Early Intervention ( Infant to 6 years )

The academic year 2015-2016 came to an end with each child being evaluated through the whole year’s learning in all areas – special education, motor development, play, language and communication and social interaction.

The children have shown remarkable improvement in all the areas of development. The assessments and evaluations of each child were done using worksheets and activities. The teaching learning materials used for the assessments were child specific.

Each child’s annual assessment report was done by the class teacher, checked and signed by the Head of the Department and The Director. These reports with copies of the child’s evaluation worksheets and report card were handed over to the parents on the school open day. On the open day, each parent had a personal meeting with the class teacher, therapist and head of the department. They were given a holiday home programme and an overview of next academic year.

The Early Intervention department shared the class happenings of the past year through a Presentation at the school annual case conference. The staff academic year ended with setting goals for the next academic year.

Report for the period Jan 2016 to March 2016

“Children learn as they play. Most importantly, children learn how to learn”

All good things start with the celebrations…and so did our term!! Some of the high lights are:

January

Pongal  celebrations

The  kids painted the pongal pot using adapted brushes and also made a beautiful chart using different textures depicting pongal celebrations. Rangoli competition was organized for the EI parents and prizes given to them in various categories. The prizes were given by the director

Sports day – The kids were involved in 2 competitive games

1. Adapted running race for children using walkers
2. Adapted relay race involving children on wheelchairs and mobile children

February

Outing

The kids and parents of EI along with staff went on an enjoyable short visit to Citi Center Mall, Chennai. The visit was to look at the DINO JUNGLE setup. All the kids had a joy ride on the dinosaur. It was fun.

March

The kids were part of the school annual day celebrations held in the school. The youngest kid from EI cut the cake to celebrate Vidyasagar’s birthday.

Themes in class

Emotions – kids were introduced to emotions through emoji pictures. Currently each child is able to identify his/her emotion during circle time in class every day.

Summer – kids are being introduced to clothing, food and outings during summer. We also plan to have a swimming pool experience for the kids in the first week of April.

We celebrated our volunteer’s birthday in class.

 Adapted pretend play sets were made by the TTC students for the EI class – doctor set, tea set, kitchen set.

As end of the academic year, each kid is being evaluated and assessed to form their annual report. The open day is on April 16^th.

The term started as normal as ever...with lot excitment and fun gearing up for the festivels in October. The class themes were 

• Animals I Know
• Food I Eat
• Christmas

Routine was followed till we were hit by the rains. The rain and flood in Chennai forced us to close school for a long time. We were all keeping our fingers crossed, praying to God to hear from every child of Vidya Sagar because we were down in connectivity also. 

A sign of relief happened when we saw most of the children back with hopes and a lot of positivity. kids understood the severity and decided to help their friends and so pitched together to help one of their own classmate family which was badly affected during the floods. The parents too willingly came forward to support this initiative.

The children got back to normal routine of the school in the second week of December and the festive mood of Christmas was set in a small but happy and merry way.

They all made greeting cards for their family members with different forms of paintings using their body parts – hands, fist, legs.

They all got together and made a cute little biscuit house and decorated it with different types of candies. Each of them got to choose the type of candy and colour of candy of their wish. With the year coming to an end, leaving us behind with such a great calamity to fight over...and school is closing for term holidays with the Christmas Eve, we look forward for a fruitful term in 2016!!

This is what 18 kids in Early Intervention have to say…..

What did we study?

• About my body parts - how I use my body parts, how my senses help me, caring for my body (ADL objects and routines) and how I am special
• About my family – who are my family members, what does each family member do, how I spend time with my family
• About my home – where do I live, rooms in my house, what do I find in each room of my house?

And many more interesting day to day activities. Fun continues in school also!!

What did our parents do?

Attended a Hands on Oro-motor conducted by the Occupational Therapy department staff

Class goals were revisited with the senior management team and appropriate up gradation to the plans were done.

What we did together?

Well, we attended the Sing-Along session held at the Music Theatre….and was very interesting and fun filled.

Did we only study?...no…..we went  to Mahabalipuram with kids and parents..it was simply exciting!!

We also visited an organic farm “THE FARM” on Old Mahabalipuram Road.

On the school front -

• Surgical shoes for 2 children were given and dynamic AFO for 1 child.
• Two home visits
• One child was recommended and given a home furniture
• The EI classroom was painted by volunteers from Singapore
• Integrated programme  - A child going to a playschool attends EI afternoon class fortnightly to enhance his speech and language skills, concept development and motor development.
• The teaching learning materials were upgraded.

April 2015 to June 2015

Vidya Sagar’s early intervention is beyond boundaries….

Vidya Sagar is also a proud provider of comprehensive, coordinated, multidisciplinary, interagency system that provides early intervention services for infants and toddlers with disabilities and their families.” In simple words, it is the range of services designed to intervene at the early stages of an infant’s disability. Here, Early intervention is designed to serve children with disabilities under the age of six, and the families who care for them.

Early Intervention can be for intervention in the areas of: physical, cognitive, adaptive, communicative, or social and/or emotional development and a network of professionals offer services including: screening and assessment; family training, counseling, and home visits; speech therapy; occupational therapy; psychological services; vision services; social work services; and transportation.

April being the closing month of the academic year 2014-2015, saw all the evaluation and assessments of the children done our professional. This further led us to form goals for the next academic term June 2015-16.

Vidya Sagar’s services does not stop at our premises…..we follow to their homes!!!

Holiday home programme for May 2015 included aspects of

• Time management
• Possible family outings
• Children take home their furniture, communication chart and any other teaching material from the class to be used during the summer vacation.
• To continue oro-motor stimulation techniques twice a day and a data slip to document the same

Based on the evaluations done, 5 children have been promoted to the reception classes our Day Centre.

The school reopened on 8^th June for the academic year 2015-2016. The month of June was also a transition period for the 5 Day Centre going students. We started with completely weaning away the parents in school. The school timings for these 5 were made full day i.e., 9.30am to 3.30pm. The concepts learnt last term were refreshed and stabilized. The saga continues……the earlier we intervene….the chances of limited secondary disability…we continue to make lives better!!

The month of June also helped us do the prep work for the new admissions (to start from 2^nd July). Each new admission child was called on separate days to explain the EI programme to the parents. The furniture measurements for the children were taken. Follow us for more updates!!!