Kaveri starts a parent support group for ‘high ability’ children



PUNE: In order to create awareness, train teachers and develop support groups among parents and the social community over ‘children with higher ability’, Kalmadi High School of Kannada Sangha, Pune launched a ‘Parents Support Group’ through its Kaveri Gifted Education and Research Center (KGERC). This initiative will be for parents of gifted and talented children between the ages of 5 to 20 years. Malati Kalmadi, Founder Director, KGERC, said, “The proposed national education policy talks about ‘inclusion’ but we only understand that there is a group of children with special needs, whose needs are not fully taken care of as we don’t have trained people with knowledge and experience to deal with them. We are looking forward to working with different education boards like ISCE, CBSE and SSC to carry out research programs.”
The support group will be operated for and by the parents with the objectives like sharing parenting practices, sharing resources to support talent development, celebrate child’s achievement and success as a parent and offer comfort, encouragement to each other and help accept the ‘giftedness’.
Devasena Desai, Associate Director, KGERC and Dr. Sameena Manasawala, head of Nurturing Domain, KGERC were present during the launch and discussion along with the parents of the ‘gifted children.
The support group will be operated for and by the parents with the objectives like sharing parenting practices, sharing resources to support talent development, celebrating the child’s achievement and success as a parent and offering comfort, and encouragement to each other and helping accept the ‘giftedness’.