Project Urja : Special Education through Art

Urmi Foundation works with children having developmental disabilities like autism, cerebral palsy, downs syndrome, ADHD (attention deficit hyperactive disorder). Such disabilities are permanent in nature and cannot be cured. Special education and therapy intervention is the only way to reduce the intensity of such disabilities, thus assuring self-reliance to the affected one. The children that we support belong to low-income and vulnerable communities.

Our work starts from the communities where disabled children are out of school and receive no support or intervention end up reaching at degenerative stage. We convince their parents to identify and do multiple assessments to understand the child’s needs to plan further intervention either academic or therapeutic. 

In 2020-21 our need assessment indicated 500 children require Art Therapy. The art therapy is a combination of fine art activities duly designed by psychologists and special educators covering 10 areas essential to adopt any skills. These skills are required to enhance 5 significant areas which are-

1. Social
2. Personal
3. Recreational
4. Academic
5. Pre vocational.

The process of learning is different for special children as it requires visual, auditory and tactile learning tools, art therapy assures that fundamentals of learning are taught in an impactful way. 

The initial assessment of art therapy helps a therapist to select children affected in 10 areas hampering their academics growth and therapy adoption. Art Therapy reduces hyperactivity, improve eye-hand coordination, improve sitting span, attention span, sensory integration, instruction understanding, instruction following, communication, expressions, and cognitive skills. The parameters define the level of achievement and also connect with special education principles. The sessions are planned and implemented with multiple activities for all types of disabilities simply by honing their skills and allowing them to learn new skills. 

The quarterly assessment is done by the therapist which indicates the need for additional efforts or changes in activities to get the desired results. When the child achieves 80% of the noted objectives, he leaves the therapy and become independent in various aspects. The usage of multiple materials gives maximum exposure to children. All the activities include art forms like painting, music, story, puppets, water and texture-based activities. There are multiple worksheets circulated to assure practice. Besides this, behavioral correction techniques are used through reinforcement charts to develop socially acceptable behavior and encourage social inclusion. The activities are done in the art therapy class are transformed in the regular academic class to maintain continuity and impact.    

Art Therapy impacts the lives of children in the following way: 

 1.     Making the child a life long learner. 

2.     Enhancing occupational, speech, behavior modification therapy impact.

3.     Effective academic / syllabus grasping.

4.     Social inclusion.

5.     Exposure to the fun way of learning via learning by doing method.

 When the child achieves 80% of the set objective he is set free from the therapy and is an able independent learner. Each year from 2020 we aim to enroll 25 children from each school for Art therapy.

In 3 years (2020-23)

• A total of 1950 children will receive support through therapy.
• A total of 1365 children will achieve social, recreational and academic skills by helping them to achieve a score of 50% and above.
• A total of 780 children who will achieve the areas of development, will be independent / out of therapy.