By Jorge Luna
Georgetown, Feb 16 (Prensa Latina) A centre to treat Caribbean children with special educational needs associated with disabilities will be inaugurated here in March, announced today the coordinator for the Centre, Cuban professor Jorge Duvalón.
When Interviewed by Prensa Latina, the university professor emphasized the methodological conception of the centre that includes a psychopedagogical approach for the educational, social and labour inclusion of the patients.
He said that the first of five stages is currently being developed, which is dedicated to making a diagnosis of the disabilities of children and young people in Guyana and the other 14 countries members of the Caribbean Community (Caricom).
That diagnosis includes the current care provided to them in the region and the educational situation in those territories.
Recent statistics indicate that in Guyana, with an estimated population of 700 thousand people, 6.3 percent has special educational needs and the other Caricom countries have similar figures.
That subregional integration body, whose leaders will hold today and tomorrow a summit on various economic and political issues, considers attention to disability a high priority.
Duvalón heads a team of Cuban specialists (psychopedagogist, psychometrist, psychotherapist, pedagogue, speech therapist, psychologist and rehabilitator) who will train Guyanese technicians in the coming weeks.
He said that in the future, these technicians will provide language therapy, occupational therapy, psychotherapy, psychology and psycho-pedagogical treatment services, and they will provide counseling to teachers and children’s relatives as well as.
The specialists of the Centre for the Stimulation of Development in Children, Adolescents and Young people will render health care to children who are deaf, blind, autistic, mentally retarded or with behavioral, language and communication problems.
Duvalón added that the ministries of Health, Education and Social Protection and the Commission on Disabilities of Guyana, as well as the member countries of Caricom will contribute to this process.