Update with the school counselor

      Prisha has issues making friends. I think it does happen with any child with any disability and special needs. The normal children cannot identify with the issues and are not aware of the depth of the problems. Being kids they are unaware and so cannot keep pace with the needs of special kids. And so when I see Prisha complaining that kids do not include her in their games, or she isn't able to hear the instructions in the play area as the kids mutter and run away, I do not blame them. Some kids are considerate and do try but then they need to play with others too. Sometimes some kid pulls them away too, the regular stuff happens too. Some days are good , some days as she has missed out some instructions, she misses out a good time with friends too. So after a long discussion, we eventually had the school counselor stepping in to see how best we could work out things for Prisha so that she has a good and decent social circle at school to make her more happy at school.
        The counselor said that she was happy to see Prisha's growth in the last year and she is more intelligible in her speech and she has started to hear better and learn a lot more. She did acknowledge our work that we have put in to help her understand the big change in her life after our move here.So next thing to work was her social interaction which is very important for her emotional development. After much discussion we concluded that Prisha would benefit greatly if she had a mentor who could spend time with her once a week and talk to her, talk new and varied topics and play some games which would be fun for her, that would include story telling too.I was very keen on this as it would be a good extension for her, learning new things in different context, accent to learn and also learn what other parents talk to their kids.The challenge is to get the best fit, we have to just see if it is a senior school student or a parent. Keeping fingers crossed on that.
       The next thing is that she would make agroup of about 5-6  students from her class. It would have a few kids who are nice to Prisha and the rest who have been nasty and unkind to her. She would then ask those kids to help her help Prisha make happy at school secretly. That way the kids would be kinder, learn her problems and the nasty kids would learn to be more friendly with her. The counselor would be in touch with Prisha to get updates about who was being kind and played with her at school. I think these plans look good. I even suggested if Prisha could be a part of the ESL group where she would be part of the English learning group. She would learn English and what she is confident of, would give her confidence. We shall review this in due course. I am now waiting to hear from the mentoring and counselling team eagerly. Let us see what they would eventually decide which would make Prisha even happier at school.