PECS is Powerfull and "Training Transforms"

Our Journey With Our Special Needs Son - Rituraj

Its an experience which I would like to share with all parents with special needs children, with a punch line that " Nothing is Impossible" and " Training Transforms "

And to make the impossible, possible some ingredients are must:

1. Early Intervention

2. Guidance & Training

3. Patience

4. Consistency

5. Never Give Up Attitude

Chapter 1 - Snapshot Rituraj and My Mission!

According to Wikipedia, globally around 10% of the population today have some or other physical, or learning disability. And when we talk about a child who is born with special needs or a learning disability, then the whole world around the child gets disbalanced and directionless, right from the parents, grand parents, once attitude, involvement and interaction with friends and society.

Very soon a shell gets created and outlets from that shell leads to various– physio, speech, occupational therapists who then play a vital role towards the development of the child, some succeed and some remain in the shell.

Rituraj our son, at the age of 2 years was declared a vegetable, by doctors.

By the age of 7 he was aggressive, violent, and uncontrollable despite we giving him the right attention at home and with therapists, be it occupational therapist, speech therapist, physiotherapist and what not.

As they say, the weakest link in the chain needs to be identified and worked upon. And believe me to bring up a special child there are various links to be worked upon to form a strong chain which can pull up the special needs child to normalcy. And we need to work upon each of these links and identify the weak links to strengthen upon. It took us some time to identify the weak link, and I can say with experience now, that this one link is common to all special needs children and that is communication.

Communication is not speech and speech is not communication. Communication is two way process and more than speech we need to train special children on communication!

We were introduced to PECS - "Picture Exchange Communication System" and since then its been a total 27 years of a rewarding journey for us with Rituraj.

So from a vegetable stage, to a aggressive and violent kid, who used to pull hair, throw thing arounds, bite and do what not - Now he is a quite, communicative and a fully engaged adult at a Cafe in his school, and also works as an Intern at Forbes Marshall

I intend to share my success story to as many parents globally.

Our 27 years journey with Rituraj has been very experiential, with lots and lots of learnings.

My mission is to transfer my learnings and experience with Rituraj to as many parents with special needs children. I would like to help, coach, guide and train parents with regards to PECS and communication challenges we overcame with the help of PECS, so that I can spread my knowledge as much as possible.

Having taught him as a special educator for more than 15 years, and having brought him up for last 27th years, I realized that the most important role is played by the parent. All the therapists serve as guides, but the ultimate effort is put by the Parent/Parents.

MyKoshish is my humble effort to empower parents like me to become strong support and guide for their special needs children. I wish to reach out and train as many parents as possible to help their ward become independent and lead a life of dignity.

Through MyKoshish, I wish to not only strengthen communication skills, but also train the special needs children in ADL – Activity of Daily Living and Life Skills.