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Supported by: Wipro Cares
AWMH-Maharashtra is one of the first parents’ associations in India, initiating the Parents Movement for the acceptance, welfare, and rehabilitation of their children. Started initially as a place for counseling parents devastated with the birth of a child with intellectual disability, and guiding them over to acceptance and empowerment, AWMH has grown into an institution, administering therapy to around 100 children with neuro-developmental delay every month at its Early Intervention Centers. The Sports and Coaching Center encourages special schools in Maharashtra to promote sports and physical development. The Recreational Activity Club strives to build self-confidence amongst the members. It has grown into a beacon that guides persons with intellectual disability and their guardians towards joyful living. AWMH Maharashtra has a strong membership of over 450 institutions, teaching institutions, NGOs working in the field of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, and Parents’ Associations.
WIPRO Cares supports AWMH centers at Mulund and Dombivili. They have been providing EI therapy and pre-school services for children aged 1-6 years having developmental delays or disabilities. AWMH staff consisting of occupational therapists, speech therapist, special educators, and caretakers provide the EI services. The clinical psychologist makes an assessment. The emphasis is on building potential of such children for mainstreaming and inclusion in the future.
Therefore, the children are provided with holistic inputs consisting of needed therapies, experiential education inputs, behavior modification, group therapy, celebrating cultural events and festivals together, undertaking social visits, and taking part in-group as well as individual performances in public gatherings. In addition, the domestic and family environment of each child is monitored and need of additional inputs at the center and/or counseling needs for the parents are identified. The parents are also encouraged to integrate the child socially both at home and in the neighborhood and community. This is achieved by maintaining a continuous dialog with parents, and at times, with neighborhood through community workers & volunteers.
During the days of pandemic, the EI Centers have been closed since March 2020 following enforcement of the lockdown. We decided to adopt online channels of communication and audio/video-calls to reach out to beneficiary children/families, using the homebound therapy and pre-school training format. AWMH has been emphasizing on training of parents accompanying the children to EI center in the normal course. This practice came handy and enabled us to continue our services during the pandemic. The feedback from parents and positive results in children with disabilities observed by them motivated us to further fine tune our initiative of Distance Early Intervention Therapies (DEI) and pre-school training support.
The revised intervention model has been implemented with following activities. The status of each child based on previous targets and achievements is updated. Requirement analysis of online therapeutic and special education training for children is undertaken. Initial video/audio coaching is then provided for mother/family of children to carry out homebound training. Video conferencing is done with families to encourage family participation and well-being, along with one-to-one counseling of parents, where required. Therapeutic sessions are held through videos that are closely monitored, and some are recorded for peer review. Special needs videos on “how to do it yourself with the child” and eLearning materials developed by NIEPID are provided. ICMR and WHO tutorials were made mandatory for home-based tutorials of EI staff. Pandemic time became a big opportunity for teachers, therapists, and interested parents as part of overall schedule. Access to various training programs is arranged and monitored.
Webinars to upgrade EI Staff skills: Links of webinars by experts in early intervention care specialties are shared in the staff WhatsApp group and staff are encouraged to attend. During subsequent meetings on Zoom, members exchange their insights with others. Therapists presented on important topics during monthly staff meetings on Zoom, followed by an interactive discussion.