Early intervention training for Karin dom’s team

In the period from May 28th  to June 8th guest of Karin Dom is David Allen, Ph.D., lecturer at Portland State University, Oregon on Early Intervention and Early Childhood Special Education. The purpose of his visit is to deliver training to the staff and to support further development of Karin Dom’s Early Intervention Programme.  

Dr. Allen observed therapy sessions and play groups in the Centre and joined in home visiting with the early intervention consultants. The discussions, the feedback from his observations and the methodological support were very helpful for our staff. Within the two-week visit, Dr. Allen delivered series of lectures that were of importance to the whole staff. A tool for assessment of child development was presented; lecturing included development of Individual child and family plan, setting goals and monitoring progress directly related to those goals. Another accent in the training programme were parent-child and parent-professional interactions and the key role of the play.

At the end of his stay, Dr. Allen will meet parents of young children, who are our service users. The topic of the meeting is “Challenges in everyday life: how to turn them into a stimulating play”. Parents and professionals will have a chance for discussion and learning from his experience.

Apart from the training to Karin Dom staff, David Allen took part in a work meeting in Sofia – “Early intervention for children with special needs and their families: better care for children and prevention of abandonment”. Participants in the meeting were 30 representatives of several organizations from the country involved in delivering early intervention services, as well as representatives of the social ministry. Interest to the public was the presentation delivered by our American guest “The importance of early intervention for young children and their families”.