PSG & Sons’ Charities launched a different endeavour on Monday for ‘Vijayadasami’. It was an effort to provide life education to children with special needs to help them lead a quality life.
A day care programme centre for special children, ‘PSG Vishnugranthi’ will address their health, educational, and skill needs, according to Project Director K. Banumathi. It will be manned by a doctor, nurse and special educators.
The aim was to start intervention at an early stage – as early as two years – to equip them with education, skills and therapy to help them leave the centre ready with confidence to face the world. Training will also be extended to parents who accompany the children, to help them get a hang of the sessions conducted at the centre, to use it the right way at home.
The centre was inaugurated by L. Gopalakrishnan, Managing Trustee of PSG & Sons’ Charities. Services will be offered at subsidised rates for those who could afford them. Alumni of PSG institutions will bear the expenses of the training and therapy of those special children who cannot afford them.
“We are aiming at 50 children in all age groups. There is no set time frame for each child. Once they believe they are ready to use the education and skill they have learnt and be independent on their own, they will leave the centre. An individualised educational programme will be prepared for each student and the report for the same will be provided to his / her parent,” Dr. Banumathi said.
The centre would focus on children in the age group of 2- 15 years with cerebral palsy, autism, Down’s syndrome, and mental retardation. Training would include cognition, communication, socialisation, living skills, motor skills, yoga, physiotherapy and speech therapy. Facilities of PSG Hospitals would be extended to the students of the centre for additional therapy and treatment.
In due course, those who successfully complete training in the centre would be made part of PSG & Sons’ Differently Abled Metacognition Unit, which would identify and teach them specific skills that would help them earn a livelihood. The unit would also help place them in small units and continue to assist them in their livelihood activities.
Those interested, can visit PSG Vishnugranthi Centre at 25, Rajalakshmi Colony, TVS Nagar, Edayarpalayam; or call 0422-2400094.
