Update on Plans for Training of Educators for Children with Special Needs in Pre-schools

Ms Joan Pereira asked the Minister for Social and Family Development whether there are any plans to progressively train educators who are able to care for and teach children with special needs and place such educators in all pre-schools.

The Early Childhood Development Agency (ECDA) is committed to ensuring that children with developmental needs enrolled in preschools are meaningfully engaged and supported. ECDA has therefore embarked on initiatives to enhance the skills and competencies of educators in preschools.

ECDA works with the National Institute of Early Childhood Development (NIEC) and other training providers to incorporate inclusive practice into the curriculum of early childhood pre-service training courses and Continuing Professional Development (CPD) courses for in-service EC educators.

Within preschools, children requiring low to medium levels of early intervention (EI) support are also supported via the Development Support – Learning Support (DS-LS) programmes and Inclusive Support Programme (InSP). ECDA has plans to expand the DS-LS to cover 80% of preschoolers aged five to six and scale up the InSP to more preschools. These programmes are delivered at these preschools by a multi-disciplinary team of EI professionals, such as the Learning Support (LS) educators and EI educators as well as Allied Health Professionals.

To enhance capabilities of LS and EI educators, NIEC offers Specialist Diploma programmes to train the educators in administering screening tools and methods of support.