The Early Childhood Commission (ECC) has embarked on a legacy project to establish special needs rooms in select early childhood institutions (ECIs) across Jamaica.
Chair of the ECC, Trisha Williams-Singh, said the aim is one or two per parish within government-operated infant departments.
“We have to move away from what exists now. How do you tell a person in Manchester, St Elizabeth or Clarendon, that for me to help your child, you have to journey all the way to Kingston and St Andrew,” she said, in reference to the Early Stimulation Programme (ESP).
The ESP, managed by the Ministry of Labour and Social Security, is an early intervention programme for children six years and younger, with various types of developmental disabilities.
The programme operates from four centres, two in the Kingston and St Andrew Metropolitan Area, one in Portland and one in St James.
“At Jamaica China Goodwill Infant School I, we have established, through partnership with Digicel Foundation, a room that deals specifically with special needs, and that's what we have embarked on with different partners where part of our legacy project at the Early Childhood Commission is to find institutions across Jamaica that we’re able to implement a special needs component within their school operation,” she said.
She explained that the dedicated rooms will also require specifically trained personnel to work with the students as well as sensory toys and tools.
“If in each parish we are able to have one or two institutions that offer special needs development, then guess what? Jamaica becomes beyond unstoppable,” Williams-Singh said.
