Maryam Al Hammadi, director of the Department of Determination in the Community Development Authority in Dubai, told «Emirates Today» that the specialized team in the Authority has personized six new cases of children of determination, during the movement restriction system last April, as part of the precautionary measures to combat the emerging corona virus (Covid-19), adding that joining the new cases has increased the number of those registered with the authority's Dubai Center for Child Development, which is specialized in treating and rehabilitating children from an early age, to 56 children.
Al-Hammadi added that the conditions of quarantine, and the need to implement strict preventive and precautionary measures, made dealing with new cases extremely difficult, due to the exposure of their families to two shocks at the same time, the shock of discovering and confirming the state of disability among their children on the one hand, and the shock of the obligation to accept the disability of their children and deal with them during a health crisis Global, it has thrown unprecedented burdens and psychological and life pressures on individuals and societies.
She emphasized that the team succeeded in dealing with the families of the children and training them to help their children, and in implementing the treatment plans required for each case according to the type and severity of the disability, pointing out that the cases included three children with "autism spectrum", two cases with "Down syndrome", and the sixth case "disability" Multiple ».
She drew attention to providing psychological and moral support to the families of children, which was a condition for achieving the success of any treatment plan they needed.
Al Hammadi added that «the treatment at the Dubai Center for the Development of the Child’s Development is based on an early intervention system from a social perspective, which sees that the child of determination is part of a larger system than it, and that it is responsible towards it because it is part of it. The system consists of various elements that include the family, the environment, the neighborhood, the region and the school, and they are all responsible for playing the role required of them towards the child.
Al-Hammadi explained that any child in the center is treated according to a plan, which is set and defined according to information about his condition, collected during two major evaluation sessions: the first in the center, and the second at home, in addition to the data contained in other diagnostic reports approved by the competent authorities, which It was a greater challenge for families of new cases, during the Corona crisis.
She drew attention to the absence of a waiting list in the center for cases of children to be treated and rehabilitated, as the authority follows a method in dealing with cases, ensuring that treatment begins without delay through coordination with the competent authorities and centers, to apply the treatment plan, in the event that the center is unable to receive it, due to the lack of availability Time with therapists.
Social model
Dubai Child Development Center implements an early intervention program that provides rehabilitation services based on the social model in cooperation with various institutions in society to ensure that children of determination from birth until the age of six years of age reach comprehensive and integrated intervention services that include empowering and training the family to be a key and central component in Child’s life to support him in reaching his full potential.
The center’s programs focus on the natural environment, as a framework for intervention and development of children's developmental skills, which guarantees social and educational inclusion for children.