Healing Children At Risk Emotionally

and

Healing Ones Prenatally Exposed to drugs and alcohol

 

Mission: Through love, spiritual attention, and evidence based practices, it is at the heart of our mission to restore each child, prenatally exposed to drugs and alcohol, to their original being created by God.

 

Vision: To deliver a unique, comprehensive, early intervention program, that effectively addresses the troubling behaviors exhibited by children exposed prenatally to drugs and alcohol. To incorporate an inter-agency collaborative approach including; family education, child welfare services, speech/language, physical and occupational therapies, nutritional, social, medical, cultural, spiritual, and evidence based practices to address the special needs of this high risk population.

 

Eligibility: The program is designed for children ages 0-6 who have been exposed to early trauma, or have had positive screens for prenatal exposure to drugs and alcohol.

 

The goal is to enable this high risk population to thrive physically, emotionally, socially, and spiritually.

 

Prior to enrollment, children will attend a full day of screening. They will be observed by staff, who will use specific protocol for data collection. This will be used as the basis for their individualized educational plan.

Each child will be assigned a case manager who will work with the family, make referrals for supportive services, and evaluate family progress.

 

Attendance: Five days per week six hours per day 12 months per year 180 calender days per year.

 

The Curriculum is designed to address the following areas of need;

Intervention strategies

 

• To change the environment, not the child

• To provide a safe, predictable, and structured environment that encourages positive social interactions, and enables the child to anticipate, and manage change.

• To respect the child’s abilities

• The use of multi-sensory learning techniques

• To address executive functioning skills

• To intervene only when the child is calm and in control

• Closely monitoring of independent work

• Teaching of flexible problem solving skills

• Use of instructors with expert knowledge in developmental sequences to create an appropriate curriculum offering a firm foundation

• Recognizing the importance of establishing a culturally competent program

• Encouraging children to organize their environment and learn to understand cause and effect relationships

 

 

Prevention Strategies

 

• To identify triggers and causes for over stimulation

• To be aware of cues that the child feels frustrated and overwhelmed

• To have all instructors model calm, organized behavior

• The use of preferential seating

• Teaching each child what is expected of them and what they can expect from their environment

 

 

Physical Environment

 

• The use of soft lighting in the classroom

• To use minimal visual stimulation in the classroom

• To keep work areas clean and only display materials being used immediately

• To provide an environment where firm bonded relationships can be established and all staff can anticipate the needs of each child and respond appropriately

• To provide an atmosphere of acceptance and validation, where children can learn about their emotions and the emotions of others

• To provide an environment where children can spend more than one year working in the same environment to facilitate social growth

• To provide a caring community in which children share a common sense of belonging

• To  provide an environment that reflects a range of developmental needs for each student

 

 

Communication Strategies

 

• Avoiding why questions, instead, the use of how, who, what, and where questions.

• Giving one instruction at a time

• Teaching the child to understand the real meaning of words, and to generalize these symbols of experience, and learn to make associations

• Teachers must use and model a common language to create a common set of experiences, and understanding for each child

 

 

Transitioning techniques

 

• Avoiding timed activities, allowing the child to feel a sense of completion before transitioning

• Adapting work to minimize frustration and anxiety

• Providing sensory cues to prepare the child for slow transition from one activity to another

• Reliance on routines and rituals for memory consolidation and calming

• Using visual plans to create a picture of time

 

 

Addressing Attention Needs

 

• Utilizing eye contact

• Breaking instruction time into small segments

• Not assuming prior knowledge of tasks

• Having child repeat instructions

• Encourage attention to detail

• Asking questions to cue memory

• Use of audio tapes for important information

 

 

Self Regulation Strategies

 

• Assisting child to make a gradual shift from external to internal motivation

• Allowing opportunities for sensory input

• Allow frequent breaks for motor movement

• Providing a private safe place for times of disregulation

 

 

Discipline Techniques

 

• Providing consistent and predictable rules

• Avoiding debates and just stating the rules

• Using positive reinforcement techniques

• Understanding what each individual child values

• Avoiding punitive consequences and isolation

• Providing immediate and frequent praise

• Distinguishing between willful behaviors and neurological deficits

• The use of a limited number of clearly defined choices to allow the child to anticipate events and consequences

• Behavioral expectations should meet the child’s maturity level

 

 

Social Skills

 

• Teaching of relationship skills

• Strategies to teach initiating, organizing, and sustaining, symbolic play

• Allowing for a regular time period to talk about feelings and experiences

• Addressing behavioral extremes, low tolerance for change, and difficulty in reading social cues

• Teaching the ability to engage in imaginative play

• The understanding that each human being has the potential for peaceful and loving attitudes and actions

• Teaching children to perceive, understand, and act, in a way that promotes peace, and justice, and respects diversity

• Encouraging a vision of a world free of exclusion, a vision of dignity,and respect for each person and culture

• Creating an atmosphere that enables students to recognize the importance of values and their own responsibility in making positive personal and social decisions.

 

 

Spiritual Awareness

 

• Teaching mindful practices that systematically develop attention, while encouraging kindness, compassion, and self knowledge

• Teaching to approach experiences with curiosity and an open mind

• Teaching to live gently and in balance with other people and their environment

• Teaching life skills to help learn to self sooth and calm the self

• Teaching children to connect to themselves, to others, and maybe to something greater than themselves

• Teaching to put thoughts aside, and to rest in the present moment experience,and discover the peaceful place inside

• Teaching to slow down, to feel what’s happening in their inner and outer world objectively and with compassion, and then to act mindfully

• Teaching to become less self involved and more connected to others

• Teaching that we are all spiritual beings, and that it is the spiritual that unites us as a global family, it is what joins us behind the veils of religious differences. It is what allows us to capture our understanding of the value of each person, each culture, and each religion.

 

 

Family Education

 

• Involving caretakers in the child’s assessments of strengths, teaching them to respond to their child’s cues and respond appropriately

• Establishment of strong partnerships with each child’s caretaker ,where nurturing interactions, and respect for the child’s feelings are modeled

• Addressing the importance for the child to establish a trusting attachment to a single caregiver

• Acknowledgement that fathers should be included in the treatment process to the fullest extent possible

• Implementation of non traditional approaches such as home based services, that our non judgemental, and intervention strategies that are barrier free and flexible

• Programs allowing for parental respite, treatment, and supportive services

• Offering of long term services that acknowledge the range of supports that parents need to move away from drugs, acquire education, and settle into employment

• Required weekly parenting classes

• Providing thorough, and on going training for staff ,to equip them to respond to the diverse strengths ,and needs of the children and families they serve

 

    Substance exposed children are a diverse group, who are at an increased vulnerability to later disabilities in learning and behavior. It is up to us whether these special children will become members of a “lost generation” Statistics have proved that these children can show growth, healthy development, and educational achievement with the proper early intervention and resources. As a community we can and need to meet this challenge. Parents, educators, and community citizens can not refuse these children the help they deserve in surmounting the barriers to a healthy and fulfilling future.