Children with special needs are like any other children except the fact that they may need added accommodations and supports due to their medical, emotional, or learning problem. They may need medicines, therapies, social skills instructions, and extra help in school, which other kids generally do not need.
After family, school function as the centre of children’s lives. It is found that school centred therapy is the most effective format for addressing educational, social, behavioural and emotional issues of the children with special needs.
Depending on the specific need, children with special needs benefit from a range of therapeutic interventions, such as physical, occupational, behavioural, psychological, and/or speech therapy, in addition to tutoring.
Therapists seldom work in isolation during disability care. Typically, they operate in teams that may be multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary or transdisciplinary. And team methods are considered best practice for helping people and their families with special needs.
International schools like ADITYA BIRLA INTEGRATED SCHOOL provide the above mentioned ‘school - centred multidisciplinary therapeutic interventions’ which benefit children with special needs the most.
Therapeutic interventions are more likely to benefit students when strategies are integrated across individual, family and school context. The most important aspect of these therapies are the involvement of the family, teachers and others who are closely involved in child’s life.
In their assessment and intervention, the needs, desires, and values of the child and family play an important role. The therapy team also works with teachers to get a clearer picture of the behaviour, problems and potential of each child and the impact it has on their learning and social interactions. Therapy team also support school staff by providing training on how they can work on developing a children’s skills across all school activities.
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The therapy team first focuses on identifying and exploring each child’s potential and opportunities. Then recommends and provides therapy either in groups or individually as per the needs of the child.
During the therapeutic process, therapist look beyond the child’s problem or syndrome and through a personally tailored work-process, therapist strengthen and develop child’s potential/skill.
First therapist will begin working with skills appropriate for the developmental stage the child didn’t go through. The child relearns all the processes that he/she skipped, step by step, the absence of which has created (or reinforced) the developmental disorder. As a result, the gap between child’s chronological age and developmental situation reduces significantly. Relearning those process, he/she missed and constantly practicing them encourages the brain and nervous system to improve performance skills. A good framework is set in place for the potential learning skills of the kid.
Thus, therapies help students to improve their ability to perform tasks in their daily living and working environments.
Therapeutic process is an extensive learning process. All developmental elements are combined with therapeutic methods: cognitive, motor, sensory, behavioural, emotional, social, and family. Therapist often works with all or each one separately, using a wider peripheral perception of all systems involved. Therapists use different approaches like play- activities, role play, reinforcement-based activities to help children better process and tolerate the information they get through their senses.
In therapy when given the right stimuli, the brain responds and can reorganise the network of its connections. This makes it possible to develop better performance and results achieved. The child learns how to stop the incorrect behaviours he/she adopted because of his/her disorder and how to create new functions, appropriate for the stage where he/she is.
6 key factors which contribute to the success of therapeutic interventions
1. Intensive, regular, continuous therapy
2. It is imperative to create a suitable developmental environment.
3. The therapy must be integrated into the child's cognitive-motor functioning, as well as the family's lifestyle, environment and approach.
4. Each particular factor relevant to the current situation must be dealt with and deconstructed and rebuilt if necessary.
5. Communication between all those involved in the child’s development must occur.
6. Should encourages the integration and incorporation of other disciplines that can enhance the experience for the child.
Conclusion:
It is never a one-person job to bring an all-round transformation in a child with special needs. The ‘One man army’ approach doesn’t seem to work in intervention and rehabilitation fields.
Thus, it is extremely crucial to have a very balanced coordination among all the professionals who are working with the child like the therapists, the teachers and the doctors. Also, every person who has influence in child’s life like the school authorities and close family members, must involve in his/her therapeutic interventions. Regular coordination and a constructive sharing of goals and progress reports among all the people involved in child’s life will definitely speed up progress in the child.
After all, a little kid who has in place all the necessary interventions and a team of specialists is definitely closer to becoming and independent individual. It’s a slow but sure progress!
