Workshop highlights need for early interventions for children with learning difficulties

MNC's 17th national workshop focuses on 'Early Intervention with Parental Involvement' to create public awareness about needs of children with disabilities. N. Kumar, president of Bala Mandir Kamaraj Trust, highlighted the importance of this workshop in the changed environment. Maya Gaitonde, general secretary of Bala Mandir Kamaraj Trust, discussed the journey of the institution, initiatives introduced and Kinship Care programme to support children orphaned by COVID-19. MNC's workshop to evolve strategies to identify needs of children, reach out to homes and review effects of early intervention.

Madhuram Narayanan Centre for Exceptional Children (MNC), a unit of Bala Mandir Kamaraj Trust, organised its 17th national workshop with the theme ‘Early Intervention with Parental Involvement’ in the city on Friday.

“The key objectives of the workshop is to evolve strategies to create public awareness about the importance of identifying the specific needs of children with intellectual disabilities and other conditions, to analyse the significance of reaching out to the homes of children through counselling parents on early interventional needs and to review the effects of early intervention,” said S. Vasanthi, Director of MNC, and added that this workshop would pave the way for the formulation of many recommendations, which needed to be addressed by policymakers at the State and Central levels.

N. Kumar, president of Bala Mandir Kamaraj Trust and vice-chairman of The Sanmar Group, said: “A lot has happened in the last four years, especially with COVID-19. I was extremely glad that MNC took special care of the requirements of the children through home visits and online assistance. This changed environment will be evident in this 17th workshop and will be an eye-opener to many new attendees.”

He added: “The theme ‘Early Intervention with Parental Involvement’ has been the philosophy of MNC, which has pioneered the field of early intervention with its Upanayan Programme.”

Maya Gaitonde, general secretary of Bala Mandir Kamaraj Trust, in her presentation, showed the journey of the institution and said that MNC was started in 1989 and then became part of Bala Mandir in 2018.

She highlighted the key initiatives that have been introduced and said: “We introduced a special teacher in the education units of Bala Mandir Vidyalaya and that action led to identifying, at first, the ways to help children with learning delays and then difficulties within the set-up of regular schools.”

She also mentioned about the children’s home and said: “The children’s home, however, has not been licensed to admit children with ‘special needs’, but we have built a rapport with like-minded institutions who admit them. We have handled physically handicapped and children with partial sight in the past and, of course, children with learning delay and difficulties.” She added that Bala Mandir Kinship Care programme supported children orphaned by the COVID-19 pandemic in socio-economically weak families.