Rehab Services Help Disabled Youngsters Achieve Full Potential
Boyukagha Huseynov is an 8-year old child from Shuvelan in urban Azerbaijan with right spastic hemiplegic cerebral palsy. For thousands of children like Boyukagha, disabilities interfere with normal daily function and are too often a barrier to social integration.
When he was first introduced to USAID’s Project for Marginalized Children, Boyukagha had a hard time with tasks requiring fine motor skills, such as writing with a pencil or eating with a spoon. He often had difficulty even maintaining balance and exhibited impaired general development, muscle spasms, and fatigue. The young boy walked with an abnormal gait, dragging his right leg or walking on tiptoe. Boyukagha’s disability also affected his capacity for independence; he could not patiently sit in one place without seeking his mother’s help. Therefore, his mother had to attend classes with him everyday. Because of lack of muscle control, he had problems with speech and spoke more in basic words than in complete sentences. He also exhibited delays in his cognitive development– unable to discern colors, count, or learn the alphabet. Not long ago, Boyukagha’s mother learned of a USAID-funded center nearby and reached out for assistance.
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Boyukagha learns through puzzles at a personalized session aimed to improve his cognitive development
Photo Credit: Save the Children |
Since 2005, the Shuvelan Children and Family Support Center has been offering therapeutic and rehabilitation services to promote the greatest possible participation and independence of disabled children in society and help them achieve their full potential. Following Boyukagha’s assessment, the Center’s staff taught him coping strategies and specific sets of exercises to help improve his mobility, posture and independence in everyday activities, including toileting, feeding, and dressing himself.
Staff assistance also focused on improving Boyukagha’s speech disorders through creative communication methods such as a book with pictures or an alphabet board. In order to increase cognitive ability, he also received individual instruction in matching objects and colors, drawing, reading books with bright pictures and solving puzzles.
After accessing Center services for just over 12 months, Boyukagha has grown considerably in terms of his cognitive development, motor function, social adaptation, and speech capabilities, which, in turn, has improved his educational progress. In contrast to a year ago, he is now able to perform most activities – walking, sitting in classes, standing up, and writing on the board – independently, without his mother’s assistance.
The most significant achievement is that Boyukagha has begun to speak in sentences. His improved language skills have boosted his confidence, helping him to interact socially with his peers and parents. Boyukagha began to take an active role in events held at his school or in the Center. At recent Center celebrations, community and family members remarked at his noticeably improved speaking ability and confidence. Thanks to the Center, Boyakagha is finally able to reach beyond the limits of his disability. His success is a message of hope for the thousands of other children in Azerbaijan—and demonstrates that with patience, hard work, and access to comprehensive therapeutic and rehabilitation support, anything is possible.
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