Pre-schools see sharp rise in children with developmental delays
Flanders has seen an increase of more than 20 per cent in the number of pre-school children with developmental delays, Het Laatste Nieuws reports on Wednesday.
More children are being enrolled in type 2 special education, which is intended for children with an intellectual disability. In the current school year, 1,336 pre-school children are enrolled, up from 1,253 last year and 1,095 the previous year, an increase of 22 per cent in two years.
In primary education, the number has grown by almost 10 per cent in the same period, from 4,090 to 4,471 children. However, the increase does not necessarily mean there are more children with intellectual disabilities.
“Particularly in kindergartens, they are seeing many more children who are developmentally delayed. I constantly hear our people saying that something is going on,” says Stefan Grielens, director of the Vrije CLB network of pupil support centres.
"Babies couldn’t go to childcare or nursery for a while, and some may have fallen behind in their development as a result"
“Normally, the group of children with intellectual disabilities is stable,” he said. “Besides, we aren’t seeing other disabilities increasing, which makes it quite unlikely, for example, that this could be due to women becoming mothers later in life.”
Grielens does not rule out the increase being a consequence of lockdowns and school closures during the pandemic. “Babies couldn’t go to childcare or nursery for a while, and some may have fallen behind in their development as a result,” he says.
“That’s only a hypothesis. But if they were effectively delayed because of the isolation they experienced, they will also be able to catch up with that delay.”
Education minister Ben Weyts, of Flemish nationalist party N-VA, has commissioned a study into the causes of the increase. Sara Nijs, professor at KU Leuven, will start the research on 1 April, with colleagues from UAntwerp and UC Leuven-Limburg.
“We hope to gain sufficient insights into the factors that may explain this increase, to eventually provide an answer to the challenges posed by the rise,” she said.
#FlandersNewsService | File photo © BELGA PHOTO JAMES ARTHUR GEKIERE
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