Brain-Gym Autism Research Foundation (Formerly SRI-MD Autism Research Foundation) was established in the year of 2010. It is a non-profit charity running an autism special school under the administrative control of Thillai Nadarajar Human Welfare Charitable Trust, registered to the Trust act (1882) at Puducherry. Brain-Gym is dedicated to providing quality of comprehensive rehabilitation treatment to persons with all types of disabilities with free of cost. The Disabilities enumerated as per RPWD Act (2016) are Autism Spectrum Disorder, Intellectual Disability, Specific Learning Disabilities, Speech and Language Disability, Cerebral Palsy, Locomotor Disability, Hearing Impairment (deaf and hard of hearing), Mental Illness, Blindness, Low-vision, Leprosy Cured persons, Dwarfism, Muscular Dystrophy, Chronic Neurological conditions, Multiple Sclerosis, Thalassemia, Hemophilia, Sickle Cell Disease, Multiple Disabilities including deaf-blindness, Acid Attack victim, Parkinson's disease and as per The National Trust Act (1999), are Autism, Cerebral Palsy, Mental Retardation and Multiple Disabilities.
VISION:
The persons with disabilities have equal opportunity to lead a better quality of life, protection of rights, and full participation in an inclusive society. This is enabled by committed professionalism, Awareness Generation and Publicity, Barrier Free Environment, Skill Development, and appropriate, affordable, acceptable technological intervention in an inclusive society.
MISSION:
To provide need-based comprehensive rehabilitation treatment through a team approach facilitating inclusion, ensuring empowerment of persons with disabilities and their families, and substantiating field-based research and development of human resources.
VALUES:
Promoting quality of life of persons with disabilities through equal participation of patients, families, professionals, and community agencies.
SERVICES
Treatments;
⓵ INTERVENTION.
⓶ IMPLEMENTAIONOF INTERVENTION MODELS.
⓷ TYPES OF INTERVENTION.
Our planning of an intervention strategy is to be carefully measured related to the assessment of a children’s current level of functioning, and understanding of the strengths and weaknesses at our centre. Theoretical and pragmatic intervention model are planning and delivering long-term, stage by- stage treatments.
A. INTERVENTION:
Clinical Psychology Consultation:
⓵ PARENTAL TRAINING AND COUNSELLING:
A well-functioning strategy for treatments of teaching and learning in rehabilitation are provided in collaboration between parents and professionals and reflects the values, style, and goals of the family and has achieved international acceptance.
⓶ Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA Model):
Discrete Trial Training (DTT) is effectively for training many skills and is probably the best current method for teaching academic, Intellectual, cognitive, emotional and receptive language skills.
Pivotal Response Training (PRT) is effectively training used to teach expressive language, play skills, increased generalization, and social interaction skills.
Teaching Functional Routines is effectively training taught using Daily routines, functional skills, and self-care & self-help skills.
⓷ BEHAVIOUR MODIFICATION THERAPY:
• Shaping, Prompting, Fading, Chaining, Cueing, Rewarding and Imitation techniques are training to increase desirable skilled behaviours.
• Restructuring Environment, Extinction, punishment and avoidance techniques are training to decreasing undesirable behaviours of repetitive behaviour, stereotyped behaviour and maladaptive behaviours.
⓸ COGNITIVE SKILLS & INTELLECTUAL SKILLS TRAINING:
Cognitive and Intellectual skills for persons with autism concern on five primary areas: self-instructional training, Correspondence training, self-management and self-monitoring, self-control and problem solving implemented in our centre. In this programme, the following items are selected for use and responses are recorded.
• Matching identical objects, identical pictures and pictures to objects.
• Identifying colours, shapes, letters and numbers.
• Telling the difference between big and small.
• Identifying and writing simple words.
• Reading basic and advanced words, depending on cognitive abilities.
• Spelling simple words.
⓹ EMOTIONAL SKILLS TRAINING:
The ways in which persons with autism is trained to understand emotions, facial expressions, symbolic or pretend play and the perspective of others.
⓺ MENTAL HEALTH REHABILITATION SERVICES:
To supports mental health rehabilitation services to realise and improve their own potential,
• Can cope with normal stressors of life,
• Can work productively & fruitfully, and
• Can make a contribution to their community.
Counselling the Patients to help an individual to realise their own potential.
• Understanding their thought & emotion related to behavioural patterns.
• Utilizing his resources more effectively.
• Dealing with negative emotions effectively.
SPECIAL EDUCATION CONSULTATION:
1. Based on techniques of the Treatment and Education of Autistic Children and Related Communication Handicapped Children Division (TEACCH MODEL) is used in our centre.
⦿ Special Education Training is strictly applied in a structured environment (Classroom). To provide the following training.
⦿ visual-spatial understanding,
⦿ Object manipulation and
⦿ Structured routines.
2. Basic Academic Skills Training:
OCCUPATIONAL THERAPY CONSULTATION:
1. SENSORY INTEGRATION TRAINING Provides to strengthen the Visual, Auditory, Tactile, Olfactory and Gustatory Sensory organs.
2. SOCIAL SKILLS TRAINING:
Joint attention training is one of the most important techniques in social skills training for persons with Autism. Support of families can facilitate joint attention and other reciprocal social interaction experiences throughout the day in the child’s regular activities. The social skills curriculum targeted, responding to the social overtures of other children and adults, initiating social behaviour, minimizing stereotyped preservative behaviour while using a flexible and varied repertoire of responses and self-managing new and established skills. Social skills groups, social stories, visual cueing, social games, scripts, peer-mediated techniques, and play and leisure curricula are used during training and recorded.
3. MOTOR SKILLS AND BASIC SELF-HELP SKILLS TRAINING:
⦿ Gross and Fine Motor Skills Training:
⦿ DAILY LIVING SKILLS TRAINING.
⦿ SELF-HELP SKILLS TRAINING.
4. LEISURE AND COMMUNITY SKILLS TRAINING:
SPEECH THERAPY CONSULTATION:
5. Enhancing Early Language and Communication Skills Training.
6. Picture Exchange Communication System training(PECS):
7. Augmentative and Alternative Communication training
VOCATIONAL SKILLS CONSULTATION:
This Treatments are provides to strengthen their
• Independent functioning,
• arrest the severity of disability and
• Occurrence of secondary disability.
B. IMPLEMENTATION OF INTERVENTION MODELS AT OUR SPECIAL SCHOOL:
⦿ BEGINING CURRICULUM INTERVENTION (Birth to under 3 years)
• Attending skills.
• Imitation skills.
• Intellectual skills
• Cognitive skills
• Emotional Skills
• Receptive Language skills.
• Expressive Language skills.
• Pre-academic skills.
• Self-Help skills
• Joint attention skills
⦿ INTERMEDIATE CURRICULUM Intervention (from 3 years to 6 years)
• Attending skills.
• Imitation skills.
• Intellectual skills
• Cognitive skills
• Emotional Skills
• Receptive Language skills.
• Expressive Language skills.
• Pre-academic skills.
• Self-Help skills
•Joint attention skills.
⦿ ADVANCED CURRICULUM Intervention ( above 7 years)
• Attending skills.
• Imitation skills.
• Intellectual skills
• Cognitive skills
• Emotional Skills
• Receptive Language skills.
• Expressive Language skills.
• Academic skills.
• Social skills.
• School Readiness skills.
• Self-Help skills.
•Joint attention skills.
⦿ SKILL DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME FOR THE DISABLED:
• Strengthening Vocational Skills Training.
• Develops Employment opportunities for persons with Adult Disabilities.
Sources of Intervention Models:
⦿ Teaching Developmentally Disabled Children: The Me Book by O.Ivar Lovaas. Pro-ed, 1981.
⦿ Pre-Schoolers with Autism. An Education and Skills Training programme for Parent by Brereton A. V, Tonge B.J. Jessica Kingsley Publishers, London, 2005.
⦿ Behavioural Intervention for young children with Autism. A manual for parents and professionals. Kathrine Maurice. Pro-ed, 1996.
C. TYPES OF INTERVENTION:
Clinic-based modalities:
This method involves the use of a training centre, where techniques are demonstrated and parents are coached to develop effective ways of teaching and managing their children. Parents are then expected to carry out these methods at home. Home visits by clinic staff supplement the centre teaching, but the evaluation of effectiveness derives primarily from the parental reports of progress at home and observation of parent skills in the clinic setting.
Home-based modalities bring trainers into the natural daily environment, where demonstration and instruction take place in addition to the clinic-based training.
School-based modalities:
It can be considered a variation of the clinic-based approach in which the school classroom, rather than the clinic, is used as a setting to demonstrate teaching methods and activities to parents; therefore, its advantages are similar to those mentioned earlier for the clinic-based approach. In addition, the school-based model has the advantage of clarifying communication and expectations among family members, school professionals, and autism consultants.
Group-based modalities:
Groups may be educative and practical in nature, typically combining lectures and discussions to provide information. A family can utilize in raising their child with autism Groups for parents and those for siblings also tend to include a focus on sharing experiences, practical information, and emotional support.
ACADEMICS:
• The free of admission is open to all persons with disabilities in every year.
• The free of admission is open to all the elderly persons with disabilities for the training of the Skill Development Programme.
RESEARCH PUBLICATIONS:
⦿ Programme for Training parents of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder, Indian Journal of Health and Wellbeing, 2 (1), 230 - 233 on March issue/2011.
⦿ Family Burden, Coping Behaviour and Co-Dependency of Wives of Alcohol Dependents, Indian Journal of Health and Wellbeing, 2 (2), 413 – 414 on June/2011.
⦿ Home-based ABA and TEACCH intervention for a child with autistic disorder, Indian Journal of Health and Wellbeing on Vol-3, Issue-3, pp- 741-745, 2012.
⦿ Tamil Nadu Science Congress, 12th Conference at Periya University, Salem, 514 – 515, ISBN 13- 978-81-910508-5-1, during 23 to 25 August/2012.
⦿ Efficacy of ABA programme for children with autism to improve general development, language and adaptive behaviour, Indian Journal of Positive Psychology, 5 (2), 192 – 195, 2014.
⦿ Clinical Aspects and Comprehensive Management for Children with Autism, Journal of Psychological Researches, 62 (1), 12 – 33, 2018.
⦿ Comparative Study of Mental Health and Quality of Life in VI and HI Individuals, Journal of Psychological Researches, 63(2), 28 – 39, 2019.
⦿ Long-term effects of ABA-based Intervention to improve Social-Communication and Social Maturity for Children with Autism, Journal of Indian Academy of Applied Psychology, 57, 5 – 13. 2020.
SUPPORT US:
DONATION:
• All donors are able to clients claim deduction u/s 80G for income tax exemption.
• 80G Registration No: AADTT6824EF20221 from 20.02.2022 to AY 2024-2025.
• Accepted for donations in cash, demand draft (DD), cheque, gifts, and training materials related to the welfare of persons with disability.
• The charity accepts donors who may adopt persons with disabilities under the day scholar training at our brain-gym autism research foundation and the training is expense around Rs: 62,400/-per Annum.
Thillai Nadarajar Human Welfare Charitable Trust
Puduvai Bharathiar Grama Bank,
ACCOUNT NUMBER: 60003621950
IFC Code: IDIBOPBG001
Kattukuppam Branch.
VOLUNTEER:
Supports and encourages the volunteers to join with us, donors and socialist support.
CONTACT US:
DR. E. SAM, PhD (Clinical Psychology) Director,
BRAIN-GYM AUTISM RESEARCH FOUNDATION,
18/2 Opposite to General Hospital (GH),
Nellikuppam main road,
Cuddalore -607 001.
Contact: 9655065464
E-mail ID: thillainadarajartrust@gmail.com.
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