Education forum focuses on special needs children

The Jamaica Teachers' Association (JTA) St Elizabeth Special Education Committee recently hosted a forum and workshop, to being heightened awareness to the requirements of children with special needs.

Held under the theme 'Improve Your Care By Being Aware', at the St Elizabeth Technical High School, the event, which coincided with National Child Month, focused on the importance of understanding and supporting children with special needs. The forum also provided information about State services, and opportunities available to children with special needs in St Elizabeth and across Jamaica.

The Special Education Department of the Ministry of Education and Youth outlined a range of services to include pull-out classes in primary schools to support students with special education needs within the mainstream setting.

"At the secondary level, we have what is called the Alternative Pathways to Secondary Education (APSE) approach and that is where we have special education teachers that are placed into high schools to support not only the students with special education needs, but also our teachers as well," said Special Needs Coordinator in the ministry's Region 5, Toween Campbell-Wilson.

"So, our special education teachers in the form of our APSE coaches provide support in helping the teachers to deliver special education methodologies to our students with special education needs," she added.

Another important service provided by the Ministry is shadow support, which assists students who struggle in the mainstream setting by providing a shadow caregiver who accompanies them to school. This is especially beneficial to those children with physical, severe behavioural and emotional challenges as well as those who are generally hard to control and disruptive.

"For [special needs] students who are sitting the Primary Exit Profile (PEP) examination, there is also accommodation to include extra time, preferential seating, close monitoring, as much breaks as needed, and we also provide support in the form of support personnel who may read or write for a student," Campbell-Wilson outlined.

However, to qualify for these services, students must present a medical report for physical challenges or a psycho-educational assessment report for cognitive challenges.

The ministry partners with external organisations to further support special education in the country, including collaboration with Digicel Foundation to retrofit an inclusive classroom at Bethabara Infant in Manchester as well as the establishment of the Santa Cruz Special Education Centre in St Elizabeth.

Natalia McIntosh, whose son has autism, obsessive compulsive disorder) and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, pointed out how essential it is to seek education and support for her child. She noted the challenges of finding suitable schooling but expressed hope with the possibility of shadow support through the ministry.

"To the organisers, thank you for putting on this programme. We have received a lot of information that we can use to assist ourselves and our children," she said.