Date: March 1-2, 2013
Venue: Citi Academy for Special Education, Mumbai.
The Forum for Learning Disabilities - 2013

A Workshop to Spread Awareness and Build Capability in Learning Disability beyond Mumbai

In keeping with the Tata Group's corporate sustainability endeavours, Tata Interactive Systems (TIS) has initiated several pioneering measures to ensure that students with learning disabilities (LD) get their rightful place in the educational system; to encourage, enable and empower them to achieve their full potential and help them rediscover the joy of learning.

TLDF 2013 extending beyond Mumbai to regional districts in Maharashtra to spread awareness and build capability at the local level

From the initial funding support to the only LD clinic in India in 2002, LD awareness has increased. Today there are 3 clinics in Maharashtra, but all located in Mumbai. Over the last year, we have noted an increased number of requests to help them learn and set up local LD clinic facilities in their districts.

Continuing what we began with in 2010, TIS will hold the TLDF 2013 to extend our efforts beyond Mumbai to our state of Maharashtra by targeting our efforts to providing in-depth training and guidance to key “Change Agents” from key districts in Maharashtra willing to initiate LD Clinics and Remedial efforts in their districts. This in-depth training and guidance will address the following topics: Detection, Diagnosis, clinic developmental aspects, remedial education and counseling.

TIS has therefore decided to sponsor/host a 2-day residential workshop for a maximum of 70 people from Mumbai and different key district areas of Maharashtra with the aim of providing them enough of a starting knowledge to enable them to make a difference and impact for the LD students in your school and region of the state.

Owing to the new format of the TLDF as a workshop, we have this year only a very limited number of seats to ensure that this workshop is effective. Participation is by invitation only.

Should you wish to participate, we request you to fill the “Request for Registration” form below, providing the personal and professional details requested. All requests for participation will treated confidentially. Requests will be vetted and reviewed by a panel of professionally qualified LD experts and a select few will be chosen based on criteria defined by this panel. The key objective is to ensure that the chosen participants will have the enthusiasm, seniority, experience and capability to make a visible impact for the learning disabled community in their schools and districts of the state.

Registration and Participation at the TLDF 2013 Workshop

This workshop is a residential workshop over a period of 2 days at a select hotel venue in Mumbai. Tata Interactive Systems will be sponsoring the boarding and lodging for selected participants at this workshop as per the following:

1. Only selected and confirmed participants may attend this workshop and avail of the arranged boarding and lodging facilities at no cost to them, since TIS will be bearing the boarding and lodging costs for the duration of the workshop for the night of the 1 March 2013.
2. TIS will be providing a free pickup and drop transportation between the venue and Dadar Railway Station, Mumbai.
3. Selected and confirmed Participants will be required to bear the cost of travel (both to Mumbai and from Mumbai) from their regular/current place of stay to Dadar, Mumbai.
4. No Additional nights of stay will be available at the hotel as per the current negotiated arrangement between TIS and the hotel management.
5. Only participants are invited and can avail of the provided boarding and lodging facilities and participation at the workshop. No spouses, family members or guests of invited participants will be permitted access/accommodation to the workshop or the hotel/venue.

The TLDF 2013 forum is an invitation-only event with no participation fee. Please e-mail/post this registration form to us if you are interested in attending the event.

Please note that the seats are limited and subject to availability.

The Background of the TLDF

Tata Interactive Systems’ (TIS) focuses its corporate sustainability and community responsibilities around Learning Disabilities (LD) such as dyslexia, dyscalculia, dysgraphia. Towards this, TIS has been an active supporter of the first LD Clinic in Mumbai. In 2006, TIS extended its efforts for the LD community by hosting the Tata Learning Disability Forum (TLDF) as the first global symposium of its kind in India, where leading experts in learning disabilities (LD) can meet to create awareness and enable progress in remediation activities for children with special education needs. Since then, TIS has hosted this event annually, each year centered around a specific theme. Past events have been highly successful both in terms of the increase in awareness about LD and the response we received from schools, the state government and the participants.

Year	TIS Initiatives and Theme of the Year
2002	“Keep alive” funding support to the LD Clinic at the LTMG Hospital that would have otherwise closed down
2003	Extending funding to additional clinical staff, doctors and provision of infrastructure(Computers, Phones)
2004	LD Clinic Process Systematisation, Clinic & Patient Management Software
2005	TIS authors & publishes “Brain Teasers”, a remedial activity book for students recently diagnosed LD
2006	Partnering with MDA, nasen, UK, IDA, USA to host the first Learning Disability Forum in India Theme: Awareness
2007	Monitoring spread of LD certification, awareness and certifications amongst schools LD Awareness Workshops in Schools Theme: Multi-disciplinary approach
2008	TIS sponsored & partnered with Sion LTMG Clinic on a Research Survey of LD certified children to determine key enablers, barriers and demographics (age of detection) LD introduced as subject within the regular MBBS curriculum in Maharashtra Theme: Focus on research
2009	TIS sponsored & partnered with LTMG Clinic on surveying applicability and usefulness of a simple diagnostic checklist at the primary school level usable by the primary teachers to accelerate early detection of LD in children Theme: Reducing the age of LD detection in India
2010	Opened LD Clinic at KEM Hospital Theme: Focus on spreading awareness and building local LD capabilities, beyond Mumbai
2011	Quarterly LD Awareness and Training Workshops for School Teachers and Principals in Mumbai and Kolkata sponsored by Tata Interactive Systems with faculty drawn from the LD Clinic at the KEM Hospital Theme: Focus on spreading awareness and building local LD capabilities, beyond Mumbai.

TIS' LD initiatives have resulted in the following key outcomes:

• About 355 learning disabled children have received LD certification in the year 2010.
• About 195 schools have registered for LD certification in the year 2010.
• TIS has worked with LD Core Team from the LD Hospital to test and improve the early diagnostics testing screen for primary classes.
• The subject of LD has been made a part of the MBBS syllabus in Maharashtra.
• TIS employees are volunteering to improve awareness of LD in Mumbai and Kolkata
• TIS has worked with the LD clinic team to test and improve the early diagnostics testing screen for primary classes.
• Since 2010, TIS is supporting the new LD clinic at the King Edward Memorial Hospital (KEM) in Mumbai.
• Additionally in 2011, TIS supports and sponsors the Teacher Training program focused on increasing awareness of LD through workshops held at the KEM Hospital in Mumbai and to be held in Kolkata, with faculty drawn from the LD Clinic at the KEM Hospital.

[t] +91 22 6643 8000
[f] +91 22 6643 8800
[e] TLDF@TATAINTERACTIVE.COM