Between arriving and leaving!

It is now ten years since I started working at MOSC Medical college. My contract with the institution comes to an end shortly and the time of moving on is before me. 

Between the time of arriving and leaving, the ten years have brought many memories to live with. 

In  a desire to start a speciality service in child development, I envisaged a facility which would be academically sound and advanced in perspective towards bringing fullness to children who are developmentally challenged. 

Three dimensions unfolded before me during the last ten years. 

The first is that, children with developmental challenges begin the experiences of coping with their special needs in an environment which is ready to help them and their families. However children as our resource of learning about their unspoken needs and of their families is still not at the centre stage of our consideration. The issues confronting child development of developmentally challenged children would need a highly individualised approach. No two children are alike although they have the same diagnostic label. That is because of the different causal pathways making them developmentally challenged. The confounders and co-morbidities make this even more divergent between children. The developmental outcome is influenced by polymorphic influences. This calls for an audit of child development intensely through the optic of the potential resident in a child. A professional in child development has the vocation to accompany a child to his or her fullness of life.

The second is of a new consciousness about pedagogy-childhood teaching and learning process. There were some opportunities to be associated with a school particularly with its programme for children between four and ten years. It was during this process I got a sense of the nearness that was needed between the school and home of children. The nearness between teachers and parents currently is for transacting the academic progress of a child. A child escapes being known for his needs and gifts. The classroom is a theatre for performance and is not essentially an ambience to promote interactive interface between children and adults. Children are expected to learn from adults, but do adults learn from children! The science of pedagogy is so much inclined towards teaching that a deliberate shift towards the learning process and the conditions influencing it during the early years of childhood need greater attention. In that sense child development and pedagogy are two sides of the same coin. 

The third is about parenting and home life of children. The parenting functions are a spectrum of engagements between children and prints. Now the media, grandparents, care givers, child minders and other care givers take the place of parenting roles. Most parents are yet to think about the adverse implications of loss by abdicating their role to others. There is marriage preparation counselling opportunities for couples. But such a programme is not in practice for parenting. The preparation for responsible parenthood starting from planning for pregnancy, preparing for the arrival of a child and accompanying him or her during infancy, toddler season, pre-school period, early school period, mid-school period, high school period, adolescence, young adulthood, etc needs enormous attention. If we want to promote wholistic child development, preparing parents for investing into the lives of children need a formal orientation to parents. 

The above consciousness about three dimension in child development dawned on me during the last ten years. 

I prepare to leave shortly my present position from the department where I work with immense gladness for having been further enlightened during this season in my life. The last ten years in the span of thirty eight years in Child Development gave me an enlarging experience. 

The first fourteen years at the ASHIRVAD Child Development Centre at Chennai, the next eleven years at the Developmental Paediatrics Unit at the Christian Medical College, Vellore, the next three years at the Developmental Paediatrics and Child Neurology Unit at Pondicherry Institute of Medical Sciences and the recent ten years at the Developmental Paediatrics department at MOSC Medial College, Kolenchery have been years of growing and enlarging. 

The people with whom I was given to work with, became companions in this formative journey. They showed me the way and made provisions for me along the way. They were people who shared their life experiences to enrich the personal and professional experiences. 

The parents and children were another big influence in my life. They taught me to grow in the art of listening and observing. They showed me a path that I had not known before.

Anna was the soulmate in this discovering journey. She took major responsibilities for creating  the good traditions of ASHIRVAD in its vocation of caring and sharing. She saw ahead of me many matters which helped ASHIRVAD to pursue its mission.

Between arriving in the discipline of Child Development and now preparing to leave, so much has happened! 

They were years of celebration! Now memories shall last!

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)