Psychological interventions

Psychological interventions are aimed at obtaining early diagnostics and therapy of children with CMD, ICP, Dysphasia of development, developmental problems, etc. These include:

1. DIAGNOSIS INTERVENTIONS:

1. Diagnostication of psycho-motor and psycho-social development:

• Assessment of the actual development in terms of deficits of fine motor skills, perceptive development, social development and independence.
• Assessment of interaction between mother and child aged 0 to 3 years of age.
• Assessment of the level of the deficit manifestation in terms of neurological diagnosis

2.Assessment of:

• Cognitive processes: attention, memory, thinking, intellect
• Assessment of fine motor skills
• Assessment for school maturity
• Assessment of brain functions - gnosis, praxis, speech
• Assessment of the emotional and behavioural state of the child
• Personality assessment.

The assessment process is individual and depends on each case. The assessment process lasts about 30 minutes and is held in several sessions.

The final medical report includes the test results and other relevant observations made during the examination. Note: The methods and length of assessment are based on the psychological age and capabilities of the child.

THERAPEUTIC INTERVENTIONS:

1. Individual rehabilitation and therapy for children with CP and developmental problems

The individual rehabilitation and therapy begins upon identifying the problems of:

• senso-motor development (sensations, perceptions, body scheme, eye coordination)
• psycho-motor development of children aged 0 to 3 (fine motor skills, perception, independence, social interactions)
• psycho-social development of children over 3 years of age (cognitive processes)

The therapeutic interventions include cognitive and behaviour therapy, as well as sensorial training so that:

• The developmental age of the child advance in order to reach the biological age as soon as possible;
• Behavioural corrections and developing skills form the desired behaviour in respect to the level of their disorder;
• Make recommendations for therapeutic programmes and further actions aimed at the development of the child;
• Development of the perception and notion-forming skills
• Forming and/or improving abilities for concentration, steadiness, attention, abilities to attract attention (multitasking) and distribute attention;
• Build-up of compensatory strategies for solving memory problems;
• Obtain strategies for development of mental processes and operations;
• Increasing the ability to generalise the experience gained, stimulating the intelligence (verbal, non-verbal, emotional, social);
• Improvement of communicational abilities, social skills, autonomy of the child;
• Parents training as co-therapists;
• Overcoming anxiety and fear in childhood and adolescence;
• Increasing the self-esteem in childhood and adolescence;
• Psychological guidance and professional orientation in adolescence;
• Behavioural faults and anti-social behaviour;
• Therapy of children with sensorial and integrative dysfunction and praxis deviations - this is mainly connected with teaching the strategy to draw attention and train the ability to distinguish the important pieces of sensorial information and the non-important ones;
• Tolerance during everyday activities, overcoming the aggressive reactions to the unknown, stimulating the learning activity, training the manipulation (praxis) skills.

2. Group rehabilitation and therapy

Group therapy - applying techniques from music therapy, art therapy, psychodrama, discussion groups, mutual experiences form parents' groups .

Group psychotherapy is a process of psychological influence by verbal and non-verbal techniques in which the therapist uses the interactions created in specially organised small groups of patients (mainly interactions of emotional character), in order to reduce the patients' body and nervous discomfort and to improve psycho-social functioning. The group therapy is viewed as an important factor for individualisation and socialisation of children with CP and other neuro-muscular disorders and developmental problems. The purpose of this method is to relieve patients and to develop their skills to solve problems as well to overcome noxious personal and behavioural stereotypes.

1. Through group therapy children are able to acquire new knowledge, skills and good behaviour. The communication influence and SL interventions as follows: therapy of feeding problems, pre-verbal, oro-facial and SL therapies.

The group rehabilitation and therapy depends on the specificity and psychological development of children within the group.

The family is considered to be a system of continuous process with different behavioural models. The communication (verbal and non-verbal) with each family member and the child is under control. The expectations and problems identified by the parents are taken into account. The symptoms and the causes of the occurrence are then diagnosed. The following analysis is then made: how long has the symptom existed, what are the transformations and variations. The way the problem has an impact on the family, as well as how the family faces the problem is assessed. The specificity of the disorder is made clear, as well as the consequences, the place and the role of the parents in the process of medical treatment is identified, suitable models for parents' behaviour are identified, etc. The purpose of the therapeutic guidance gives a context (in terms of time and protection) in which the impact on the disorder will be studied in a specific way, when fears, pain and anger will be heard and shared and when the family members will have the opportunity to cope with what the disorder is causing.

The principles of the family therapy are used during consultations with patients. The work is done with trained family therapists.

The family will be informed about the confidentiality of the process.

4. Parental groups of children with special needs

Exchange of information concerning the specificity of the disorder and the personal experience (emotions, feelings, how to solve problems ) and formation of appropriate working models of parental behaviour

5. Behavioural therapy

A specialised psychological test is done in order to assess the degree of manifestation and the type of behavioural problems, as well as the possible positive changes. The therapy consists of teaching special techniques (which will have an impact on the behaviour ) which will contribute to establishing goals and overcoming undesired behaviour. The main objective of the therapeutic interventions is to ultimately replace any undesired or aggressive behaviour with a socially acceptable behaviour. When a behavioural disorder becomes evident, the therapy is carried out with a family therapist upon the parent's request.

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The site is created in 2001. Last update - 11.06.2010