Problems are opportunities..

Dear Friends,
A meeting has been arranged with a reporter from a DNA newspaper on 30 April at 6:00 p.m. at Shivaji Park.A story will be published in Saturday's Edition.TISA-Mumbai invites all its members for this media meeting.

Note:A request can be made to the journalist for a anonymity.

Thanks & Regards,
Ajit Potdar,
TISA-Mumbai Member,
9930066424

News from chennai

Dear friends,
As you know, the Chennai chapter of TISA is conducting monthly meetings to
overcome stammering in the fourth Sunday of every month. Many have attended
the meeting and got benefited. The next meeting will be held on 24.05.2009.
I noticed that no other such meetings are taking place in South India. Hence I
suggest those who are living in Bangaluru, Hyderabad, Vijayawada, Coimbatore and Tiruvanandapuram may attend one of the Chennai meetings,learn how to form a self help group and then form their own self help group in their respective places.
If anyone interested, we can also book accommodation with food at YWCA
international guest house where meetings will be conducted regularly. They
charge about Rs.1000 per day. Reservation has to be made before 2 weeks.
I request everyone to make use of this opportunity.
Regards,

V. Manimaran
Mobile: 098842 89989

Dear Friends,
The Chennai chapter meet on 26.04.2009 were attended by 8 PWS. May be due to
summer holidays, many PWS might have gone to their native places. But one silver
lining of the meet was a 18 year Pawan Kumar who came from Bangaluru (320 kms
from Chennai) along with his Cousin to attend the meet. Thanks to Mr.Munishankar
another Cousin of Pawan Kumar from UK who has taken this initiative. He called
me from UK, know about our next meeting date, instructed his brother to go to
Chennai along with Pawan Kumar and attend the meeting. Â Pawan Kumar attended
the meeting. Amazing technological development.
Â
Coming to our subject, if every PWS got the motivation like Pawan kumar is
having, there is no reason for us to cry over about stammering. Yesterday
another technique was adopted which I got it from the book “REDEFINING
STUTTERING “ by JOHN C.HARRISON. In that book, he used the technique of
‘Claiming your space”. In that book he insists each PWS to imagine that the
stage is owned by the speaker. A brief narration about this as given in the book
is given at the end of this mail for the benefit of others,
Â
We asked every PWS to do the following for one minute without speaking-- like
sit on table, sit on chair, drink water, reduce fan speed etc as if each inch of
the space is owned by him. After one minute, the PWS asked to speak by
continually doing the one or another  above activities for 5 minutes. To
everyone astonishment, all were spoken excellently. This is due to the fact that
by doing other activities while speaking, we are forgetting about our stammering
and hence we speak without stammering.
Â
Coming to Pawan Kumar, we have taken a separate 1 hr class to him with more
emphasis on accepting our stammering, how to react with others etc. We  also
given him some notes. As Pawan Kumar is very young, he is readily accepting our
suggestions and promised to follow. We also advised him to form a self help
group at Bangaluru, as it is not possible to fight with stammering alone and if
you do so, you fail miserably on this account. We  advised him to attend
Chennai chapter meetings once in a 2 months until Bangaluru self help group
commence its full activities.
Â
Excerpts form the above book.
Â
As you talk from different places in the room, begin to place your hands on
things: the sofa, the table, the doorway. Put both hands on the back of
a chair and lean on it. Notice how that makes you feel. If it feels strange,
make it okay. After all, this is not something you're used to doing.
What else can you touch? Is there something on the table you can hold
for a moment: a ruler, a pencil, a cigarette box? Pick the item up and allow
your fingers to explore it before you put it back down.
Is there anything you can place your foot on -- a stool or the crossbar
of a chair? Resting your foot on something is what people do when they're
comfortable and at ease. Notice how this feels. If there's a little voice
whispering, "You're not supposed to be this free and easy when you speak."
n     simply notice that the voice is there. But don't stop speaking.
Â
As you walk around the room touching things, you'll begin to observe
that every place you stand and everything you touch is "yours." Not in a real
sense, of course, but in an emotional sense. The things you touch become
a part of you. Through touch, you've actually been transforming the area
from foreign (and perhaps hostile) territory into friendly territory. You've
been acting as if you were in the comfort of your own home. (After all, your
home doesn't have "DO NOT TOUCH" signs posted all around...unless you
live in a museum.)
Of course, although these activities will help you become more
grounded, you'll probably still be experiencing a degree of tension. This is
expected. Even after you become an experienced speaker, some level of
tension will always be there. Let's see why.
Most of us grew up believing that polished speakers are totally relaxed
in front of an audience. Not true. When really good speakers and
professional actors are before an audience, they're usually operating in a
state of high energy and excitement. It's releasing this energy during their
presentation that creates their charisma. Ask any speaker or actor -- when
that feeling is missing, when they are too relaxed and low key, they give a
lackluster performance.
Â
Â
Last but not least, our thanks to Dr.Sachin, who has constantly supporting and
guiding us not only in stammering but in other issues also. I request every one
to invite Dr.Sachin to their respective chapters and get benefited. By simply
observing him, we will learn a lot. This is my personal wxperience.
That’s all from Chennai.
 Regards,

V. Manimaran
Mobile: 098842 89989

Mumbai meet..

Dear Friends,

As per the schedule,TISA Mumbai meeting was conducted on 26 April at 9:30 a.m.And I am happy to tell you that VB joined us for this meeting.He has completed his MBA from Singapore.He shared his experiences,ideas about stammering with us.Besides us, A was also present at the meeting.Hope to see more members in the next meeting.

Note:Ali Yavar Jung Hospital at Bandra has started Group therapy for PWS.If any body wants more information kindly contact me.

Regards,

Ajit Potdar

TISA-Mumbai Member,

9930066424,

(ED: Welcome to VB and A on behalf of TISA!! And congrats to Ajit!

TISA meeting in Delhi

Hi,

I’ve been terribly busy in last few days, first due to the birth of my daughter and then work. In last 2-3 weeks, we haven’t been able to have the meets in the way we would like them to be. So from this week, we are back on it with a vengeance 

Delhi SHG meeting is scheduled for tomorrow, 25-Apr-2009 at Central Park, Connaught Place, New Delhi at 2:00 PM.

The agenda for this one will be seminars by every member. Since it won’t be possible to have so many seminars in one meet, we’ll divide it over two weeks. The sequence will be determined by draw of lots. I’ll also record the seminars and post them on the blog.

Any new member wishes to join us, give me a call of 98183 50799.

Regards

Nitin

Chennai SHG Meeting

Dear Chennai Friends,
The monthly meeting of the TISA-Chennai chapter will be held on 26.04.2009 from
4 PM to 7 PM in the following venue.
MINI CONFERENCE HALL,
Y.W.C.A.INTERNATIONAL GUEST HOUSE,
#1086, E.V.R.PERIYAR SALAI
(POONAMALLI HIGH ROAD ),
(NEAR DINATHANTHI OFFICE)
CHENNAI-600084.

V. Manimaran
Coordinator,
TISA-Chennai Chapter,
Mobile: 098842 89989

TISA Mumbai Meets

Shyam Sundaram : 9892018162

Naman Mirchandani +91 9619801462

Gulshan Pardesi +91 9819482643

Pune Self Help Group Meet

Pune self help group is planning to meet at Peshve park near Saras baug at 10.30am on Sunday 19.04.09..

Kindly get in touch with the following, to use this opportunity to interact with these amazingly wonderful people:

Jai Prakash Sunda- 9271205627.
Pravin: 9970780936

" When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be..."

Speech Therapy in Public institutions..

Hi ! Today I’m going to share my horrible experience with pgi.
I’m a stutter and 4 month back I went to pgi for my stuttering treatment with lot of hopes -as I was full of tension and in depression.

(q. First of all i want to ask - what is the meaning of good speech therapist?
Ans. According to me a good speech therapist should be very co-operative, eager to listen to his patient. Stuttering is a speech disorder therefore he /she should get ready to talk with their patients so that they can check their patient’s progress regularly.)

But that was my bad luck that I found such type of speech Therapist in pgi which are not ready to even talk with their clients. Weekly I visited their clinic and every time they told me to speak slowly and then said "you may go now". By saying these word does one become a therapist?

They are just doing their duty without any personal involvement and attachment with clients. They just give 10-15 minutes to their clients. I dont now why government pays them the salary. What are they doing? Their senior speech therapist never took interest in patients, They always appoint juniors to see patients and always eager to take rest in their office.
My speech therapist never took any interest in me; they never want to talk to any stutterer. Moreover many time they taunted me that you are getting free treatment here (in this government institute) and if you took treatment outside you will have to pay lot of money per hour.

At last I want to say that if you want to become more of a stutterer then pgi is the best place for you.

(Ed: We are submitting this note from a reader, as it is. We hope that standards of speech therapy in state run institutions will improve.)

Discrimination

Many of us have felt the discrimination based on our speech: from something small like a frown to material things like not getting the deserved promotion and other opportunities. Do we have a Disability Act like in America/ other countries? Even if it is there, can one really take its help to get her /his grievance addressed? We don’t have clear cut answers. TISA as a very young association needs help from a legal expert (Lahar Appiah- are you reading?).

But we certainly feel that we need to do something about it. Otherwise our world and our experiences will never change. For example, in a case of an IT professional, who is denied an “on site” assignment because of stammering- a very basic response could be, writing a letter to the supervisor / director explaining:

1. Discrimination on the basis of communication abilities (and not technical skills) is not fare. Is a violation of human rights. We are demanding only “reasonable accommodation” as is the case in other disabilities. Nothing more.

2. True nature of stammering has been grossly misunderstood. We may have difficulty talking in a large group, but may have little or no problem explaining a technical issue to a client on a one to one basis. Stammering is NOT a static fixed disorder. Many PWS have become very good communicators, when provided a supportive and enabling environment..

Lastly, we, like others, should never stop working on our communication skills. And smiling.

Catch them young!

It has been about an year since Samagra began working with children in local schools. Here is a quick recap:
1. School authorities (teachers and management) rarely understand the implications of stammering for a young child. There is a great need to sensitize. "Special needs" are understood to be limited to just Mental retardation, blindness, deafness and polio..
2. Children recover from PDS (persistent developmental stuttering) faster than adults. They learn new approaches faster and are more willing to practice them in real life situations.
3. Children who dont stammer- also are more open to new ideas and new ways of helping their PWS colleagues. Not so ridden with stereotypes.
4. Many children agonize a lot about the cause - why do they stutter, and not their siblings? Also about- how disappointed their elders (parents and teachers) must have been due to their speech failures.. Bringing them some assurance on these two counts helps their onward march quite a lot.

Above are some write ups and sketches made by class 3 children during an interactive exercise.

Pune is Rocking!!!!

Pune Self help group met on 12th April, 2009 at Sambhaji Park. The meeting was attended by Pravin, Prasad, Sanjeet, Amit, Rupesh, Sunil & Jai. As Amit is new to the group, Jai introduced him to all. We Started with slow reading & then moved on the introductions. After a round of introductions, each one of us shared a situation which scares us or we are scared of. If someone is not scared of something he could say that also J. And then the group members suggested ways to handle the situation and get over that fear. We also agreed to try implementing some of the suggestions if possible. We also discussed about booking a hall for our meetings as Rupesh Suggested. There was a serious point raised by one of the members about how he was denied an onsite opportunity because of his stammering…we are waiting for comments from the readers on the same as to how to handle such issues. Also all the members agreed that we will try to make our meetings more productive for all of us. We will try out new things/habits during our meetings & try inculcating positive changes in ourselves. Surely the dawn has come…


Jai Prakash Sunda
9271205627

Delhi SHG Meeting: 11-Apr-2009

Hi,

Delhi SHG meeting is scheduled for tomorrow, 11-Apr-2009 at Central Park, Connaught Place, New Delhi at 2:00 PM.

As planned in the last meet, the agenda for this one will be seminars by every member. Since it won’t be possible to have so many seminars in one meet, we’ll divide it over two weeks. The sequence will be determined by draw of lots. I’ll also record the seminars and post them on the blog.

Any new member wishes to join us, give me a call of 98183 50799.

Regards

Nitin

Pune Self Help Group Meet

Pune self help group is planning to meet at Sambhaji Park on 12 April 2009, 4 p.m.

Kindly get in touch with the following, to use this opportunity to interact with these amazingly wonderful people:

Jai Prakash Sunda- 9271205627.
Pravin: 9970780936

Delhi Meet (04-April-2009) Report

Hi,

We had the weekly Delhi meet at the usual place – Central Park, Connaught Place at the usual time 2:00 PM. This time we have decided to have the meeting in a planned, controlled manner rather than the ad-hoc manner of previous meetings.

Sikander was chosen as the coordinator for the meeting, and he did an excellent job of sunning it smoothly. This meeting has following attendees –

1. Abhaydeep
2. Anuj
3. Arun
4. Kshitiz
5. Nitin
6. Rahul
7. Sikander

Anuj was the new entrant to group and had came from Karnal to attend the meeting. We began the meeting with a short intro from Anuj, in which he shared his fears about facing job interviews. So we decided to have our interview experience as the topic for our talks. Everybody told their interview experiences and then rest discussed about how he spoke for another 3-4 minuted.

After this the discussion turned to proper articulation and how do we give so little attention to it. Anuj is in touch with American Institute of Stuttering and shared their methodology with us. Some of it was new to us and very interesting. He will be sending their material to me soon, which I’ll share on the group.

And before we knew it, it was alreadt 6 PM; we had a 4 hour meeting without realizing it. It was a very satisfying meet, all of us enjoyed and benefitted a lot 

I am already looking forward to the next one 

Cheers

Nitin

TISA SHGs- Guiding principles

Dear All
Here are a few guiding principles for TISA Self help groups
1. TISA SHG is for help ourselves and each other. We do not promote
any particular therapy, therapist, devices, treatment, courses or any
other commercial interest or initiative.
2. We promote acceptance, understanding and practical help for PWS,
because it is well established that there is no "cure" for stammering.
It is a chronic condition and only PWS can provide long term support to each other.
3. We accept everyone with no discrimination, based on severity of
speech difficulties, caste, community, other disabilities, gender,
socio-economic status etc. We will create atmosphere where women and
children will be able to participate actively and freely.
4. TISA local coordinator will preside over all the meetings and
issues and will be final authority on all matters regarding the
SHG. She or he will decide the agenda, circulate it and will ensure
that participants stick to it in an efficient manner.
sachin

Delhi SHG Meeting

Hi,

The Delhi SHG weekly meeting will be held this Saturday.

Details -

Date: 04-Apr-2009
Time: 2:00 PM
Venue - Central Park, Connaught Place

If you want to join us, contact me on 98183 50799.

Cheers

Nitin