Five-year-old Alex lives in Chişinău with his family. The family turned to the Rain Kids Centre when it became clear that Alex was developmentally delayed. Their ambitions are simple, and ones most of the parents share: “I wanted Alex to start talking, eat independently, dress and undress by himself, to be more autonomous, to socialize.”
The staff at Rain Kids are very motivated to help the children in their care reach these goals. Last year, we helped them by providing supervision from an experienced practitioner from Romania. Now, we are funding Rain Kids’ lead therapist, Ana Cislaru, to raise her qualifications so she can offer training and supervision to her 8 colleagues.
Already, this year, Rain Kids have made changes which have improved their results and how they communicate them to families. They have introduced new methods of evaluating the children’s needs, so that they can produce better care plans and track progress more closely.
The supervisor was also able to to introduce new ideas into the teaching itself, helping to motivate children and bringing visible progress. Having their own fully-trained supervisor will help them to be continually learning and improving.
The staff report feeling more confident in their work and so do the parents.
“The therapy has had a significant impact on our whole family. We feel better prepared to handle difficult situations.”
And what about Alex? He has started to say “hello”, “goodbye” and “goodnight”. He can tell people his name, ask for things without prompting and put his shoes on by himself. He has made progress across the board in his development.
