Olcay B. Connor
There has been a remarkable improvement in Qatar regarding the awareness of special needs children, and the country has done a lot over the years to cater to their needs in every aspect through several innovative methods, Olcay B. Connor, Principal of Step By Step Centre for Special Needs, has said.
Step By Step Centre for Special Needs provides specialised academic learning and therapeutic intervention plans for children aged 3 to 20 who have special educational needs.
Speaking on the sidelines of a community awareness activity recently, Connor said many previously associated autism with physical disability.
“They don’t even know that it actually has nothing to do with physical deformation or anything like that. But now, many have come to realise that a lot of autistic children are actually cognitively very able and capable of doing so much, and many of them are very talented in different areas as well,” she noted.
Connor said that thanks to the efforts of the authorities and corporate bodies, children with special needs in Qatar have been receiving the attention they need and are enjoying everyday life while contributing their quota to the development of the society.
The educationist said that one of the major goals of her centre is transitioning children with special needs into mainstream schools after studying at the center.
“Once they come in here, we focus on improving them by setting up individual plans to improve their skill sets so that they’re ready to be mainstreamed as soon as possible.
"We treat each student uniquely while giving them the needed attention, and we’ve had remarkable success with this over the years with many of our previous students graduating from mainstream schools while some are currently enrolled in many of them,” said Connor, whose centre provides a vocational programme for children above the age of 12 aside from the early intervention and comprehensive learning programme for children aged 6 to 12 and the full-time individualised programmes.
She emphasised the importance of early intervention for children with special needs transitioning into mainstream schools.
“The earlier there’s intervention, support, and therapy provided, the quicker they see the results, and then the quicker the improvement we see. Obviously, a child who received intervention between the ages of 3 and 6 is more likely than a child or young person who is 14 years old to transition into a mainstream school. It is going to be much more difficult to teach skills and change certain behaviours at certain ages. Though it can be done, however, it is much easier in the early years. So, these are the optimum years for children to learn the skill sets and improve and balance this process at the same time,” Connor said.
Speaking about the future plans for Step By Step, Connor said they plan to put more emphasis on the early intervention program by helping not just the children but training the parents as well on how to best handle their children.
“We are already part of a programme called Early Bird. This is a free-of-charge parent training programme by the National Autistic Society in the UK, which is being run by PHCC in Qatar,” she said.
