Early Intervention ( Infant to 6 years )

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!!!

Global Giving - Report for Jan 2015 to March 2015

Making lives better…today, tomorrow and everyday!!

We strive hard to bring the best possible outcomes in every child whom we intervene and one of the evidence based programmes of Vidya Sagar is Early Intervention. Also, early guidance for families is the best way to enable children to reach their full potential.

Thus our impact continues for this term to……

• Number of children (3-6 years) – 13 (morning session – 9.30pm to 1.30pm)
• Number of children  (0-3 years) – 8 (afternoon session– 2pm to 3.30pm)
• Number of guest children – 2 (morning session)

Assessment and program planning:

With regular assessments, we intervene as soon as the need arises. Following the initial assessments, independent  evaluations of the child, improvement in the focused developmental area is noted.  Holistics goals are set keeping in mind the child and the family. Hence the family support programmes have shown evidence of every child having a holistic development.

Special education and rehabilitation:

This term’s concept as part of the educational learning process, was “Animals”, with focus on pet animals, farm animals and wild animals, sounds of animals, their food and shelter. We always follow experiential learning styles, creative movement, outdoor experience, story-telling, hands on experience and functional use of the concepts.

Did we include Physiotherapy, vision training and augmentative and alternative communication this term also?  Yes…it is an integral part of early intervention. The more regular the intervention…more the  impact!

Co-curricular activities:

Visit to the light house gave the children, the experience of going up the lift and having a bird’s eye view of the beach and Chennai city from the 10^th floor. The outing ended with a walk on the hot beach sand and a cool dip and splash in the sea water. As walking in sand requires a greater effort, the muscles and tendons will work harder as the child’s foot moves around. Children are exposed to natural Vitamin D from the sun as they stroll. Ofcourse, we didn’t forget to pick up the pretty shells, look out for the crabs and fishes, and notice the always changing colors of the water and the sky. More the exposure…..more the fun learning!

Empowerment of parents:

Parental involvement has a measurable impact on student performance in school.  It is directly related to improved student behavior and more importantly improved communication between teachers and parents increases child engagement.

• Occupational therapy workshop for parents on oro-motor activities and stimulation was conducted by in-house occupational therapists.
• Hands-on-working with their children using appropriate oral brushes was conducted by in-house occupational therapists.
• 2 parents met with the dietician and were recommended appropriate diet tips for their children.
• Home visit was done for one child by the special educator and physiotherapist and recommendations to improve daily living skills for the child were given.
• 5 parents were sent to attend a story-telling workshop at Hotel Savera conducted by National Association for the Blind. It was an interactive session on how to make simple stories interesting, thus enhancing generalization of various concepts learnt by the child.

Early Intervention is a continuous program and is best achieved with parent and community involvement. No doubt, Early Intervention is the BEST intervention for the development. Each child has a unique profile of abilities and needs and requires intervention along with transdiciplinary approach.  The impact of a quality early intervention program are that it will enhance your child with overall development, that will build on his or her abilities, improve daily activities of living, and bridge the gap and funds through Global Giving is supporting us at every stage to achieve these outcomes!!