Region 3 Education Dept. hosts Special Needs parenting workshop

Apr 07, 2019 Education Corner, Features / Columnists

Parents at the recent Special Education Needs Parenting Workshop

Just recently the Department of Education Special Education Needs (SEN) Units hosted a Parenting Workshop geared at empowering parents to deal with special education needs and disabilities.

Speaking at the event Facilitator, Akeshia Benjamin, noted that the event was a marked activity for the SEN Unit and was staged at the appropriate time, since it was done in the month of April that has been designated as “World Autism Awareness Month”. She said the SEN Unit is committed to actively and continuously raising the quality of education for every learner with Special Education Needs, citing that their goal coincides with the theme, “Empowering Parents to Deal with Special Education Needs and Disabilities”

She explained that the activity aims at advocating the importance of special education through public awareness and alliance building. She said that it also paves the way for the SEN Unit to advance its work in the delivery of SEN services to children who have such needs.

Ms. Benjamin noted also that it forms the basis in keeping with the Ministry of Education SEN Action Plan (Partnership in Education as a means to encourage positive attitudes towards persons with SEN) She explained that it is in this regard that the Unit has taken the stance of forming and sustaining alliances with stakeholders at different levels and departments in an effort to provide as much as possible, quality services to children with special educational needs.

She further explained that the workshop would therefore provide the avenue to promote greater awareness and for parents to be sensitized of SEN, the various categories of disabilities that children can be challenged with, among other topics, and specifically, parental and home support for their children with SEN, through the necessary information, skills, materials and strategies that will contribute towards supportive home environments for their children.

Regional Education Officer of Region 3, Mrs Annesta Douglas noted that the open door policy promoted at the venture was adopted so that parents can be better able to perform their roles, especially if they have children with SEN needs. She noted that they are heading in the direction of putting in place projects to better help SEN children to gain from ventures offered by the Ministry of Education.

Mrs. Douglas said it is the Ministry’s hope to give every child quality education, and as such they have been recently resorting to an inclusionary approach to learning, since no child should feel discriminated, even if they have SEN needs. She said they must be made to believe that they can do anything a normal child can do, which includes participation in sporting activities etc. She said that those parents must however first believe that their child can reach the full potential as normal kids, and function effectively in the secular world.

Areas of discussion at the event included Autism Awareness, Early Diagnosis, Education and Prevention, and Signs and Symptoms, amongst others.
Children with Special Education Needs may fall in one or more of the 13 disability categories. These include Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), Intellectual Disability, Deafness, Deaf-blindness, Visual Impairment including Blindness, Hearing Impairment, Developmental Disability, Specific Learning Disability (Dyslexia, Dysgraphia, Dyscalculia), Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD, Orthopedic Impairment, Speech/Language Impairment, Multiple Disability, and Other Health Impairment.

Discover more from Kaieteur News

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

Latest News