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To go to school, to walk in school, to walk: this became possible for Alyona thanks to post-surgery rehabilitation courses.
Eight-year-old Alyona is at school every day. Although officially she is on a distance learning course due to her recent surgery, her psychologist thinks that attending private lessons at school to catch up with the syllabus and communicate with other children would be better for the girl. This approach to Alyona’s education is likely to help her to start learning at school on general grounds sooner.
School life and inclusion
A classroom is full of children who are having their arts class. Alyona is there as well. As all other kids, she is listening to a teacher’s instructions, thinking about her approach to drawing a picture and creating her own work, she feels included in the social life around.
Alyona attends arts, crafts and science lessons together with the whole class. She is also a good reader and has good handwriting. Her math training is however going somewhat more difficult due to her spatial skills particularities.
Alyona’s life with her family
Alyona’s adoptive family supports the girl a lot with her school studies and her training to improve motor skills. When Alyona was less than two years old, her biological mother fell ill and was not able to take care of the girl. She did not have a husband and so Alyona was admitted to an orphanage. Next year her biological mother died. Alyona lived in the orphanage for three long years and no one wanted to adopt her due to her serious health problems. Fortunately Alyona finally found her adoptive family and now has a mother, a father and a brother.
When Alyona looks at her family photos, she gives long commentary about each of them. She explains what happened before and after a photo was taken. Very often little children like to look only at their own photos, but Alyona is not like this. She talks about her brother, her mother and father, and her dog.
When Alyona just started living with her family she could not walk at all, however after some time and a lot of effort from herself and her parents it became apparent that she could learn to walk subject to the availability of professional medical help. Alyona’s family could not afford paying for the rehabilitation programme that is so vital for her walking skills. Her parents were left with no choice but to ask for help.
The rehabilitation program was a great success. Alyona’s new found independence and ability to walk became possible due to the course at the Galileo Centre which is one of the leading providers of rehabilitation therapy in Russia. Alyona’s mum says: “Thank you for the provided help. We can see the results very fast. She practically learnt to walk from scratch. Thank you very much for the opportunity to attend the rehabilitation courses!”
With the support of both the rehabilitation centre and her parents, Alyona makes significant improvement in her walking skills. She becomes more independent and confident and so has more opportunities to be involved in social life at and outside school. This is of course very important for her future. This is also very important for other children’s future. If families who consider adopting kids will know that there are charity projects supporting disabled children, the likelihood of such adoptions is likely to increase.
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