I remember a conversation with Shalini, speech therapist in the department, during an on line consultation about the need to verify the hearing status of children before they come on line for developmental appraisal. Shalini came forward with a proposal to make a video presentation to help parents understand how hearing can be tested through a distraction test at home. She got three containers with rice grain, mustard seed and fine sand to create three different sounds of needed frequencies and decibels. With a narration of the procedure of testing ready, Shalinin got Femine and Femy involved in the project.
I watched and listened the first draft of the presentation yesterday, ready to be sent to all parents who seek an appointment for Neuro-developmental consultation. I feel grateful for Femy to be willing to be in a child's role and Femine to give her voice for the narration. The editing of the presentation by Femy was indeed creative.
This is the first in the series of parent information packages to make the consultation more complete. The next would be to show parents can take various measurements such as head circumference, height, weight, etc. There exists currently a package on a digital platform of informations we solicit from parents such as developmental history, diet schedule, home environment, sleep practices, behaviour patterns and profile of functions.
The team of Susan Rainu and Liya working on providing Neuro-developmental support on-line for parents to introduce the Home Based Learning support had indicated the need to make some videos to demonstrate to parents about different activities which parents can do for there children home, such as to how to visually activate eye tracking, promote midline activities for fine motor co-ordination, introduce concepts of language with the help of associating pictures with objects, etc.
As physical consultation or Neuro-developmental support would be further delayed due to the COVID 19 pandemic, this video-based demonstration series would be of some help to parents although not a substitute for interaction on a one to one basis.
I feel encouraged by new initiatives. It is now five months since we have been on an on-line mode, which took time to pick up. We as professionals needed a new orientation and parents even more as it was altogether a new experience.
Yesterday, I spoke with a family who came on on-line for the third time in the last five months, to get a feel of their level of satisfaction on this mode of consultation. They do not think that it is the ideal, but found it valuable enough for the time being. About five families seek for first time consultation in a week, for whom, this experience is difficult as the clinical examination of children is excluded, although through the videos the parents send us, we make out enough information about vision, hearing, motor skills, language skills, communication process, social skills, and even dysmorphic and neurological status. On one one occasion, the neurological diagnosis had to be revised when the MRI of brain was done.
Now we move to a level to get the family to come on line while they are with their Paediatrician, so that clinical details can be confirmed. I hope it would be possible to have a few satellite Neuro-developmental clinics with the help of Paediatricians located in different places.
We in the department ought move into new avenues of service as we feel pushed to move!
I feel overwhelmed by the history of several initiatives in the department over the years: the good practices of office up keep by Tinu, the spontaneous initiatives of the housekeeping by Sally and Shantha, the joint efforts of Chintu and Susan for giving structure to the play group, the planning and organisation of the Early Learning centre, Learning Support centre and the transitional Planning centre by Susan, the current overseeing of the Early Learning Centre by Rainu, and the Learning Support Centre by Liya, the dynamic spirit of young professionals Shalini, Femy and Femine... the immense contributions of sixteen professionals who were part of this team earlier, now elsewhere! The school health appraisal we offered in 2019 through the initiatives of Susan, Rainu, Femine and the the creation of the database by Femy and Femine and the initiative for moving to the digital platform by Shalini...all these amaze me and make me feel that the last eight years have made the department future friendly!
I am grateful for the ICMR funded projects, which the medical students undertook, leading to the completion of nine projects and publication of nine research articles. I feel we have some clarity on sleep practices in children, Electrical Rhythm Dysfunction, vitamin D deficiency related spectrum of clinical manifestation, Neuro-motor development visa vi premature cranial sutural closure...! What journey of enquiry and discoveries!
I feel fulfilled to have been part of the department, where I felt carried by others because they were active initiators!
A project, the designing and creating a video for parents on hearing appraisal of children, completed in 24 hours gives me immense encouragement about prospects of further initiatives in this direction!
M.C.Mathew (text and photo)
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