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BALAVIDYALAYATHE SCHOOL FOR YOUNG DEAF CHILDREN

46thANNUAL REPORT FOR THE YEAR 2015 - 2016

We have great pleasure in submitting the 46th Annual Report ofBALAVIDYALAYA, The School for Young Deaf Children, Chennai.

45thANNUAL DAY CELEBRATIONS:

The 45thAnnual Day of the School was celebrated on the 28th February 2015 atthe Counseling Hall, College of Engineering, Anna University Chennai. It wasattended by over 900 participants consisting of family members of the students,alumni and their family members, representatives from the other special schoolsand our well-wishers. The children who were going to leave the school in June2015 for integration into mainstream schools recited Nursery Rhymes.

Dr. K. Manivasan IAS, State Commissioner for the Differently Abled,Government of Tamilnadu presided over the function. During his Presidentialaddress Dr. Manivasan appreciated the school for sharing their expertise in EarlyIntervention by training teachers for the Government sponsored district centresin the state. He released the 45th Souvenir.

Dr. Swati Padankatti Senior Consultant Pediatrician, Sundaram MedicalFoundation Chennai delivered the Key note address. She is involved in NeoNatal Screening and she appreciated the school for making best use of thecritical period in children by enrolling infants and young children into theprogramme.

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Prof. M. Ramakrishna, Professor of Aero Space Engineering, IIT Madras spokeabout Ms. Sanjana an alumni student of the school. He said that Sanjana wasa brilliant student and he does not remember to have provided her any extrasupport in the class.

Mementos were given away by the guests to the Computer OperatorMrs. J. Chitra for completing 20 years and the Teaching staff Mrs. Thulasi &Mrs. Chellammal for completing 10 years of service at school. Books andMedals were presented to the children from the mainstream schools who gotintegrated in June 2014.

Mrs. Vijeyalakshmi Prasanna the mother of Nitila from the English Section andMrs. Revathi Balasundar the mother of Monisha from Tamil Section shared theirexperiences in helping their children cross the barrier of silence and acquireverbal language skills. Both Nitila and Monisha were getting ready forintegration in to 1st Standard in mainstream schools in June 2015.

Our alumni Mr. Mohan Raj Ravikumar B.Tech shared his experiences in themainstream schools, college and in Union Bank of India where he is presentlyemployed.

THE SCHOOL:

On the 28th April 2015 the School closed for Summer Vacation. The Staff workedfor a week to update the Teaching Learning Materials. The School reopenedon 8thJune 2015.

ADMISSION OF INFANTS AND YOUNG CHILDREN:

Admission is not restricted to the beginning of the year. Children get admittedthroughout the year, as and when they come seeking admission, even on thelast working day of the term/year so that they would not lose further timewithout intervention.

From June 2015 until date 40 infants and young children have got admittedinto the school.

From our experience we find that earlier the babies get enrolled in theintervention programme, better are their achievements in language, speech andlistening skills. In the span of 3 to 4 years more than 95% of the children developage appropriate skills in Motor, Listening, Language, Speech and Cognitionalong with Readiness skills in Reading, Writing and Number Work. When thechildren are around 5 or 6 years old they leave for integration into 1st Standardof Mainstream Schools to pursue their studies along with their hearing peers.

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Sl.No Name of the Student Mainstream School

One family member of the child, mostly the mother of the child, is trained tobe the Resource Person for the child. She/he is in constant touch with the classteacher in the mainstream school and the other children in the class. She/he isalso in touch with BALAVIDYALAYA and gets help and support wheneverrequired.

INTEGRATION OF CHILDREN INTO MAINSTREAM SCHOOLS:

In 2015 June, 15 students from the Tamil section and 8 from the English sectiontotaling 23 students have joined 1st Standard in regular schools for integration.22 students were 5 years old and one student was 6 years old. One girl fromTamil section has joined a school in her home town Vandavasi and two childrenfrom the English section have joined schools in their home town Mumbai.The rest have joined schools in Chennai.

The details of the students are as under:

TAMIL SECTION

1 B. R. Monisha Vandavasi

2 R. Nethrapriya Chennai

3 S. Monika Chennai

4 V. Hinduja Chennai

5 V. Supraja Chennai

6 V. Thanusree Chennai

7 J. Tharika Chennai

8 G. Charulekha Chennai

9 A. Lakshithwaran Chennai

10 R. Akash Chennai

11 G. Jayaprakash Chennai

12 P. Harish Chennai

13 J. Gurudayal Chennai

14 A. Balajeevan Chennai

15 K. Kamalesh Chennai

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Sl.No Name of the Student Mainstream School

ENGLISH SECTION

16 R. Arni Mumbai

17 R. Anshuman Mumbai

18 P. Nithila Chennai

19 G. Vaishnavi Chennai

20 Jaa. Sarika Chennai

21 N. Gopika Chennai

22 K. John Mathew Chennai

23 M. Gubendhran Chennai

At the end of each academic year the parents of the students send us the ProgressReport issued by the mainstream schools so that we could update the CumulativeRecord of the students.

Around 600 alumni students are presently studying in mainstream schools indifferent standards.

In 2015 May, 31alumni students, 18 from Tamil stream and 13 from Englishstream have passed out of the 10th standard.

In the State Board from the Tamil medium :

A. Akshaya topped the list with 90%( 360/400)followed by

S. Janani with 84.5% (422/500)

M. Lekhashri with 83% (415/500)

K. Anupriya with 82% (411/500)

V. Yagulamary with 80% (401/500) and

The others have scored between 60% and 70%.

In the CBSE English medium

Adila Akbar has topped with 9.6 in followed by

R. Abinandh with 9.2.

All of them have joined 11th standard, some in their own schools and others ina different school in different group of studies of their choice.

Janani

Lekhasree Anupriya

Aadila AkbarAbinandh

Akshaya

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In 2015 May 28 alumni students, 21 from Tamil stream and 7 from Englishstream have passed out of 12th standard from mainstream schools.

In State Board

Naveen Kumar has topped the list with 82.7% (827/1000) and hasjoined B.Com in Vivekananda College, Chennai.

He is followed by Dinesh Kumar with 80.7% (969/1200). He hasjoined BBA in Jain College, Chennai.

In CBSE English medium

Kushagra Srivastava has topped the English stream with 92% inCBSE from New Delhi. He has joined B.A English at Hindu CollegeUniversity of Delhi.

He is followed by Shraddha Agarwal from Chennaiwith 91% in CBSE and she has joined B.Com in StellaMaris Chennai

Jaisuriya Rogers from Pondicherry has scored 83.9%in CBSE and has joined B.Tech Computer Science inCollege of Engineering, Pondicherry.

Vignesh Prasad from Dubai has joined B.Tech(Electronics & Instrumentation) in B.M.S. College ofEngineering, Bangalore,

Saumen Gaurav has joined BCA at Jain University inBangalore.

In January 2016 Ramya Venkat passed CA Final.She is the 3rd Chartered Accountant in the family ofBalavidyalayans. She is working with KPMG India Pvt Ltd.

In May 2015, Denny George Sebastian an alumnus ofthe school passed out in ME Mechanical Engineeringfrom the Rochester University US. He is at presentdoing his Optional practicum training.

Siddharth Ashok Kumar successfully passed out ofBE (Mechanical Engineering) and has joined UnitedIndia Insurance Mumbai as an Officer Trainee.

Naveenkumar

Kushagra

ShraddhaAgarwal

JaisuriyaRogers

Vignesh

SaumenGaurav

RamyaVenkat

DennyGeorge

Sebastian

SiddharthAshok Kumar

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Rahul Rajan has got an appointment at State Bank of India.He donated his first salary to the school as a mark of respect.We congratulate Rahul and thank him for the donation.

THE FUTURE SCIENTIST IN GENETICS TAKES PARTIN THE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE AT DUBLIN:Mahita Jarjapu B.Tech from Hyderabad and MSc from IITMadras is doing her 2nd year of PhD in National Centre ofBiological Sciences (NCBS) Bangalore on Gene Technology. InJuly 2015 she participated as a Poster Presenter in the International

Conference held in Dublin, Ireland.

FEATURE ON THE MICROSOFT PROFESSIONAL

Swetha .Mv.Nv. working in Microsoft – Seattle- US, gets featuredin "Careers and disABLED" magazine, U.S.A.

THE LAWYER FROM BANGALOREPARTICIPATES IN YOUTH WITH DISABILITIESAT UN CONFERENCE:

Chinnu Maria Babu, BABL (Hons) from NLS Bangaloreand an employee of Wipro Bangalore was selected byDisabled Persons International (DPI) .

She spoke in the 2nd Global Summit on Youth with Disabilities at the UNCONFERENCE of State Parties to the Convention on the Rights of DisabledPeople (UNCRPD) held at the UN Headquarters in New York.

THE YOUNG BASKETBALL PLAYER GOES INTERNATIONAL

Vijai Pranav a third year student of School of Excellence in Law- Chennai has been selected as one of the top 14 in the JuniorTeam by the National Basket Ball Association – USA

THE BUDDING YOUNG JOURNALIST GETS HERFIRST BOOK PUBLISHED:

Vanshika Baskaran a class six student inCoimbatore has been chosen by the school as theStudent Counselor of the Primary Section. She is in charge of theclasses 1 to 5. She is a young writer and a collection of her shortstories and poems have been published as a book by TimbuktooPublishing house.

Chinnu Maria Babu

Vijai Pranav

VanshikaBaskaran

Rahul Rajan

Mahita Jarjapu

Swetha

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Pavithra Mukunnan

THE YOUNG LEADER

Ashmita Mitra a class five student in Guwahati has been chosenby her school as the Head Girl of the Primary section.

YOUNG ACHIEVER’S AWARD:

In March 2015 Pavithra Mukunnan analumnus received the Young AchieverAward from the Rotary Club of AnnaNagar.

BALAVIDYALAYA takes thisopportunity to congratulate all the alumniachievers. Since its inception in 1969over 1,200 students have joinedmainstream schools from Balavidyalaya.The alumni of the school have qualified themselves as Ph.D, M.S. ME, BE,M.Tech, B.Tech, CA, ICWA, ACS, MBA, MCA etc., and are well settled along withtheir hearing peers in their chosen fields.

UPGRADATION OF DIAGNOSTIC CENTRE – DONATION BYJINDAL SAW LTD. :

In April 2015 an OTO ACOUSTICEMISSION SCREENER (OTOPORTOAE) was donated by Jindal SAW Ltd,and was installed in the DiagnosticCentre. Now our audiologists are able toscreen newborn and very young infantsfor hearing loss. We extend our gratitudeto Jindal SAW Ltd.

WEBSITE UPDATED:

Apex Foundation Virginia US created and is

maintaining our web site www.balavidyalayaschool.org.

The website was updated with the latest information on

the school and with facilities to upload information

periodically. We extend our heart full thanks to Apex

for their continued patronage to the school.

Ashmita Mitra

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THE RAINS & THE FLOODS:The school building suffered amassive damage during the rainsand floods during November andDecember 2015. The water enteredthe ground floor and damaged thechildren’s chairs, a shelf, the floor,sound treated walls of the classrooms and the entire DiagnosticCentre. Termites and ants werefound floating in the classrooms.

A lot of work had to be done to make the premises child friendly. The buildinghad to be fumigated against fungus and molds, floors had to be heated up withhalogen lamps, flooring of the Diagnostic centre had to be ripped off andreplaced. The toilets had to be redone as the sewage water from the road enteredthe premises through the closets.

The repair work was taken up in war footing.

COROMANDEL INTERNATIONAL LTD. : We thank CoramandelInternational Limited - Telangana for supporting the renovation of the toiletsand wash area of the school under their CSR activities.

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ASHA FOR EDUCATION - US

ASHA for Education – US have supported us enablingus to fumigate the entire building, administer pestcontrol treatment, and replenish the damaged TeachingLearning Material. Repair to the walls and flooring ofthe classrooms is pending and will be taken up duringthe holidays. We thank ASHA for Education for thissupport.

ALUMNI AND PARENTS

We extend our thanks to some of the alumni andparents of the alumni for extending help towards therenovations of the Diagnostic Center.

STATE GOVERNMENT

The District Rehabilitation Officer provided somemats to be used for the babies in the Early InterventionProgramme. They also supplied bed sheets and dressesto the children whose homes were affected by the rainsand floods. We thank the government for the same.

DONATION OF WATER DISPENSER:

We thank the Bank of Baroda for donatinga Water Dispenser to the school.

DONATION BY THURSDAYCHARITY CLUB

We thank Thursday Ladies Charitable Trustfor giving us a donation on their Founder’sDay which was received by Dr. Valli Annamalai

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AWARDS RECEIVED:

BALAVIDYALAYA RECEIVED NATIONAL AWARD:

On the International Day of the Disabled BALAVIDYALAYA The School forYoung Deaf Children and The Institute for Teacher Training had the honour ofreceiving the coveted NATIONAL AWARD for Creating Outstanding BarrierFree Environment for Persons with Disabilities. The Citation by the Ministryof Social Justice Government of India stated that the National Award is conferredon BALAVIDYALAYA, Chennai for their endeavor to break the barrier ofcommunication among the young children with hearing impairment.

The Award function was held at the Vigyan Bhavan New Delhi.It carried a Certificate, a Citation and a cash award of Rupees two lakhs.Dr. Valli Annamalai the Honorary Principal received the award from theHon’ble Minister Shri Arun Jaitley.

We thank the Government for honoring us with this prestigious award.

VOCATIONAL EXCELLENCEAWARD FROM THE ROTARYCLUB:

In December 2015 Dr. Meera Sureshreceived the Vocational ExcellenceService Award from the Rotary Club ofAdyar.

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LIFE TIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD:

In January 2016 during the NationalConference held in SGS Vagdevi CentreBangalore Mrs. Saraswathi Narayanaswamyreceived Dr. Shantha RadhakrishnanEndowment Award for Life TimeAchievement in the field of EarlyIntervention of deaf children. The Awardconsisted of a Plague, a Citation and a cashAward of Rs. 10,000/-.

PARTICIPATION IN SEMINARS,WORKSHOPS & MEETINGS:

A true teacher is a constant learner. Participating inSeminars, Symposiums and Workshops help teachers inupdating their knowledge and skills.

In October 2015 a Workshop on COMPREHENSIVEHEALTH, HYGIENE, EDUCATION AND DEVELOPMENTFOR THE WELFARE OF THE DIFFERNTLY ABLEDCHILDREN was conducted by the Department of Welfareof the Differently Abled, Government of Tamilnadu and UNICEF. Mrs.Saraswathi Narayanaswamy presented a paper on ‘Early Intervention for infantsand young children with hearing impairment in the districts of Tamilnadu –Achievements and Challenges’.

In May 2015 the National Seminar on ‘Improving PrimaryEducation for the Deaf’ was held by the Association ofPeople with Disability (APD) in Bangalore.

M r s . S a r a s w a t h iNarayanaswamy deliveredthe Keynote Address on‘The way forward topromote effective primaryeducation for deaf’ andchaired the panel Discussion on ‘Catching thechildren young’. Dr. Meera Suresh presentedpapers on ‘Foundation & Early preparation of

deaf children for Education – Why is it important?’ and ‘Role of parents inpreparing their children for early education’.

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In January 2016 Mrs. Saraswathi Narayanaswamy and Dr. Meera Sureshparticipated as Resource Persons in the National Conference on ‘Challenges inthe Education, Rehabilitation & Mainstreaming of Deaf Children’ conducted inBangalore by SGD Vagdhevi Centre for the Rehabilitation of CommunicationImpaired’.

In January 2016 Dr. Valli Annamalai presented a paper on ‘Strategies forInclusion’ at the National Seminar on ‘Inclusive Education of Children withDisabilities Challenges and Concerns’ organized by the Department of HomeScience of the Gandhigram Rural Institute Dindugul

Mrs. Saraswathi Narayanaswamy presided over the Annual Day celebrationsof the Early Intervention Centre for deaf children - Silver Beach Singaram PillaiVidyalaya in Villivakkam, Chennai, the K.G. Field Day and Grand Parents’ Dayat AMM Matriculation Higher Secondary School, Kotturpuram, Chennai andthe Annual Day celebrations of the Indira Nagar Ladies Club in Chennai.

Dr. Meera Suresh attended the NCED Conference 2016 held in All India Instituteof Speech and Hearing Mysore. She was the co chair person for the session“Technology for Language Development in children with hearing impairment”Dr. Meera Suresh has been elected as the General Secretary of the NCED India.Our hearty congratulations to Dr. Meera Suresh.

WORKSHOPS FOR PARENTS:

During this academic year two Workshops were conducted for the parents andfamily members of the students of the school.

In August 2015 a Workshop was held to provide inputs to the parents and familymembers on using the everyday routine events in the lives of the children as‘language situations’ and provide them with age appropriate functional languageand information.

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In February 2016 another Workshop on “Parent Empowerment” was conductedwhere the parents of alumni were the resource persons . 11 alumni studentsmother’s and 2 fathers of of alumni students of the school were the ResourcePersons. 11 mothers and 2 fathers were the resource persons. They interactedwith the current parentsand provided the necessaryencouragement andpractical solutions for theday to day issues theparents are facing inbringing up their childrenusing ‘speech’ as the modeof communication. Wetake this opportunity tothank the parents of our alumni students for their ready help.

GENERAL BODY MEETING OF THE PARENT TEACHERASSOCIATION & THE ALUMNI ASSOCIATION:

The General body meeting of the Parent

Teacher Association & the Alumni Association

was held in January 2016. It was attended by

a large number of parents, family members and

alumni. There was a good exchange of ideas

on issues like finding mainstream schools for

integration, finding admission is colleges,

finding jobs and fixing marriages.

AWARNENESS PROGRAMMESAT HOSPITALS:

The importance of Early identification and Early Intervention of children withhearing loss is very low in society. Many parents approach our school with theirchildren aged 4 or 5 years and they claim that did not know that EarlyIntervention is important. We are not able to help these children.

Trying to find a small solution for it, the staff of the school visited the Instituteof Child Health and Hospital for Children in Egmore, Chennai. They got in touch

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with the Dean and the HOD of ENT Department of the hospital. They also metthe Dean of the Kasturibai Maternity Hospital, Triplicane, Chennai.

Following this a team was formed with two of our staff and a few of the mothersof our alumni students. The team visited the hospitals on the days the childrencame for immunization. The mothers were given inputs on how to identify thepossible hearing loss in infants and young children and the need for EarlyIntervention.

MEDIA COVERAGE:

A team from PUDIYA THALAIMURAI visited the school. They watched theschool, interacted with children, teachers and parents on various issues in EarlyIntervention. This was followed by a write up in their magazine and a videocoverage in their TV channel.

VISITORS:

The following persons visited the school during the year :

Mr. V. Narayanan, from Coramandel International Limited -Hyderabad

Ms. G. Sheema, Field Officer, International Alliance for the Prevention of Aids,Chennai.

Diego Nariani, Autonio Vetro and Fancenca Calcanecchia - Educators from Italy.

Sr. Catherene from School for the Blind and Deaf, Kammam.

Mr. M. Shameer, Mr. P. Nibindas and Mr. K..J Nadeer from Thanul SpecialSchool, Calicut.

visited the school and watched it at work.

VISITS BY STUDENTS AND TEACHER TRAINEES:

The following students and teacher trainees visited the school during theacademic year 2015-16. They watched the various classes in the school and weregiven an Orientation on the DHVANI Methodology followed in school. Thiswas followed by a discussion where the students and trainees get their doubtscleared.

BSc (Sp &Hg) AYJNIHH, Mumbai.

BSc (Sp &Hg) and MSc (Sp &Hg) SRM College, Chennai.

BSc (Sp &Hg) and MSc (Sp &Hg) Madras Medical College Chennai.

BASLP students from Ali Yavar Jung National Institute for the Hearing

Handicapped – Mumbai, and SRM University

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Association for People with Disability (APD) Bangalore

Akshy Akruti Hyderabad

Kothari Academy of Early Childhood Education, Chennai

B.Ed (HI) M.G.R. College for women

Ms. Varshini a graduate student in BA English

Medical Students of University of Los Angeles

STUDENT VOLUNTEERS:

High school and college students come as volunteers to Balavidyalaya.This years volunteers include :

Ms. Niranjani Bhaskar and Ms S.Harini, Engineering Students.

Mr. Mukil Guruprasad a student of 11th Std from North Corolina US.

Ms. Shraddha Agarwal student of Stella Maris College, Chennai who is also analumnus of BALAVIDYALAYA.

CELEBRATIONS AT SCHOOL:

NATIONAL DEAF DAY:

A Carnival was held in school on thelast Sunday of September the 27th tocelebrate the National Deaf Day. TenInner Wheel Clubs of the city cameforward to fund the Carnival. Thechildren enjoyed their Horse riding,and Merry Go Round. They wereprovided biscuits, fruit juice and cottoncandy. Balloons were given as takehome gifts. The Carnival was attended by the children along with their familymembers, the well wishers of the school and the alumni students.

The school celebrated Independence Day, Vinayaka Chathurthi, Navarathri,Deepavali, Children’s Day,Christmas, and Republic Day.These celebrations provide a goodopportunity to help children learnnew concepts and provides agood fund of new languagestructures.

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Teachers Day was celebrated on5th September. The Inner WheelClub of Adyar visited the schoolon the Teachers Day. AnOrientation was given to them onthe philosophy of EarlyIntervention followed at school.They organized games for thestaff and gave away prizes andmementos.

The members of the Thursday Club, Adyar, Chennai celebrated Children’s Dayin School. They donated toys and books for the children of the school.

We place on record our sincere appreciation and thanks to the members of theInner Wheel Club of Adyar, and the Thursday Charity Club for their interest inour activities.

FIELD VISITS ANDEXCURSIONS:

The infants and young children in theEarly Intervention Programme weretaken on an Excursion to the GuindyPark, Chennai. The babies watchedand enjoyed the different birds andanimals in the park. The parents ofthe children were also taken along and the teachers guided the parents onproviding useful language to the children during the outings.

The students of the Preschool weretaken to the HOTEL FOR DOGS.They watched the different breeds ofdogs being given a bath and gettingtrained by the trainers. The childrenenjoyed watching the dogs.

On both occasions the children weretaken in the FUN BUS provided freeby Ashok Leyland. The children enjoyed their ride in the Fun Bus. We take thisopportunity to thank Ashok Leyland for providing us the Fun Bus.

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GRANT IN AID FROM THE MINISTRY OF SOCIAL JUSTICE &EMPOWERMENT :

The school continues to get an annual grant from the Ministry of Social Justice& Empowerment, Government of India under the Deendayal UpadhyayaScheme. The grant covers a part of the expenses of the salary for the staff andcontingencies. The rest of the expenses are met by the Trust managing the school.

CONCLUSION :

This academic year has seen many ups and downs. The school received theNational Award and the same day the school premises were damaged thoroughlyby the rains and floods. It is God’s grace that timely help came and we arerecovering.

Now that the Nation has honoured us with the National Award and hasacknowledged that we create Outstanding Barrier Free Environment for Infantsand young children with hearing loss, we realize that we have a biggerresponsibility. It shall be our earnest endeavor to take forward out efforts to allother states of the country.

Let us help childrenwith hearing impairment

LISTEN FROM INFANCYAND TALK FOR A LIFETIME.