Early therapies for children with Down syndrome

Dear Supporters,

This quarter enabled families to smoothly access our therapy clinics for their children with Down syndrome as improvement was seen in the COVID situation post-vaccinations. Through the support extended by you, the following were made possible:

• In-person therapy clinics operated at full capacity for Karachi based children with 259+ therapy sessions conducted weekly. Virtual sessions continued for out of Karachi children/families.
• As part of KDSP’s recently established international collaboration with Ethiopia-based Deborah Foundation, KDSP is building capacity of their team by offering training in the three therapy disciplines (Occupational, Physical and Speech therapy). Our Head of Departments and therapists from each therapy domain happily shared the knowledge and expertise they had, leading to an interactive discussion.
• KDSP presented its paper, ‘The Virtual Shift: Early Childhood Intervention Therapies for Pakistani Children with Down Syndrome During COVID-19, in the Virtual World Down Syndrome Congress 2021 held at Dubai. The research paper was further selected to be published in the Review of Disability Studies: An International Journal for their upcoming issue.

While we come across many stories of children with Down syndrome achieving their developmental milestones through early therapies at KDSP, a unique and heartfelt story we felt we must share with you is of 3 year-old Ahmed. During a regular speech therapy session, Ahmed’s therapist suspected he had trouble hearing and referred him for an audiology assessment to KSDP’s partner institution. Ahmed was diagnosed with severe hearing loss of the middle ear. This was quite a shock for his family as they were worried about his future and faced a tough financial situation. In August 2021, with your support, KDSP sponsored a pair of hearing aids which would enable Ahmed to continue availing his therapy sessions and thereby achieve his developmental milestones. His therapists have since then reported an improvement in his progress and his family is relieved and ever-grateful.

With your continuous support, together we will help these children build a solid foundation for their future.

Love,

Team KDSP

Links:

• KDSP x Deborah Foundation - Virtual Training on Early Therapies
• KDSP Therapies Virtual Shift Paper published in Research Journal