THE Early Stimulation Programme (ESP) has been improving its operations through a technical co-operation project to better assist children with special needs.

The six-month initiative, which began in September 2012, and which is currently funded by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), seeks to provide training for child development officers in five areas.

Director of the ESP Antonica Gunter-Gayle said the intervention of the programme has been extended to the Kingston 12 and 13 areas.

“We are now seeing an additional 52 children with special needs in these areas, and instead of monthly visits, we have officers conducting visits on a weekly basis to stimulate children with special needs,” she said.

Gunter-Gayle noted that there are two components of the ESP, the home-based and centre-based programmes. Both programmes cater to children from birth to six years with challenges such as cerebral palsy, autism, mental retardation, and children with various forms of mental and physical disabilities and multiple disabilities.

She explained that the centre-based programme allows children with special needs to be schooled and given proper intervention in a structured environment.

For the home-based programme, children are visited at their homes and schools by child development officers who are trained in special early childhood care and development.

“The officers take the intervention into the homes of these children or into the communities. We provide additional support, because some of the children are already attending schools, which does not require us to take them out of their learning environment, so the intervention officers try to meet them where they are,” Gunter-Gayle pointed out.

She said the home-based programme currently has a population of 1,212 children, and the centre-based one has 112 children enrolled, which means that more children with special needs are being given the opportunity of reaching their fullest potential.