JEDDAH, 13 May 2004 — With growing awareness and attention given to children suffering from various disorders, a number of public and private facilities have organized seminars addressing the issue.
Dr. Susan Sheridan, an expert on special education for children with special needs, has conducted several workshops and lectures in Riyadh and Jeddah. The latest was a weeklong Effat College seminar which ended yesterday.
Dr. Sheridan focused on learning disabilities, mental retardation, autism and attention deficit disorder as well as developing social skills groups for children with disabilities, non-standardized evaluation techniques and parent training for parents with special children, encouraging a “positive approach to behavior management and parenting.”
With every workshop, Dr. Sheridan says there are more people and more questions. In explaining the different types of disabilities, there are always questions on causes and how to diagnose them both early and correctly.
“What we don’t know about causes is more than we know and it doesn’t account for the number of children diagnosed with disorders,” she explained. “We are discovering more environmental factors as well as how the brain structure plays a role.”
Not so long ago, the only diagnosis was mental retardation but now several kinds of disabilities can be identified which affect the type of approach and treatment.
Dr. Sheridan stressed the important role played by the family in children’s development. “The parents are the child’s first teachers,” she said. By understanding the child’s disability and cooperating with the school and the therapists as a team, the family can create a better environment for the child to grow and handle the disability. “There is no child we can’t help, but we need the family’s involvement,” Dr. Sheridan added.
