Government plans nutritional, health tests for special kids

Special children are imparted education and are given various kinds of assistance like food, accommodation, supply of education materials, assistive devices and case incentives. Now, the government is has proposed to make a health intervention through medical check-up and providing nutritional supplementation to children. 

“The State government is assisting differently-abled persons (DAPs) through comprehensive rehabilitation programmes. The government also encourages the NGOs to support the government and share the responsibilities,” a senior official from Department of Welfare of Differently-Abled Persons, told DT Next on Thursday.

Accordingly, regular health check-ups and nutritional supplements will be provided to children studying up to Class 8. Similarly, career counselling through IQ assessment will be the part of the programme for students from Class 9 to 12 of government schools and its aided schools so that they can select suitable courses for academic learning or jobs which could best suit them in future.

The objective is to assess the intellectual capacity for learning potential and application of the learnt activities in a logical manner exhibited through their behaviour. This assessment will help in suggesting an individual road map for higher studies of the special school students depending upon the IQ score.

Also, identifying and conceiving a plan of action for employment of the students who are having limited potential and nutritious assessment to identify micro nutrient deficiency among the students and make follow-up for corrective measures forms part of the guidelines.

Nutritional parameters check includes serum haemoglobin for iron deficiency, total serum protein for protein deficiency, serum cholesterol for fat deficiency, serum calcium for calcium deficiency and reassessment of blood test after provided interval.

Health education on personal hygiene, diet counselling and nutritional practice will be conducted based after the assessment.