By Kathakali Das Pandey | Project Manager
Gokul is a smart young man who loves making art works with colours. His paintings were displayed in group art show like Planet Autism. Gokul lives in Ananda, a residential setup run by Action for autism.
Gokul had some sensory issues like many persons with autism. He had weak muscle tone and lot of proprioceptive and vestibular difficulties. As a result, he used to constantly keep on moving his body like rocking , he could not sit in one place for more than five minutes and he had to get up and pace across the room.
So, proprioceptive and vestibular input activities were introduced. Gokul started doing muscle strengthening exercises. These included lifting weights, adapted crunches, pushing heavy objects etc. With the exercises improvement in his stamina has been observed. Earlier he was able to walk only one round in Ananda campus, now he is able to finish three to four rounds.
Exercises like balancing on a therapy ball, walking on a single brick path, etc led to improvement like less rocking, more focus etc.
But the biggest positive change happened with his hearing sensitivity. Earlier even if he heard any noise in the distance he used to freak out, going to crowded places were very difficult. With the set of exercises suggested by the therapist his toleration for different kinds of noises are getting better.
Occupational therapies and various other physical activities are part of the daily schedule of all residents. They do walking, cycling, yoga under the supervision of the trained persons. Outdoor group play like catch and throw, football, cricket etc. are very much enjoyed by them.
Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.
If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can recieve an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.