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| Talking about India |
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| Some fried snacks to share |
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| Henna for all |
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| They loved the tattoos |
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| Class picture |
I have been with Mrs. Hudlikar for speech therapy since Prisha was a year old. She is strong, pushy and very focused and has a very all rounded approach towards learning language for normal living. Most speech therapist practice with just the child inside the room and mothers are asked to come an hour later. Mothers are a vital part of child's life in early years. She is highly instrumental in teaching the infant to learn language as he spends maximum time with her. So Mrs. Hudlikar makes sure she has all the mothers in her class to see her approach , pick up the skills of speech therapy and apply in daily life of the deaf child. The mothers have a one to one interaction and since each class has at least 2-3 kids, the kids learn faster listening to the other kids answering. All her cases have had 100 % results and all kids have been leading a very happy and normal lives.
The other beneficiaries of this style of speech therapy are mothers. As they see hands on the intricacies of teaching language to the deaf child, she gets empowered and teaches her kid in any circumstances and any place without feeling the pressure of people around or the place she is in. Her only mission is teach the child through language about what is around him. She gains a lot of confidence and is not scared to speak her mind.Since she teaches her child all the time, her command over her language is very important. Her grammar, vocabulary and diction needs to be very strong along with her intonation, flow of speech and the tone as all these are going to hold the attention of a small child, which can be difficult for too long. But through Mrs. Hudlikar's therapy, all mothers master it. Result......strong, happy mothers with immense knowledge with power of speech. I am one such mother, gained immense strength, happiness and normalcy in my life thanks to her.One example I would like to share that made me very happy.
Last week a mother of Prisha's classmate , who is a teacher at high school of a German school , asked me if I could talk about India to her 25 students who are about 15-16 years old. I was excited being a proud Indian that I am. I made a power point project and a few pointers to talk about, some henna, some snack made at home and dressed in a saree, I was ready to go. I did get a bit nervous when I saw 3 teachers and 25 bored looking students. But then, took off, a bit shaky inside. its not easy to hold the attention of that age who also do not have great command over English. I gave an hour and a half lecture, made henna tattos on the girl's arms, shared the snacks and answered all their questions. It was one of the most beautiful days of my life. All the 15 yrs olds stayed through the lecture, and later complimented me on my lecture. they said they enjoyed every bit of it. The teachers came down to tell me how entertaining and interesting the lecture was. Soon word spread and couple of teachers came down to tell me how horrid they felt as they missed the lecture. I was overwhelmed by compliments and in my heart could not thank Mrs. Hudlikar enough! Some asked me to come down again as they would love other classes to hear it too. It was such a wonderful experience and made me beam from ear to ear ! What was most humbling was some telling me that I should be a teacher as I was very interesting and entertaining and that they had never had any lecture that interesting ever in the school !! I came home and called up ma'am and thanked her for all that I received that day. It was thanks to her that I developed that art of holding attention of people through language and this is one thing I would never forget in my life.
Thank you Alaka ma'am, I owe it you , thank you for being in my life and changing it in more than one way.
