PRE-PRIMARY  GROUP

There are six children in the Pre-Primary class, aged between 4-9 years. Out of these, four children have Autism. For all of them, being at Sankalp is their first exposure at a regular special school. All these children have some features in common, like:

On joining school, these children are first assessed (using the NIMH checklist) to determine their basic abilities, and to determine the inherent skills that they possess, for them to be trained in. They are further referred to the Psychology Department at INHS Kalyani where their mental and social development is assessed. Thereafter individual training programs are made for each child which include personal, social, academic, occupational and recreational skills.

Personal Activity Training takes care of toilet-training, eating, drinking, dressing etc., Each of these skills are broken into small steps and these steps are then taught one-by-one. For example, while teaching how to eat a chappati, the child is taught to make small pieces of the chappati, then take one piece at a time, with curry, put into the mouth, finish the piece and then take another piece. These skills are taught to the child to make him independent and socially acceptable.

They learn some basic academic concepts like shapes, sizes, colours, numbers, alphabets and pre-writing skills etc., which will help them to become aware of their surroundings and to learn some functional academics. These skills are also taught step-by-step. For example, when they learn colour concepts, at first they are taught to match colors using 2 colors, then 3 colors etc., Once they learn to match, they are then taught to identify colors in the same way.

As their communication and social skills are very poor, these children are taught some basic social skills like:

All this enables the child to behave in a proper manner i.e., socially acceptable behaviour. Pictures, toys, puzzles, games, actions, songs etc., are used to improve their eye-contact, attention span and fine motor abilities.

They also learn some occupational skills like folding small clothes, laying out the table at recess time, wiping the table etc., They are taught to open their own bag, take out and spread their napkins, take out their tiffin boxes and eat from it.

The Pre-primary class children also enjoy some recreational activities like colouring, stamping, painting with the brush, finger, palm, sponge and thread; tearing paper in small bits and pasting them within a drawn diagram. These activities help them to improve eye-hand coordination, fine motor skills & color concepts. They play musical instruments and watch television too.

As majority of the children in this class are autistic, Sensory Integration Therapy plays a very big role in their training program. Assessment is done , by the Occupational Therapist  for each child to provide proper individual sensory training to them. They are exposed to sand play, water play, balancing games, playing on the slide, swing, jungle gym, merry-go-round, tunnels etc., They are also given tactile and visual stimulation using differently textured materials. Different kinds of lights and a bubble bath (a dry pool with lots of small colourful balls) are also used to stimulate the children.

The children take part in various outdoor activities like games, yoga and exercise which is helpful in improving gross motor skills and learning to play in groups. They are regularly sent for Speech therapy too.

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