(Roots and Bridges) Center’s celebration on Early Intervention Week
On Sunday, November 22, 2020, the activities of the Early Intervention Week organized by the Early Intervention Center of Sharjah City for Humanitarian Services, until November 26, 2020 Under the theme (Roots and Bridges), were launched today. This coincides with the annual celebration of the official opening of the center as the first center of its kind in the region on November 26, 1994.
The activities of the week
Within the framework of the week, and with the participation of a group of academics and specialists in the Arab world, the center will organize on 26 November 2020 a virtual forum on early intervention (work team). It aims at highlighting the importance of teamwork in early intervention programs and reviewing the most important features that must be available to reach success.
The working papers will also deal with the most important scientific experiments and research in the field of the work team and its impact on the services provided to people with disabilities and those with developmental delay for young age groups in institutions operating and researching in this field.
The week will include remotely virtual discussion sessions on early intervention between the present and the future targeting the families of beneficiaries of the center's services in SCHS branch of Khorfakhan and a lecture in SCHS branch in Kallba on organizing the classroom environment for Sharjah Council nursery teachers.
During the Early Intervention Week (Roots and Bridges), many awareness-raising videos will be broadcasted on social media, through which they introduce the various services provided by the center to children with disabilities and their parents.
The activities also include answering families' inquiries by center's specialists, the individual counseling program, a lecture (effective communication), informative videos about occupational therapy, the natural environment, daily routines, speech, language, and organizing the classroom environment.
The challenge of # roots_ and bridges
The challenge of # roots_ and bridges is a (hashtag) launched by the center through which it allows parents and specialists to publish a picture or video clip or record a word about their memories with the Early Intervention Center and its role in paving the bridges of their future. They can publish this clip on various social media sites, under the (hashtag) “# roots_ and bridges”
Early Intervention Center
The official launch of the Early Intervention Center took place when His Highness Sheikh Dr. Sultan bin Muhammad Al Qasimi, Member of the Supreme Council, Ruler of Sharjah and the late Prince Talal bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, former president of the Arab Gulf Program for Supporting United Nations Development Organizations, commenced it on (Saturday 26) November 1994.
With the aim of:
Establishing a specialized center for children with disabilities from birth to five years of age, in addition to establishing an information and resource center for prevention and early intervention, training specialized national and Gulf cadres, working on developing measurement and diagnostic tools, and intensifying means of raising awareness in society.
Center's Philosophy
The establishment of the center was based on the keenness of Sharjah City for Humanitarian Services, which was established in 1979, to make vigorous efforts to expand the base of its services, update its programs and develop them. SCHS philosophy is to direct attention to early childhood and translate the concept of early intervention into a bilateral process that includes prevention of disability on one hand, and make efforts to prevent the state of vulnerability from developing into a handicap or a disability on other hand.
Early Intervention Center Services
The center currently offers nine main services involved under each one of them has a range of sub-services. They are:
•Screening, early detection, developmental diagnosis, and educational psycho-educational evaluation
• Family counseling and home training
•. Training and education (special services for enrolled children)
·Supportive therapeutic services، which include (speech and language services, educational and social psychological services, physical and occupational therapy services, Sharjah City Center for Hearing and Assistive Technology services, and nursing services)
. Visual disability programs
•Consultations and follow-ups that include (individual or group consultations, follow-up of children, and transitional plans
• Training and community awareness (training, development and awareness services for employees, specialists and cadres working in the field, university students, community awareness).
•Integration program (academic and social)
oSupportive activities and services (music therapy, sports and leisure activities, artistic activities)
3347 benefited from the center’s services since its inception.
The Early Intervention Center provides its services to children of various disabilities, nationalities and religions coming from various parts of the country and neighboring countries. The services also include children, families and society. The number of beneficiaries of its services since its establishment has reached 3347 benefiting from 50 countries residing in the United Arab Emirates, noting that the numbers and statistics change every day.
The director of the Early Intervention Center confirmed that the annual rate of new beneficiaries of the center’s services is 123 children, most of whom were in the academic year 1999-2000. The number has reached 217 children.
The average number of children annually benefiting from the center’s services was 264 children, while the average number of beneficiaries from the services per year was distributed as follows:
51 children benefit from educational and training classes. 142 families benefit from family counseling services. 62 children benefit from the speech and language service. 14 children with visual impairment benefit from the services of the center.
As for the services of Physical and Occupational Therapy Center, it provides annual services to 380 beneficiaries, while the Sharjah City Hearing Center provides its services annually to 572 beneficiaries.
The center also provided its services to 55 children with rare syndromes.
Training and community awareness.
The Early Intervention Center organizes various workshops for employees inside and outside the country in addition to awareness and educational lectures. It also trains university students from different parts of the country and organizes workshops and training for external cadres. The number of trainees has reached 930, while the center participated in 607 events. The center organized 35 workshops attended by people from 14 Arab countries.
Academic integration
Until to the academic year 2019-2020, the Early Intervention Center integrated 177 children in kindergartens and schools, while ensuring that the center optimally monitors each case.
Screening and early detection
As for the screening and early detection program organized by the center since 2006, it included screening campaigns in schools and kindergartens in the Emirate of Sharjah, where a rapid examination was made on a total of 4,710 children in 37 kindergartens and schools, with suspicion that 17% of them had a delay in their abilities.
In the year 2015, the center expanded the services department by providing early detection of developmental delay for infants. During the past year, 2302 children benefited from it. The center transferred 659 of children to the evaluation program.
Information and knowledge
The center includes a specialized library with more than 1,332 titles, in addition to hundreds of periodicals, educational publications, and brochures.
Awards and honors
Throughout its continuous career, the Early Intervention Center has won many awards and honors, the most important of which are:
•Prize for Excellence in Childhood Service for the year 1997
•Sharjah Award for Excellence in Education in 2004
•The Arab Child Award 2011
•Short stories prize at the Sharjah Reading Festival 2015
•Sheikha Fatima Bint Mubarak Award (Om El Emarat) 2018.