Help a child is an initiate by AKAI in partnership with VMS Kashmir.
1. Name:- Murtaza
Age:- 10 years
Class:- 5th standard
Diagnosis:- Speech and Hearing impaired
Socioeconomic status:- Father works as a taxi driver, He has suffered financially due to the current political turmoil. He supporting a family of four kids, out of four two have speech and hearing impaired. He has spent approx. $17000.00 loan amount for cochlear implant surgery for his son .
Academic:- Murtaza is capable of recognizing different geometrical shapes and has memorized tables from 5 to 10. He is able to do single digit multiplication very well. He has learned the concept of time. He is able to understand the time on digital as well as analog watches. He has good knowledge of the days of the week, months of the Year, different sense organs, and their functions. He also has the concept of nouns.
Speech:- Murtaza had undergone cochlear implant surgery for the right ear. He was not able to speak in the past. Now he is able to communicate his name, family, address. He tries to communicate his needs and is gaining knowledge of day to day living activities.
Sports:- Murtaza takes great interest in sports and participates actively in games. In our recent intra-school sports competition, he bagged first and second position in Javelin throw and in the long jump. He is also very good at playing cricket.
Social:- Murtaza is showing significant improvements in his social behavior. He used to remain alone but now he enjoys the company of his friends and enjoys group games also.
2. Name:- Arhaam
Age:- 11 years
Class/category:- Severe
DIAGNOSIS:- C.P with severe intellectual disability
Socioeconomic status:- Arhaam’s parents are in financial difficulty. Father support’s family by selling street food.
Academics:- Arhaam has a severe intellectual disability, he is trainable, not educable and he was not even able to scribble. Now he scribbles, points, identifies, recognizes common fruits.
Fine motor:- Arhaam fine motors are weak. He is not able to hold things properly with his hands. Now because of the different activities, fine motor hand functioning and grasp have improved. He is able to hold the pencil, spoon, etc in hands.
ADLS:- Because of the weak fine motor Arhaam was not able to button and unbutton, zip, and unzip his clothes. Now he is able to zip and unzip. Buttoning and unbuttoning are difficult for him. He has also achieved toilet control. Goes to the washroom independently. He can eat with a spoon independently after daily physical therapy sessions.
Physical:- Daily physical therapy sessions are given to him to reduce the tightness in his muscles in order to improve his gait pattern, grasp, and hand functioning.
Speech:- Oro motor exercises for strengthening oral motor muscles, pointing and identification of common things available in surroundings as he is not able to speak.
3. Name:- Naveed
Age:- 21 years
Class/Category:- Profound category
DIAGNOSIS:- Profound intellectual disability
Socioeconomic status:- The family is economically very poor. His father is a barber and does not earn enough to support his family.
ACADEMICS:- Because of the severity of the disability, we mainly focus on drawing and scribbling in academics to improve concentration, hand-eye coordination and attention.
ADLS:- Did not have toilet control but now he indicates the need of going to the washroom and has been trained to eat independently but still needs assistance in mixing food.
Behavior:-Naveed was having negative behavior of unnecessarily laughing. Behavior modification therapy eliminated his negative behavior to some extent.
Sports:- Play and recreational therapy is given to improve socialization and to reduce hyperactive behavior.
At present, the school is working with the Naveed through a telerehabilitation program. The parent doesn’t have an internet facility so he is being given online classes in the neighbor’s house. For the last year his father’s shop has been closed because of the political unrest, lockdown, curfew, and present COVID-19 crisis in the valley.
4. Name:- Burhaan
Class/section:- 3rd
AGE:- 15 YEARS
DIAGNOSIS:- Speech and Hearing impairment with moderate intellectual disability
Socioeconomic status: Burhaan belongs to a very low-income family. His father is a taxi driver by profession and supports two kids who both have speech and hearing impairments as the other parent abandoned them.
ACADEMICS:- Since Burhaan has multiple disabilities his academic performance is poor. He is able to write alphabets from A to Z and can also write the names of the common fruits, writes numbers from 1 to 30.
SOCIAL:- Burhaan has poor social skills. He does not enjoy the company of his friends. Presently we are focusing on improving his social skills and participating in group activities.
Behavior:- Burhaan does not show interest and cooperation during academic sessions, and we are trying to improve by using concrete rather than abstract concepts.