Young children spend their early years at home, within their families, and their parents have the greatest influence on their development. Parents are most familiar with their children’s needs.
The principles of the family-oriented approach are rooted in the belief that families play a leading role in decision-making, participate in all stages of collaborative work, receive information from specialists, and work together in partnership.
Since its establishment, Karin Dom has emphasized a team-based approach. Teamwork ensures active participation from each member, enhancing both internal and external motivation. Every professional contributes their expertise and accumulated knowledge, fostering the exchange of ideas. Teamwork is characterized by mutual trust and complementarity, where each member contributes their strengths—professional skills and knowledge—to the collective effort. This collaborative process generates more solutions to challenges. Teamwork provides greater confidence and assurance of success in achieving set goals.
Children grow and develop through play and constant interaction with their natural environment. Stimuli from the external environment enrich their experience and knowledge, enabling them to learn, explore the world, understand their bodies, and discover their capabilities naturally.
Sensory-motor activities allow for building upon acquired skills by adapting activities to the specific needs and abilities of each child. These activities are graded based on individual achievements and the environment in which they function. They reduce self-stimulating and self-harming behaviors, increase attention span, stimulate engagement, foster independence in functional activities, improve social interaction and communication skills, and develop adaptability to changes.
Sensory-based activities involve controlled stimulation of all of the child’s senses after an initial assessment of sensory deficits and needs. Specialists work to enrich sensory experiences, differentiate sensations, integrate sensory information, orient spatially, improve hand-eye coordination, enhance visual-spatial perception, auditory-language skills, attention regulation, behavioral control, and cognitive development.
These activities help children participate in daily tasks such as walking, eating, sleeping, playing, self-care—independently as much as possible—boosting confidence to control their surroundings.
Freedom of movement improves fine motor skills and leads to better coordination. Spatial orientation is achieved, promoting independence in daily activities. Sensory-integrative therapy allows children to assert themselves within a specific space by becoming directors of what happens there. The therapeutic environment is designed to be engaging for children so they can experiment freely through play.
The multi-sensory room provides opportunities for stimulating all senses—vision, hearing, smell, taste, tactile sensations, and vestibular experiences. It is a safe space for sensory stimulation and integration with an emphasis on visual stimuli. Exploring the environment is fundamental for developing personal experience and potential. This happens most effectively in an adapted sensory environment where children learn through play using their senses.
The Bobath concept offers an advanced interdisciplinary approach to assessment, therapy, and holistic care for individuals with limited abilities due to motor (including tone and motor patterns), sensory-perceptual deficits caused by CNS damage. It aims to enable full participation in daily activities (EBTA 2005).
The concept is described as “a way of thinking—observing what the patient does; interpreting it; adapting treatment techniques accordingly; seeing what’s possible for them!” (B.Bobath 1981). It is based on neurophysiology because difficulties stem from neurological issues caused by brain lesions.
Key features include:
Rebound Therapy, or trampoline therapy, is the therapeutic use of a trampoline to provide an unstable surface for therapeutic exercises for children and adults with physical and cognitive impairments.
Rebound Therapy is used for:
TEACCH is a program for support, research, and training for autism, developed by researchers at the University of North Carolina. “Treatment and Education of Autistic and Communication Handicapped Children”.
TEACCH is not a separate method and can be used in conjunction with other approaches. Its goal is to provide structure and visualization to help the child understand what is expected of them. This method is based on five basic principles:
It creates a predictable environment with visual support. This significantly reduces anxiety and promotes independence.
Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) is a therapy based on the science of learning and behavior. Behavior analysis helps us understand why a certain behavior occurs, how it is influenced by the environment and the reactions of others, and how learning and the acquisition of new skills take place.
The goal of ABA therapy is to increase behavior that is helpful and decrease behavior that harms or hinders the child’s learning and progress.
ABA therapy programs help children:
In the learning process, ABA breaks down new skills into really small steps, using positive reinforcement to learn new behaviors and reduce challenging ones. Parents are also trained on how to transfer these strategies into the home.
AAC encompasses all methods of communication that can be used to communicate, not only with verbal speech. They can be supplementary to speech and alternative means that replace it entirely. People of all ages can use AAC if they have problems with speech or language skills. Some people use AAC throughout their lives. Others may only use it for a short time.
From our very first meeting with the children in our center, we demonstrate gestures from Makaton. Makaton is a unique language program that uses symbols, signs, and speech to enable people to communicate.
It supports the development of basic communication skills such as attention and listening, understanding, memory, recall, and organization of language and expression. Makaton symbols and signs provide a visual representation of language, which increases understanding and facilitates expressive communication. PECS (Picture Exchange Communication System) is a method of communication used by people with communication difficulties. PECS uses images or symbols that are given to an adult or child to express needs, desires, and thoughts.
This method of communication helps children develop communication skills and connect with those around them more effectively. PECS is a structured program that includes sequential steps for teaching and implementing the system. The PECS training protocol is based on ABA (Applied Behavior Analysis). Specific prompting and reinforcement strategies are used throughout the protocol, leading to independent communication.
Voice output communication aids are especially useful for children who have communication difficulties. These devices allow them to express their needs, desires, and thoughts using prerecorded voice messages. They can be programmed with different words or phrases that are important to the child and that they can use in their daily interactions. High-tech communication aids for children are innovative technologies that help children communicate more effectively and independently. These tools typically include a combination of hardware devices and software programs that work together. These programs provide the ability to use symbols, pictures, synthesized speech to help children express their needs and desires.на децата да изразят своите нужди и желания.
Water therapy is a specialized methodology for children with special needs, which requires an individual and comprehensive approach, taking into account the specific needs and capabilities of each child. This methodology focuses on improving the motor, sensory, and adaptive skills of children in an aquatic environment and promoting their physical, social, and emotional development. The aquatic environment is used to improve the emotional state of the child, to suppress pathological reflexes, and to build correct motor patterns.
Swimming for children with special needs is aimed at improving physical development, maintaining preserved functions, developing and improving individual capabilities. Through specialized therapeutic techniques, approaches and equipment, and depending on the potential, the child can be trained in turning, crawling, independent sitting, verticalization, various types of walking, coordination, concentration, improving attention, etc.
