- Andrew Smith/Photography Editor
From left, Grace Duncan, executive director of the Jamaica Association on Mental Retardation, and Mary Dixon, head, Special Education Department, Mico University College.

Gareth Manning, Sunday Gleaner Reporter

Special educators worry that the incidence of intellectual disabilities among children could be increasing. While there is no researched evidence, the executive director of the Jamaica Association on Mental Retardation, Grace Duncan, says disabilities such as autism could be rising.

Autism is a complex neurological disorder that affects how the affected person interacts with others. It normally appears in the first three years of life.

Duncan says, however, that while there is no concrete evidence that learning deficiencies are increasing, what is really increasing is the demand for placement in special education institutions. But, Duncan notes, there is not enough space to accommodate everyone, forcing a large sum to remain in the mainstream system.

Head of the Special Education Department at the Mico University College, Mary Dixon, suggests part of the problem is created by the inability of some teachers and administrators in mainstream schools to identify learning difficulties in children and to deal with them.

"In ... schools where principals are welcoming, it works like a charm and they all work together and the child benefits as a result," relates Dixon. She points out that in other schools, adminis-trators are reluctant to provide special resources to intellectually- disabled children.

She adds that the poor teacher-student ratio in many schools helps to complicate the problem because it makes it harder for the teacher to interact with each child. Hence, the teacher misses important signs that may indicate the child is having a problem.

Says Dixon: "When you have 44 children in a grade one class, the teacher cannot pay attention and the child who sits in the corner and doesn't create any problems, the teacher says: 'Thank God for that one.' But that might be the one who needs more help than the one kicking over the chair and they tend to be overlooked."

Learning disabilities

Substantiating that point, Christine Rodriguez, principal of the Randolph Lopez School of Hope in St. Andrew, opines that the most competent teachers should be put in the classrooms in the early stages of learning so they can identify and help curb early signs of learning disabilities. She adds that support staff, particularly clinical psychologists, also need to be put in place to help the teacher to nip the problem.

She is advocating that more money be put in the system to plaster the cracks.

Currently, there are very few strategies the Ministry of Education employs to problems identify learning problems early in children, but it hopes to make several changes through the Education Transformation Programme, though it is not the primary focus of the $5 billion programme. The Education Ministry is moving in the direction of implementing systems to monitor children as they develop and increase the number of special education institutions, according to Hickswell Douglas, education officer in the Special Education Unit at the ministry.

A study is currently being conducted in tandem with the University of the West Indies to identify children in the education system with learning difficulties. The study is set to be completed by early 2007.