I am working as a special educator in Aadhaar Centre, Bhopal and I was assigned the responsibility of a little boy called Arav.
When I saw Arav for the first time, he was a sweet boy whose eyes were very expressive, but who could not speak at all. He was not able to tell his problems or needs. He had sensory issues as he did not like touching liquids while eating. He did not even eat on his own. Since his speech was affected, his learning performance was also getting affected. He was busy playing alone with himself until he was called out and even during conversations he had, sometimes we felt that he was able to understand what we said but could not respond. He was diagnosed as a child under ‘Autism Spectrum Disorder‘ at our centre by the developmental pediatrician after analysis of his complete history, symptoms and assessments.
He was started with various therapies such as Speech therapy, special education and Occupational therapy.
Especially I want to mention about the Special Education given to him as I was his Special Educator. I worked to improve his socialization skills, fine motor skills and activities of daily living such as toilet training, mealtime, dressing and pre-learning concepts like reading, writing and maths.
With the grace of God, he started improving fast and within six months, he started speaking. His first word spoken was “Aadhaar”. It was a celebratory moment for the whole centre and we all enjoyed it with tremendous happiness.
The hard work by all of us and his mother resulted in getting him out of the spectrum. Today he happily goes to a main stream school and is progressing continuously.
Today, when I remember him, I see him clearing every step of his progress with his firm determination and hard-work. I am very happy and proud of him. May God bless him.
