(EMU) – St. Kitts, January 14, 2019: In collaboration with the Ministry of Education the Rotary Club of St. Kitts hosted a workshop on Sensory Processing Difficulties in Children on 11 January at the University of Medicine and Health Sciences in St. Kitts.
The workshop informed participants on Sensory Processing Difficulties (SPD), in which, trained individuals, “Look at the sensory processing in children and how they are they understanding the world,” said Dr. Maria del PilarSaa, Occupational Therapist and facilitator.
She continued, “Sensory processing is the ability all humans have to process information that comes from our senses, from the environment, and allows us to interact in appropriate ways with the environment.”
She stated that the condition includes people, who are overly sensitive to what they feel, see and hear, but also those who are under-sensitive, and still others who have trouble integrating information from multiple senses at once.
Dr. Saa advised the forum that awareness is key to parents recognizing the problem. She explained that through professional assessment both caregivers and parents will be better equipped to implement coping strategies of the child.
“It’s all about accommodation, as long as you help them understand the child’s needs and adjust the environment to cater to the child’s needs, then it will be a big improvement,” Dr. Saa advised.
The lecture topics included the characteristics of SPD, intervention, assessments and strategies.
Working on collaboration with Dr. Saa was Dr. Sheryl Rosin, Consulting Director for the St. Kitts Spectrum Centre and Speech and Language Pathologist. She revealed that over the past four years she has diagnosed several individuals within the Federation with autism and as the number increased it became apparent that there is a growing need for other resources, apart from the St. Kitts Spectrum Centre.
“Our mission now is to keep bringing individuals and resources to the island, which can help everyone, who is working in the field, learn about autism and all of its facets so we can expand into a multidiscipline centre. Eventually, we can help not only children with autism but individuals with other types of special needs.”
The St Kitts Spectrum Services Centre is located on the grounds of the Industrial Site Day Care Centre. Assessments were conducted by Drs. Saa and Rosin on Saturday January 12 from 9:00am to 4:00pm by appointment only. For more information contact the centre at 869-669-3767.
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