CHILD is the teacher of the mother

If you wish to meet one of the strongest advocates of the 3R Lab, meet Annapoorani from Chennai. Annapoorani exudes positivity in her body language, tone. The total absence of even the slightest regret is conspicuous in her facial expression, voice, tone and words. Mother of specially-abled seventeenyear- old Shailendar, she confesses that very early on – in fact, right when six-month old Shailendra had to undergo brain surgery – she knew that this child was going to need special care. “I am a person who takes a long time to come out of disappointments, I tend to seek stability,” she declares, even as she sees her initial disappointment as inevitable. In her search for assistance, she spent almost an entire year running around to hospitals, schools and educationists for remedial classes and extra help

Photo: Mrs.Annapoorani with her children, (Left: Her Daughter Sruthi and
Right: Her Son Shailendar)

for her son. With disarming honesty, she admits that neither was she aware what exactly she was looking for, nor did those whom she approached seem to know what her son’s unique needs were.
“The best thing about the 3R lab is that it is integrated into my son’s school day. So there is no need to hastily feed him when he gets home from school, freshen him up and then take him out again to remedial classes. It is all done during his school time only, that is such a big boon!”
Not only did this lighten her workload considerably, it also relieved her from answering incessant questions from neighbours and friends: “Where are you taking your son now? To another remedial class? Why does he need these classes?” Annapoorani can understand why teachers in mainstream schools seem to be disappointing in their ability to teach specially-abled children: “After all,” she admits, “they are expected to deal with 35-40 children in each class. So how can they give individual attention to children? Or devote extra time to a specially-abled child? They are not even equipped to deal with such children.”

This is where technology does what a human being may find very difficult to do. Not only does the 3R Lab give the child room to learn at his/her own pace, it also gives the parent/teacher an overall and detailed view of the child’s progress – which the parent can easily access and the teacher can use to suitably alter her teaching methodology. Annapoorani’s eyes glow as she expresses her happiness at the visible progress of Shailendra in English as well as Basic Math: “I can see my child grow and become more independent. I am now able to sleep well!” She chuckles.
When people (including her family members, teachers and neighbours) appeared to give up on her son, that did pull her down, she admits. If she were to traverse this road again, she would take her son to 3R Lab right at the start, she says, with great emphasis. That would have saved her so much energy, time and many sleepless nights. How would she advise young parents of specially-abled children? “The confidence of the mother is the confidence of the child,” Annapoorani asserts. “Don’t ever say – can you do that? Always, declare:

YOU CAN DO THAT! Regardless of what anyone else has to say, a mother should NEVER give up on her child! Every individual has some unique capacity. There is immense potential even inside the mother, which she may herself be totally unaware of.”
Children provide opportunities for their mothers to discover their own innate potential! Mothers should just embrace the challenge and meet it head-on. Are there any takers for this inspiring advice from Annapoorani?

– Dr.Neeraja Raghavan

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