Early Intervention for Children in Guatemala

During this quarter we have served to 45 children with 348 individual therapies and four group therapies. We have developed activities to strength the children independency so they can achieve their different roles and daily activities. We are very happy to see the children now participating in different activities such as educational and sports activities, we are also very excited to know that every day children are taking into the community life as a member, they are developing a sense of belonging to a group. They are also very happy and excited to be part of sports, gymnastics, community parades and other community celebrations sharing with other children with and without disability.

We have identified more children and families from rural communities that need support, their families are very interested to demanding early stimulation services from ADISA. There is a big waiting list of children to be serve, they are waiting to be part of our program. Thanks to your support we can serve 45 children as mentioned earlier, but we need more funds to cover all children and their special needs. 

Diego life story

Diego is a 7-year-old boy, he likes games that are played with balls; soccer, throw them, get into the ball pool, look for things among them, in short, all the games that involve them. Diego also likes games to explore his environment and activities that present him with new challenges and new learning. He is a very hyperactive child who always likes to be in action, Diego is a child with Down syndrome, a diagnosis that was presented to his parents when Diego was born, but they did not know what this meant, they went to multiple medical follow-ups; such as the cardiologist, ophthalmologist, pediatricians, etc. It was not until Diego was two years old that they came to ADISA when they noticed that Diego's development was not the same as that of other children his age; He still did not walk on his own, he did not communicate orally and it seemed that things were more difficult for him than the other children. At Adisa, parents were explained what Down Syndrome was, its characteristics and needs, follow-up was given through timely stimulation, animal-assisted therapy, and language therapy. Diego's family is always very responsible with the compliance of the therapies, the medical follow-up with specialists and the implementation of the recommendations of the therapists at home, thanks to this Diego advanced very quickly in his process. Currently Diego can communicate with others easily in t'zutujil (which is his maya mother tongue) and in Spanish despite the limitations in vocabulary, he identifies shapes, colors, he can count to 20, his motor and gross coordination are in line with his age, understands and follows instructions, independent in most activities of daily life such as dressing, hygiene in the bathroom, food, and was even integrated into a school in which this is his second year. Diego found it difficult to get involved with other children his age, currently he can play and share with others, in group therapies he has been seen helping others, working as a team and taking turns

Diego really likes sensory activities, he went from avoiding tactile stimuli to creating his own sensory masses, instructions are provided through pictograms and images to follow a sequence of steps. He is a very intelligent and very active boy, both we as ADISA and his parents are very excited to see the goals that can be achieved by working together.

Thanks to you and your support we have the opportunity to start a new year in ADISA! A new year with new challenges and opportunities to continue our work with children in their communities. 

We have started the year working, serving and following up to 34 children included last year in our Project. 8 new children had joined our activities during this first quarter. They were referred from other families and health center staff from communities. This makes us very happy and proud to be a center where people from community and government programs are referring children to be supported and included. 

In this first quarter a total of 42 children are participating in our project, we have served 207 therapies, 42 initial evaluations and assessments and we have developed 42 working plans for children, each one on individual needs and objectives based.    

This year as previous, together with children´s parents we have developed their individual plans in order to ensure parents responsibility and to ensure that they are involved in their children development. Parents have now a better understanding on regard their children progress, they are now with a commitment to implement activities in home and with family to improve children`s conditions. 

First quarter is all the time a little complicated due to new schedules between all therapy services and we have to ensure all children are included in their needed services and therapies.  

We are very excited to see that some children participating un our project are now enrolled in their community school; parents are now more involved in their children therapies and they are sending photos and videos from their activities implemented in their homes. 

ALEJANDRO LIFE STORY

Alejandro is 2 years old boy, he has 2 brothers, 7 and 10 years old. Alejandro´s mom is very responsible with his plan and therapies and in other ADISA`s activities like parents’ school, mental health and others. Alejandro´s family is living in extreme poverty conditions, despite of their daily challenges they are involved and supporting Alejandro with his therapies, medical follow up supported by ADISA. 

Alejandro´s mom had a very complicated pregnancy; she knew about her pregnancy at fourth month due to fainting in the community street. With a lot of complications Alejandro was born in the community health center, he didn´t cry when he born, her mom was very concerned. Since baby, Alejandro was very little, his mom saw a different type of conduct and activities as regular babies. Alejandro was crying just a few times during the day not as his brothers, he wasn’t moving at all and he could stay at bed during a lot time. All this situation caused alarm and concern with all family. The family went to a hospital when Alejandro was 6 months old, the hospital referred him to ADISA to evaluations and therapies due to delay in his development. 

When Alejandro visited ADISA he was referred to physiotherapy and early stimulation program. During his evaluation and developing plan we identified multiple autism spectrum traits, he didn´t see people to their eyes, he wasn´t looking for sounds and showing any interest for toys or movements. His mom was explaining us that Alejandro didn´t cry, laugh or making sound she didn´t know if Alejandro was hungry or uncomfortable because he didn’t express any emotion. 

The first though from family was that Alejandro was deaf and blind child, he was all the time watching at same point spending hours just like that. When he was 1 year old, he was referred with a neurologist for his evaluation, we performed a hearing and visual screenings and other evaluations, as result, there wasn´t any disturbance. When he was evaluated for autism the result was that Alejandro was showing all traits of the spectrum, but due to his little age a certain diagnosis was impossible. The neurologist gave a lot of recommendations to implement into their therapy plan and at home. 

All those recommendations were implemented in his therapy plan as by his mom at home, we are using a few techniques to stimulate his motor reflexes and all his senses. 

Now, Alejandro is 2 years old, he can stand by himself, he is crying when something is bothering him or if he is hungry, he can identify his family members and now he is comfortable out of home, (mom`s work, ADISA, grandma home), he is working with some textures, sounds and others, he is now saying “no” and “mamá” he is interested in some toys like balls and other with lights and sounds. He is laughing with his favorite toy and when his playing at the balloons pool. His mom is very happy and thankful for all the support serve to Alejandro, she thought she would never see her son smile or try to walk and is excited to continue with the therapies at ADISA