Resources

It’s our aim to provide helpful resources for health and education workers, trainers or carers. Below is a list of the resources available from MAITS’ in-house projects or from fellow disability and development organisations. We are very interested to get feedback from you on the usefulness of the MAITS resources. Please can you also let us know of any modifications or translations that you make so that these can be shared with other people.

Please feel free to contact us at info@maits.org.uk if you would like to discuss any of our resources or would like support in using them.

Resources developed by MAITS and Partners

MAITS programme for staff working with children with developmental disabilities and their families

  1. Caring for Children with Developmental Disabilities: A Guide for parents.

This is a user-friendly toolkit to be used by generic workers (e.g. child development workers, community health workers etc.). It provides guidance on how to support children with varying levels of cerebral palsy and/or intellectual disabilities and/or autism spectrum conditions through the day, to promote their health, development and well-being.

The guide contains useful tools to aid assessment of the child’s strengths and needs, make decisions with the family on what aspects of their care to focus on and then provides easy tips on how to support the child to develop their skills. It also includes tools to monitor progress and reset goals.

  1. Working with Children with developmental Disabilities and their Caregivers

This training programme is designed to equip staff who have little or no knowledge of developmental disability to provide basic guidance to families, using the MAITS Parent Guide.

The course aims to provide trainees with:

  • An overview of childhood disabilities and their causes and impact
  • An understanding of how to use daily activities to promote health, development and well-being
  • The skills to be able to use the MAITS Guide for Parents and work effectively and respectfully with children with disabilities and their caregivers
  1. MAITS training package on feeding difficulties in children with developmental disabilities

In order for children with disabilities and feeding difficulties to survive with maximum health and wellbeing and achieve their full potential, they require adequate support from healthcare providers and informed and well-supported caregivers. Malnutrition is known to be common among children with disabilities, especially those with cerebral palsy (CP) and in addition to being associated with early death is a key barrier to a child’s health and development and well-being as well as the well-being of their caregivers. Even in well-resourced parts of the world, surprisingly little attention is paid to this population and their nutritional needs have historically been neglected.

  1. MAITS training package on infant feeding

In developing countries, 50% of babies born at 32 weeks die due to lack of support, including support to breastfeed.

Experts working for MAITS have developed a simple, lifesaving 2-day training programme aimed at improving the knowledge and skills of healthcare professionals to support breastfeeding and nutrition in infants struggling to feed due to issues related to prematurity, low birthweight or underlying disability. It can be taught as a stand-alone programme or as a supplement to regular breastfeeding training programmes.

This programme is totally unique and has been developed to address a global gap in the training of healthcare staff working with infants in developing countries.

Pilots of the programme in Malawi, Uganda and Sri Lanka achieved exclusive breastfeeding with 100% success. Using our techniques, 60% of the babies started feeding within minutes – and in the context of the developing world, breastfeeding means the difference between life and death.

This course is for healthcare professionals who are:

  1. Working in facilities that care for newborn infants who need specialist support (e.g., Neonatal Unit / Special Care Unit)
  2. Have a role in regularly supporting infants to breastfeed in these settings

The course comprises classroom-based teaching and practical sessions woven throughout. Topics include: lactation, understanding infants with feeding difficulties, intervention and working with special populations.

If you would like to use or receive training on this package then please contact info@maits.org.uk

Collection of materials on the management of Eating and Drinking Difficulties in infants and children.

This is a collection of PowerPoint slides, video clips, clinical documentation and written guidelines (with pictures) for teachers, nurses, doctors and generic workers. They have been adapted for South Asia and Africa.

Other Resources and Documents

This is a list of direct links to resources that have been made available online from our fellow disability and development organisations.

Clinical Resources

Useful Documents

Latest Opportunities