International Conference on Early Intervention Therapy for Children with Special Needs

• Tamil Nadu Government Increasing Access to Early Intervention Therapy for Children with Special Needs with an aim to implement a State Wide Programme;
• His Excellency, Governor of TN to Inaugurate International Conference on Feb 14, 2020;
• "Globally recognized Early Intervention program by Amar Seva Sangam Impacts School Enrolment Rate of Children with special Needs to 85%"

Chennai, 10 Feb. 2020: The school enrolment rate of children with special needs improved from 69% to 85% 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 1152 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 1152 children with special needs in the district of Tirunelveli, Tamil Nadu and will continue to enrol new children and expand to new districts in Tamil Nadu. 

(Sitting L to R) Padma Shri S. Ramakrishnan, Founder President, Amar Seva Sangam; S. Sankara Raman, Secretary, ASSA;  Standing (L to R) V.Ganesan, Joint Secretary, Amar Seva Sangam; Dr.Marie Buen, Physiotherapist, Sr.Clinical and Research Consultant, Canada; Sulochana Krishnamurthy, President, Handi-Care Int’l, Canada; Dinesh Krishna, the Director of Early Intervention programme for Amar Seva Sangam

The programme trained 2771 Anganwadi workers, village health nurses and community rehabilitation workers in screening for delayed development and screened 52.036 children under the age of 6 in this district. They found a 2.1% 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% in 2017 to 95% 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.

Mr. S. Sankara Raman, Secretary, ASSA, said, "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 5 in the world living with a disability, with  2 million in India and 100,000 in Tamil Nadu. 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."

Commenting about the study, and the programme, Padma Shi S. Ramakrishnan, Founder President, Amar Seva Sangam, said, "this program is an excellent model for adoption by other NGOs and governments both in India and abroad."

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 (Wee Fim) 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-centred 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% of families had decreased strain, 73% had improved family empowerment and 62% 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 14 and 15) 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 13 February, 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, paediatricians, doctors including neurologists and orthopaedic surgeons, research scholars, students, 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 professors, early childhood educators, psychologists, 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 3 full districts Tenkasi, Tirunelveli  and Tuticoirn starting in April 2020. The Govt aims to make the programme available state wide 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, skil development and livelihood solutions in the southern parts of India. For more details, visit www.amarseva.org. Media Contact: Mr. S. Sankara Raman, Secretary, Amar Seva Sangam @99444 54170.

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