Early Intervention for Children in Guatemala

The services provided by ADISA have been increased to guarantee and improve the quality of life for children with disabilities.

We are currently attending 32 girls and 46 children with a total of 78 children under 6 years old with different disabilities, each child has a file where the general report can be found; The personal and family life conditions, the medical and psychological examinations and evaluations of the Portage guide performed to determine the diagnosis, all this is reviewed by the multidisciplinary team who draw up an intervention plan according to the needs of each child reflecting the service /therapy we provide to improve their quality of life.

Among the services /therapies they receive are: medical follow up, physiotherapy, psychology, speech therapy, animal assisted therapy, and timely intervention classes. We also try to encourage the participation of families.

In September 2016, Dereck, a child participating in the cerebral palsy group died of cardiac arrest. The mothers of the same group heard the tragedy, they came together to support the family that suffered the loss, they were collaborators among themselves and with the other groups.

With the help of the group also offering their moral support, this 2017 Dereck's mother joined the group again to support the other mothers, mainly new mothers. We have seen that mothers and fathers are more participative and they’re more motivated in learning how to improve the quality of life of their children.

In the cerebral palsy group, we work according to the guide "Familiarizándose con la Parálisis Cerebral " (Familiarizing with Cerebral Palsy),whose content is one of the means that helps us to teach families simple but clear instructions and guidelines for acquiring everyday life skills.