Specialists from Karin Dom Shared Their Experience and Success with the Early Intervention Program at a Conference in Moldova

From April 20th to April 22nd, Karin Dom took part at a conference for exchange of successful practices in the field of early intervention for children from 0 to 3 years – “Growing Up Together: from Local Initiatives to National Strategy for Early Child Intervention”, held by EASPD (European Association Of Service Providers For Persons With Disabilities), in Chisinau, Moldova. Present were more than 200 delegates who shared their vision on the early intervention services that the organizations offer in various countries in Europe. The “Zero Project” was introduced – a project for gathering good practices on Early Intervention, an edition where the practice of Karin Dom is also published.

During the conference, Karin Dom’s specialists held a seminar, introducing the family centered approach, the experience of Early Intervention program and its distribution. Veselina Vasileva (Development Director) presented data from the assessment of Karin Dom’s Early Intervention Program, information about trainings and the achieved stability of the those services, regarding the youngest children.

Nikoleta Yoncheva (speech therapist and trainer) introduced the “Little+” group and the benefit for the children, using the family centered approach. The goal of the group is for the parents, with help from the specialist, to stimulate and initiate communication in order for them to feel more confident in daily life. With video materials and inclusion of the participants at the seminar in cases, were presented the advantages of team work between specialists and parents during therapy for children from the Autistic spectrum.

Participants were very impressed with the range of the family centered approach, inclusion of families and parental mutual aid, as well as the support by the specialists from Karin Dom in the daily life of the child and communication with its peers. Good response was also received for the software, developed by Karin Dom in which is gathered and analyzed data on Early Intervention program. From international point of view, it was positively marked the fact that in Bulgaria, Karin Dom is adapting the screening tool “Ages and Stages Questionnaires” (ASQ-3 и ASQ-SE).

The part of Karin Dom was highly estimated by hosts and participants. Interest in our work and mutual activities was shown by organizations from Portugal, Moldova, Spain, Austria, Germany.

Remarkable is the success of Moldova in direction of guaranteeing stability of early intervention services. They have included an article in the law, according to which the state provides financing for those services by the country’s National Insurance system. Our colleagues from Portugal shared the model of financing early intervention by state budget of the three ministries – of social politics, of health and of education. This is a good example for excellent coordination and synchronizing the work at institutions towards financing the services on early intervention that gives great results and guarantees stability.

Karin Dom is a member of EASPD