The Lanzarote Health Area, attached to the Ministry of Health of the Government of the Canary Islands, is starting this week the occupational therapy service in the ordinary centers of preferred educational care on the Island (motor skills teaching centers), in which there are students with specific motor or pneumomotor needs.
The director of the Health Area, Noelia Umpiérrez, and the Insular Director of Education, Celeste Callero, signed an agreement these days by which the health area contracts the occupational therapy service for the five motor skills teaching centers of Lanzarote: the CEIP Doctor Alfonso Spínola of Teguise, La Asomada and Capellanía of Yágabo; and the IES César Manrique and Puerto del Carmen.
Students with specific needs from these centers will benefit from the work of professionals for two hours a week in each of them. The presence of the occupational therapist in schools and institutes aims, among other objectives, to increase the personal autonomy of students with motor disorders and facilitate their active participation in the various activities that take place in the centers through the adaptation of their environment.
The director of the Lanzarote Health Area, Noelia Umpiérrez, positively values this initiative "because it addresses a demand raised for some time by the parents of these children with specific needs as well as by the educational community." "In addition, the agreement allows us to work on real integration in all areas and this is an important step," she added.
Occupational therapy professionals will also offer training to teachers and educational assistants on the different situations of functional diversity, daily routines such as moving around the center, adapting furniture or providing advice on outings.