The new group for family-mediated intervention for children with special needs “Sun” was launched in 2023. Our goal was to expand the scope of Karin Dom’s services, offering a family approach and involving parents. The group offers an opportunity for parents to gain experience that they can take into their home and build on their skills.
During the group work, the leading therapist of the group, Evgenia Misheva, a child psychologist with many years of experience in working with children with communication disorders and challenging behavior, gives guidelines for dealing with various difficulties that parents encounter in their child’s daily life.
The group includes 4 children aged from 2,6 to 6 years along with their parents. It is held weekly in Karin Dom. Direct work with children and parents lasts 2 hours. Group work with parents is aimed at developing skills for better communication with children, developing adaptive and social skills, dealing with unacceptable, oppositional and stereotypical behavior, stimulating eye and emotional contact, stimulating communication, cognitive development, building skills for emotional-social interaction with peers and adults.
The main goals of the group are successful integration and easy adaptation of the child in a primary school and/or school, cooperation based on the family’s priorities.
The idea of creating this new family-mediated group for children with special needs “Sun” was inspired by a girl aged 5 years 10 months with a very rare syndrome – Coffin-Siris, who currently does not attend kindergarten due to her condition. In addition to individual work with the child, we decided to create a new therapeutic group, suitable for children with various conditions, who for one reason or another are not covered by the educational system and remain isolated from the educational process and communication with peers.