Underscoring the fact that disability is not the lack of ability, Col Vasant Ballewar, dean, Queen Mary’s Technical Institute for Differently-Abled Soldiers (QMTI), Pune, has urged the parents to take joy from what their child can do, and not what they can’t.
“Nature compensates for disability by enhancing other abilities. Find those qualities in your child and nurture them,” said the dean who was chief guest at an event held to mark World Birth Defects Day on March 3.
The event was jointly organised by the District Early Intervention Centre, Aundh District Hospital, and the Birth Defects and Childhood Disability Research Centre, Pune. It was held to support parents whose children are born with health complications.
The speakers at the event drew attention to the benefits of early intervention through services such as physiotherapy, occupational therapy, speech-hearing therapy and other services that can help children learn how to perform daily routine tasks, walk or improve speech.
When a baby is born with a health condition or a disability, the parents must take the infant as early as possible to an early intervention centre for the benefit of the baby and not wait for the child to improve, they said.
Dr Anita Kar, director of the Birth Defects Centre, pointed out that the early intervention centre is also a place which supports parents, as caring for a child with a disability demands a lot of the parents’ time and energy.
The take home message, Dr Kar said, is that self care is very important for parents. “Remaining positive and taking joy from what your child can do helps the whole family. At the same time, World Birth Defects Day is a reminder to women to visit a doctor before pregnancy, and to enquire about preventive measures such as taking folic acid before pregnancy,” said Dr Kar.
The event saw Dr Jatin Ambekar drawing parents together in laughter as they practised ‘Hassyasan’, followed by a yoga session for stress relief by Dr Pramod Khandekar and another one specifically for mothers by Bhagyashree Radhakrishnan.
Civil surgeon Dr N S Yempalle welcomed the gathering of parents.
The programme was coordinated by Dr Meenakshi Hable, District Early Intervention Centre manager.