This was possibly one of the most difficult periods in our lives. We were back from US without finding any answers; we were completely bereft of any funds and even though we knew what the problem was, we still had to deal with the same variables. Yatish was still going to Sophia Opportunity School and there he was working with Arathi Appayya, who was a special educator and was trained in US in dance and movement therapy. She was one of the most exceptional human beings I have met. She was not only a great friend to me but was equally involved in bringing out the best in Yatish. She was the first person to notice that Yatish had inclination for academics and she told me that we should start school for Yatish. This just opened a Pandora’s Box of sorts. For the first time, I realized that we not only have to take care of Yatish in terms of his physical needs, we also have to give him a fair chance to realize his intellectual potential. When I mooted this idea, most of them were apprehensive. But the spark in me was lit.
We started looking out for schools and it is such a pity that in India where we have a staggering 5-6% population with disability, which means around 600 million people have some kind of disability and yet our educational system has not put enough efforts to cater to special needs. Whatever we have is scattered, few and far between. I approached many schools and they had a standard answer, “our school is not equipped to handle special children” and many of the so called special schools would have taken in Yatish, if only he was independent. The Spastic Society also runs a school for CP children, but I was not keen to put him there, probably because of my low confidence on their ability to effectively address my sons needs… and moreover I was keen on inclusive education for him. I believe that special children have to ultimately live in the real world and sooner they can learn to cope with the outside world, easier it will be for them as much as it is important for the real world to learn to cope with special children.
http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0018/001866/186611e.pdf
In between all this we were looking for some fabricator who could design the body jacket, which the therapist in US had recommended. We finally got hold of a fabricator, who had this dingy workshop and we told him what we wanted. But I guess the specifications got lost in translation, because what we got as the end product was an impractical, funny looking contraption. Of course we could not use it.
We were told that we should try Bangalore International School as they took in special children and I spoke to the head of the special education department of the school and she told me to get Psycho educational assessments for Yatish from Spastic Society. To assess a special child, you cannot apply the usual IQ tests, but actually have to include measures from different tests to assess the various areas of cognitive functioning referred to as cross-battery assessment in order to correctly assess the child. Sadly even the referred organization had limited expertise in this matter which is truly disappointing.
http://www.cls.utk.edu/pdf/keys_ld/chapter2_pa.pdf
But then these international schools charge exorbitant fees, which we thought was not justified, let alone the thought of arranging the means. I had to look for something else.....
http://www.isbi.com/viewschool.asp?school=3433-Bangalore_International_School
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