TN Govt increasing access to early intervention therapy for children with special needs

The school enrollment rate of children with special needs improved from 69 per cent to 85 per cent when they received early intervention therapy, finds a study by Amar Seva Sangam, Ayikudi (ASSA), a premier non-profit organization in the field of disability management.

Chennai (Tamil Nadu) [India], Feb 11 (ANI/NewsVoir): The school enrollment rate of children with special needs improved from 69 per cent to 85 per cent when they received early intervention therapy, finds a study by Amar Seva Sangam, Ayikudi (ASSA), a premier non-profit organization in the field of disability management. The study was conducted in association with the University of Toronto and McGill University, Canada on the outcomes of ASSA's Village-based Early Intervention & Rehabilitation Programme that covered 1,152 children with special needs. The programme was funded and supported by Grand Challenges Canada, Handi-Care Intl., Azim Premji Philanthropic Initiative and the Harvard Centre for the Developing Child.

The program has been awarded the prestigious MIT Solver Award, Vodafone Mobile for Goods Award, World Cerebral Palsy Day Major Award in Medical/Therapeutics and the Zero Project Inclusive Education Award to be presented at the United Nations in Vienna in Feb 2020. The programme uses a digital application to connect community rehabilitation workers with rehabilitation specialists in order to provide early intervention therapy to children with delayed development. This has improved their development and increased their participation and integration in schools and society. The programme began in Oct 2014 and has benefited 1,152 children with special needs in the district of Tirunelveli, Tamil Nadu and will continue to enroll new children and expand to new districts in Tamil Nadu.

The programme trained 2,771 Anganwadi workers, village health nurses and community rehabilitation workers in screening for delayed development and screened 52,036 children under the age of six in this district. They found a 2.1 per cent prevalence rate of developmental disabilities. In addition, more than 35,000 people in the surrounding community showed improved knowledge about child development, early intervention therapy and reduced stigma as a result of awareness camps conducted by ASSA. The program showed improved engagement over time with rates of therapy attendance by children improving from 60 per cent in 2017 to 95 per cent in 2019.

ASSA's study found that the severity of disability and the lack of early intervention were the two primary reasons that prevent the children with special needs from attending schools. The lowest enrolment was seen with children with cerebral palsy (CP), particularly those with more motor severity and cognitive impairment. Children with higher early intervention program attendance levels had higher rates of achieving school enrolment. "Disability is a major barrier to access to education in India. According to a 2016 study published in the Lancet, there are more than 52.9 million children under the age of five in the world living with a disability, with 12 million in India and 100,000 in Tamil Nad," said S Sankara Raman, Secretary, ASSA.

"There is an urgent need to address this issue with quality early intervention to support children in the development of physical, cognitive, emotional, sensory, behavioural, social and communication capabilities and skills. This would increase inclusion and participation of those children in schools and society," added Raman. "This program is an excellent model for adoption by other NGOs and governments both in India and abroad," Padma Shri S Ramakrishnan, Founder President, Amar Seva Sangam, while commenting about the study, and the programme.

Dr Dinesh Krishna, the Director of early intervention programme for Amar Seva Sangam stated, that Children in the high programme attendance groups had greater improvement in "Functional Independence Measure for Children" (WeeFim) and Gross Motor Function Measure (GMFM). Over time, their gross motor function, cognitive scores, and their self-care abilities improved. Receptive and expressive speech improved among all children in the programme. This family-centered programme used validated scales to measure family empowerment and caregiver strain and found that parents with medium and high programme participation had a statistically significant reduction in caregiver burden and improved family empowerment compared to those with low programme participation. In total, 74 per cent of families had decreased strain, 73 per cent had improved family empowerment and 62 per cent had improved child interaction.

With a view to sharing its experiences in early intervention, and to highlight other successful early intervention models and interventions from across the world, ASSA is organizing an International conference on 'Early intervention for children with special needs', in Chennai. The two-day conference (Feb 14th and 15th) is scheduled to be inaugurated by Tamil Nadu Governor His Excellency, Banwarilal Purohit on February 14, 2020, in Chennai. There will also be two pre-conference workshops on February 13, 2020 on the topics of 1) Designing, implementing, monitoring and scaling-up early intervention programs for children with disabilities, and 2) Home-based early intervention for children with developmental disabilities and cerebral palsy: A family-centred interdisciplinary approach.

The international conference will have presentations from more than 50 experts on a wide range of themes such as early identification, early stimulation, intervention through play, assistive and adaptive technology, inclusive education, and social security schemes, among others. About 500 participants, including the executives of non-governmental organisations, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, special educators, pediatricians, doctors including neurologists and orthopedic surgeons, research scholars, students, professors, early childhood educators, psychologists, speech trainers, speech pathologists, family counsellors, funders and senior government officials from different parts of the country and the world are expected to attend the workshops and the international conference.

The conference aims to offer a platform for the exchange and adoption of a significant number of diverse experiences, and best practices in the field of early intervention that would maximize children's potential towards inclusion. The conference will also explore sustainable social development models for overall economic growth through rehabilitation and inclusion of children with developmental delays in society. The research findings and the significant positive outcome of this programme has initiated the State Government of Tamil Nadu to scale up the program by funding Amar Seva Sangam to expand the programme to cover three full districts - Tenkasi, Tirunelveli and Tuticorin starting in April 2020. The Govt aims to make the programme available statewide which will benefit 100,000 children with childhood disabilities.

ASSA is founded and run by professionals in wheelchairs. It empowers children, youth and adults with special needs through early intervention, rehabilitation, education, skill development and livelihood solutions in the southern parts of India. This story is provided by NewsVoir. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/NewsVoir)

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