Junior Therapist

**About Ummeed**:
Ummeed, a premier non-profit organization for children with disabilities in India, supports children with developmental disabilities to reach their maximum potential and be included in society.

India has over 50 million children with disabilities under the age of 15. With access to appropriate health, intervention, education, recreation, and livelihood services they can be supported to become participative members of society. Today most of them have limited or no access to relevant knowledge and services as the number of organizations and professionals in the space are inadequate to meet the need. To date, Ummeed has supported 14,500 children through direct clinical services and reached an estimated 0.43 million children through network partners that are enabled and trained by Ummeed.

Ummeed was founded in 2001 by Dr. Vibha Krishnamurthy, a developmental pediatrician. Today, with a diverse workforce of over 100 committed professionals, Ummeed’s transdisciplinary approach works towards:

- Supporting children with disabilities in their developmental trajectory and overcoming barriers through direct clinical services, and helping families in their journey towards acceptance and empowerment
- Building a network of trained professionals and community workers to monitor and promote Early Childhood Development, identify children with developmental disabilities and provide timely and appropriate interventions to them and their families
- Changing societal attitudes so that children with disabilities can overcome barriers to participation and inclusion

**About the position at Ummeed**:
The School Services at Ummeed works with schools to promote an inclusive policy, culture, and practice for children with diverse needs /disabilities in schools. Often families that come to Ummeed have concerns about the schooling of their children. Once in the school, they need ongoing support for a variety of issues. The school services envisage addressing these issues and building capacities in schools by spreading awareness and conducting training programs for various stakeholders, to support children with diverse needs within the school system. Being a special educator in the School Services Team will give you an opportunity to work with various stakeholders within a school or/and in the space of education to create awareness and sensitivity to promote an inclusive environment for children with diverse needs, to reach their maximum learning potential in both academic and social arenas. Along with this, in the clinical arena of Ummeed, you will be using the bio psycho social approach, strength based approach and family centered care to work with children. Using these core values, you will be expected to provide children along with their families the required support to strengthen their areas of challenges and help them to perform to the best of their potential. You will also work in collaboration with other team members of the school services to advocate for children with disabilities/diverse needs and their caregivers within schools and the education system.

**Primary Responsibilities**:

- Conduct curriculum-based assessments for children in the age group of 4 years to 15 years and prepare a report
- Based on the assessment report, support the families by providing appropriate recommendations and home programs
- Design and conduct remedial sessions with children in one-on-one/pairs/small groups
- Support with development of training content for educators/professionals
- Documentation of work done towards clinic and school services

**Preferred**:
Facilitate and conduct trainings and workshops for educators/professionals.

**Minimum Qualifications**: B.Ed. (Special Education) / M.Ed. (Special Education) from a recognized university with RCI certification.

**Essentials Skills Required**:

- Knowledge of conducting assessments
- 1-2 years’ experience working with children with different developmental disabilities. either in a one-on-one way or in small groups
- Ability to adhere to timelines and deadlines for the team tasks
- Excellent conversational skills in English and Marathi (preferred)
- Excellent documentation skills
- We encourage persons with disabilities and parents of children with disabilities to apply._