‘Therapy Fun Day’ at President’s Village

Learning can be fun

The children of the President’s Village, aged 1 to 8 years old, played and learned about health and well-being for their development during a ‘Therapy Fun Day’.

It is a first pilot project conducted by the Rehabilitation Services and brought together carers of the President’s Village, physiotherapists and speech therapist, dental and nutrition sections of the Seychelles Hospital.

‘Therapy Fun Day’ is a part of the programme ‘Health of Our Nation’ for 2016. The main purpose of this day was to use play as a medium to help those children in their cognition, motor skills, language, sensory processing and socialisation.

It was also a skills development training for carers of the President’s Village.

How a therapy could be fun for children? Especially, when you are not with your family for various reasons… Twenty children have experienced it through games, drawings, sports and songs. At the President’s Village the older children have done sports in the playground, while younger ones enjoyed safe games in the playroom, but everyone was in an activity in their age group – less than 1 to 1 year old, between 3 and 5 years old and 6 to 8 years old.

In the background, the professional team, carers of the President’s Village, physiotherapists, dental and nutrition section of Seychelles Hospital measured the children’s speech, showed them how to brush their teeth correctly and observed their social skills. It was fun for them too… They have built a tree on how they found the session.

“Playing is important for psychomotor and mental development in infants and children. This is certainly true for those children. They deserved the best care possible. To observe their interaction, to consider their disabilities and their speech, to teach them the proper techniques of brushing teeth and to help them for their better development were the main objectives of this day. It is a challenge for me to manage the team and the village. But as a former midwife, I want to take care of all their health. I believe I have got a good relationship with the colleagues of the Ministry of Health. This will help me to continue this kind of project. We will see the results and then, we will think about how to keep this fun day on board,” said Brigitte Louis, the team manager of the President’s Village.

The  photos show some of the kids during the various activities organised for the day.

Source : Seychelles NATION