The Hindu Business Line : Sensory aid

It's an ordinary home converted into office until you go in and look around. It's full of little knickknacks that lend a happy feel to the room, but look a little closer and you'll realise most of them are there as aids that this place works with.

Five, a developmental therapy centre in Chennai for differently-abled children with problems that include Down's Syndrome, autism, Asperger's Syndrome, delayed development and ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder), claims to be one such with a difference. Founders Mathew M. Easow and S. Sowmya claim it's the first inter-disciplinary centre that offers the various therapies the children need under one roof and deploys a case manager for each child. Mathew, who worked in finance earlier, quit the corporate world because he had always wanted to do something for society. Sowmya is a speech and language pathologist with six years' experience in India and the UK. The problem with centres offering single therapy or even multi-disciplinary ones is that the lack of communication between the therapists might put the child at risk for receiving the wrong treatment. Sowmya says that in the 18 months Five (so named because it aims to integrate the five senses of sight, sound, touch, smell and hearing) has been around, she has seen cases where her patients turned out to need one therapy rather than another.

Proactive participation

Though it's doctors who recommend therapy, they often have no clear idea what therapists specifically do, observes Sowmya. The centre believes in involving parents, child, doctor and therapists, so that everyone is aware of the situation and the child gets the best out of it all.

At Five, parents have to be involved and accompany the child. A couple of parents Life spoke to were appreciative of the difference Five has made to their children. One of them spoke about how much more involved the parents could be, as opposed to her experience earlier where the therapist wouldn't allow the parent into the room beyond a certain point. Another found them very updated and encouraging that they were willing to intervene on the child's behalf in their school.

Schools should be involved too

Five wants the school to be involved too. The case manager in charge of the child will even go the extra distance and scrutinise the child's environment for factors that can disturb him/her — the position of the child's seat in the class, the amount of sound and light it receives, whether that's a cause for overstimulation, how other children interact with this child and how they can help put him/her at ease.

Sowmya stresses the importance of supporting the schools these children attend. Five is in favour of inclusive education, but she says that children with severe problems or those that were diagnosed late may not be able to fit into a regular school. "It wouldn't be fair on the children," she says.

Sometimes, the staff of the school, who have no experience with such children tend to write them off. However, sessions with the child, teacher and counsellor help the teacher identify the improvement that really counts — for instance, a child who is unable to write the alphabet may begin forming letters, which is a big leap, explains Sowmya. "Progress could be small, but it needs to be continuous," she adds.

Dealing with problems early on

The centre also addresses behavioural problems in children — ill-tempered behaviour, fidgetiness, bad handwriting, learning trouble. But isn't there a risk of being alarmist, of children being labelled in a hurry? "There are tests and checks to determine whether it's a problem or not," says Sowmya. Such troubles often stem from factors such as the parents' relationship and home environment and parents do end up getting counselled as well.

Mathew is working on a programme involving schools for early intervention to deal with these problems.

Sowmya also cautions against the need to label a child as having a `learning disability.' The child needs to have started some learning skills and "needs to be at least six before one can conclude it is at risk of such a disability," she says.

EduQ, the parent company of Five, also plans to source toys and other objects that can act as learning aids and sell them to organisations that work with children, therapy centres or otherwise. It has also started a Web site called www.childsupport.in. In March, Five opened one more centre in the city, and two more are on the anvil.

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