On October, 19 in Nikopol there was a regional tour of the Councilor of “Autism-Europe” Inna Sergiyenko. The topic of the first seminar was “Problems and achievements in the sphere of autism in the world and in Ukraine”. The host party of the seminar was special center of medical and social rehabilitation of children of Dnepropetrovsk regional council under the auspices of the head doctor of the center Irina Khmelevska.
The seminar began with greeting of the head of city department of health care Valeriy Samoilenko. He underlined that for now autism is a very serious problem and there are such children even in their little city. «I think that such communication will help everyone, mainly Nikopol, in resolving this problem», – mentioned Valeriy Samoilenko.
«Visit of the Councilor of «Autism-Europe» gives us opportunity to make a step a head and receive new knowledge on autism. As far as this sphere is the one where all specialists need to enrich knowledge regarding new practices and methods of work with special children. I hope that here in Nikopol we would manage to implement things which we yet don’t have.” – outlined head doctor of the Center Irina Khmelevska.
During her speech, Council of «Autism-Europe» Inna Sergienko high lighted practical part, including elements of theory to support one or another thesis. She shared with Nikopol specialists not only world experience, but also personal experience of mother of autistic child. “Task number one in working with a child with autism is communicating in any possible way. It might be a look, gesture, picture etc”. Besides, the child shall be praised for each contact, each necessary reaction”, – said Inna.
60 people participated at the seminar. They are specialists and nurses of Nikopol center of medical and social rehabilitation of children.
«We work with different children, including autists, – says Svetlana Mokhonko, teacher from the Center. – The youngest child is 1,5 years old, the oldest boy is 7. We try to use all known methods in our work which means that we do a complex rehabilitation. Some things we learn at the traineeship, some things we learn ourselves. From this seminar we learned a lot of interesting things. It was very important for us to hear point of view of the mother of an autistic child, who already had rehabilitation and at the moment goes to school. Mothers, with whom we work do not have such experience and such perception of their children».
«Big problem of our parents is that they refuse to cooperate, do not accept diagnosis, and the main thing is that they don’t even want to have diagnosting on an appropriate level», – says Svetlana.
Participants were interested in diagnosing autism, influence of vaccination, age, until which one can teach a child to speak, using computer in work with autists, removal of aggression, time, recommended for lessons etc.
«I was pleasantly surprised that we have so many enthusiasts, – shared Inna Sergiyenko. – In Nikopol I was impressed by the Center of medical and social rehabilitation of children. Its head doctor Irina Khmelevska, despite the lack of financing, could build a work on rehabilitation of children. She professionally gathers information on all necessary methods, gives it to her teachers and tries to combine all modern technologies. We would really like to have more such places and such devoted people like Irina. It is very pleasant that that despite the fact that it’s Saturday we have so many people who came. I saw their sincere interest, desire to do their best for such children, involvement into the discussion. But unfortunately I also must mention some negative things, which do not relate to the Center. It is obvious that regions do not receive most of the information. It would be great if state bodies would pay attention at this fact. As far as for the effective spread of information it is not enough to place it on web sites, because targeted audience may simply miss such information. It is also necessary to arrange spread of up-to-date news, so that there will be no gap between the capital and the regions. Also it’s a pity that psychologists were not interested in the seminar, – people who must diagnose autism. From the employee soft he Center we found out that in order to give a diagnosis they have to send people to Kiev. That’s why further on no matter who will carry out such events – us or other organizations, we would like to see interest from the side of specialists who do diagnosing. Because there shall be a common goal for those who are not in diffirenet to such children».
During the seminar Council of «Autism-Europe» and Nikopol specialists discussed the most urgent issues of autism in Ukraine (mainly in Nikopol) and in the world, and exchanged the experience of work with such children and further cooperation.
We would like to remind that seminar in Nikopol – is the first in regional tour of the Council of «Autism-Europe» Inna Sergiyenko.
Council of «Autism-Europe» Inna Sergiyenko and Director of the Fundation «Child with Future» Larysa Rybchenko are very grateful to the Nikopol Center of medical and social rehabilitation of children and personally to the head doctor of the Center Irina Khmelevska for organization of the seminar, cooperation and warm welcome!
