Test Drive Santhome Mission Jun. 2014 | Page 29

His parents noticed that the child is with developmental delay and is having delay in the milestones. It was agonising experience for them to see their child is not like other children and there is delay in speech, mobility and cognitive functions. When the children reached the age of school they took him to the nearby government school but soon realised that he could not be adjusted in that school. The teachers of the normal school could not manage the child in the school and they advised his parents to take the child to the special school in Mandya town. The next problem for his parents was to arrange the conveyance for the child to come to the school and to go back to the school. Finally they arranged the conveyance with the public transport system and his elder sister who was studying in Mandya city accompanied the boy to the special school Asha Sadan. Once the child has arrived the school we set different goals for his rehabilitation. To make him physically fit we have given him physiotherapy and we have given him ample opportunities to mingle with other members of the peer group. To make him academically efficient we have given him the basic education in the special school. He was also exposed to the cultural and sports events to improve his competencies. After coming to the special school, the development of Punithkumar was very fast. He adapted very fast to the situation. He was very responsive to the rehabilitation process. Soon he became one of the best students of the school. He has attracted the attention of everybody and he started helping the school staff in doing many activities. To our surprise he started coming to the school alone from home travelling more than 20 kilometres in a day. He will come to the city in the government bus and after coming to the city he will enter into the school bus to come to the school. Sometime if he misses the school bus he will take another government bus that goes near the school or walk more than 4 kilometres to the school from the bus stand. He performed very well in the Special Olympics and sports events. He was victorious in many events and brought laurels to the school. Similarly he used to perform very well in the cultural activities especially in dances and dramas. As he was growing in age we gave him training in the vocational training centre Deepti Nivas at kalenahalli, so that he could be employed later. He was very much interested in learning computer. So we gave him training in the computer centre. After learning the computer for a few months he could enter data in the computer without difficulty. Similarly he proved himself to be efficient in other trades like candle making, agarbathy pac