Call for professionals in early childhood services

Eight fellows from UAE train under Yale University’s Edward Zigler Centre

by

Olivia Olarte-Ulherr

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Published: Thu 9 Jan 2014, 11:28 PM

Last updated: Fri 3 Apr 2015, 5:26 PM

Dr Nancy Close holding an Early Childhood Development workshop for parents in Abu Dhabi. — Supplied photo

Early childhood development is a fairly new concept here and for the eight fellows currently enrolled in the programme — seven of whom are Emiratis — this is an opportunity to apply what they are learning to improve early childhood services in the country.

“Early childhood development (ECD) is a much younger field here, but a growing field with lots and lots of potential,” said Dr Nancy Close, associate director at Yale Programme in Early Childhood Education at the Yale University’s Edward Zigler Centre. According to her, ECD is a multi-disciplinary field that includes paediatrics, psychology, nursing, semi-medicine, early childhood education practitioners, social workers and those involved in the development of children between zero and five years.

“There are some areas (here) where there needs to be more professionals, such as in developmental assessment. There needs to be more people to provide intervention in children and people to support parents with children with autism,” she told Khaleej Times.

In an endeavour to develop these services and build leaders in the field of ECD, the Salama bint Hamdan Al Nahyan Foundation selected eight fellows to train under the Yale University’s Edward Zigler Centre. The two-year programme, initially planned for only a year, will see participants carry out projects that would raise awareness on the importance of early years and on high quality childhood education.

The first batch, which started its fellowship class in October, includes five physicians — two family practitioners and three paediatricians — and three from the field of education.

Dr Fayza Saif, a family physician with the Ambulatory Health Services (AHS), related the importance of putting into practice what she learnt.

For her project, she plans to create colourful and attractive posters that showed different developmental milestones of children of different ages, to be displayed in areas where parents spend time with their children, such as, waiting areas in clinics and play areas in malls. For Dr Sara Al Suwaidi, who works at the curriculum division, KG-Grade 5 English medium, at the Abu Dhabi Education Council (Adec), promoting an emotionally literate classroom is another way forward.

“The concept is here. We just need to train people more to make it effective,” she pointed out. The fellowship programme also includes participating at child development conferences in the US, distance learning and video conferencing with the faculties at Yale University.

olivia@khaleejtimes.com


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