Dubai [UAE], August 6: The Ministry of Community Development has completed the implementation of the transformational Emirates Early Intervention Program.
The project aims to detect children with developmental delays and those at risk early on by expanding its services to include the Ajman and Dibba Al Fujairah regions. The processing and operation of the two early intervention units are set to be completed by the end of July 2024.
This initiative is part of the federal government's performance agreements for the year 2023-2024.
The project supports the Emirates Early Intervention Program's endeavour to accelerate the goals' achievement of making the UAE society the most prosperous in the next then coming years, and promoting the vision of "We are the UAE 2031", which requires qualitative and redoubled efforts that contribute to achieving government aspirations and reflect positively on society and various sectors of the UAE.
This also comes in implementation of the vision of President His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, and the directives of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, with the aim of developing government work and enhancing its achievements and outputs, keeping pace with the efforts that are being made during the first decade to achieve the ten principles of the UAE in the new fifty, follow up on global changes, which require employing the latest technological means to accelerate achievements, and setting priorities in the design of transformational projects that have a direct impact on the society to enhance the UAE's position globally.
The Emirates Early Intervention Program is primarily proactive, and aims to create significant societal impact across various emirates and areas where its services have expanded. Early detection of children with developmental delays assists in raising parents' awareness of early developmental signs and increases their vigilance in noticing any unusual indicators. If not addressed, these could potentially lead to disabilities later on.
It contributes to training families and parents to observe and follow up their children, reduce the developmental gap between the child's chronological age and his developmental age, by transferring them to nearby early intervention units, to provide supportive and educational treatment services quickly to avoid any deterioration in their cases, and this would also achieve a long-term impact, and open opportunities for children to enrol into public education, and continue their educational journey alongside their peers after the early intervention stage, leading to their social inclusion. effectively.
The first phase of the transformational project (Emirates Early Intervention Program) began in December 2023, by reviewing and benefiting from the best international practices in the field of early intervention, and then conducting field surveys on children in kindergartens and nurseries, in order to early detect cases of developmentally delayed, and this coincided with the recruitment and appointment of specialised human resources in the same field, in addition to installing equipment's at the two early intervention units in Dibba Al-Fujairah and Ajman, to also serve children in the emirates of Sharjah and um Al Quwain.
The programme achieved an important impact on the progress of children's cases, by developing their developmental skills, preventing them from deterioration so as not to reach the stage of disability, and opening opportunities for their enrolment in inclusive education later, as an individual plan was formulated for each child enrolled in Ajman and Dibba Al Fujairah units. The number of beneficiaries reached (91) children since the beginning of 2024 until now.
Since its establishment, the Emirates Early Intervention Program provided services to three main categories of children under the age of 6 years, namely (people with disabilities, developmental delays, and those at risk of developmental delay) in addition to their families, through the Early Intervention Center in Dubai, and early intervention units in Ras Al Khaimah and Fujairah.
The programme provided its services to (1398) children and their families from 2015 until July 2024, and the programme's team was able to conduct field development surveys on (7102) cases. of children in the same period.
Source: Emirates News Agency