Latest / Adventures in Adversity: an inspirational podcast / Ep. 48: "Young children, big life lessons" - Nisha Batra on early childhood education, disability, & belonging

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Ep. 48: "Young children, big life lessons" - Nisha Batra on early childhood education, disability, & belonging · Adventures in Adversity: an inspirational podcast

• 0:00
  Hello and welcome back. We are here with another episode
• 0:04
  of the Adventures and Adversity podcast.
• 0:07
  I am joined by a lovely new friend, Nisha.
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  Thank you so much for being here.
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  It's just a little bit about the podcast.
• 0:15
  If you are a returning listener, thank you so much for being
• 0:17
  here. Again, the podcast is about real
• 0:20
  people, true stories, and daily inspiration and how to get
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  through adversity in life. And we all know that adversity
• 0:28
  and difficult challenges come in all forms.
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  So again, Nisha, thank you so much for being here.
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  I really, really appreciate it. Thank you Brianne for having me
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  and hi everyone, looking forward to sharing my journey and my
• 0:45
  story with all of you. Awesome, awesome.
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  And we were wonderfully connected through a previous
• 0:53
  guest of mine, Anne Mock, and she is a fellow Canadian, right?
• 0:59
  You're up in here in Toronto. Yes, I am.
• 1:02
  You are in Toronto, OK. And a few episodes ago, I
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  interviewed an She is working through vision loss, vision
• 1:10
  vision impairment, and is an amazing passionate advocate to
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  just inspire people to move past what's holding them back in
• 1:19
  life. In her case, challenging vision
• 1:22
  loss and just really turning her adversity.
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  She also has chronic pain into this beautiful life where she's
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  sharing her struggle and inspiring others.
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  So we got connected. You saw that podcast.
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  Yes. And here we are, which is
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  exactly, I get chills just talking about it.
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  Exactly the beautiful connections made through this
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  podcast. Now through Anne's story.
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  We would love to hear your story, Nisha.
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  And I just realized as well that July is a very important month.
• 1:54
  So I'll let you get into it. I'll get yes, but Nisha, tell me
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  a little bit about your passion, who you are and we can just talk
• 2:03
  if that works for you. First of all, again, thank you
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  so much for the warm welcome. My name is Nisha Batra, I am
• 2:11
  from Toronto, ON. I am an early childhood educator
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  by day, so that means I work with the youngsters, the young
• 2:23
  children ages 3 1/2 to 6 year old.
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  I work in kindergarten and my other job or I believe my other
• 2:33
  passion is advocacy. I really, I really believe that.
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  I really have had the belief that since I went since I was
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  younger. So I let me start from the
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  beginning. I am diagnosed with a non verbal
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  learning disability so I am learning disabled and I really
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  believe that. I wanted to always get back the
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  lessons that I've learned and to share my journey.
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  So in terms of my career, I think working with children is a
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  very perfect career for me because I get to give back to
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  the children the important lesson, especially that it is OK
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  to be different. Yes.
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  And I do that every day in my job, showing up for work.
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  And I recently I can tell you a story of how fitting it is, how
• 3:32
  fitting my profession is to the message that I want to share.
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  So one of the kids came up to me and kids are very aware, let's
• 3:45
  just say they're very aware of everything.
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  And one of the kids came up to me and said, why is your bottom
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  lip like that? So for those of you who may not
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  be able to see me while you're hearing this podcast, my bottom
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  lip does stick out a little bit from the top.
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  So my answer to the child was, well, everybody is different.
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  And it is it is that message to say to be able to stay to a
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  child. Everybody is different is one
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  thing, but to be able to bring the concept up of normalizing
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  difference in my work, that's what I think is very important.
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  And that's what I strive for on a daily basis, whether it be
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  through through books, through us, like teaching them about,
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  you know, cultural diversity, teaching them about, you know,
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  how, you know, it's OK for all of us to look to look different.
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  Teaching the children that there are different, you know, skin
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  tones in the classroom. There are different holidays
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  that we celebrate. We all come from different
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  families. And that no matter what, each of
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  us is different, even within our abilities.
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  And that is absolutely OK. We should not be judging others
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  based on our differences. It's a beautiful message and I
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  like you said, Nisha, like kids are so like beautifully honest
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  and curious, right? And it's like my mom always says
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  this expression from the mouth of babes.
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  You know, when they say something, it's just so like I
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  just, it's like A and, and I commend you for for handling
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  that in a way that is like you turn it into a lesson and you
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  turn it to in like a moment of connection.
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  And same like I try to do the same with my kids.
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  Just it's, it's teaching that empathy and that I think, you
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  know, obviously as humans we have empathy, but helping them
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  develop those skills and that understanding of you're going to
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  see, see and hear and feel so many different things and you're
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  different. Everyone's different.
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  It's actually a beautiful thing. Like how boring would life be?
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  Right. And I think that the message
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  there needs to be two, two ways of communicating that message.
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  We as educators can communicate that message, but it also has to
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  happen at home. Oh yeah.
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  Because if they go home and they learn something totally
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  different, how does that shape the shape the world?
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  Of course, we're the ones that see them for most of the day.
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  But I think now in today's society where you know, where
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  kids are kids, unfortunately technology and video games and
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  other things occupy a lot of their attention.
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  I think these important conversations need to be had if
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  you know and and lived experiences need to be had
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  because they need to be exposed to different scenarios and
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  different situations. Last year I was working in a
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  summer program and what I did was my partner is actually
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  totally blind and has a guide dog.
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  And I brought my partner and my guide dog in to the program so
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  that the kids could experience meeting meeting someone who has
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  had that experience of meeting someone who is blind and also
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  see that see what the important role that a guide dog plays in a
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  blind person's life. Amazing, right, amazing.
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  And they, I think that is it's, it's integrating those lessons
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  and exposing kids to people who live all different kinds of
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  lives because of how they were born because of an accident that
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  might happen, like all kinds of things, right?
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  I think it's a beautiful lesson and reminder to educators
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  listening to this to if you have friends, right, that have
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  different abilities, have challenges, you know, we, we all
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  have people come read, you know, read to kindergarteners, come
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  talk to the class about just your life, right?
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  It's all about normalizing different challenges and like
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  how you get through those. Right.
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  I think it's, I think it's OK to, to show kids that we move in
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  different ways, but we're all doing it in a different way.
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  The things we do are different, but our purpose is the same
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  whether it is to communicate. So, So what somebody uses sign
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  language, they're still communicating.
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  Somebody, somebody reads a book with Braille, they're still
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  reading. It's not like we don't use other
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  terminology. We shouldn't shy away from
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  terminology because they're doing the same task in a
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  modified way. And that's a very important
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  lesson, I think, is to understand that the purpose is
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  the same, but the way, you know, the way of achieving the task is
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  what may look different. So Nisha, you are an early
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  childhood educator and tell me whether people have kids,
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  they're, you know, nieces, friends, whether they're
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  educators themselves. When you think of ways that on a
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  daily basis, obviously kind of addressing situations as they
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  arise, but how can we proactively, as people who care
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  about children and the future of the world, how can we
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  proactively have those conversations with young people
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  at different ages about differences?
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  We don't have to wait for situations to arise.
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  No, and I think that's the thing.
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  But so bringing, as I was saying, bringing materials into
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  bringing materials into the classroom, right, like books
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  also have it and books, you know, books could be Braille
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  books, books could be in watching videos in sign
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  language. For example, one of the great
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  things at my school that I love to see is the kids learning, oh,
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  Canada in sign language. That's been a fabulous way to
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  expose sudden to diversity and you know, to me a different way
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  of communication having them, you know, through through songs.
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  I think also one of the big things is it doesn't even have
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  to be about, it doesn't have to be different.
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  Diversity doesn't have to do with disability.
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  It can be welcoming children who you know, children's like their
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  home, their home languages, being able to not just saying
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  that our class is going to be in English.
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  Because I think when you have when you share that an educator
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  speaks a certain language and maybe children in your class can
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  connect, can go that connection to you.
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  It's also welcoming in the welcoming the families into the
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  classroom. That's a big thing.
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  Like we have a family event at our school on a regular basis.
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  So having the families come in, maybe having the families share
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  a skill that they're great at, Yes.
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  And having, having cultural, having cultural celebrations at
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  the school, like Diversity Day celebrations.
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  Yeah, it's all about, it's all about how do we show that we are
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  accepting and we are including and we are accommodating one
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  another. 100 percent, 100%. And I think it's, it's a, you
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  know, especially at schools, right?
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  It's an extension of your home. And it's, it's really, I, I
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  commend educators for the time spent.
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  The amount of time spent with the kids is incredible.
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  And it's, you know, our school, I love it.
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  It's very inclusive of cultures and abilities.
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  And one thing I want to bring up too about disability, special
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  needs, different abilities, you can't always see them, right?
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  Like sometimes, like obviously when we're at our assembly, we
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  can see some of the kids have trouble walking or need
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  assistance or, OK, they have a visual disability that you can
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  see they need assistance. Some people, a lot, many people,
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  it's not visible, right? So it's so important when every
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  person you meet, you don't even know what they're actually going
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  through, right? You can't make assumptions.
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  So I myself, I can share that through my learning disability,
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  it's an invisible disability. So my struggle, the challenges
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  that I have faced are a lot with spatial awareness and
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  understanding body language, understanding social cues and
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  the fact that I learnt the material differently.
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  So the understanding that I, you know, I had hoped I'd wish that
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  educators understood that I processed things differently and
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  I processed the information differently.
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  So it doesn't mean for me my what, what I, you know, what I
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  had hoped and what I had wished for was that I could have, for
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  example, I could have taken my test or exams orally instead of
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  having to write them out. Because writing them out for me
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  means retaining the information and then being able to put it on
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  a piece of paper in a way for the professor to understand my
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  viewpoint. And, and as I always share, one
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  of the challenges that I faced was being in university, hearing
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  those lectures. I didn't understand what was
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  being said in the lectures. And you know what?
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  When I went back to read my homework, I couldn't read what I
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  wrote. How could I study from what what
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  I wrote when I couldn't even make sense of it?
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  So it's almost like I was, I was kind of hot in the middle of two
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  different things of A trying to understand it, and at the same
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  time as B, trying to write it down so that it makes sense for
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  me to study from. And that that was a really,
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  really big challenge. But somehow, someway, one of the
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  biggest messages I can give to students who may be, you know,
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  struggling, maybe trying to figure things out.
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  Don't give up. You know, you're worth it.
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  And that's what I had. I think that's the biggest
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  message I had to tell myself because, you know, I was going
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  to find, I was going to find a way that would work for me.
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  And you know, it was all a matter I think through school of
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  just finding those ways to cope. Yes.
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  And finding the tools and then would you say like how did you
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  cope? Was it finding study tools,
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  tutors, helpers, support? Because I would imagine it's
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  also effects you like you're anxious about that.
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  So I think that was the the biggest challenge was, like I
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  said, yeah. Coming from a coming from a
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  background, cultural background where disability is not
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  understood, it was it was often a challenge to be able to get
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  the support in the right way at home because I and I can't yeah,
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  I can't blame my parents. They were amazing for what they
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  learned in their generation and, you know, with their lived
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  experience. But I think my biggest support
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  came from, you know, learning within myself that it's it's OK
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  to be me. Even though right now I'm on the
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  outside looking in. I will be on the inside at some
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  point. I will get to that place.
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  And also in university I was lucky to start to build
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  friendships with people of different abilities who started
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  to really understand me. That that is the key, right?
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  It's that self compassion first, like you said, I will the I I'm
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  worthy of this. I will, but then also what keeps
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  coming up in all the conversations I have with people
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  community. You need that support, right, of
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  people who understand and and friends with different different
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  abilities and I'm sure just connection.
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  You seek connection. But I think now what I've
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  understood is that it's, it's very hard.
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  School is hard for all kids. But I think especially when you
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  feel like you're different, it adds that extra layer of, of a
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  challenge and being able to create those friendships.
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  Like I, I really had no confidence in who I was.
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  My, my dad actually, he passed away in 2004 and he got to see
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  me graduate from university in 2002.
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  And he had such belief in me. I say that he believed in me at
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  one point in my life more than I even believed in myself because
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  I think that I just felt like my message to myself was you're not
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  worth it. You can't do this.
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  And there was a point in my life where I hit that rock bottom.
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  And I said, you know, the world would be a better place without
• 18:41
  me because I'm different and I don't belong.
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  But again, with the right support from friends and family,
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  I dug really deep and here I am now.
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  I'm working, I, I live independently, I'm, I'm in a
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  relationship. Life couldn't be any better.
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  And I feel like I've been given. My purpose now is to continue to
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  build connections, get my voice out there and get the message
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  across that normalizing different empowers, empowers
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  everybody. And I had a teacher, my mom told
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  me when I was younger, I had a teacher who taught me in grade
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  two and three and, and she told my mom that, you know what?
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  Nisha's journey reminds me of the story of the ugly duckling,
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  that she's going to start off with all these challenges, but
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  she is going to emerge and have that trump transformation like
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  the duckling did into a swan. And hence the reason why my
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  Instagram page is named the Swan Transformation.
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  You that last that I just I've gotten chills and that really
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  touches me everything you've just said.
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  And 1st I want to thank you for so like openly sharing because I
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  think people, you know, need to hear that like it's OK to hit
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  rock bottom. And we all do at some point.
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  And it's maybe we all don't talk about it, but that's what this
• 20:27
  podcast is about, is talking about like you hit that moment
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  where you're like, why am I doing what am I?
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  And then look at you now like, and what a testament to like the
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  inner determination, the self love that will.
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  And then also I feel like letting other people like you
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  said, your dad taking those, those life lines and saying, OK,
• 20:51
  I will trust that you think I'm amazing and I'm going to I'm
• 20:54
  going to lean on you for now right until I can motivate
• 20:59
  myself. Like you have to take that help.
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  Like it's amazing the way your dad believed in you.
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  It, it really is. And considering the fact that
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  it, again, like I said, with stigma with, with this, him not
• 21:13
  being able to understand disability, that I wish the way
• 21:17
  that he should. But you know what?
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  He did what he could at the time, he can't understand me.
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  He did believe in me. He, he believed that I could
• 21:27
  make it through university somehow, someway.
• 21:31
  The journey wasn't, I'm sure it wasn't exactly what he wanted it
• 21:35
  to be, but at the end of the day, I did it.
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  I showed him that, that I could do it.
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  And you know what? And again, it's it's all these
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  lessons have taught me to really believe that my story has a
• 21:52
  purpose. My story is here to show others
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  that don't give up on yourself. You're you're every single one
• 22:01
  of us is absolutely worth. So true, So true.
• 22:07
  Yeah. I mean, thinking about the
• 22:11
  stories that I'm hearing and particularly July is disability
• 22:18
  prime month, right. And so I, it's always, it's
• 22:24
  always a good idea to Share your story, but in particular on this
• 22:27
  podcast, I really like to align whenever possible.
• 22:31
  Like May was mental health awareness month, June was men's
• 22:34
  mental health awareness month, since men are kind of even more
• 22:37
  hesitant to come forward based on all the, all the stats and
• 22:43
  everything. So just the more and more we
• 22:45
  normalize these conversations. Can you take me back to given
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  that it, you know, we're trying to raise awareness, you take me
• 22:53
  back to just for you growing up and I, I, I want, if you can
• 23:00
  look back and talk about were there.
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  I know there were obviously challenging times and and I want
• 23:06
  to hear about those, but do you have any memories of people
• 23:09
  showing you compassion in those moments of struggle when you
• 23:13
  were having trouble learning or you were?
• 23:15
  Is there anything that comes to mind where you're like, wow,
• 23:17
  that really? I would say so it's it's
• 23:21
  interesting like talking about disability pride month, right?
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  I think that we. We.
• 23:26
  Have pride, but we also see the other side of disability.
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  I think it's a balance of seeing both and I definitely am
• 23:36
  grateful. I don't think my disability.
• 23:40
  My disability is definitely a part of me.
• 23:43
  It doesn't, it doesn't define me because it's, it is a big part
• 23:49
  of my identity. But I'm still I'm, I'm Nisha
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  first and foremost. I'm not the disability first and
• 23:56
  foremost. I think that's, that's the main
• 24:00
  thing because I think when people, when people interact
• 24:05
  with other people with disabilities, I'll just say
• 24:08
  this, I think that it's, it's a lesson still to be learned.
• 24:13
  People are not are not their wheelchair, they're not the cane
• 24:19
  that they're holding in their hand which is guiding them.
• 24:22
  They're a person first. They're their name first.
• 24:25
  They're given the name for. They're like every one of us.
• 24:29
  We all have a name, I think. I think we forgot that.
• 24:34
  We forget that we look at the what is physically, we're quick
• 24:39
  to look at what's physically different 1st and then we become
• 24:43
  hesitant to talk to maybe to talk to that person, to approach
• 24:48
  that person, to interact with that person because we see what
• 24:52
  we want to see. We don't see person we as
• 24:56
  society sometimes don't see a person first.
• 24:59
  So one of my memories of being being accommodated was actually
• 25:08
  it came to me later in college. So I.
• 25:12
  Remember. Like doing an assignment in
• 25:14
  college and basically the assignment was again, to observe
• 25:21
  a child while they're playing and to document every single
• 25:26
  thing, like all of their actions is what they call a running
• 25:29
  record. So if you can imagine for me,
• 25:34
  somebody with a learning disability, again, who has to
• 25:37
  process what the child is doing and at the same time write down
• 25:43
  all of the all of the actions. Well, I was lucky enough to have
• 25:48
  a teacher. Sorry about that.
• 25:50
  My Airpods keep falling off yes, no.
• 25:54
  My my teacher gave me a second chance on the assignment and
• 26:00
  what she did was she documented for me while I told her what I
• 26:06
  was observing. There you go.
• 26:08
  It's a different way of demonstrating your knowledge
• 26:11
  verbally. And again, I'm doing the
• 26:13
  assignment. It's the same purpose of getting
• 26:16
  the assignment completed, but it's just that the teacher had
• 26:20
  to document what I was, you know what I was, what I was doing.
• 26:25
  Yes. And that, that to me, yeah, that
• 26:28
  to me always stands out as a big moment of of a teacher
• 26:35
  accommodating me. Yeah, and you think about it,
• 26:39
  not that much of like those it's see it might seem little like Oh
• 26:45
  yeah, just to these gestures or these like how hard is that
• 26:52
  meaning that should. Sort of be.
• 26:55
  That should, that should should be how it is, right?
• 26:58
  Yeah, and it's not hard, but again, I think it becomes hard
• 27:03
  for for society, you know, whether it's whether it's at
• 27:08
  work, whether it's at, you know, whether it's in school, It it
• 27:13
  feels like a challenge to, you know, to include and to
• 27:19
  accommodate. Yes, yes.
• 27:22
  Well, and I think the more we have these conversations, the
• 27:26
  more you talk to your kids at home who are obviously the
• 27:30
  future of our generation of everything, right?
• 27:33
  And the more we, I think culturally too, I live in a
• 27:37
  community. I have many Indian friends, many
• 27:40
  Asian friends. I have very diverse friend group
• 27:44
  and I and they have also echoed that, that there, there is.
• 27:49
  And I think in any culture, there's sort of like these
• 27:52
  things or there's a thing you don't talk about or that, you
• 27:55
  know, whatever. And it's now in the world.
• 27:58
  We're so blessed that podcasts, everything is opening up every
• 28:02
  kind of conversation, right? Yeah.
• 28:05
  Are we talking? About, Yeah.
• 28:07
  And I think it's important to not be afraid.
• 28:09
  Like, if we all listen to each other's stories, how much better
• 28:14
  would the world be? How much better would the world
• 28:17
  be? And you know what it is?
• 28:20
  I will tell you, unfortunately within the South Asian culture,
• 28:24
  there is there is just a lot of judgment and it starts from the
• 28:28
  from the smallest thing. I'll never forget my mom saying
• 28:32
  to me that a relative when I was a baby, a relative, A relative
• 28:37
  told my mom that there was something wrong with the shape
• 28:40
  of my nose. My mom, you know what?
• 28:44
  I love my mom's response. Like, what do you want me to do?
• 28:47
  Do you want me to sit on her nose?
• 28:49
  Like to correct like so it's, it starts out with something as
• 28:54
  small as that. There are still this idea again,
• 28:59
  of accessibility and accommodating.
• 29:03
  It's it's, it's something that needs to be continued to be
• 29:08
  spoken about. Yeah.
• 29:10
  And, and again, I am, like I said, I'm so happy that I was
• 29:15
  able to connect with you and be able to do this because it's
• 29:20
  it's time to get that message out there that we need to
• 29:25
  normalize difference. And last year I was, I was so
• 29:29
  thrilled, a friend of actually, sorry, Senator Amidwar, who is
• 29:35
  not in the Senate anymore. One of the last things that she
• 29:39
  did before, of course, she retired, and I'm so humble and
• 29:43
  grateful to her, was she awarded me with the King Charles Medal
• 29:48
  for, you know, my disability advocacy work.
• 29:53
  So now I'm more motivated to get out there and to share, you
• 29:58
  know, to continue to share my story and bring to light that
• 30:02
  that we are all different and, you know, we need to just keep
• 30:07
  empowering one another. Yes, and I saw that on your
• 30:12
  profile and I'm was going to ask you about it and that it's like
• 30:17
  a confirmation that everything you're doing is on the right
• 30:21
  track that it's and I get chills when I talk about it because
• 30:25
  when you're passionate about something and you get that
• 30:27
  you're like yes, like this is what right, like this is you are
• 30:31
  meant all your struggles, all those times where fighting
• 30:35
  through can I do this? It all absolutely big that yes.
• 30:41
  I still, I'm going to say this, I still haven't stopped
• 30:45
  learning. My full time job is working with
• 30:48
  children. Why am I not doing enough on the
• 30:51
  disability advocacy side? But I have to give myself grace,
• 30:56
  right? This is not my full time job,
• 30:59
  but you know, it's opportunities like this where I can go out
• 31:04
  there, I can advocate. Oh yeah.
• 31:07
  And the summer is a perfect time.
• 31:09
  Right now. I'm on vacation until September.
• 31:12
  And I said to myself, one of the things I'm going to focus on
• 31:15
  this summer is just getting my message out there.
• 31:18
  Amazing, amazing. And now go, when this goes live,
• 31:23
  it can get out to people. And really what it's about, I
• 31:27
  think is to like leaning into those differences, like having
• 31:31
  conversations like it's, it's, it's actually sort of dropping
• 31:36
  the mask and just being who you are and letting other people be
• 31:40
  who they are and showing interest in people's lives no
• 31:44
  matter what. Absolutely, absolutely.
• 31:47
  And I, again, like I said, it's our stories, it's our diverse
• 31:52
  story which will help us learn. And people need to take the time
• 31:56
  to learn and to listen. 100% Well, Nisha, I, I, this has been
• 32:03
  a fantastic conversation. And again, I think the pride and
• 32:08
  the passion that you have, you know, you're on your break and
• 32:12
  you're advocating again, because it's something that you, it,
• 32:16
  it's in your blood, it's in your veins to really just, and I keep
• 32:20
  getting chills because it's such a pleasure to connect with
• 32:23
  somebody who is so passionate about like making a change
• 32:28
  through storytelling. It's really telling your story.
• 32:30
  You're going to you're creating a safe space for anybody who has
• 32:34
  a disability, who has a child where they're navigating, or
• 32:38
  anybody who wants their child or their themselves to be a
• 32:42
  compassionate human being. Absolutely.
• 32:45
  And thank you so much, Brienne. It's people like you who take
• 32:49
  the time to interact, listen to our stories.
• 32:53
  I'm so glad I met you and and I look forward to connecting with
• 32:59
  whoever can get something out of this podcast.
• 33:02
  I hope to be able to build that connection.
• 33:06
  Yes, Anisha, I'm going to put all your information in the show
• 33:09
  notes, your Instagram, the swan transformation.
• 33:14
  Yes. Yep, Yep, which you are living
• 33:17
  testament to and I'm sure you know you would love to be.
• 33:21
  Like you said, you're an advocate and they'll know where
• 33:24
  to find you for questions and other opportunities.
• 33:27
  If anyone out here has a podcast, I think you're ready to
• 33:30
  keep talking. Yes.
• 33:32
  Thank you so much again, Brianne.
• 33:34
  Thank you and we will talk very, very soon.
• 33:37
  Yes, thank you.