Learning Therapy Skills Online

How do you keep children with disabilities, who need constant therapy, continue accessing it when the centers of access are closed? How do you make sure that the small gains you have made are not lost? How do you keep adding on to the small blocks that you have painstakingly built with children over time? Those and more were the questions that SMU staff and volunteers were faced with when gathering places including the Stars Day Care Center were closed. In June 2021, Uganda recorded a surge in the cases of COVID-19 which was code-named the second wave. Results of COVID-19 tests done on June 8th, 2021 confirmed 1,438 new cases, the highest number of cases recorded on a single day since the first case was reported back in March of 2020. This second wave of COVID-19 prompted the government of Uganda to institute a second 42 days’ lockdown that ran from June 18th, 2021 up to the end of July 2021. As a result, many institutions, including the Stars Day Care and Learning Center closed following the Presidential directives. 

In response to the questions surrounding the failure to access therapy centers, SMU started an online program to help Stars’ parents learn to offer therapy to their children. This intervention was occasioned by the fact that parents could not come to the Stars Day Care Center due to the second COVID-19 lockdown. The SMU therapists – the physiotherapist and the occupational therapist – shared videos of therapy procedures with the parents twice a week via the WhatsApp messaging platform. The parents, then, download and watch the videos on their mobile devices, and then practice the therapy care with their children. 

Two online meetings are held in the week to evaluate the therapy activities that have been implemented in a week, one meeting for occupational therapy on Friday evening and another meeting for physiotherapy on Sunday evening. This approach is also enhanced by the home visits that are carried out twice a month to assess the physical wellbeing of the children, and how the parents and children are coping with the exercises shared online. A total of 28 parents were coached in July 2021. 12 children benefitted from the online occupational therapy program. 13 children benefited from the online physiotherapy program during the lockdown. One of the Stars’ moms observed that “I am surprised at how much Matthew can do and how cooperative he is during therapy sessions”. She also commented that she is learning a lot about her son during this time of having therapy sessions with him like the positivity he has while engaging in the sessions. 

This program has not been without its challenges. Some of our parents have not participated in this program due to having no access to smartphones and therefore cannot access the WhatsApp messaging platform. Some of the parents cannot afford internet every week to download the videos, and still, some parents are not always with their children because they must travel for work for weeks, and those that remain at home do not have smart devices to access the online sessions. Despite the challenges, SMU is pushing forward with this approach to serve those that can participate. 

With the uncertainty around when the COVID-19 restrictions will end, SMU will continue to explore this approach, and encourage as many Stars’ parents as possible to embrace it. The beauty of the approach is that it is empowering. Stars parents are gaining basic therapy skills and can increasingly offer this much-needed service to their children where SMU staff and volunteers are not. 

Support SMU to extend her reach today by sponsoring a Star or an SMU program activity. Visit our “Get Involved” page on this site for details on how to give or get in touch. You can also give through our International Partners Faith andLearning International.