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Brain Bristle was born from the knowing that today, in India 1 out of every 100 under 10 year olds is diagnosed on the autism spectrum, many of them are in our country's inclusive public schools. What's important to note is 70% of our country's students are in our govt run/ low income schools so autistic students are either a part of that infrastructure or a part of our 5500+ special schools.
Brain Bristle wondered, who is supporting these students in our 70% govt run or low income schools? And, what if we intensively early intervened there- to begin with at Mumbai's low income schools and prevented these autistic students admitted in inclusion from falling out of the mainstream schooling and getting admitted to a special school because of the lack of manpower/ budget allocation to support these kids/ or the needs they bring that low income schools or govt run schools aren't equipped to handle.
Branches of this vision were to then share research and stories globally of what our on-ground team has been able to accomplish with students in inclusion at our city schools and what is possible for our country's banks of knowledge, if they are mined to their most efficiency (not just the autistic students we hold in mainstream education and inclusion but also young Indians we can bring to work with brimming intelligence, all keen on social work)....to think of each autistic student who's dropping out of mainstream education and the drain it must have on our country's intellectual wealth.
So we begin June with:
a) 10 low income or govt run Mumbai schools, with autistic students included in mainstream classrooms receiving full support via our excellent, hand-picked social work team- they will be supporting the classroom teachers, students in the classroom and the autistic students on their register a part of their time at school.
Most of our social work team is either working as therapists, counsellors, or enrolled in a B Ed after the time they commit to Brain Bristle.
b) our new curricular and training head, Vajid Ali, to build further precision to the work our team does on the ground in education, inclusion, exposure, equity and access. Vajid comes from an Applied Behaviour Analysis background (it's a learning and behaviour based theory of working with autism)- we're hoping with his time with us, we're able to take him on a journey of all the exciting pedagogy in education and the arts and he can keep focusing us back to behaviours, skill acquisition and tasks.
c) our very excited young partnership manager, Samruddhi Bora, will begin leading partnerships and take the lead on workshops and camps across the country for Brain Bristle in full force. She's already been in touch with the Dubai Centre for Autism.
d) Our research cell is growing with a research analyst coming on board soon, to draw out insights and findings from our work on the ground and publish it across academia.
Brain Bristle wondered, who is supporting these students in our 70% govt run or low income schools? And, what if we intensively early intervened there- to begin with at Mumbai's low income schools and prevented these autistic students admitted in inclusion from falling out of the mainstream schooling and getting admitted to a special school because of the lack of manpower/ budget allocation to support these kids/ or the needs they bring that low income schools or govt run schools aren't equipped to handle.
Branches of this vision were to then share research and stories globally of what our on-ground team has been able to accomplish with students in inclusion at our city schools and what is possible for our country's banks of knowledge, if they are mined to their most efficiency (not just the autistic students we hold in mainstream education and inclusion but also young Indians we can bring to work with brimming intelligence, all keen on social work)....to think of each autistic student who's dropping out of mainstream education and the drain it must have on our country's intellectual wealth.
So we begin June with:
a) 10 low income or govt run Mumbai schools, with autistic students included in mainstream classrooms receiving full support via our excellent, hand-picked social work team- they will be supporting the classroom teachers, students in the classroom and the autistic students on their register a part of their time at school.
Most of our social work team is either working as therapists, counsellors, or enrolled in a B Ed after the time they commit to Brain Bristle.
b) our new curricular and training head, Vajid Ali, to build further precision to the work our team does on the ground in education, inclusion, exposure, equity and access. Vajid comes from an Applied Behaviour Analysis background (it's a learning and behaviour based theory of working with autism)- we're hoping with his time with us, we're able to take him on a journey of all the exciting pedagogy in education and the arts and he can keep focusing us back to behaviours, skill acquisition and tasks.
c) our very excited young partnership manager, Samruddhi Bora, will begin leading partnerships and take the lead on workshops and camps across the country for Brain Bristle in full force. She's already been in touch with the Dubai Centre for Autism.
d) Our research cell is growing with a research analyst coming on board soon, to draw out insights and findings from our work on the ground and publish it across academia.
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