At Vidya Sagar we have been working on Augmentative Alternative Communication for many years, initially with the support of Indian Institute of Cerebral Palsy, Calcutta, because they were the pioneers of AAC.

And, we had a lot of children who were non-verbal, and uh, we needed to find uh, good devices for them.

So we were using Kathamala, and all the other devices that Calcutta had done.

But, the big problem was that we uh, were not able to get high-tech devices in our own country.

And the ones we got from abroad were so expensive that nobody had the uh, guts really to use them on an everyday basis.

So we decided that we will have a, a little conference, uh, conference only for the tech- technology people, only for IIT Madras and Anna University.

And we called it the ‘Silent Revolution’, and we made films of our children and what they can do, and how we needed a device which they needed to create to support us for our children.

And all those techies of IIT made- worked on many devices.

What came out of it was AVAZ.

Now it is with Invention Labs, but it is a baby of the Silent Revolution.

And also, uh, Aditi, Aditi is a uh, non-touch mouse for, and you can use it from any part of your body, you can move your hand and you can use Aditi to type out.

You know, out of, in our day school, 120 children, 80 are non-verbal and AAC users.

So it’s a whole lot of kids who need this, and it’s hard because we haven’t found solutions for everybody yet, but looking, trying to do that.

Will you introduce yourself?

I am Prahladh

Summer vacation.

Oh you’re having summer vacation!

What have you been doing in the summer vacation?

We started to my grandparents’ place on the 3rd of May.

Oh, and what did you, what do you do there?

Did you have some fun?

I went to Ganesh temple, Sai Baba temple, shopping, my relatives’ house.

What is your favorite sports?

I watched IPL cricket.

And who’s your favorite cricket player?

Do you have a favorite cricket player?

V

V

Who would that be?

K

Virat Kohli!

Hi, I’m Srikala, Prahladh’s mom.

He’s a cerebral palsy child.

So he’s non-verbal.

So, initially he doesn’t have anything, neck control or everything.

After giving proper therapy, he is able to walk now.

Communication, initially, he used to show sign languages.

Many people can’t understand, I used to translate everything.

So when I came to Vidya Sagar, uh, the ma’am, everything had told about AAC, AVAZ.

So he is using very nicely now, and he is communicating.

He’s having little spelling problem, but predictions he’ll uhh, identify with that, and he’ll answer for everything, whatever anyone ask.

I use at home also, with relatives, everyone.

Everyone is so happy, and he’s so happy.

He’s able to communicate more things.

Studies also I’ll use, but uhh, when coming to the examination point of view, they won’t allow this.

So if they allow means, he’ll answer more questions for um, more answers, everything he’ll get.

He’ll show interest also.

He can’t spell, he can’t remember the spelling, and he can’t type in that, that processing problem is there.

But he can read the word.

Because of that he’s, sometimes he’s not showing interest to write exams, but he likes to listen everything.