My Special Journey with Advaith

     After 2 years when we planned a holiday trip to Goa I prepared a PPT to give Addu a clear idea about the air travel. From the last 4 months, there is a helmet with him that he bought for him and is always keeping next to him. At night also he is keeping that helmet on his bed. We realised that, he likes the texture of that helmet and that is helps him to reduce his anxiety. But during air travel it will be difficult for us to carry that helmet, so we decided to leave it at home. Monday early morning Addu got up and got ready and he was sitting with the helmet. We told him that we will keep the helmet here but he was not ready to leave it. While seeing his anxious face I thought of letting him carry his helmet. Then he was ready to enter into the cab. We reached in airport and airport was too crowded, but Addu was fine. He was standing in the queue for security check and then they asked why he is carrying that. When we informed that Addu is a special child, they agreed to take the

Achievements of Advaith  Challenges faced: Advaith was diagnosed with ADHD and Autism when he was 2.3 years old. We started early intervention programs when he was 2.4 years old.Initially he  responded well to intervention programs. He was completely nonverbal. After 7 months he started crying throughout the session and was denied enrolment by most of the popular early intervention centers in Bangalore. Then I( Addu's mother)decided to do special education training myself. At that time, Bubbles center for autism ( a special school in Bangalore ) gave admission to Advaith. I completed special education training in the same school. Advaith was crying loudly and not cooperating with his teachers. He was not able to sit and focus on activities. He was not able to perform pre-reading and pre-number activities. He was unable to communicate for his needs. All teachers pointed to what Advaith couldn't do. He was a difficult child at school. He was not able to identity alphabets or numb