Working with families raising young children with developmental disabilities (regional experience)

Abstract

This article presents regional experience in working with families raising young children with developmental disabilities. Statistical data on the number and age structure of disabled children in the Russian Federation, the Siberian Federal district, and the Novosibirsk region are analysed, together with the monitoring data of the key challenges faced by the families with disabled children. The article describes the experience of comprehensive support for families raising young children with identified developmental disorders (or risk thereof) on the basis of the regional resource centre “Family and children” at the Novosibirsk State Pedagogical University. Centre’s activities aimed at nurturing the key resources of the family can be divided into two main groups: work with parents and work with the child.

The first activity of the RC “Family and children” is implemented through both traditional and novel forms of interaction and includes identifying the family’s challenges and increasing its internal potential for coping with a crisis situation independently.

The second type of activities the centre engages in as part of its comprehensive efforts to support families with disabled children (or children with the risk of disability) is working with the children themselves. The class interaction is based on the “Child-Parent-Specialist” framework and involves two stages: conducting individual classes and working in a group. To support the second stage, it is essential to organise a conducive educational environment. The article also describes the key organisational aspects necessary for effective correctional and developmental classes and presents the optimal structure of group classes for young children with disabilities that have been used in the programmes Early Development Group “Together with My Mom” and Short-term Stay Group “By Myself”.