Call for custom-made tools to identify learning disabilities in UAE

Dubai: Custom-made tools that are culturally appropriate and linguistically sensitive to identify children with learning disabilities need to be developed in the UAE, an expert has said.

Dr Gad Al Beheri, executive director of the Centre for Child Evaluation and Teaching, Kuwait, on Wednesday said there should be a culturally-fair assessment approach for Arabic-English bilingual children with learning disabilities.

"Research tells us that though the general framework like the symptoms and manifestations of a learning disability like dyslexia for example, are similar for an English native-speaking student and Arabic-speaking student, a lot of manifestations are based on the environment [in which] the child lives.

"One of the most important factors of the environment is language," Al Beheri said as he spoke at the third GCC Learning and Disability Conference.

He added that the tests to identify learning disabilities and the tools of intervention to help children with such disabilities should be culturally appropriate and linguistically sensitive.

"The tests must take into account children's educational set up, cultural settings and the scope and sequence of what the child learns," said Al Beheri.

Pointing to the evaluation systems and intervention programmes developed recently in Kuwait, the expert called for investment in the field to develop a custom-made programme suitable for bilingual students in the country. He also said the lack of resources was hampering a complete assessment.

The two-day conference, ‘Bridging the gap between research and practice' was attended by over 400 delegates including researchers, literacy educators, correctional specialists, learning disability specialists, principals and teachers.

Making connections

Dr Louise Wilson, Associate Professor at US-based Bethel University, talked about learning and the brain, highlighting how children made connections with new information, how information is stored, the effects of enriched environments and the creation of brain-compatible classroom environments.

Dr Susan Rose, Associate Professor and coordinator of Special Education programmes spoke about early identification and intervention strategies for students who are labelled LD (learning disabled). The conference will end on Thursday.