Children with Developmental Disabilities

Disability is the functional inability of an individual to perform any activity in the manner or within the range considered `normal'. These are relatively permanent conditions and in most cases can be tackled only by early intervention and long-term therapy. The accurate diagnosis of a child with a disorder is an important prelude to planning the right programme for intervention and rehabilitation. The book is intended for early identification of such developmental problems in infants and pre-school children. It covers a wide range of impairments, disabilities and handicaps commonly seen in young children. It is meant to enable parents to appreciate their manifestations, prevalence and characteristics. The book recognizes the importance of home-based programmes and contains lists of more than 400 activities as non-formal curriculum for young children. It carries broad guidelines on how to train children for these activities at home or pre-school settings. This book will be of great help to parents and trainers who are searching for suggestions from professionals on not only what training to impart to these children, but also how to train them at low cost and within their home settings. The book also serves as a reference guide for students of disability management or rehabilitation sciences. All teaching objectives and items included in this practical guide are empirically validated and located along a hierarchical scale of developmental difficulty. They are worded in behavioural terms so that trainers can readily start working on the given goals for behaviour change in the children. This book is meant for students and professionals in the field of rehabilitation services for disabled, general or special education programmes, parents of pre-school children, those who run play schools or crèches, non-formal educators, speech therapists, occupational therapists, physiotherapists and paediatricians.