Office of the Prime Minister

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Prime Minister, Portia Simpson-Miller, has applauded the Early Childhood Commission (ECC) for spearheading the process for developing appropriate screening, referral and early intervention services for children with learning and developmental disabilities.

Mrs. Simpson Miller, in a speech delivered by State Minister for Tourism, Entertainment and Culture, Dr. Wykeham McNeil, at the opening of the regional conference on 'Screening, Referral and Early Intervention,' for children at the early childhood level yesterday (June 20) at the Jamaica Grande Hotel in Ocho Rios, noted that the ECC was moving in the right direction in ensuring the structured development of the early childhood sector and the conference was a testimony in that fact.

She further noted that the Commission's focus on children, who have special needs was most appropriate, as it would serve to enhance the development of children, who were often marginalized and even excluded from the mainstream education system, as a result of learning or development disorders.

"This conference, I expect, will come to be recognized in the years ahead as a landmark one for screening and referral services in Jamaica and the wider Caribbean," she noted.

"I must congratulate the Early Childhood Commission for its foresight in hosting this conference and I fully endorse this thrust by the Commission to forge the path for the development of an appropriate screening system to detect and treat behavioural and developmental disorders in young children," she added.

In this regard, the Prime Minister stated the government's commitment to working with the ECC and other stakeholders, to improve the early childhood sector, noting that public policies would have to support the problems that existed, if significant improvements were to be seen.

In the meanwhile, the Prime Minister has charged the ECC to ensure that the recommendations, which emerge from the deliberations at the conference, would be treated with urgency, in an effort to ensure that appropriate solutions for children with learning disorders could be implemented as soon as possible.

"Intervention becomes more costly and less effective with the passage of time and that is why we have to act early and decisively," she emphasized.

She noted further that, "the first three years of life are absolutely critical.as the first symptoms of most behavioural and developmental disorders are identifiable within the first three year".

"It is therefore during that period that we must start the screening and intervention processes.too many of our children are being diagnosed when they are eight or nine with disorders they have had since birth, by this time, it is often too late to offer them treatment that has any meaningful impact," she added.

The Prime Minister further pointed out that the development of an appropriate early intervention system would not only impact positively on children at that level, but on the society as a whole for both present and future generations.

The three-day conference, which is being held under the theme: 'Securing Our Children's Future: Early Detection for Optimal Development' is funded by the ECC, the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF), the Ministry of Education and Youth and the National Health Fund.

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