Meeting the needs of children and families assignment
1.
2. “Faheen is a 5-year-old girl who was born with a
congenitally deformed right leg. She has had several
operations and wear prosthesis. Her father has been
transferred to Toronto from Thunder Bay. He is
concerned about Faheen Making friends in the room
due to her frequent absences due to hospitalizations.”
3. Faheen is suffering from the disability of congenitally
deformed right leg since she was born.
She has to wear an artificial limb or prosthesis to
support the function of her right leg.
Congenital deformity is a type of injury that happens
to children since the time of birth.
4. In order to facilitate Faheen for making friends in the
classroom I would engage the class into co-operative
play where she is able to communicate with a larger
group of children along with the teacher’s supervision
and also teacher being a play mate. Eg: fixing a puzzle
together, reading a book together, making salads,
dramatic play, making pizza, cake, sand play, water
play, field trip to a local park.
I would observe and document Faheen’s about her
comfort level with her friends and support her to pair
with her close friends.
5. Playing interactive games in circle as a large group can facilitate
Faheen to be comfortable with her class mates.
As a teacher I would always provide positive reinforcement for
Faheen’s input in making friends like sharing.
Acting out social skills as a teacher would also help Faheen
make friends in the centre.
Modifying the physical environment of the room for her barrier
free movement.
Activities in a group that requires sitting with little gross motor
of upper body part in between would help Faheen more rested
and involved.
Eg: Improvisational story telling
7. Variety Village:
3701 Danforth Avenue
Scarborough, Ontario
M1N 2G2
http://www.varietyvillage.ca/
Aisling Discoveries Child
and Family Centre
325 Milner Avenue, Suite 110
Scarborough, ON
Canada, M1B 5N1
http://www.aislingdiscoveries.on.ca/
8. Toronto Children Services:
Services for Children with special needs
Phone within Toronto city limits: 311
E-mail: 311@toronto.ca
http://www.toronto.ca/children/specialneeds/specialn
eeds_agencies.htm
Notas do Editor
Faheen's father needs information about the clinic or hospitals that facilitates children with congenital deformity. He also needs information about the centres that design prosthesis for children. Faheen's father requires information about children's hospitals for her regular check- ups. He needs information about drop in centres with parents in Toronto so that while Faheen is unable to attend the day care centre over an extended period of time than she can attend the programs of the drop in centres with her father for few hours where she is able to communicate with children, as her father is concerned about Faheen's social development skill of making friends. He also needs information about the family and child centres that provides support and help with programs for children with special needs.
Congenital deformity means a type of disability or disorder that has happened to the child since the time of birth due to various medical reasons. Farheen is having congenital deformity of her right leg that means her right leg is not developed as her left leg since the time of her birth. "A large group of disorder arising during development that causes abnormality of the human body. Most are due to genetic factors such as inherited or spontaneous mutations, whereas others are caused by environmental influences during pregnancy such as exposure to harmful chemicals." (http://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/Congenital+deformity) Farheen has to wear prosthesis in order to support her movement. It is a human made artificial organ that replaces the work of the original part of the body. " In medicine, a prosthesis, prosthetic, or prosthetic limb is an artificial device extension that replaces a missing body part. It is the science of using mechanical devices with human muscle, skeleton, and nervous systems to assist or enhance motor control lost by trauma, disease, or defect. Prostheses are generally used to replace parts lost by injury(traumatic) or missing from birth (congenital) or to supplement defective body parts." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prosthesis)
According to the http://connectability.ca/2011/03/24/facilitating-friendships-between-children/ "Like adults, some children find it easier to make friends and meet new people than others. When thinking of potential playmates for your child, consider his personality, age, and interests. A child of the same age with similar personality and interest should be a good match." In order to find playmates for Faheen, with whom she finds comfortable to be with, as the teacher of the room I would observe and maintain a journal about the area of interest of all the children present in the classroom and also to understand Faheen's area of interest. Then this would help me identify class mates for Faheen having the same area of interest, thus making Faheen comfortable in making friends in the classroom.
Improvisational Storytelling "To play this game, put pictures of different emotions face down on the table. Then players decide together on some story elements must appear in the story (e.g., an arctic wasteland, a lemur, and a banana). The goal is for the players to take turns making up the narrative, building on each other's ideas and (eventually) making use of all the required story elements. To begin, first player picks a card, and starts the narrative. He can take the story into any direction he likes, but he must incorporate the emotion depicted on the card. After a minute or two, the next player picks a card and continues the narrative. Players continue to take turns until they have used all the required story elements and reached a satisfying conclusion." http://www.friendshipcircle.org/blog/2011/03/28/12-activities-to-help-your-child-with-social-skills/ According to the http://connectability.ca/2011/03/24/facilitating-friendships-between-children/ as an adult in the classroom "In the beginning, you should play all the 'parts' to show your child what he can do or say in certain situations. Maintain his interest by using characters from his favourite television shows." After observing and maintaining a daily log on an on- going basis, based on my observation and documentation, as an adult in the classroom I would be facilitating Faheen in learning her social skills by being a play mate as well as role model for her. According to the http://connectability.ca/2011/03/24/facilitating-friendships-between-children/ "A fun way to teach social skills is to 'act out' social situations with your child using dolls or puppets." "Keep in mind that friendships are like plants. They take time to grow and require special care and effort to blossom."
Holland Bloorview Hospital "offer clients a full range of services including assessment, prescription, custom manufacturing, training and repair" and "treat clients (who are infants, children, youth and adults) who were born without a limb or with a partial limb, or who have lost a limb due to injury or disease." " The team has over 25 years of experience fitting complex limb differences, and that expertise enables the team to provide with well-fitting and innovative solutions." The hospital believes "To create a world of possibility for kids with disability." (http://www.hollandbloorview.ca/programsandservices/prosthetics/index.php) Sick Kids Hospital "The Division of Orthopaedic Surgery at The Hospital for Sick Children (Sick Kids) has a long standing history of excellence in treating musculoskeletal disorders. The Division sees patients from a wide range of congenital and acquired orthopaedic conditions including spinal deformity, neuromuscular diseases, bone dysplasias, limb deficiencies, limb length discrepancy, major deformities, orthopaedic oncology and trauma." Faheen's father can also take her to Sick Kids hospital for regular check-ups. (http://www.sickkids.ca/orthopaedicsurgery/)
Variety Village: The Philosophy of Variety Village is as follows: "Through our programs and services, Variety Village makes a profound difference in the spirits and lives of people with disabilities and their families in the greater Toronto area and across Ontario." (http://www.varietyvillage.ca/philosophy.php?menu) Faheen's father was concerned about her making friends in the day care centre as often she is unable to attend the centre due to hospitalization. By taking the special program of 'Building Blocks' in Variety Village Faheen would be able to develop her social skills. In the 'Building Blocks' program "Participants learn effective means of communicating play with peers and develop skills relating to certain themes (making friends, personal space, team work, sharing etc.) and create opportunities for practice during recreation times." The program "involves interactive games, new activities and opportunities to interact with peers on various levels depending upon the kid's abilities.“ (http://www.varietyvillage.ca/programs-child-youth.php?menu) Aisling Discoveries Child and Family Centre: The organisation helps children and their families to work together for the overall development of the child. Their mission is to "promote the social, emotional and developmental well-being of children by providing responsive services in partnership with families and communities." (http://www.aislingdiscoveries.on.ca/who_we_are/vision) The Group treatment and early intervention services "aim to improve children’s understanding of themselves and others, as well as to provide social interaction skills in a group setting." (http://www.aislingdiscoveries.on.ca/what_we_do/group) This program would help Faheen to enhance her interactions with other children. Parent drop-in centres like Ontario Early Years would also help Faheen to meet other children of her age. She would be more comfortable as her father would be along with her, so she would not have any anxiety.
Faheen's father would be able to find Family and children drop in centres through this website nearest to his house. "This team coordinates support and services for children who appear to have a developmental delay or who require support in order to address social, emotional, medical, physical or family needs." (http://www.toronto.ca/children/specialneeds/specialneeds_agencies.htm)
Reflection: Meeting the Needs of Children and Families assignment have provided me an opportunity to find an extended overview about a type of special needs named as 'Congenital deformed right leg'. There are various types of disabilities due to which people in the world often are not able to develop or do things in a certain way like others in the society, but they are definitely unique and special in their own ways. Even if we look at the five fingers of our hand, every finger is different from each other and have their own unique function, all are equally important. Similarly human beings are also different, unique and extraordinary in their own special way. A person might not be blessed with all the developed body parts, but it is our responsibility as a human being to include, respect, understand, support and lay that extra hand to people who have special needs. The assignment has helped me to learn about congenital deformity which can happen to a child due to various reasons at the time of birth, that may lead to a less developed or an injured body part. The child has to suffer various surgeries if the deformity is major. Minor deformities also happen at the time of birth but if proper care is taken then the child does not go through surgeries and often a special type of boot helps the child to survive a regular life. Faheen has major deformity of her right leg since birth, for this reason the innocent child has to undergo several operations at such a young age. As a future Early Childhood Educator it is our responsibility to reduce the pain or suffrage of children like Faheen in practical day to day life. Every centre working with children, schools, institutions, day cares should include more children with special needs to create diversity, unity and equity. While I was researching for agencies to work with congenitally deformed legs or limbs, there are very few centres who work to support children having this type of special need. This clearly depicts that as global citizen and Early Childhood Educator having the knowledge of inclusion of children with special needs we should come forward and advocate to create centres for inclusion in true sense. If we go to any day care or school and count the ratio of children we would see hardly there is inclusion of one or two children in the centre, but there are several children throughout the country and world who needs recognition, respect, equity and support and have every right to learn, get freedom, opportunity to grow and prosper as a human being because every human beings have emotions which in the case of children with special needs often remains untold because there are very few people who really wants to listen to them. So we have to support and facilitate each and every child for a better position of mankind throughout the world.
Strengths: The assignment makes me feel that as if I am able to visualize Faheen as a little girl like my daughter who might not have been blessed with her body part, who needs the extra support of love, care, belongingness and a true feeling of inclusion. If I ever come across a child like Faheen, I would know how to help the family and the child in every possible way and take the extra step to make them feel comfortable, relaxed and being loved as well as above all included in the program and in the world as a human being. Challenges: While searching for agencies to help Faheen and her father to overcome their transition to Toronto, it was difficult for me to find institution that help children having congenital deformed leg but I was able to find the name of two hospitals that help children suffering from congenitally deformed legs. Though it was challenging to understand the needs of the family but I have been able to put some kind of support for the family. I think I have to learn about the agencies that helps children with various types of special needs.
