Holistic Support to Children in Rural South Africa

Thanda’s Inclusion Programme provides children who have learning and developmental challenges with the opportunity to learn in the same environment as their peers. The model aims to teach those with disabilities important social skills and social rules, and to help them feel a sense of belonging amongst their peers and community. At the same time, it encourages their classmates to accept, encourage, and include their friends who have challenges, just as they would any other child.

The programme invites guardians of children diagnosed with learning or physical challenges to join their child at therapy days throughout the year (with a professional Occupational Therapist and Physical Therapist) which equip the guardians with tools to help better support their child’s growth and to reach their milestones.

In 2023, Thanda hosted 3 therapy days at the community centre for guardians and children and we had 20 children enrolled in the programme.

In 2024 we have, thus far, hosted 1 therapy day and have 13 children enrolled in the programme, with 7 enrolled in our Imbewu ECD, 2 in Fun Foundations, 1 in our Satellite ECD and 3 of them based at home.

The children enrolled in our Inclusion Programme have not only benefitted from dedicated Therapy Days but also from home visits to their household every two weeks. During these visits, our trained volunteers have mentored guardians to guide the child through activities designed to stimulate the child to provide them with the best opportunities for optimal growth and development. At each visit, their progress has been measured against their therapy plan which was specially created for each child and is updated and amended at each subsequent Therapy Day.

Sphume was the Inclusion Programme Co-ordinator in 2023 and she reports that all of the children in the programme made progress during the year. She shared with us about one child Melokuhle (3 years old) who, she told us, has a speech delay.

Melokuhle was enrolled in April 2023. He had difficulty speaking in sentences and would only whisper very few words. He was silent during nursery rhymes and avoided participating in group activities with his classmates. In addition to Melokuhele’s speech delay, she was also behind with her fine motor skills.

By reading her stories repeatedly during free play time in class and encouraging his to retell the stories, his language has improved significantly. His guardian has also been encouraged by Thanda to read to his at home to improve his vocabulary. He has gained confidence and can speak in sentences and is louder. His fine motor skills have since improved through practice with crayons and playing with different toys. He is very bright and has learned to count to 10, sing rhymes, and identify shapes and colours!

At the beginning of 2024, our Inclusion Programme was adjusted slightly to include a full-time Inclusion Coordinator, Akhona, and no longer have an Inclusion Volunteer for each child with a disability. In January we arranged a two-day workshop for all our Early Learning Teachers and Teacher Assistants, to learn how to include children with disabilities in their classrooms. This means that instead of only one person supporting the child with a disability, they are now included as part of the class more and both the Teacher and Teacher Assistant (and Inclusion Coordinator) are capable of supporting them. We believe this approach will enable teachers to better identify other children with learning barriers earlier on, so they can receive support sooner. We also believe it will assist the children with disabilities to transition better, as many of our children do manage to ‘catch up’ and go on to mainstream Primary Schools (others go to placements we can get them at Special Needs Schools and others still are included in our Gogo Arts & Crafts group).

We chatted to Akhona during April 2024 to find out how little Melokuhle is doing! “This is Melokhuhle’s second year in the Inclusion Programme.Melo is one the children we categorise as ‘catch up’ he does not necessarily work at the same pace or grasp at the same pace as the other children.  So we have set up goals for Melo in order to help with his development.For example, setting a goal that Melo knows these types of colours so we would do activities that help him to learn the different colours - if he does not reach that goal, we keep on trying until he grasps it.”

During home visits, Akhona uses toys like the coloured blocks, Spike the Hedgehog and Stack and Rack to help Melo with colour recognition and his progress has been remarkable.

Melo’s guardian Pinky, shared more with us “Melokuhle is Grade 00 at Thanda. He is a very active child and in the beginning I had trouble with understanding his behaviour. He would lose focus, and would not be able to sit still. But through being involved in Thanda’s programme, I have now learnt to have better understanding, patience and care for my child.

The activities and therapy days that we have attended, and Akhona visiting us has been very beneficial. I see the difference with Melo. He is now able to see colours and say which colour is which. Previously, he had a hard time knowing the different colours. I think he has learnt about the difference through the activities that Akhona and therapy ladies have shared. I also now implement some home activities to help him recognise colours. When we are hanging clothes – I will ask him, “Melo please could pass me the orange shirt to hang” or I ask him “what colour t-shirt do you want to wear?” and he responds “Yellow” or says “Green like the grass.” So that makes me happy to see that he is able to differentiate colours. 

I am happy to see him develop well now. I used to be worried about my child because he was born a premature baby so from there I have been always concerned about his development but now that I am a part of this programme I feel a sense of relief knowing that I have people who can assist me with my child’s development. In this area we live in, I do not think there was anyone who could have assisted in the way Thanda has. My child is now able to count to 40! Even though he might skip a few numbers (she laughs), that makes me happy knowing that he is able to count and know numbers. That is such a giant step from where we were two years ago. He loves singing the Thanda songs, and reciting the ‘My body’ song. He can kick a ball too! Although, I am still concerned that his speech is not fully developed yet and he cannot fully pronounce certain words.”

Akhona advises that they are still working on Melo’s speech delay and pronunciation “We encourage storybooks and reading through pictures. Then we go through the story with him, asking questions like “what do you see?” We also encourage echo reading. This when you ask the child to repeat the words you are reading. Echo reading works well with animal books. So if the book has animal sounds, like a lion roaring, I would make the sound ask Melo to repeat. Blowing bubbles is another really great activity. Melo loves bubbles! They make him excited and also help him with practicing to open his mouth for speech.”

Thank you for helping us make a difference in the lives of all children, including children living with disabilities in our rural community. All of the ECD children who were enrolled in our Inclusion Programme in 2023 were able to transition into a schooling option and we look forward to seeing a similar result at the end of 2024 as we continue to equip those who would not have had this opportunity, with skills to help them grow in a school environment.