Friday, March 29, 2024 | Ramadan 18, 1445 H
clear sky
weather
OMAN
25°C / 25°C
EDITOR IN CHIEF- ABDULLAH BIN SALIM AL SHUEILI

Spotlight: Not special, treat them as normal

121
121
minus
plus

Fatma Mohammed al Balushi is a mother of twins with special needs. Her children have adapted well to the services provided by the Association of Early Intervention for Children with Special Needs and now have reached an age where they should have been in school.


“We have benefited in a great way from the Association of Early Intervention and we are very grateful but now the children need to get admission to the school. The options are very limited and they are expensive but I need my children to be educated. They have no mental disabilities. One child suffers from hearing impediment although it had hyperactivity which was corrected through the experts at Association of Early Intervention.


“My other child, as long as he is sitting or moving is fine, but while standing there are chances that he might fall down. I worry whether they will be bullied at school,” she said with great concern.


Many other parents like Fatma face similar situation in choosing what is the best for their children.


Dr Ameera Raidan, Head of Mental Health Department at the Ministry of Health, said early monitoring is extremely important in the form of screening, diagnosis, assessments and ending with rehabilitation.


According to her, there is a need to find out whether there is any developmental delay before the child reaches school age. Sometimes a child might be just mildly autistic but treated differently and the parents would have to go through the long process of screening and analysis.


“It is difficult for parents to accept at first. What is important for parents is to maintain patience as the rehabilitation in certain cases takes time. They have to remember they are not being discriminated. School inclusion, whether it is full or partial, is important,” said Dr Ameera.


There is no exact data of children in Oman with down syndrome. The Oman Association for children with Down syndrome since 2014 has been providing services for about 120 children at the Association’s Rehabilitation Centre and has more than 450 members.


Located at Athaiba, the centre provides the children with physiotherapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, behavioural therapy and special education.


The chairman of the Association for Down syndrome, Nasser al Amri pointed out, “We are responsible to find a proper system of education for them.” When asked if there are enough options Al Amri said,


“We are now trying through the Ministry of Education to provide children with Down syndrome proper education through private schools. We have three types of education — the fully inclusion, partial inclusion and special needs.”


He explained that globally it is known that children with mild or moderate Down syndrome are included in the normal schools. Some of the children can only be included in partial inclusion. Some children have a combination of Autism and Down syndrome in such cases the students are referred for special education.


The association is now looking at adapting the Bavarian Curriculum from Germany that could serve children from four months to 18 years. “It is unique because as of now there is no connection between technical and academic services right now, but we can overcome that by providing them with the academic services too that can enhance their capabilities and skills. We have four categories — 4 to 6 years, 6 to 8, 8 to 16 and 16 to 18,” explained Al Amri.


The Association hopes to introduce the system by next year but there are challenges. “To meet the global system of education we need class rooms and open areas as well as resources. We are taking step by step,” he said.


While the public school do not enrol children with Down syndrome as inclusive students although children with autism are included in the mainstream, however three students did manage with one student currently going through her 12th grade.


Globally children with Down syndrome move into mainstream schooling because this shortens the rehabilitation process.


“The children mainly want inclusion with society. They want to be with their age group, school and their friends. This is why the association began with the full inclusion project in the private sector through the Ministry of Education. Last year we included four girls and this year we are starting with 25 children. Three of the four students of the first batch are doing well,” he said.


Aisha is the first student who has reached the 12th Grade and she is a student at Madinat Sultan Qaboos Private School.


Two other girls joined the government school as fully inclusive students as they were not identified as children with special needs.


Anwar reached till grade nine, while Mariam studied till grade four, but her mother regrets the mistake she did by requesting her class teacher to give extra attention to Mariam as she is a child with special needs. That changed the attitude of the teacher who was strict earlier and became relaxed with the realisation of Mariam’s condition when she failed to do her homework saying that she is a special child.


The expectations from Mariam were reduced. Gradually her performance went down.


“Let us not differentiate between the children when it comes to teaching them like in the case of Mariam. Anwar could not continue in the school after 9th grade. But we have arranged for Anwar to intern at Al Jizr Foundation for three months,” said Al Amri encouragingly.


Every parent’s dream is to see their children develop life skills and knowledge to live independently with financial security.


SHARE ARTICLE
arrow up
home icon