Expert underlines importance of ‘early identification’ for children
Sharjah:anexpertinspecialneeds education has observed that ‘early identiication’ of young children has been one of the best tools to identify their abilities and special talents and most importantly through monitoring a child’s unique talents and nurture those skills through differentiated instruction.
This was stated by Fatma Khalid, Director, Blue Bird Nursery, in an interview with The Gulf Today. The nursery was established in 2016 as an educational organisation and currently has two branches in Nadd Al Hammar and Dubai South. It has embarked on an early intervention programme that includes regular evaluations to identify children’s abilities and special talents.
Her educational background includes teacher training from Cambridge University (UK), coaching and mentoring Graydin Ltd (UK) and Masters in Educational Leadership in Middlesex University. She is also a candidate for the NPQSL with UCL Institute of Education (UK).
“The unique aspect of this process is the ‘early identiication’ which is done from the age of 4 months. Children are constantly being monitored to measure developmental milestones which can include hearing, motor skills and visual impairmentsthatcanbedificulttoidentify early on in a child’s life. The process is conducted by practitioners where each child is observed in different settings to determine and assess progress,” she said.
The process is the active collaboration between parents, practitioners and therapists which provides a triangulated support system unique to early years’ establishment.
“Our practitioners are trained and qualiied in using the developmental milestones and follow a typical growth chart as a benchmark whilst understanding every child’s unique development. The evaluation process determines a child’s developmental stage and consequently record any delays which are then shared with guardians, parents and ultimately child psychologists,” she said.
Shedding light on the unique standard practice in the Blue Bird nurseries she said that the main objective of this programme is the early identiication and intervention. “We have received a signiicant number of children whose delays and unique talents have gone unidentiied which has then affected their progress immensely in later years. Our focus is to achieve the understanding and ability to build awareness on providing speciic resources and instruction designed for children with unique abilities and supplementary needs even as early as four months.”
She also underlined the need for awareness especially in early years and nurseries that the irst ive years of a child’s life are crucial and any developmental delays or talents that are missed can impact a child’s performance in the long term.
She pointed since initiating this programme parents’ response has been really positive and most of them have been appreciative of the teachers’ effort in recognising delays and providing intervention in collaboration with the therapists and psychologists.
We need to place special focus on including ‘people of determination’ and design instructions and facilities that cater and accommodate for their speciic needs. Focus should also be driven in recognising special talents or gifts and nurture these through support and collaboration of different institutions in arts and technology.
“Our goals include creating awareness about special ‘early’ years programmes that foster creativity and innovation even in the early years as talents and special skills can be identiied as early as the ages of 1-2 years.” She added.
The Community Development Authority (CDA) has been extending immense support in providing intervention and discussing strategies with our practitioners.
She further added that leaders in education need to stay grounded in a higher moral purpose, dedicating their vision and goals to enriching children’s lives, constantly embark on a journey of discovering and developing pedagogy suited and appropriate for all learners ensuring that every child is given equal opportunity to grow and succeed in life. When we all stand for the child no one will be left behind.