Kolkata Workshop, Day-2

Early Morning session:
Jogging
Yoga Session
Meditation

we started off with jogging so that we breathe maximum fresh air and become active for the rest of the day. we tried and tested the various yoga postures and felt relaxed. Each one of us presented their opinion about the same. We practiced meditation. We also did belly breathing and chest breathing, felt the difference in them.

Morning session:
Watching inspiring and motivational videos
Group Discussion
Presentations
Feedback on presentations
CALMS approach
Ice Berg excercise

There was the video of Nick Vojuvic who does not have limbs since birth.
Lesson: there are other debilitating disabilities than stammering.
It was surprising that how that man with several disabilities have managed to even enter to a university with full of courage. Therefore, it is certain that if we have courage and eager to work hard to overcome our problems, we can achieve success. After watching the video clips, we shared what we felt about it. Further, one of our friends said that we should make sure to practice the way we speak with our own styles. Our presentations were based on the articles which were about stuttering. Everyone of us practiced how to manage a presentation, how to keep proper eye contact, how to use proper hand gesture, and how to deliver our presentations using bouncing and prolongation to manage stuttering. Julia Irani is an example for us to bring out our hidden skills to move with our own societies smoothly. Though she stutter quite a lot, she was able to get a university degree. However, she could not manage to find a job for her for 13 months as she was unable to handle telephonic-interviews. She further mentioned that her own courage helped her to handle her stuttering. Though the feedback session, we learned that it is necessary to be comfortable to present our speeches while stuttering, and it is very helpful if we try to look at the audience to ensure that they have understood us very well. We think it is better to do participatory work all the time to engage with the other people in the public. CALMS approach is a method to open ourselves to realize the truth behind us. There was an interesting point which Dr. Sachin noted that God has given us a big cross which is stuttering to carry through out our lives but that is only to show God's faith that God has kept on us than any one else. Thus, we all should handle it very well happily. With the help of Dr. Sachin and Miss Durba, we drew our own ice bergs about our lives with stuttering. It helped us to put down our thoughts and feelings in to a paper to feel so free than earlier.

Afternoon Session:
Presentations
Short interviews
A movie " Speaking of Courage."

Mrs Sweta presented a presentation on Self Help Groups. According to her point of view, self help groups can be a way to improve our speaking skills. Each one of us stood in front of the audience to answer some impromptu questions.Through that exercise, we learned how to manage situations where we are not prepared to face. In that kind of situations, it is necessary to think critically and fast to respond in a clear way. The movie illustrated that speech language pathology can help to manage proper speaking.

over for the day, next post tomorrow, same time...;)