“Little ABLE’s” Children’s Sanctuary seeks to holistically tend to the special educational and rehabilitative needs of the children with a multidisciplinary team approach to facilitate their development.

We place an emphasis on collaboration between parents, caregivers and therapists to ensure continuity of stimulation and therapeutic interventions.

The team consists of:

• The manager who is an Occupational therapist, she developed and manages the daily program which is designed to cater for each individual child’s stimulation needs.  Integration of sensory, vestibular and motor systems is essential elements of the program; which prepares the children to their highest level of functional performance within their home and prospective school environments.  
• A Physiotherapist, who is primarily concerned with addressing movement and postural disorders evident in the children with physical impairments.  The physiotherapist facilitates children to be able to align and orient themselves to a task or activity, in order to ensure maximal participation in the program.
• The caregivers play a pivotal role in reaching and maintaining the rehabilitation goals, executing the stimulation program and tending to the individual needs of the children with the utmost care.  They work hands on with the children and ensure that the therapeutic handling and stimulation is continuous throughout the day.

Despite the challenges imposed by the pandemic over the past year, we have sought to ensure that the services reflect the holistic rehabilitative goals that we aspire to achieve.  The centre manager has been filling the role of Occupational therapist as well. She has been steadfast in both roles and determined for the children to achieve their maximum potential.  This is however unsustainable, and a dedicated therapist is needed.  The manager has enlisted the services of postgraduate music students to provide music therapy on a weekly basis, which has been showing pleasant and favourable outcomes.  A speech therapist has also kindly volunteered her services weekly at the centre and a great improvement can be seen in the feeding and communication skills of the children.

We have unfortunately been on a rollercoaster ride with the physiotherapist post, with 2 physiotherapists come and gone over the last year.  We will be refining the criteria for the vacancy and hope to find an experienced and committed physiotherapist to develop the children.  On the positive side, TUKS physiotherapy final year students are doing their paediatric practical blocks at the centre on a regular basis, supervised by lectures from the university of Pretoria.

The caregivers remain dedicated to providing their service with kindness and care.  They are eager to learn and we hope to implement training courses, as planned with Malamulele, but that did not materialise due to the current pandemic.

Inclusion is an essential aspect of the children’s holistic well-being.  Children need to meaningfully participate in their environment to develop.  Rehabilitation at LACS aims to address the children’s impairments by getting them involved in fun and stimulating activities at their functional level in order to overcome their limitations and achieve their maximum potential.

Accept and love your child, and we will find joy together.