Vishal Talreja

Abstract: My name is Vishal Talreja (https://vishaltalreja.com/). I am a Social Entrepreneur and cofounder of a non-profit in Bangalore called Dream a Dream (https://dreamadream.org/). Over the last two decades, my life experiences and work has brought me to see many of life’s dualities, conflicts and challenges and I have found poetry to make meaning of my own emotions. My poems capture my own struggles with the challenges I see around us and reflections of my o...

Abstract: The present study examines the effectiveness of an After-School Life Skills (ASLS) intervention to improve the life skills of 110 students from socially disadvantaged backgrounds at public schools of urban Bangalore in south India. These students completed ASLS intervention from 2014 to 2018 during which the life skills were assessed on a yearly interval and the data were analyzed using repeated measure ANOVA. The results show that ASLS intervention sig...

Abstract: All human beings are inherently motivated for self-improvement and growth. People tend to respond diversely in the face of adversity, from succumbing and recovering to remaining resilient and thrive. The present narrative review is not an exhaustive review of the existing literature on thriving but is an informed effort to add to the adolescent thriving discourse within the conceptual background of social marginality in the Indian context. This review t...

Abstract: Preparing students with robust life skills, including social-emotional skills, is of paramount importance in today’s world, particularly for children growing up in adversity.

Abstract: In 2018, the Happiness Curriculum was launched as a daily 45-minute class, six days a week, for over 800,000 students from nursery to grade 8 in 1,024 government schools in New Delhi, India. This paper discusses the Happiness Curriculum as an innovative large-scale intervention aimed at building social and emotional skills of children and reimagining the purpose of education. It provides an overview of the Happiness Curriculum and the pedagogical practi...

Abstract: Adolescence may be a window of opportunity to attenuate the effects of early social adversity, which impedes cognitive, emotional, and social development, and increases risk of psychopathology into adulthood. We ran a pragmatic randomized controlled trial to assess the impact of a brief intervention designed to facilitate life skills for psychosocial competence. Socially disadvantaged young people living in South India who had experienced early adversit...

Abstract: The severe adversity experienced by millions of children in the developing world leads to failure to thrive associated with cognitive deficits, emotional management problems, and social impairment. In this pragmatic randomized control led trial, 909 children (aged 8–15 years) in India with disadvantaged backgrounds took part in a semi structured program involving sports or creative arts activities. The Life Skills Assessment Scale was used to assess the...

Abstract: This book is about the graduates of Dream a Dream. The book centres on moving, personal stories of young people and weaves in research about child development and best practices of the globally recognised life skills programme developed by Dream a Dream. It also chronicles Dream a Dream's growth and development as an organisation. It shares stories of hope in that with proper support from caring adults, young people from even the most vulnerable backgro...

Abstract: Adversity, including malnutrition, has had irrefutable effects on child development and mental health. India, for example, has approximately 160 million children in poverty: The growth of up to 59% of rural and 48% of all children is stunted. Hundreds of thousands of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) work with these disadvantaged children to increase their life skills and ameliorate effects of adversity. Yet a simple effective measure of program impa...

Abstract: Severe poverty, adversity, and malnutrition have irrefutable negative effects on the development and mental health of children and young people. The Life Skills Assessment Scale (LSAS), is a 5-item impact assessment scale developed in India, that provides a simple, yet valid and reliable, instrument to assess life skills of disadvantaged children and young people, with age norms of 8–16 years. In the present study, in Bengaluru, India, we used observati...