Individualized support

"It is normal to be different. There is no standard for being human. Some people are blind or deaf, others have learning difficulties, a mental or physical disability - but there are also people without a sense of humor, eternal pessimists. (...) That disability is only understood as diversity is a goal that we must all strive for." (Richard von Weizäcker in 1993)

Noahmobil

Noah (trisomy 21) was not yet able to walk at just under 2 years of age, but was slowly becoming too heavy for the teachers to carry on the way to the bathroom or the gym to change his nappy. A bobby car with a push bar was therefore purchased so that Noah could be pushed around the daycare center during transitions. A photo of Noah marked the bobby car for the other children as his personal "Noahmobile". For the times when the Bobbycar was not in use, there were parking spaces marked with tape on the floor of the daycare center in front of the gym, in front of the group room and in the children's bathroom. It was explained to all the other 87 children in the daycare center in child-friendly words that this Bobbycar is only there for Noah, who needs longer to learn to walk, and that they are not allowed to remove it from the parking spaces. Once Noah had learned to sit upright on the Noahmobile, make pushing motions with his feet and finally walk on his own, the push bar was removed and the Noahmobile joined the other bobbycars in the garden for all the children.

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Learning through melodies

Three-year-old Lisa (trisomy 21) had great difficulty learning new movement sequences, but at the same time had an insular talent for music - she knew hundreds of songs by heart. The inclusion officer therefore came up with numerous short melodies for new skills to be learned, which were always sung to fixed sequences of actions by teachers and parents. After a short time, Lisa was singing along to these melodies and soon learned how to put on and take off her shoes, use the soap dispenser, wait or eat with a fork.

Max Street

Due to cerebral palsy, Max (3 years old) had problems keeping his balance when walking if he was accidentally bumped into by other children. For a long time, he therefore did not dare to run around freely in the group room and change play areas for fear of falling. He was very interested in cars and traffic. A "Max street" was therefore permanently taped to the floor in the group room, where all the children were allowed to walk. Max, however, had "right of way" over other children. With this "traffic rule" in mind, he soon dared to visit the various play areas in the group room on his own, even without a teacher by his side.
 

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Hand parking

Max (5 years, cerebral palsy) found it difficult to use only one hand when eating and not both hands, e.g. to eat yogurt. As he was very interested in everything to do with road traffic, he was given a "hand parking space": On a place mat, parking spaces were marked with "P" for both hands to the left and right of the plate. From then on, he always placed the unused hand in its "parking space" and thus learned to eat with one hand. Other children, who sometimes also found it difficult not to eat with both hands, adopted this scheme and also placed their hands - even at home - on imaginary parking spaces.

Who eats what and why?

Jelena (3 years old) had a congenital metabolic disorder and developmental delay. She had to eat calculated amounts of selected foods every day to prevent her body from going into toxic shock. It was difficult for her to understand why she was not allowed to eat eggs or cheese, for example, but other children were. The inclusion officer therefore created a picture book for her group: "Who eats what and why?". It explained in simple, child-friendly terms what different animals eat, what humans need and how food is converted into muscle power. The fictional protagonist Anton in the photo book was also only allowed to eat a defined amount of certain foods and - like Jelena - had a PEG tube through his abdominal wall. This book created opportunities for discussion between the children about the role of food and bodily functions.

Furnishings

◦ Liam (2 years) was muscle hypotonic due to his Down syndrome. To make it easier for him to sit in a chair, his talented grandparents got involved: they built a footrest into one of our children's chairs so that Liam always had contact with the floor when sitting, which gave him more body stability. As soon as Liam's legs were long enough for his feet to reach the floor, the footrest was removed again.
◦ When renovating all the raised play levels in the daycare center's group rooms in recent years, care was taken to ensure that they are also easy to reach and climb on for children with special needs, that they can be seen particularly well from the outside or below and that there is no risk of hypermobility (e.g. extreme mobility due to trisomy 21) due to children climbing over or getting trapped.
 

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In addition to individual support, the inclusion officer also advises the daycare groups on a wide range of developmental psychological issues and coordinates exchanges with specialists such as speech therapists, social pediatric centers or counselling services.

Our multi-professional, interdisciplinary team is characterized by a very high level of commitment to each individual child. We aim to overcome challenges in the best possible way and always find individual solutions.

Living diversity is one of the key experiences that is fundamental for today's children to lead their lives in the globalized world of tomorrow.

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