Govt planning network for early detection of special-needs children
Still image taken from video of Minister for Social and Family Development Tan Chuan-Jin speaking at the COS 2017, March 8, 2017.
SINGAPORE — A network of touchpoints across the health and pre-school sectors will be developed over the next few years, so that signs of delay in a child’s development can be caught earlier, and support be provided in a timely manner.
The Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF) is also studying the feasibility of an “inclusive pre-school model”, where children with special needs will attend pre-school with other children.
The pool of educators who can provide such targeted intervention will also be expanded, it said yesterday.
Early intervention will remain a key area of focus for children with developmental needs, so that they can be supported in realising their potential, said Minister for Social and Family Development Tan Chuan-Jin during the debate on the MSF’s budget in Parliament yesterday. He was responding to the recommendations in the Third Enabling Masterplan for persons with disabilities.
The touchpoints are places frequented by children and include personnel in the health and pre-school sectors, including doctors and family medicine practitioners, as well as pre-school teachers.
Together with the Ministry of Health, these personnel will be better trained to pick up signs of developmental delay.
On the possibility of an inclusive pre-school model, the MSF noted that such a school will allow children with special needs to interact with peers who have developed more quickly than them.
This will help such children develop age-appropriate social, communication, motor and cognitive skills, while their peers would learn to understand and accept the differences of those with special needs, said the ministry.
However, such a model will need learning-support educators and early-intervention teachers to provide targeted intervention, and guide teachers in integrating all children through learning, play and other classroom activities.
Currently, Kindle Garden at Lengkok Bahru is said to be the first inclusive pre-school here.
Other initiatives to strengthen the support for persons with disabilities and their families include expanding the pilot school-to-work transition programme to help more special-needs students move on to the workplace.
Piloted in 2014, the programme will aim to support 60 work-capable students a year by 2019, up from the 30-odd last year. Together with the Ministry of Education and SG Enable, students with higher support needs will be supported by the programme as well.
On the caregiver front, the Disability Caregiver Support Centre will be set up next year to provide information, planned respite, training and links to peer groups support and other relevant agencies.
During the debate yesterday, Member of Parliament Denise Phua (Jalan Besar GRC), in reference to the Third Enabling Masterplan, called for the setting up of a “roll-out committee” to provide inputs, track and report on the plan’s progress.
She also suggested that key disability groups develop their own plans to identify those needs with higher priority, and called for a review of the school-to-work transition scheme so that it will provide students with greater continuity after they graduate.
