Ramadan session with the participation of parents and specialists
The Ajad Center of Sharjah City for Humanitarian Services organized a virtual Ramadan session entitled (There is a Child with Disability in our House). A number of parents and specialists attended it. During the session, they talked about indicators through which parents can sense the signs of danger to children. This requires intervention and discovering disability cases and thus reducing their effects and reducing these risks.
Speaking in the session moderated by Mr. Rami Magdy, Speech Specialist and Director of the Therapeutic Center, Mr. Mohamed Fawzi, Director of the Early Intervention Center, and Dr. Samia Mohamed Saleh, Director of Al-Wafa School for Capacity Development. The stages and risks through which disability cases can be discovered and thus contribute to reducing these risks were indicated.
Speakers divided stages into the pre-pregnancy stage (planning for childbearing and the importance of some tests and indicators that negatively affect the success of the childbearing process). Then, the stage of pregnancy and the important indicators that the pregnant mother should avoid. In addition to the periodic examinations that will enhance the concept of a healthy pregnancy.
As for the third stage, it is the stage after birth and the initial indicators related to the child's chronological age and the extent of its relationship to the presence of signs of disability or delay in development and ways to act in the event of danger indicators.
Mohamed Fawzi talked about early intervention as a system to provide support and enhance the competence of the family and caregivers of children to help them develop their skills and actively engage in society.
Muhammad also spoke about the types of support provided to families from the city. It includes its own empowerment systems as well as concepts of supporting the issue of disability and psychological, material, emotional and social support. The work team should be supportive and empowering for the family. It is important for the institution to be a source of information in addition to the importance of professional friendship between the work team and the family and the importance of promoting the concepts of motherhood and fatherhood.
For her part, Dr. Samia Mohamed Saleh explained the existence of a set of tools, tests and measures by which the work team confirm the existence of disability after identifying the indicators collected by families. Then providing recommendations for appropriate services for the child.
Saleh talked about hidden disabilities such as learning difficulties, autism. The reason for this is the stereotypical view of disability in relation to its severity, which leads to the failure of discovering the problem early and thus a delay in providing appropriate services.
The director of Al-Wafa School for Capacity Development indicated the services provided to children individually according to the evaluation results and the needs of the child because every child needs services that differ from others. Then she talked about the most successful methods used in dealing with children, the most important of which is dealing with the child in the first place as a child, then disability comes after that, respecting individual differences, discovering children's abilities and respecting them, no matter how simple, and then working to develop them through a specialized work team.
She emphasized the importance of the role of siblings of the disabled person in developing his abilities. In addition to the importance of accepting their disabled brother, especially in an early age stage.
The session witnessed a discussion on empowering families and providing them with skills and strategies that enable them to deal with children without their members being specialized.
In conclusion, they talked about the means of financial support, how families can obtain aid and exemptions, and ways to pay the total fees for those exempted.