Refered from the Upanayan User Manual by Madhuram Narayanan Centre for Exceptional Children

1. UPANAYAN : Assessment
Tool used at Pre-School
level
By Gopika M N
B.Ed Special Education (ID)

2. Tool at Pre School level ?
 At the age of 3 or 4 a child attends a pre – school.
 A child begins to learn Developmental milestones from his/her birth to six
years (0-6).
 Therefore we can also say Pre schooling starts at the age of 0-6 years.
 Child shows his/her skills at pre Schooling.

3. WHAT IS UPANAYAN ?
 Upanayan is an assessment tool used at Pre-School level.
 An assessment tool for young children that covers children in the age
group of 0-6 years.
 Upanayan is a systematic, structured, early-intervention programme for
the training of children with developmental delays and Intellectual
Disability.
 Developed at Madhuram Narayanan Centre for Exceptional Children,
Chennai.
 The programme was developed and designed to suit the Indian socio-
economic conditions and cultural environment.

4.  Designed for two groups of children : (1) birth to two-years; (2) two-
years to six-years.
 Upanayan enables the family members particularly the mother to be
the trainer or educator of the child.
 Another unique feature of this programme is that it combines
traditional wisdom of child-care from India and other parts of the
with interventio
 If a child completes a task Letter A is entered and if he/she yet to
perform letter B is entered.

5. HISTORY OF UPANAYAN
 UPANAYAN meaning “to lead along”, symbolic of the teacher taking the child along the
path of education.
 Inchem Research and Development Laboratory, a scientific association
for research and development in the area of electronics, took up the
project ‘Upanayan.’

6.  Earlier Services available to persons with intellectual disabilities in India was
grossly inadequate.
 Also noted there was no standard or systematic training programme for
infants & young children with ID.
 ‘Upanayan’ project was taken up in January 1987 to develop a computer
aided programme limited to to a few skills in selected areas.
 A Presentation of the programme was given in March 1987 at national
workshop on “Development of portage Kit manual and Materials for Training
Children with Menatl Handicap and their parents” conducted at Delhi.
 This project was Encouraged by experts with a holistic approach to the
management of children with Mental Retardation.

7.  Upanayan used by the parents and guardians of children at home and
at institutions and resource centers for servicing the child with
developmental disability or delay.
 Executed by a team of experts comprising prof P Jeyachandran Dr
Nandini mundkur, Mrs Jaya Krishnaswamy, & V Krishna Swamy.
 Conceptualization of necessary skills and scripting of training modules
was the contribution of Mrs. Jaya Krishnaswamy.
 The Upanayan programme was tried out in Tamil Nadu, Kerala &
Karnataka.

8. THE UPANAYAN PACKAGE

9. THE UPANAYAN PROGRAMME PACKAGE
CONSISTS OF :
1. The Upanayan Checklist
2. Activity Cards
3. Materials for assessment and training
4. Computer software (Upaneeta - optional)
1) The Upanayan Check List :covers broadly the five areas of development.
 Arranged in the normal developmental sequence of a child.
 It comprises five domains & total of 250 skills.
 MOTOR - 50 Skills
 SELF-HELP - 50 Skills
 LANGUAGE - 50 Skills
 COGNITION - 50 Skills
 SOCIALISATION - 50 Skills

10. MOTOR
 Moves Head to side while on back
 Moves Head while on back
 Attempts to hold Head up when pulled to sitting
 Stands with maximum support.
 Imitates circular motion
SELF HELP
 Sucks and swallows Liquid.
 Opens Mouth and Head for bottle/ Breaston when Nipple touches
Mouth.
 Vocalize/ Cries when wet.
 Unwraps chocolates, peels banana.
 Slips on shoes with aid.

11.  LANGUAGE
 Responds to sound by quitening, by attention by following direction of
sound. By eye & body movement.
 Responds to gesture with gesture.
 Says own name upon request.
COGNITION
 Removes cloth from face that obscures vision.
 Labels objects in his environment.
 Finds specific personal item on request.
SOCIALIZATION
 Responds to visual stimulation.
 Responds to tactile stimulation
 Listens to story, answers simple questions relating to it.

12. 2) The Activity Cards: Are in five parts, one part for each of the five
development at areas like Motor skills, Self Help skills, Language skills,
Congniton, Socialization.
 For easy identification, cards of the different areas are coloured
differently.
 Step by step instructions to carry out various activities to train the child
to acquire.
 Activity card shows the required skills listed in the checklist.
 Illustrations of the child/the teacher performing the activities.
 A list of materials required for each activity.
 Specimen of a typical activity card is given in Annexure II.
 Activity 1 includes Child’s favourite toys, his joola or swing

13.  Vocalize displeasure when favourite/Needed/Toy is withdrawn or preffered
activity is stopped.

14. SKILL LINKS
(SELF HELP – WITH OTHER AREAS)
 Self Help is the pillar in developmental progress of child.
 By using the programme ‘Upanayan’ it has been recognized that a set of
link skills with self help skills is easy for connectivity.
1. Self Help skills are serially listed.
2. The linked skills are given below
3. Abbreviations used:
 MSK – Motor Skill
 SHSK – SELF Help Skill
 LSK – Language Skill
 CSK – Congniton Skill
 SSK – Socialisation Skill

15. SHSK SKILLS
1. Sucks and swallow Liquid - Nil
2. Opens Mouth and turns head for bottle/breast when nipple touches mouth –
Nil
3. Vocalizes/Cries when wet
LSK – 2) cries differently due to different discomfort.
4) Reaches for bottle.
MSK – 5 Swipes at object
MSK – 12 Reaches for objects in front
LSK - 3 Follows sound, moving head.
CSK - 2 Looks for object that has been removed from direct line of
vision
SSK - 6 Looks at person attempting to gain attention.

16. 3) LIST OF MATERIALS REQUIRED
1. Toys ( brightly coloured, sound producing)
2. Bells
3. Rattle
4. Torch
5. Balloon
6. Doll ( girl doll, boy doll with removable dress)
7. Dolls (other items like push cart, cooking set, household items)
8. Beads ( coloured, Inch siz with large hole)
9. Bangles ( colorful, metal, plastic)
10. Biting Ring

17. 11. Furniture (Light items, chair with arms, swing)
12. Pillows
13. Bath/ Toilet Items
14. Feeding Items ( milk bottle with nipple, cup, glass, straw)
15. Food items ( Cerials, idli)
16 Other items( containers, wooden blocks, sand pit)

18. 4) COMPUTER SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT- UPANEETA
 Forward to Documentation
 After almost two decades of satisfactorily using the Upanayan Early
Intervention Programme in Madhuram Narayanan center and other Centers, it
was realized that the computerization of the Programme was the need of the
hour for data entry and analysis.

19. Procedure For Application of the
Programme
 Forms and records
 Pre registration form
 The registration form
 Assessment record profile
 Application of the programme
 Complete the registration form.
 Keep ready (necessity of materials for assessments)
 Periodical assessments (point of entry, end of first quarter, second quarter
& third quarter.)
 Data entry ( child’s name, DOB, age at entry)

20.  Commencement of the intervention programme ( keep ready all
assessment materials, make child as comfortable as possible)
 Setting goals and objectives
 Interventional activities (pick out the relevant upanayan activity card)
 Impart training (training on daily basis)
 Daily observations
 Maintain Daily Observation Book.
 concluding note (child is a active participant and trainer the mother is the
best motivator)

21. Thank you