San Diego CA— Rest Haven Children’s Health Fund, an endowment fund to assist children in San Diego and Imperial Counties with health-related needs, has awarded $13,125 to the San Diego Center for Children. The grant will support the Center’s Integrated Sensory Interventions to promote self-regulation for youth, ages 5-21, who may have a history of trauma and/or developmental or mental health disorders. The Center’s goal is to help children move from destructive patterns and behaviors to more flexible, adaptive, coherent, energized and stable behaviors. The result being a more balanced and resilient child.
The Center serves children and teens with mental, emotional and behavioral disorders. When youth first come into their care, they have challenges with self-regulation, may be easily agitated, and often have difficulty managing anger and reactivity. The Center’s Integrated Sensory Interventions enable youth to learn essential skills for self-regulation, stress-management and more adaptive coping skills in a safe, controlled environment. Eventually, these skills and behaviors replace dysregulated behaviors with healthier and socially-appropriate responses.
Integrated Sensory Interventions utilizes a variety of methods, equipment, and several important components to help youth learn these skills that are integral to their overall well-being. Such components include recreation and occupational therapy, mindfulness techniques and exercises, and evidence-based music programming like The Listening Program®.
The award from Rest Haven is allowing the Center to launch The Listening Program® to serve children and teens at the Center’s K-12 Academy and Residential Treatment Program. Designed by innovative neuroscience experts in music programming, Advanced Brain Technologies, The Listening Program® is an interactive curriculum using headphones and specifically chosen music to retrain the brain through a course of music-listening sessions. During these sessions, auditory areas of the brain are engaged, affecting the brain’s processing and activity. In time, the music trains the brain to improve the listener’s perceptions, emotions and response to the environment. As a part of the overall Integrated Sensory Interventions program at the Center, this tool will play a key element in working with youth to achieve improved mental health and states of well-being.
The San Diego Center for Children’s mission is to protect the joy of childhood, prevent emotional suffering, and incite change.