Development of a new social rehabilitation service for children with communication difficulties and
active 1 month, 1 week agoTarget group: Children aged 10-13 with communication difficulties and/or behavioral disorders and their attachment persons (family, guardians, etc.).
Aim: To develop and pilot a new social rehabilitation service for children aged 10-13, which does not yet exist in Latvia.
Description of the current situation / problem the project will solve / innovation:
The number of children with communication difficulties and behavioral disorders is increasing every year. As a result, both children and parents face challenges in successfully integrating these children into education and various leisure activities. Families suffer from social exclusion. Children are at high risk of dropping out of the education system. These are children without health problems (e.g. autism, mental disorders), behavioral problems based on some external irritant such as family divorce, low social skills of parents, emotional/physical abuse. Behavior can be corrected by working with the child and the caregivers (parents).
One in four parents say they don’t know how to deal with their child’s behavior problems, such as aggression in kindergarten or at school. Experts from some educational institutions point out that, on average, as many as 25-30% of children in each group and class have behavioral problems, violence, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), which affect the overall climate of the preschool or school. Children with various behavioral difficulties are mostly perceived by the Latvian society in a negative, even judgmental way (pointing to parental guilt, neglect and other factors) in the school environment. Mostly because they are not aware of the specific situation and how to deal with children with behavioral difficulties. But the problem is not so clear-cut and in most cases is based on various aspects that can be explained and turned to their advantage.
The situation is particularly difficult for children aged 10-13, as there are currently no social rehabilitation programmes in Latvia tailored to this age group that can effectively help these children and their families.
LBAF has been successfully implementing a rehabilitation programme for children aged 4-6 and 7-9 since 2019 and sees an opportunity to establish a new rehabilitation programme for children aged 10-13 and their families in cooperation with partners from other European countries.
Activities:
1. Exchange of experience: Showcase of the social services provision site in Ilguciems – multifunctional centre Domino with the first sensory gym in Latvia and a silence hall. Service for young aggressive children.
2. Development of a social rehabilitation programme for the target group, training of specialists.
3. Piloting of a social rehabilitation programme involving at least 16 children. 10 months, 2 months 8 months evaluation of the programme.
4. Public information activities.