Description of the program:

This program has proved to be very effective for the younger children in areas like a smoother adaptability in the classroom sessions, behaviour modification, reduces anxiety and helps the child to better concentrate on activities given by the specialists (Location: Mulund).

Siddarth was enrolled in our school when he was 4 years old. His parents fortunately realised the problem with Siddharth i.e. noticeable hyperactivity and aggressiveness while reacting, it was noticed that he was not sociable with others. Specialists design a course for him taking into account the needs. Now Siddarth is no more hyperactive and his social cooperativeness has increased which led him to gain more friends. Now, his parents are happy since Siddharth is improving. We feel that intervention at the right time can create miracles

Description of the program:

Occupational Therapy needs to have a well equipped and appropriately designed set up. Presently our centre is suitably equipped to address the present needs of our students Location Nerul and Mulund).

Here, we would like to share a miraculous experience about Paritosh, a 9 years old child with Down's syndrome. Chewing food, speaking, communication through gestures neither toilet nor other essential things were possible for him. Occupation Therapy was suggested by us and after that, changes noticed in Paritosh were pleasing. Now he can walk, chew food and also convince his message through actions.

Description of the program:

Speech Therapy is provided so as to enable the child to distinguish between sound and noise. It basically begins with voice control and modulation. Children are trained to use their oral aperture so that the speech becomes tangible, sensible and concrete.

Silence was the only friend of Aditya. Profound hearing-loss was affecting his communication and learning capacity. Being rejected from his previous school, he found ICMH, and its Skills and Ability School. His mathematics was poor and he never used to score well. Specialists from the School prepared a tailor-made course to teach language, auditory and speech along with his academics. Now he is playing with the numbers.

Description of the program:

The school has laid due emphasis on providing practical experiences to children by adopting the Guided Learning Experience approach. It's the creative combination of academics and co curricular activities that has made learning simple, interesting and memorable for our children. This happens with exposure trips, cultural activities, celebration of festivals, national days, competitions and conducting sports activities throughout the year.

Sunanda Tarate, Special Educator - Hearing Impaired Division was finding it difficult to refer to the text book for explaining the history of the various forts of Shivaji Maharaj and the strategies he used in each fort to her standard 7th students.

Adopting different approaches in the classroom sessions for teaching the subject had very limited impact on the groups grasping ability. After a brainstorming session of all educators an intervention plan was finally worked upon. It was decided that the monthly competition for the primary students would be - clay making competition where the topic would be forts of Shivaji Maharaj.

On the day of the competition with support from parents and teachers the students displayed their talent and also their knowledge on the forts. They gave detailed description of the clay fort made by them to audience who came to see their fort models.

Sunanda was surprised to see the detailing of the presentations and thus the objective of teaching was achieved with a rippling effect - along with the primary group the pre primary students also know the subject.

Description of the program:

Arts Becomes Therapy is a therapy wherein various arts forms like drama, dance, painting and music are used as media and intervention strategies to provide a healing atmosphere to its beneficiaries, in our case our students (Location: Nerul and Mulund).

Harshali Manchekar was a very shy girl with her eight years old with moderate mental retardation. She just could repeat some questions and before the therapy she was not able to tell her wants. She was so quiet that her speech development was around 10%. With the right treatment which includes playing materials, games and painting, her speech developed to a miraculous level.

She could give instructions to other group members, answer and asked questions.

Description of the program:

The most prominent problem identified in children with developmental disabilities is late admissions. This is due to non acceptance of defect of the child by their parents or by the ignorance of existence of such an education available for these children. In the second scenario most of the time is spend in medication running behind hospitals which is incomplete without special education. Late admissions lead to loss of critical phase of intervention which otherwise would have lead to speedy recovery. The sooner the child is enrolled for a program, the higher are his/her chances of integrating in a regular school (Location: Nerul and Mulund).

Tej Shah has cerebral palsy which had affected his lower limbs since his childhood. He also had lost his mother at the same time. He could not stand independently. His father's remarriage proved to be a blessing in this child's life. His step mother enrolled him in our School in the beginning of 2007, when he was 6 years old. After a series of planned sessions backed by our team of professionals and special educators, he could finally stand on his feet.

A proper assessment of his case was done and an individualized curriculum was designed for him.

Description of the program:

ICMH has laid due emphasis on building capacities of its team. With this as a background ICMH has been conducting various seminars and workshops for teachers and parents throughout the year (Location: Nerul and Mulund/ Beneficiaries: Specialists/Parents of Mentally challenged and Hearing Impaired children)

We have always tried to keep ourselves abreast with the latest happenings within the sector. Arranging and attending various seminars and courses helps us to adopt and implement newer methodologies and strategies which enables us to improvise the overall quality of our services. The success of Animal Assisted Therapy and the introduction of Art Becomes Therapy and Garden Therapy are the live examples of how updated knowledge enables to bring about a change.

Description of the program:

There is no standard curriculum for children with developmental disabilities. Hence we have to be constantly innovative in the various strategies that we adopt. A Pilot phase is then conducted, observations are noted and then if actually successful, the initiative then forms a part of our curriculum. (Location: Nerul/ Mulund, Beneficiaries: 172 Mentally Challenged / 45 Hearing Impaired Children)

In November 2005, ICMH began a pilot scheme of an innovative new therapy known as Animal Assisted therapy aimed to help mentally challenged children with communication skills and self confidence. The results have been astonishing and we now have the Animal Assisted Therapy (AAT) featuring as our yearly program and we take the pride of being the first AAT centre in India.

The source of this success has been the beautiful Labrador under the supervision of the specially trained therapists. The achievement of this pilot project is evident from the visible changes through this intervention of AAT. There have been educational and therapeutic benefits observed across all the children undergoing sessions through the year.