At the beginning of October, it was the year of implementation of the pilot “Portage” project in the “Lesovichok” kindergarten for children from 3 to 7-8 years old. “Lesovichok” is the part of the Center for Curative Pedagogy and Differential Learning (CCP) of the Pskov Region. This is the second pilot project for the Center. 5 specialists of the kindergarten took part in the project. They conducted weekly educational classes with parents and children aged 1 to 8 years and taught parents to daily engage children in variety of activities such as practice the skills of movement, cognition, self-service, socialization, and others.
The results of this pilot project will be discussed in a round-table session, which will be held in Pskov on October 13.
It will take place in the main building of the CCP at Ian Rainis st. on October 13 at 15.00. At the meeting, specialists of the “Portage” will discuss the results of a year of work with children with cerebral palsy, genetic diseases (Down syndrome), and autism spectrum disorders.
Specialists from the “Praktika Portage” (Portage Practice) group, working on the basis of the Limpopo Early Intervention Department (CCP, Pskov), and the pilot project team of the Bobrovsky Orphanage are also invited to the round-table discussion.
Experts that will take part in the round-table session:
- TSAREV Andrey Mikhailovich – Director of the Center for Curative Pedagogy and Differential Learning of the Pskov Region, Associate Professor of the Department of Department of Special Education and Psychology of Pskov State University, Candidate of Pedagogic sciences (correctional pedagogy).
- ARLAMOVA Elena Nikolaevna – head of the pilot “Portage” project (Oksana Efimovna Petunova team), educational psychologist and head of the preschool department of the CCP i.e. “Lesovichok” kindergarten for children with severe and multiple developmental disabilities (Pskov)
- VOLODINA Elena Anatolyevna – Director of the Diema’s Dream Foundation, Director of the Interregional public organization “Portage Experts Association” (Moscow)
- NAZARKINA Svetlana Ivanovna, certified Portage trainer, consultant of the pilot project team.
The results of the pilot project are amazing. Just one of the examples: boy S. who is 3 years old is diagnosed with cerebral palsy, delayed psycho-speech development. He did not attend kindergarten and is raised in a family of a mother and a younger sister (2 years old). The boy was far behind in development from his peers and needed the expert help in behavior correction, since he could not reach any further development in his family.
At the time of the beginning of educational classes, the boy did not perform actions at the request nor imitation. He was able to keep his attention no longer than 5 minutes. Also, he demonstrated protest behavior: he shouted and pushed toys away. His mother had a lot of questions about the development and upbringing of the child.
As for the end of the project, this boy can study with a teacher for up to 40 minutes, shows interest in activities, maintains a dialogue with an adult, observes the order, makes a choice. He learned to eat with a spoon, drink from a cup, use a potty, open, and close a zipper, cut with scissors, introduce himself and state his age, express wishes with sentences. Also, there were some positive changes in cognitive development: the boy began to distinguish and name the main colors, shapes and sizes, to correlate the object with its image, to assemble a matryoshka doll, to play bingo, and to use elements of a role-playing game. Since September, he went to a kindergarten for children with musculoskeletal disorders.
How it became possible, and how many children the specialists of the pilot project could help during this year, the journalists will be able to find out at the round-table discussion.
In a previous pilot project during the 2018-2019 school year, 5 experts from the “Limpopo” Early Intervention Department and “Lesovichok” kindergarten conducted trainings with children to improve the quality of their life and create better conditions for the comprehensive development of children with special needs.