Early Intervention for Children in Guatemala

During 2022 a total of 52 children received early stimulation and occupational therapy services from our team in ADISA. Each child developed their own plan according their condition, their specific needs and skills. 12 of them conclude their treatment plan and they are ready to be included in schools next year, all of them achieve their year proposed goals and they reach a good performance and development in each planned developed area. We finish this year with 40 participants. 

During this last quarter a total of 283 therapies were served to children with disability on individual and groups basis. 

Our program reached to support children in their holistic development, physical, intellectual, sensory and language. All this support permits to reach a high level of independence and participation in their family and in their community (school, family, church, neighborhood, others). Many children’s relatives had joined to our early stimulation and occupational therapy program through group therapies participating also in other ADISA programs, letting behind stigmas about children and adults with disability and the organizations working for and with them. 

We would like to highlight as a great achievement that parents now have the initiative to enroll their children in regular schools and demand their rights to educational authorities. They are now speaking about this issue and coordinating advocacy and awareness activities to achieve this initiative.   

Rosita and Ester life Story

Rosita is a 10 years old little girl, she is tall compared with other children with same age, she’s smiling all the time, she is shy when meeting people, but when she’s comfortable she’s talking with others, she loves tell stories about things happened in her life, her family and with her friends. She loves to learn songs, in general she loves the music, she loves hairstyles but all the time she is complying about her mother to not create new hairstyles. Rosita’s little sister is Ester, a 6 year old girl, Ester loves to talk about all y all the time she is playing, she loves to meet new friends but she does prefer to play with Scooby her dog, despite Ester is the younger sister, she is protecting Rosita all the time with all her love and ensuring the Rosita’s well - being.  Ester is taking care of Rosita all the time. 

Rosita’s mother’s pregnancy was complicated and Rosita’s firsts months as well. Rosita has seizures since infancy. Rosita and her family came to ADISA in 2015 when she was 3 years old. Their parents decide to visit ADISA when they realized that Rosita condition was getting worse and her development wasn’t the same as other children. Rosita had a lot of test and evaluations with ADISAS`s support to identify her condition and to have a diagnosis in order to prepare her treatment plan. Rosita has a visual impairment caused by an optic nerve lesion. She has low vision, and the doctors said that she is going to lose her vision progressively. When the family knew this news started to over protected Rosita, she was only at home and parents didn’t want Rosita playing with other children and going to school. They were afraid about bullying o been hurt by other children or adults, so Rosita was all the time accompanied by her parents.   

Rosita is receiving therapies since 2015 and in the last four years ago together with her little sister participating in therapies supporting her all the time and applying exercises so she can play with her and others. They are inseparables! 

Ester is extroverted child, she’s all the time playing with other children and taking Rosita with her. Their first experience was at their church where Ester was playing but Rosita was with her parents, Ester came to take Rosita with her but parents were very afraid so they were watching the girls in the distance, they realized that day that Rosita had the opportunity to live as a regular girls as her little sister. Rosita was so excited to play and to meet other children and she was telling this story to her entire family. 

This year we propose to the parents to enroll both girls in school, after of many awareness and information workshops, the family accepted the challenge. Rosita and Ester went to school in same class. At the beginning was very complicated for Rosita due to a new environment and new activities and with a lot of children, but she felt comfortable and achieve it with Ester’s support.  

Rosita and Ester made a lot of new friends, and all time during the therapies they were telling stories about school, about other children and games and how Ester is all the time defending and promoting her sister rights. 

Rosita developed new skills thank to her commitment in therapies and been cheerleading by her little sister. They are actively participating in school and in a church children group. The therapies made at home were aimed in order to Rosita reach a high level of independence. Activities such as hygiene, cook, sensory, self-care and other were developed to improve Rosita’s skills. The parents and the rest of the family realized about Rosita’s skills and they change their behavior about her, they are no longer over protected and she is learning more and more every day. 

Currently, Rosita helps her mother in the kitchen, she likes very much this kind of activities, Rosita and Ester play, feed and clean their dog and they are able to go to store to buy things for home. Their dad takes them to the lake to swim and to bring fruits from the field. Rosita’s life had an incredible change, she is participating and living as other children without disability, her little sister is her super hero. Both of them conclude their kinder garden in a ceremony at the same day of Rosita’s number 10 birthday. The whole family was very happy and so proud of them, and they are ready to start the elementary school in next January 2023