World Braille Day
4th January 2020
SERPA observed World Braille day by doing awareness activities. Interview videos of students as well as adults with visual challenges were shared with the community. The videos were filled with positive messages and success stories that gave us the encouragement and motivation to work with children with visual challenges. It was a fantastic way to start the year!
Difficulties in Working Memory and its impact on learning
18th January 2020
Bridget Wren, Principal , Bridge Academy South Africa presented this session that was attended by over 60 professionals. The session looked into identification of deficits in working memory, strategies to be used in the classroom and demonstration of activities.
Board wise Exemptions
23rd February 2020
Due to popular demand SERPA organised a session covering board wise (ICSE, CBSE, IGCSE and IB) exemptions and accommodations session. The objective was to inform and educate special educators and parents about various exemptions that are made available by various education boards, both, Indian and International. Ms. Lakshmi Narasimhan,Ms. Girija Vemaraju and Ms. Pooja Sood did this much awaited and sought after session once again for SERPA.
Stages of Play
15th March 2020
Ms. Priya Sandeep introduced the participants to Play therapy – something we strongly believe is good for our children. The session focussed on using play as a therapy form to remediate. The session was extremely insightful and was packed with a lot of information. It was very detailed and thorough and also included case studies. The session was attended by 33 participants.
World Down Syndrome Day
21st March 2020
Corona taking over all the plans did not deter SERPA from observing the World Down Syndrome day. While the initial grand plans had to be suspended, SERPA took to activities of painting and mismatch clothing that could be easily done at the individual’s home. Pictures and Videos were shared by and was posted on YouTube and Facebook.
Autism Awareness Month
1st April 2020
A month long awareness drive was taken up by SERPA. This was done online through posters and videos that were shared on various online mediums. Awareness was the goal and that was what we wanted to drive.
Stress Awareness Month
April, 2020
“Teach the teacher”, ” Train the Trainer” etc are phrases we all here and pay attention to. But what about helping the people working with CWSN de-stress? That was exactly what SERPA wanted to do and are really happy we did that. There is a lot of burn-out in people working with CWSN and it is something we need to look at seriously. We had month long activities which saw enthusiastic participation from Special educators and rehabilitation professionals. An online Journaling session by Ms. Vasundhara on 12th April 2020 showed us how journaling works and how to make it practical and interesting to relieve stress. A Multimodal Session by Ms.Ruthika on 22nd April 2020 took the participants through activities including zentangle, finger painting, colourflow, heartmap etc. The event saw active participation of over 60 participants. It was heartening to see the artist in the teacher.
Sports for Special Needs
24th May 2020
By now all of us in the field know that SERPA aims at bringing to the table every single thing that we believe a child may benefit from. Staying indoors definitely is restricting; but more importantly it has a huge impact on children as movement is crucial for development. The importance of sports can not be stressed more. Mr. Aditya of Umoyo Sports, Mumbai conducted a session where we discussed about the importance of sports, planning of sports activities and differentiation of activities based on needs of child etc. The interactive session discussed case studies and shared videos of activities.
Global Developmental Delay
3rd May 2020
SERPA observed the International Global Development day by organising a live interview with Dr Nandini Mundkar. The session was attended by 60 people and we all hung to every word that was uttered. It was
an educative session and helped special educators and rehabilitation professionals better understand GDD and it’s impacts.
SERPA OVER CUPPA
28th June 2020
The third SOC event of the year 2020 was an online session and the topic of discussion was Sensory Integration. Ms. Priti Parekh presented a small case study which helped the participants understand Sensory difficulties and its impact on various aspects in a child. The presentation was followed by a discussion and was well appreciated.