Advanced training sessions for the teams of Early intervention centers in Bulgaria

Karin Dom’s training team is currently holding a series of advanced trainings for professionals at the centers for Early Intervention in the Bulgaria, on project Social Inclusion, financed by the Ministry of Labour and Social Politics with a grant by the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

The photos below are from the training sessions at the Burgas center. The team compared the EI service to a helicopter and had a lot of fun while drawing and deciding what is their place as an element of the complex machine.

The purpose of these trainings is to prepare the teams for providing the early intervention service.

As results of trainings we expect:

• Developing skills for partnership with the parents
• Clarity on the role of the professional in the context of providing the Early Intervention service
• Clarifying the role of every staff member and the interaction between the professionals
• Team work on each case and communication: verbal (team meetings) and written (managing documentation – examples, plan, contract, procedure and others)
• Knowledge on the stages of child development – norm and some markers for pathology during early childhood
• Knowing the effect of a disability on the children’s development
• Knowledge of methods and approaches for developing communication, motor and social skills in the children

In order to achieve that, the trainers use different methods and approaches for leading the trainings, such as:

Informing – giving systematic knowledge in the form of lectures, presentations , manuals, photos and video.

Sensitizing – a set of techniques designed to work with attitudes of acceptance of differences in conditions for children with special needs, identifying and developing their strengths, comparing with norms for the age.

Exchange of group experience on the work with children, parents and team work. We look into cases, role play and work in groups, we conduct discussion with the purpose of exchanging experience between the trainees and the trainers.

Learning from your own experience and reflexion – to learn how to change attitudes and solve problems we work on cases form the participants’ practice, we role-play and then swithc roles.

The assessment of the trainings, the need of additional trainings and supervisions on the matter, we assess through group discussions about the strong and weak sides of applying the family-centered approach and challenging situations in the practice of the professionals at the Centers on early intervention of disabilities. The questionnaires and poll cards given out at the end of the training, help us to evaluate the participants’ satisfaction with the purpose, content and practical application of the training.