Without trained and motivated parents, children with special needs will continue to find the going tough.
“The ‘successful’ cases have demonstrated beyond doubt that parental support has been high for special children who have made the cut,” maintains Elizabeth Philip, principal of Raksha Society that has been in operation in West Kochi since 1985.
Key role
“Parents and siblings play a key role in mainstreaming students with learning, behavioural, and social issues. Hence, the significance of parental counselling and training,” she says.
Initially, Raksha, part-funded by the Centre, met the requirements of children with cerebral palsy alone, but its remedial intervention covers the whole spectrum of social and educational disabilities at present. There is an early intervention centre and preschool that cater for newborns and infants of up to four years of age.
The school has 136 students now. This apart, the clinic gets over 20 students for centre-based periodic intervention.
While the resources centres run by the government under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) programme offers programmes for early intervention by way of various therapies in infants and students at government schools, they do not have any holistic support centre.
Raksha has lately begun a pilot project for employability training for special children. “But the need of the hour is for employers to be more aware about these trained people and offer them jobs,” Ms. Elizabeth adds.
