‘Up to 15 per cent of children have mild disabilities’
SIBU: Up to 15 per cent of children suffer from milder forms of disabilities and require early intervention to prevent the conditions from becoming severe.
Sibu Hospital paediatrician Associate Professor Dr Toh Teck Hock said these special needs children include those with autism and children with hearing problems.
“That is why we have been conducting early childhood development programmes for these young children, hoping that they will eventually grow up to become a better person,” he said when opening a seminar on early childhood development on Saturday.
Dr Toh said it is vital to identify children with mild problems at an early age and to get them into primary school to prevent them from getting more serious complications. This would help prevent them from joining the 3 to 5 per cent of the adult population with severe disabilities.
“We want the young children to learn at a young age and later join the mainstream schools and then go all the way up to Form 1, Form 5, vocational training schools, colleges or even universities,” he added.
Some 300 participants, including doctors, teachers, health staff, therapists and nurses took part in the oneday seminar conducted by Associate Professor Dr Jill Sewell from Australia and Professor Dr Frances Glascoe from the United States.
The event was organised by Association for Children with Special Needs Sibu headed by Kapitan Datuk Janet Lau and co- organised by the Sibu Divisional Health Office and Community- based Rehabilitation Programme Sibu.