Communication DEALL (Developmental Eclectic Approach to Language Learning) is an early intervention program for children with developmental language disorders such as those seen in Pervasive Developmental Disorders (PDD), Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD), Specific Language Impairment (SLI) and Developmental Verbal Dyspraxia (DVD), which aims at integration of these children in regular schools subsequent to intensive preschool intervention.

Over the last couple of decades the incidence of developmental disorders such as the Autism Spectrum Disorders, which were earlier thought to be rare disorders, has risen alarmingly. As of now, intensive early intervention is the most promising approach for alleviation of these disorders. Communication DEALL is a self- financed program managed by a multidisciplinary team of Speech-Language Pathologists, Occupational Therapists, Psychologists and Educators, with 12 children per unit and a 1: 3 ratio of staff to children.

The DEALL program provides intensive (3 hours/day, 5 days/week, over an academic year) stimulation and training to small groups of children. The intervention/training for each child is based on the profile of the child and covers several developmental domains such as motor, communication, social and cognitive development. It also addresses other related issues such as eye contact, attention and sitting tolerance, compliance and behavior. Ideally enrolment in DEALL should take place by the age of 2 ½ - 3 years. This gives the child the maximum opportunity to attain age appropriate skills and behavior by school entry age. Children who achieve the required skills by the end of the first or second year are encouraged to integrate in regular schools at such time.

The DEALL program was started in November 2000 with one unit in Bangalore and quickly spread to 6 units in 3 cities by June 2003. Subsequently despite the growing pressure to start more units in Bangalore and elsewhere we stopped expansion due to constraints in finding adequate staff. However given the success of the program and the demand for more units we embarked on documentation of the program in order to ease replication without very high professional input. We have been generously supported in this endeavor by the Sir Ratan Tata Trust and the Navajbai Ratan Tata Trusts, Mumbai. During 2005-06 we formalized our evaluation procedures and published them in a manual. We are now involved in the documentation of our intervention procedures in the form of user friendly manuals. The first set of the intervention manuals addressing the needs of children in the age range of 0 to 3 years is expected to be completed by December 2008 and those for children in the age range of 3 to 6 years by June 2010.From June 2009 we are once again open to setting up more DEALL units on request, as a part of larger institutions, clinics, schools or preschools.

If you have a concern about your child, please check the following (click on the image for a bigger view) :