Case Study 16 – Effectiveness of Early Intervention of Language Delays in Toddlers

SUCCESS STORY

The department had informed that, I had assigned with a new case. The child was about 1.5 years old. He came at his youngest age, most crucial period for language development. I was very happy to see him he was such a lovely boy. At the same time I felt challenging because it was the prime period for developing his skills and it was the first time I was taking therapy for such a small child. I went through the case file and got to know about his diagnosis (autistic features). I felt proud about the parents who observed his problems and bought him at his youngest age.

I started to take sessions for him. On the first day itself he was crying throughout the session, I took many activities, but he was not interested in any of that, instead he banged each toy and threw them off. Later I asked the parent about his favorites and got prepared for the next session. His parents got tensed after seeing his responses; they started to enquire more about the problems and cried in the session. I counseled the parent about his problem and the importance of early intervention. On the next day I welcomed him with his favorite toys and he sat/attended the session for a while. He enjoyed the session for ten minutes, again he started to show his disinterest. I felt so happy that at least he could enjoy for 10 minutes. Slowly slowly I made rapport with the child. He started to give better responses by playing meaningfully (instead of rotating the wheels he started to drive the vehicle).

Gradually I changed the pattern of therapy instead of full activities, I introduced commands in between the activities.   For few sessions I continued the same pattern of activities, gradually he got adjusted to it. I used the activities like sticking bindis on the mirror, on the face etc which was his favorites.

When his PLS were set I moved to matching skills, for which I gave the child different matching activities like puzzles etc. He could do matching easily because puzzles were his favorites. When he achieved his matching skills, I moved on to identification skills for which I took familiar objects and animals models. With animal sounds and rhymes I initiated the identification and it continued. Finally he identified, now he could identify all the objects correctly from a group of 10. Finally his discharge time arrived and he got out from his diagnosis. I felt happy about his achievements and felt proud.

Note: Early intervention and adequate stimulation helps the children to develop their age adequate skills.

ARYA V ANILKUMAR

SPECIAL EDUCATOR