By Johanna Escobar | Early Intervention Project Leader
Report #6: Early Intervention Therapy October-December 2017
In this report, we will discuss the diverse activities carried out through our early intervention program, firstly Adisa’s monthly parent workshops. In these sessions, mothers and fathers of children with disabilities from three communities around Santiago Atitlan come to Adisa for classes where they are given the tools to appropriately stimulate their child’s learning from home.
In December, Adisa also organized its yearly parent’s meeting, in which 90 parents of children with disabilities participated. Parents got together in groups to discuss and reflect on the challenges and successes of Adisa’s programs. Ultimately, the goal was for parents to feel included and supported in their participation at Adisa. This year’s reflection was particularly successful as we had 20 fathers of children participate. In the past, it is has been difficult to involve fathers in the process and it is has typically been only mothers participating in Adisa’s programs.
In these last few months, Adisa has paid special attention to workshops and meetings to ensure the participation and comfort of parents in their child’s growth process. For this reason, we have not realized quite as many therapy sessions as in past trimesters. 49 therapy sessions were realized in Adisa classrooms and an additional 78 therapy sessions were given in children’s homes.
Additionaly, one girl of Adisa’s early intervention program has graduated to begin studies at the school of special education, and another boy has graduated from the program to begin at a regular school this year!
Highlighted Story: Urías
We want to share the story of Uría, a young boy born with cleft lip that will celebrate his first birthday this February. Recently, his parents began taking him to Adisa for treatment.
We began his early intervention program with home visits, familiarizing the family with Adisa and scheduling cleft palate surgery to fix the birth defects of his upper lip.
After the surgery, Uría has greatly improved his communication skills through early intervention program: making sounds, voices and gestures to attract attention, and following simple instructions such as pointing to parts of the body. In terms of social-emotional development, he looks to his caretaker for approval and trust and has begun intentional motor activity such as standing up and walking on his own.
Uría is full of energy and enthusiam and with the support of his family, he is advancing in quickly in his early intervention plan. Soon he will begin working with Adisa on language therapy.
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