Special education

• Special education means education that is carried out with special training programs and trained personnel to meet the educational and social needs of people who differ significantly from their peers in terms of their individual and developmental characteristics and educational qualifications.
• The main purpose of special education services is to enable people with special needs to live independently. For those people to become independent, a personalized education program should be prepared by taking all development areas and needs into account. Appropriate methods and techniques must be applied to achieve the goals in these programs.
• In our centre, education is given to all diagnostic groups and to children who have developmental delays and who do not show age-appropriate reactions even though they have not been diagnosed. While arranging our therapy approaches, they are prepared by considering the individual differences of the children. One of the services we provide is language problems related to Autism.

‍

Dir floortime

• DIR (Developmental, Individual Difference, Relationship-based)
  
• The DIR Model was developed by Stanley Greenspan. This approach is a model based on establishing interpersonal relationships according to developmental characteristics and individual differences. Thanks to this approach, field experts can make detailed assessments for children with autism spectrum disorder. In addition, families and experts know the child better, special programs are prepared accordingly, and thus the child’s development is supported.
  
• The model provides a basic framework for understanding the human development process. It reveals the importance of social-emotional development starting from the moment of birth and continuing throughout life. In addition, it provides insight into the way everyone perceives the world and how they interact with it. The clinical application of the DIR model is the DIR Floortime technique.
  
• The aim of the DIR Floortime model is to build social, emotional, and intellectual capacities in a healthy way, rather than focusing on isolated behaviours and abilities.

‍

Occupational therapy

• Occupational therapy is a health profession that puts the person at the centre and improves their health and well-being through meaningful and purposeful activities. The main purpose of occupational therapy is to enable individuals to participate in daily life activities. With occupational therapy, physical, social, and environmental factors that negatively affect people’s participation in social activities are evaluated and interventions are made to eliminate or reduce them.
• With the work of occupational therapists, it is ensured that individuals and communities develop their skills to perform activities that they need and that are expected in their daily routine. Occupational therapists work on arranging the activities and the environment in accordance with people to increase participation.

‍

Sensory integration

• This process is a neurological process involving the interaction of sensory information from the person’s environment or body. In this process, the analysis and synthesis of the motor and sensory behaviours that emerge because of the interaction are also included.
• Humans have seven senses, which enable us to perceive and respond to stimuli from the environment. Seven senses are touching, smelling, seeing, hearing, tasting, vestibular (sense about balance and coordination), proprioceptive (it gives our brain the information about our body’s position and movements in space). These senses work in harmony by evaluating the messages they receive. Due to this harmony, which is called sensory integration, all perceived information becomes complete with each other.

‍

Group education

• The environment where group education takes place is a place where children can communicate with their peers, increase their social skills, and adapt to the society. When creating groups, children’s personal development levels, educational needs and existing diagnoses are considered. Developing skills such as queuing, sharing, communicating, and adapting to the rules of society are among its main purposes.

‍

​Child adolescent and family counseling

• Child-adolescent counselling is a one-on-one counselling service with children and adolescents who have emotional, mental, or behavioural problems. At this point, communication and cooperation with the family is of great importance. Research shows that parent training is essential to improving a child’s progress and increasing their independence.
• Communication problems experienced in the family sometimes reflect on the daily life of the person and negatively affect the quality of life. Today’s living conditions affect family life with factors such as long working hours, divorce, moving and having family members working in separate cities.
• In special education services, families are as important as the education of children because children spend most of their time at home. Families of children in need of special education may encounter some problems. For this reason, it is necessary to include families in education to solve problems and ensure that children can benefit from education at the highest level.

‍

Following development

• Personal, emotional, and physical development is very rapid during the first six years of human life. During this period, children should be supported, and the environment should be prepared accordingly so that they can use their potential efficiently. The necessary support is given very well by the parents and child health specialists if they know the child’s age developmental characteristics well.
• In development, which has a hierarchical structure, each stage is a prerequisite for the next stage. This hierarchical order continues in every child, but the speed of passing the other stage can differ. Behaviours expected from the child should be limited to his/her developmental level. By knowing the developmental characteristics of the child according to his/her age, recognizing the child and making the right guidance, abnormal conditions related to development and the discovery of special interests and abilities can be detected early. For this reason, progress is monitored at regular intervals in our institution.

‍

Applied tests

• In our institution, standardized tests are applied according to the personal needs of children. The results of the applied tests are evaluated, and personalized training plans are made.

​Intelligence and ability tests

Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children—Fourth Edition (WISC-IV)

​Development tests

Ankara Developmental Screening Inventory (AGTE)
Denver Developmental Screening Test II (DDST-II)

‍

‍

‍

​Language and speech evaluation tests

• Language Early Language Development Test
• Expressive and Receptive Language Test
• Ankara Articulation Test (AAT)
• Language Pronunciation and Phonetics Test (SST)
• Gülhane Aphasia Test-2 (GAT-2)
• Aphasia Language Assessment Test (ADD)
• Stuttering Severity Assessment Tool (SSI-IV)
• Evaluation of Speaker’s Stuttering Experience (OASES)
• Peabody Picture Word Recognition Test (PPVT)

‍

Autism evaluation tests

• Gilliam Autistic Disorder Rating Scale-2 (GOBDÖ-2-TV)
• Autism Spectrum Disorder Comprehensive Assessment Set (IVO-ODS)

‍

Ergotherapy, sensory, perceptual and motor assessment tests

• Dunn Sensory Profile Test
• Functional Independence Measure (FIM)
• Canadian Practice Process Framework (CPPF)
• Canadian Occupational Performance Measure (COPM)
• Person- Environment- Reading (PEO)
• The Kawa Model: Culturally Relevant Occupational Therapy
• MOHO Model: The Model of Human Occupations

‍