Ministry of Community Development completes implementation of transformation project "Emirates Early Intervention Program"
Dubai, 5th August, 2018 (WAM) — The Ministry of Community Development has completed the implementation of the transformational project “Emirates Early Intervention Programme”, which aims to detect children with developmental delays and those at risk of them early, by expanding the scope of its services to include the Emirate of Ajman and the Dibba Al Fujairah region, where the process of equipping and operating the two early intervention units was completed by the end of last July.
The “Emirates Early Intervention Program” project, which is part of the performance agreements of federal government agencies for the year 2023-2024, supports the UAE government’s efforts to accelerate the achievement of the goals of “making the Emirati society the most prosperous in the next ten years” and to enhance the “We the Emirates 2031” vision, which requires qualitative and doubled efforts that contribute to achieving government aspirations and have a positive impact on society and various sectors of the country.
The project is a translation of the vision of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of the State, may God protect him, and the directives of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the State and Ruler of Dubai, may God protect him, with the aim of developing government work, enhancing its achievements and outputs, keeping pace with the efforts being made during the first decade of the journey to achieve the ten principles of the state in the new fifty, and keeping pace with global changes that require the use of the latest technological means to accelerate achievements and determine priorities in designing transformational projects that have a direct impact on society and enhance the UAE’s global position.
The Emirates Early Intervention Program is proactive and will have a significant societal impact in the various emirates and regions where its services have expanded, as early detection of children with developmental delays helps raise awareness among families about early developmental signs in children and increases awareness of any abnormal signs that may later lead to disability if not addressed.
The programme contributes to training families and guardians to observe and follow up on their children and reduce the developmental gap between the child’s chronological age and his developmental age by referring them to nearby early intervention units to provide supportive and educational therapeutic services quickly to avoid any deterioration in their conditions.
This will have a far-reaching impact and provide opportunities for children to enrol in public education and continue their educational journey alongside their peers after the early intervention phase, leading to their effective social integration.
The first phase of the transformational project, the “Emirates Early Intervention Programme”, was launched in December 2023, by reviewing and benefiting from the best international practices in the field of early intervention, and then conducting field surveys on children in kindergartens and nurseries in order to detect developmentally delayed cases early. This coincided with attracting and appointing specialized cadres in the field, in addition to starting to equip the early intervention units in Dibba Al Fujairah and Ajman, which also provide their services to children in the emirates of Sharjah and Umm Al Quwain.
The programme has had a significant impact on the progress of children’s cases by developing their developmental skills and preventing them from deteriorating so that they do not reach the stage of disability and providing opportunities for them to join inclusive education later by formulating an individual plan for each child enrolled in the Ajman and Dibba Al Fujairah units, which have benefited 91 children since the beginning of 2024 until now.
Since its establishment, the Emirates Early Intervention Program has been providing services to three main categories of children under the age of 6 years: those with disabilities, developmental delays, and those at risk of developmental delays, in addition to their families, through the Early Intervention Center in Dubai and the Early Intervention Units in Ras Al Khaimah and Fujairah.
The programme provided its services to 1,398 children and their families from 2015 to July 2024, while its team was able to conduct field development surveys on 7,102 children during the same period.
