Dear readers, first of all I would like to thank you all for the overwhelming response to our book - Talking Fingers and the amazing response to the series of interviews that feature the authors of the book every week. We are in the seventh week of our interviews and today let's meet Navneet Kulkarni. He is a 17 year old poet, writer and a published author. Let's get started by chatting with his mom, Neha Kulkarni.
1) Would you like to share your autism journey
with our readers with a special focus on developing communication skills in
Navneet..
Hello!! I am Neha, Navneet's Mother, I am a
home maker, Navneet was diagnosed with Autism when he was around 3yrs, AUTISM was
a very new word for me and even for doctors also, we are living in a district
place where there is lack of awareness of Autism . when Navneet was around 2yrs
we started seeing some changes in him like avoiding kids while playing, sitting
in one corner spinning things, lack of eye contact, hitting ,biting, head
banging, sleeping issues and major thing was delay in speech ,but we were not
knowing anything about Autism symptoms at that time ,we consulted our
pediatrician and he told us to go for BERA test and suggested us to consult ENT
there Navneet was misdiagnosed with Ear loss , and he was given an hearing aid,
but somewhere still my gut feeling was not ready to accept that he was having
hearing loss because he used to listen music, he used to watch TV inf act he was
very very hypersensitive to sounds ,so we decided to take second opinion then I
moved to Bangalore at my parents place and there at Parijma neurodiagnostic and
rehabilitation center his counseling and assessments were done and he was
diagnosed with Autism with symptoms of ADHD , of course it was very hard to
digest the fact that my child is special but more than that I was little
much relaxed because at least we came to
know that why my child is suffering from all these challenges. It was very different
in my case because I was not thinking about Why, What, How he got Autism ,there
was full of acceptance by my husband and even by my family members, but the thing is lack of awareness about
Autism, so I decided to train myself and I took therapies at Bangalore for few
months and then I came back with home training programs and I started
homeschooling him using PECS and through some special educational materials, i
started teaching him functional
academics, I made an OT setup at home and started taking OT activities also at
home because there was no any therapy centre for Autism 15yrs back, so more
than a mother I was a therapist for my son..
Navneet was very poor in receptive language so
I used more gestures to make him understand the language, so initially our
communication started through gestures sometimes he used to respond orally with
two letters words. I wanted my son to be Communicative whatever the mode it is
,I was working more on his communication, along with that I was working on his
speech.
Since I tried very hard for his speech but he
was struggling to connect his sounds to articulate words ,so I decided to teach
him typing ,then I introduced typing when he was around 14. Typing journey
started first with computer keyboard From Typing letters to words then words to
sentences then two way conversations
between us like I typed the questions about his Name, parents name, favourite
colors, birds, food, pet animals ,year, month, weeks, time, we started sharing our
emotions through typing as he was knowing all these things when I was teaching
him everything through modeling, i used many educational apps, sentences
building apps for his language development, i have shared some videos
on my blog on Facebook few years back ..everything started communicating
through typing ..after few months slowly
he started writing poems, quotes and about his Autism. today I feel so
proud of myself and thank god for showing me way to introduce typing to my
child, there was no any social media, special parents groups nor a smart phones
and Google assistant to reach help for me ..I tried my own ways and techniques
to train my child, I am more experienced in this field of Autism with lot of failures and new experiments in
my daily life, My failures are my teachers..
2) So true Neha, our failures are our teachers! Your advice to other Autism parents
please..
Yes !!
The advice which I would like to share with Autism parents is
1.. Don't be Panic, keep yourself physically
and mentally strong, because a big responsibility of your child is on your
shoulders..
2.More than Awareness and Acceptance try to be
more empathetic towards your child
3. Keep your thoughts positive, keep motivating
yourself, build your self confidence in training your child..be Stubborn towards
reaching your goals, prepare a planner for working on your child
4.. Your time is more important for your child
so balance your work accordingly
5.. My son says that every person is
Neurodivergent in one or the other way, I think
every person has some abilities and disabilities, there is no anything
like normal or abnormal we humans are more combined with this..
6..For newly diagnosed special parents I want
to tell you that the counseling and assessments and the Labels are just to
assess what all the challenges and difficulties a child is dealing with so
please don't go with the Labels of Autism ,focus on the difficulties and issues
what your child is having and train them, Don't forget that you are a good
therapist for your child, no one can better understand your child than you.
Now let's meet the star of the interview, Navneet
1) How old are you and where do you live?
Ans ..I am 17 years old, I live in
Solapur, Maharashtra.
2) When did you start to communicate? Please
share your experience with RPM and typing..
Ans .Since From the early years I was able to
communicate, when I was small I used to communicate through gestures, and
sometimes with minimal two letters words orally, my experience with Rapid
prompting method is wonderful. Rapid prompting method is easy way to express
your words through typing, most of the time I use letter boards and gestures
for communication, I use my Tab only when I want to write some poems, quotes or
articles, or when I want to chat with someone through WhatsApp, I use Tab
connected with blue tooth keyboard for typing, but I feel more comfortable using
letter board.
3) Do you remember the first word/sentence you
typed/pointed?
Ans.. The first word which I typed for the
first time is Ant and the first sentence which I typed was" My name is
Navneet. "
4) You write beautiful quotes and poems, what
inspires you?
Ans.. Yes I am very Passionate about writing
quotes and poems. My own brain, my intuitive mind and my parents' big support is
what inspires me to write. Yes I do write what my mind says but my eyes always
capture nature towards perceptual learning so nature always inspires me to
write beautiful poems and quotes..
5) What are your hobbies?
Ans.. Watching birds singing, being with nature
and humming with birds, walking with ants, listening to soothing music,
listening to old Bollywood songs, love doing gardening work, watering plants. I
love Aqua therapy, I love playing with water. I love to play Scavenger hunt..
6) How do you spend your day?
Ans. I spend my day nurturing nature. Good
morning starts with singing birds and with a lot of tasks in mind for writing.
7) Do you like going on vacations, please
share details of your most favourite and latest vacation..
Ans.. Yes I like going on vacations, my
favorite vacation place is Munnar and Mysore, at Munnar spice garden I like the
most. Elephant ride and playing water with elephants Ayurvedic spa resorts are
the best place for relaxation. At Mysore
I like visiting Mysore palace, Ranganatittu bird sanctuary, Mysore zoo.
8)I hear you are a foodie, what are your favourite
foods?
Ans. I love south Indian breakfast, dosa is my
favorite, sambar is my mood revitalization. I love North Indian and Maharashtrian
cuisine, Paneer is my favorite whatever food prepared with including paneer is
my favorite, I like puran poli, kothimbir vadi, amrakhand. Many more in the list,
more I am foodie so thinking about opening food blogs and describe the food
recipes and its nutrition value..
9) You are an ardent bird watcher, please
share a few details..
Ans.. Yes I love watching birds ,in my life
they are my close friends, To be with nature is a real blessing for me ,friends
are singing cuckoo's, red vented bulbul, sparrows, parrots. What I learnt from
birds is importance of playing and singing, importance of time i.e., getting up
early, every divine energy is the pillar for our life .divine energy we get
from nature, parrots are more talkative and naughty, they insight some good
humor in me so I like parrots, cuckoo's are very powerful they only play with
their family, they are very shy birds, they understand only my language i.e., humming, so they come near me, red vented bulbul is very social they enjoy
playing with all other birds red vented bulbul play with love and they are the
most joyful birds, you can see them imitating what words you speak orally..
10) When did you publish your first book? A few details please
Ans . My first book "Autism God's
Beautiful Creation "got published in the year 2020, you see part of my
journey in that book, you can see some poems, quotes, and some moral and
spiritual stories, you can see that book as a whole philosophy of my mind ,My
first book is just part of my wisdom which I tried to share, it's really
interesting book and looks like a diary of my mind.
11) You have another book coming out soon,
would you like to tell us more about that?
Ans.. Yes my second book will be launching
soon, it's in the Q/A format. This book is very close to my heart because
parents have Trusted me and sent their questions regarding their children's
challenges and how to deal with them. This is my soul book I must say because I
answered their queries very much, connecting to them deeply sharing my
experience of Autistic and sensory challenges I tried to give insights of
Autism and how it feels like to be Autistic, This book covers all the topics
related to Autism and social anxiety, sensory issues, autism and emotions,
autism and empathy and special parents bonding with parents and family, and
many more topics you can see In this book..
12) You were recently facilitated for your
accomplishments on Independence, please share more details about that..
Ans.. I was facilitated for my achievements in
this special needs, on Independence day I was honored by PRINCIPAL DISTRICT
JUDGE SOLAPUR MAHARASHTRA for my write
ups and that day was the first stepping stage of my life, I liked the way they
introduced me as their friend. It was such a sweet gestures, they gave me
momentum and I was looking very smart wearing white kurta gifted by Anjana
Satyabodha Ma'am, when I went on stage ,everyone gave pool shots on me by taking
my photos in their mobile, and big applause for me from background, people
appreciated me and I was proud inside and even my parents.
13) Would you like to share your future plans
with us..
Ans .. I am having more plans for my future, I
want to yield insight and experience pure thoughts and emerge with knowledge
and I encourage people to develop their spirituality through my experience, I
want to be a Writer, I want to be an self employed person with own publications
in future, my parents should not be upset because of me, so I want to improve
myself in physical activities more to help them in their old age, in my life I
have only one wish and that is to open an orphanage and serve kids with providing
good education.
14) How was the experience of writing for the
book -Talking Fingers
Ans .. It was a great experience, I was more
busy with my illness, yes I was having lot of pain with urinary tract
infection, it was a tough time for me, for taking this interview questions, I was
little bit yes or no for this choice
because I was not well, during that period my threading ceremony
preparation was going on, so I was not confident about writing answers for the
interviews. Please don't misunderstand me, I am more straight forward Autistic
person, I say what I experience Insight ,but I am task oriented person, so I
just told Neha that you give me some time to write answers. I took some more
time to send my answers, overall I really enjoyed answering it. Thanks to Chitra
Aunty and Padma Aunty for giving me this opportunity..
15) You recently launched your own website, please share a few details..
Ans.. my website is opening shortly ,I have
choose the name for domain registration, I have given the name www.myautismgalaxy.com
to be more convenient for people to read my articles I have launched my
website, passionate readers can visit my
page, right from poems to fictional stories, Quotes to articles, and humorous
jokes to animation story, Autism related information and every query of parents will be answered by me giving deeper insights ,You
can view everything in my galaxy of imagination ,now your every comments and
stars play a valuable role in highlighting my website, Please do visit my website
and promote it, and keep motivating me for writing.
DISCLAIMER: The views expressed by the guest in this interview are their own independent opinions and do not necessarily reflect the views of the host and owner of the blog. Readers are advised to exercise their own discretion and seek professional advice where necessary.
