypical could get admission in a school fairly easily, but the neurodivergent had to face many challenges because he had nothing to show on his progress report, like the skills developed or the vocations learnt. Even though he was highly capable, he struggled to get admission. The same happened to another student, too. This incident sowed the idea of the necessity of curriculums and yardsticks. 

 

            Covid period gave me the space to work on building the skills of neurodivergent that would fetch them suitable employment. We developed a curriculum for front office work with more of practical components and less of theory. We started with a batch of 14 students and 5-6 of them got placements. That was a huge morale booster. We started with one curriculum in 2021, then five, and now we have 22 modules. The skill courses were a huge success where we saw the people with special needs unveil their potentials. But again, we faced one challenging incident. One of the professional whom we had placed lost his job because of behavioural issues. Again, that got me rethinking, because skills set alone will not ensure employment. There was a need to work on listing the parameters that we need to consider ensuring employability, as that is our final goal? For a neurodiverse, there are no benchmarks to say these are his/her capabilities. 

 

             I have a habit of putting pen to paper and recording everything I do, not just the curriculum, be it the challenges, the work I do with children, or my interactions with society. I record every step I take. It can be a challenging case, counselling or a success stories. At least once a week, I document my work mostly on Sunday. In my family, be it a small or big, documenting our work is a habit.

            

                 I pulled out all my compiled material over the years. Discussed it with my mentors, colleagues, and many parents who are facing the brunt of it. The parents' inputs are invaluable, because they are our most significant stakeholders facing the everyday challenges. The curriculum required a comprehensive and individualised approach that considers each student's unique needs and abilities. We did multiple revisions, amendments to get to this point. Then the structure came into place, followed by an evaluation criterion. We built this curriculum taking into consideration many case studies.

Again, neurodiversity is a huge umbrella, complex with varied needs. But, as a teacher, I can only be honest if I can track progress. There is no accountability on my part if I cannot measure progress. Or let's say, I have not challenged myself enough as a teacher. INVAS came into the picture then. It is a curriculum for vocational training for people with special needs. Still, we have a long way to go because we will continue to make changes as things progress; in order to stay updated and incorporate our learning professionally. This is more like a beginning. 

 

2. You mentioned 22 curriculums. Can you pick one curriculum and explain the process for us? How have you structured it?

               Foremost, we shortlisted a list of jobs that our students can take up and do in a corporate environment. Once we had narrowed down the choices; it enabled us to work on the curriculum. I shall pick the front office curriculum, as this is our fifth batch. We have students on the spectrum availing this course. The way we structure our training makes all the difference.

           We eliminated the theory part to the maximum. We focus on the practical aspects. If I am teaching this module to a new admission, who has no prior knowledge, the first few classes we take to understand the strength and the needs of the student. While teaching the skill, for example: we consider what is the core responsibility of a person handling bookings at a front office desk? We teach the skills using pictures and role plays. The same techniques works for room service. We group them into small teams and conduct role plays. This practice gave them the understanding of the real work. Most of the neurodivergent are good at concrete learning than abstract learning.

 

               In the role play, the trainees function as a team and we have a lot of activities centred around the team. There are multiple challenges here, some are minimally verbal, some have behavioural issues, and so we keep the group size small, a maximum of  4 members. We give them individual roles. One person starts the meeting. They even record the minutes of the meeting. Who attended, didn't attend, why they didn't come, what did they do in the meeting? This has helped us blend soft skills also into this training. Now, if I talk about designing, it is again a practical approach. So we teach them how to design a flyer, brochure, or to create an eBook. We also teach them animation and how to do a video editing. Respecting the privacy of students, we do not record our regular classes. For designing and Ms office, the data entry module, the teachers, do the recording and share with the students in our WhatsApp study groups. The students then practices, and we clarify their doubts. To test the understanding level, we also have a process called live activity. We ask the students to complete the task within the class hours and share their work before the end of the class. For example, if they have to design a certificate for a corporate office, we will give the following inputs: the name of the corporate, their logo, and the occasion for which the certificate is being distributed. The signing authority name, the signature. With the inputs, they must design a certificate. Certificates are one of the basic things they do. 

 

Online was a challenge as the professional is not sitting next to the trainee to guide, but we managed with the support of the parents. They were highly cooperative at every stage. They were also a part of role play or live activity to facilitate the understanding and ensure the students are relaxed during the whole process of learning. 

                    

                 Documentation and training go hand in hand. This also helps us build our own metrics, on feasibility, progress, end goals. PVI also conduct training programs for schools to enable successful inclusion programs, for special schools and vocational institutions to have a structured framework. We conduct these services either online or we travel to their place and provide the services. We have conducted such programs in cities like Chennai, Kerala, Lucknow, Mumbai.

3. What is your IEP process?

 We have IEPs for every child. The students can choose any two modules from among the 22 modules. We do provide one on one counselling to guide them in choosing the right curriculum.

 4. How will you accommodate a student who has high support needs to one with a low support needs, on a graphic design curriculum?

           We designed the curriculum in such a way it supports both students with high support needs and low support needs. The planning of the activities is done based on their strengths. We choose activities that provide an optimal level of challenge to the trainee. We guide the students to choose the right type of activity based on their strength.

For a low support student, he may have to incorporate 15 elements in his graphic design work, a person with high support needs might incorporate 3 elements in his work. Elements are the relevant designs that are used to enhance the message in the design work. For example, a flyer speaking about dental awareness will have elements like a tooth, brush, or related pictures. When we are teaching typing for a child with CP, we take into consideration the limitations of the child and make suitable accommodations. The child might use a single finger, so we teach him how best he can type with his limitations. Or a nonverbal person is in room service, then we provide communication cards to engage with the customer. For those who are non-verbal, we substitute the communication with message cards/NIM (Neurological Impress method) . We teach them how to use the appropriate communication card for the task at hand. We teach the professionals to understand the message and reply appropriately using the cards.

5. But what if a situation arises in room services that goes beyond the scope of the communication cards?

               If they are unable to answer, then we teach them to use the card which mentions that they would get back soon. At any point in time, we teach them to handle even the crisis during communication. We keep our role plays challenging, so in such situations they know how to respond. They learn with practice. Sometimes our students fall sick during such activities. In such cases, we have trainees who take on the responsibilities of the absentee. These are all real-life scenarios. What do we do when a person is on leave? Who takes their role? During the role plays, we teach them crisis management and leadership activities. Some are very good at handling the crisis, but some of them take more time as they find it hard to switch between duties. Eventually, they pick up.

 

6. Moving on to the employability aspect, how have the placements gone?

                 Frankly‌, there is still a lot of work to be done in this area. We train students with the sole goal of finding them suitable employment.Training necessitates a significant amount of effort, and if we do not achieve the desired outcome, the effort is pointless. I am looking at multiple avenues: sheltered workshops, collaborations from corporates, requisites from employers or NGOs. I would also like to encourage them on their own entrepreneurial journeys, as they are their own bosses then. With WFH, again, they miss out on the social aspects of living; they miss the communication, mutual learning, leadership qualities, etc. The best way of employment is they need to step out, work and learn from each other in a safe environment. Or else, they are just sitting in front of their computers in the confines of their homes.

 

7. How do you envisage a transition from PVI to an office space?

                This is one reason we have started our own office space, EmpACT. My daughters, Mrs. Akshaya Lalith Soundar founder of Emplusive training center and EmpACT and Ms. Akhila Narasimhan founder of Muditha Kreative Studio are the driving force in this project. Here, we treat our trainees like employees. Right from their dress code to communication, everything needs to be professional. Their leave have been fixed. They need to send a formal mail for every communication. WhatsApp is discouraged, at this stage. Discipline at the workplace is given top priority, as our focus is to integrate them into the corporates. 

            This is the path the trainees take here. Training-Empact-Placement. We divide the training into two categories: skill-based training and other training . We have categorised the training into skill based or vocational training. Skill based is academic oriented which means professionals with basic academic knowledge with respect to reading and writing can do these courses. Vocational training is mostly for non-academics where the learning is more of repetitive work. That includes some functional academics, communication, and so on. Suppose the candidate is not into reading and writing? Does that mean he will end up making paper bags all his life? No! We could introduce academics from a different angle. We must develop a curriculum that is need based. For example: What would be the core area of his work? If we taught him screen printing, what are the communication and computer skills required? What behaviours need to be addressed? Behaviours have a huge role in choosing a vocation. We have a trainee with down syndrome who has excellent working skills but the moment we switch the activity to pottery wheel, he would start vomiting. He has an issue with texture. So, the moment I see such a response; I need to switch his vocation. Vocations like Fretwork are safe and the trainees can use the machine under supervision. With fretwork, we make wood based teaching aids that schools can use. We also train our non-academic trainees in library jobs, for schools. These are relatively safe places to work. 

                    Basically, vocations or skill-based training require a 360 degrees approach. Normally, this holistic approach enables them to be successful in their workplace. We have our own assessment tool developed at PVI, with this purpose in mind. We have published it in my book, INVAS, where we have mentioned 13 different topics need to be covered for every vocation, including ADL. We have divided the topics into 5 stages right from early childhood to profession. This helps in the evaluation of the skills learnt for every topic at every stage. For example, a student’s actual age can be 14 years, but in communication he can be 12, in self advocacy he can be 14 or in ADL he can be 10 years. This evaluation helps the teachers and parents to focus on the area that requires more training. 

8. Another thing you emphasize is on self-advocacy?

           Yes, very much. Trainees are sometimes mistreated at work. For example, they are overburdened with the work of others. They must then learn to say no. They must object to the mistreatments and in order to object, they must first understand what  mistreatment is. We have seen various cases where our trainess have been bullied and abused at workplace. They must be taught to stand up for themselves.  Once a student of mine came up with a thought that he wishes to become a public speaker. He wanted to learn the art of speaking. This was to bring an awareness about special needs among the community. We appreciated and welcomed this idea and now we have introduced a module called public speaking where professionals are given training to talk the right way in any of the language they choose.

              At PVI we always give preference to the suggestions given by our students and parents as they are the foremost stake holders. Their suggestions have helped us widen the scope of our training programs and also to reach out to the masses. We refer to ourselves as the PVI family because no one is judged and everyone has the right to share within the parameters of the protocols and procedures.

 

Thank you, Dr, Gayathri Narasimhan, for taking the time out to do this interview.