Lesson 4 & 5 : Intervention Efforts for Children With Developmental Challenges
Intervention
It is a general name for all the efforts made on behalf of the handicapped. The overall goal is to eliminate, or at least reduce the obstacles that keep a handicapped person from full and active participation in society. There are three basic kinds of intervention efforts
Prevention: Preventive efforts are most promising when attempted early in life, during prenatal period. Example: genetic counseling, amniocentesis and screening early in infancy for metabolic disorders and other conditions that produce disabilities. Social and education programs stimulate infants and very young children to acquire skills that most children learn normally without special help.
Remediation is an educational term. This is similar to rehabilitation. The purpose is to teach the disabled child basic skills needed for independence. In school these skills may be academic (reading, writing speaking computing) social (getting along with other children, peer interaction, following instructions, schedules) or even personal (feeding, dressing, using toilet without assistance). Vocational training or vocational rehabilitation includes preparation to develop work habits and attitudes as well as specific training of a skill eg. Carpentry, printing etc.
Compensatory skills are giving them a kind of substitute skill, device or setting on which to rely. Eg cerebral palsied child can be trained to make maximum use of her hands by using a head stick and a template placed over a regular type writer which may effectively compensate for lack of muscle control, typing instead of writing lessons by hand or special training like mobility instruction for a blind child.
Participants