A dedicated rehabilitation center for children with hearing impairment
The rehabilitation day care center at Beit Micha is a warm and loving home that includes a professional, attentive, sensitive and one-of-a-kind staff. For any question or request, we are available for you.
By law, rehabilitative day care centers for hearing-impaired infants are entitled to care and education in designated day care settings, which are operated through various organizations and are under the supervision of the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Welfare.
The rehabilitation day care center provides services for infants between the ages of six months and three, and enables holistic care for the toddlers and their families.
The daycare provides an optimal response to the needs of the child with a hearing impairment in the first years of childhood, while providing him and her with a group of similar children who have a hearing impairment.
Transport to the daycare center is provided by the infants’ local community at their place of residence. The infant is accompanied by an escort although some parents choose to drive their child to daycare.
Operating hours: The daycare center operates six days a week, from 7:30 to 15:30, and on Friday until 11:45.
Our classes: The daycare groups are small, including up to 12 children in a group. The relatively small number of children allows the staff to give each child their full attention, mediation, auditory emphasis and supervision regarding the assembly of the hearing aids during their stay in the daycare center.
The daycare team – the team includes: kindergarten teachers, educational nurses, occupational therapists, physical therapists, communication therapists, a social worker and the director of the daycare center. Every year the daycare staff goes through numerous trainings and trainings in the field of child care in general, and the care of hearing impaired children in particular.
Adaptation of a personalized plan for each child – in the first months after entering the daycare center, a personal assessment is conducted for each child in various areas and a customized personal plan is created for each child. The personal plan is built in accordance with the needs of each child, hand-in-hand with the family.
Activities – all the educational activities in the daycare are aimed at putting emphasis on auditory aspects and auditory learning, communication, language and speech in each and every activity. Inclusive communication (simultaneous sign language and speech) is possible for children and families who are so interested.
Paramedical treatments and classes: as part of the individual treatment plan, a treatment schedule will be built for each child in the daycare center that includes a meeting with a speech therapist (bi-weekly), individual treatment in occupational therapy and/or physical therapy (once a week according to need and assessment), as well as group treatments. In addition, there is a music enrichment class at the residence.
Contact with parents: The Beit Micha team sees parents as significant and essential partners in the activity. The involvement of the parents in the treatment has a great contribution, both in the diagnosis process and in the treatment of the child.
Throughout the year, the care team has personal conversations with the families, in which the team updates the parents about the child’s progress, achievements and difficulties, while the parents are invited to share challenges and doubts in raising the child.
Starting in 2023, Beit Micha operates a dedicated program for accompanying parents called ‘Halom’. As part of the program, Beit Micha holds a series of meetings and events for members of the community, which will include enrichment content, emotional support, parent groups, leisure activities (culture, trips) and more) and a mentoring program for veteran families for news.
Social worker support: Beit Micha operates a system of support and emotional empowerment, and provides guidance and information to parents, in order to encourage them to become knowledgeable partners with tools to deal independently with their child’s special needs.
The social worker provides parents with support, guidance and assistance in exercising rights from state institutions. In addition, the organization operates support groups for parents, which are an opportunity to create a joint interaction between the parents, and to share similar feelings and experiences related to the challenge of raising a deaf child.
Home visits: As part of the activities of the daycare center, home visits are conducted by the daycare team at the children’s homes. The purpose of the visit is to deepen and strengthen the relationship with the parents. This is an opportunity to get to know the various staff members in the natural environment of the family, and to think together about additional possibilities for doing and learning in the home space.
Nutrition: The daycare has a nutritionist from the Ministry of Health whose role it is to provide a professional response to the daycare in all matters of nutrition. The nutritionist implements the national nutrition policy of the Ministry of Health: supervises the menu, identifies special needs and nutritional problems, while setting priorities and provides a response to these needs, while cooperating with the multi-professional team.
Cameras: According to the “Installation of cameras for the protection of toddlers in day care centers” law, closed-circuit cameras are installed in the day care center. Viewing the cameras is allowed only to representatives of the Ministry of Welfare.
Eligibility for daycare – eligibility for daycare is determined by the placement committee, which includes representatives of the Ministry of Welfare and the Ministry of Health. The forms are submitted to the committee by the social worker on behalf of the local authority. Contact the social services department in the area of residence. Parents with hearing impairments are entitled to access the committee through translation for sign language or transcription.
Payments – The payment for the daycare center is arranged by the parent directly with the local authority at the place of residence. There is parental participation according to the level of income per capita in the family. The paramedical treatments that the patients are obliged to give to the toddler within the framework of the daycare center are provided with direct funding from the insurance fund, without additional payment by the parents.
For questions, inquiries and additional information, you can contact Lucy Melchi-Levi, director of the daycare center, lucy@michata.org.il
The day-rehabilitation center in Kfar Kassem
In 2008, Beit Micha opened a branch in Kfar Kassem, with a rehabilitation day care center for children with hearing impairment aged six months to three years, with two classes and up to 12 children per class.
The daycare center is intended for children with hearing impairment who live in the central region, whose mother tongue is Arabic. Beit Micha’s decision to establish a rehabilitation day care center in Kfar Kassem stemmed from the belief that hearing impaired children from the Arab sector need a therapeutic and educational system adapted to their language, culture and lifestyle.
The daycare team consists of the director of the daycare center, a social worker, a speech therapist, an occupational therapist, a physical therapist, a kindergarten teacher and assistants. The professional team has many years of experience working with children of a mountain age in general and children with hearing impairment in particular.
The Beit Micha Kfar Kassem daycare center is adapted to the children’s well-being, and is maintained as required. In 2022 we upgraded the playground and added new facilities and we make sure that the daycare center is rich in games and its rooms are inviting to create an optimal therapeutic and learning atmosphere.
In addition to the activities of the daycare, additional activities in the community are offered, such as: community events, lectures in schools as part of a national fundraising day, and lectures open to the general public in collaboration with various organizations in Kfar Kassem. The various activities are designed to increase awareness of the issue of hearing impairment and the importance of the rehabilitation process.
For inquiries and information, please contact the director of the center in Kfar Kassem: Mr. Saleh Shurbeji
shorbage1@michata.org.il, Tel: 03-9074988, mobile: 054-9340407
