Our experience has taught us that the most important resource for the development of a child, is family; more particularly, the parents. Parents are the chief contributors in the development of their child. They are the principal care takers, behavior models, disciplinary authorities, managers, and representatives of social behavioral patterns and change in the lives of their child. It is an accepted norm that parents could be trained as proficient teachers, so as to guide their children, effectively. Swabodhini recognizes that the parents of children with special needs, have a significant impact on their children and with the help of parent counselling, they can create healthy parent-child interactions. It will help them to get positively involved in the education of their child and further help them to contribute more to the child’s development.

As a follow up on the activities of the school, each parent:

• Is taught to identify potential problems in their child
• Is given a plan on how to cope and help the child
• Is taught the principles and skills of behavior management, which involves exercises that brings about specific changes in their child’s behavior
• Undergoes training sessions, which are interspersed with warming up exercises, relaxation activities, to enable the parents to enjoy their training sessions

Using this method, parents learn how to adapt themselves to the environment around their child, the different teaching materials used to help their child and also be in tune with the curriculum of the school. The latter being an individualized program for each child and depending on the child’s needs. This further helps in creating a familiar pattern for the child, which also helps the parents to stay abreast of their child’s development.

Further, this method helps provide a platform for the parents to interact with other parents and to share their experiences.

These parents also volunteer their services at the school and the experience is richer when they are able to train their own children and reach out to many more children.