KUWAIT CITY, Jan 23: The Kuwait Association for Learning Differences (KALD) announced at a press conference co-organized by the UNDP Wednesday the launch of the second International Conference on Individuals with Learning Disabilities and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Difficulties (LD/ADHD). The two-day conference scheduled for Feb 1-2, 2013 will take place at the American University of Kuwait (AUK) with a clear focus this time around on “Assessment and Intervention”.

The press conference outlined the objectives and importance of the event as well as topics to be discussed. KALD Chairperson and President of the conference Amal Al-Sayer outlined the objectives of the conference to include the provision of parents with information to better understand their children’s needs and deal with them in a positive and constructive manner. The event also aims to update academic specialists on the latest developments in the field of learning difficulties as well as help develop the skills of psychologists and other front-line professionals working with people with learning disorders.

The conference, continued Al-Sayer, is evidence of her organization’s belief in the importance of the coordination with different organizations and governmental entities to achieve their common goal of solving society’s problems, especially educational handicaps and learning difficulties.

For his part, the UNDP Deputy regional representative Stein Hanson in a statement read on his behalf said his organization is proud to be in collaboration with KALD in this endeavor for the second consecutive year. “The first conference held in late 2011 had an amazing outcome by helping to educate the community about learning difficulties”, he said.

Regarding the nature of the upcoming conference coordinator and KALD Educational consultant Dr Huda Sha’aban stated that the upcoming conference is going to be based on the successes of the previous one and much more specialized. It will come in two strands with one addressing the specialists and evaluation process while the second deals with teachers and teaching strategies.
There’d be twelve lectures with simultaneous translations in Arabic and English, forty-four workshops, twenty-four in English and twenty in Arabic. There’d also be four new research panels as well as four discussion panels all under the supervision of the sixty- five local and international experts who will be sharing their knowledge and expertise with attendees through the lectures, workshops and discussion panels. Among the international experts expected to attend, six are going to be coming from the United Kingdom and United States with thirty five drawn from the GCC region as well as Non- governmental organizations (NGOs) from different parts of the Arab world.

Regarding progress on the ground, Dr Sha’aban said KALD has been in existence for 17 years now and with just the first conference the awareness level has been tremendous. She stated that while there is no specific study on the prevalence rate of ADHD in Kuwait, the worldwide prevalence rate stands at between 7% and 12%.

Dr Sha’aban also said among the key co-organizers of the conference with KALD since the first one were Fawzia Sultan Educational Center (FAWSEC) and the Middle East Psychological Association-MEPA. She added that psychological centers and educational organizations will be given the chance to provide information to attendees about their services through an exhibition that will be held in the public hall in conjunction with the conference.

MEPA’s primary aim is to connect professionals with the wider community in Kuwait not only for oversight and support but also to help the community to understand what resources are available. Getting involved in the conference, says Dr Susannah Schullenberg the Clinical director and supervising psychologist at MEPA, has been a huge thing because it’s the psychologists who are in the front line in terms of diagnosis and assessment with learning disorders, behavior disorders and learning disabilities.

In supporting the conference, Dr Schullenberg said MEPA has been able to raise the profile of psychology in Kuwait which she insists is very important because of its frontline nature when it comes to dealing with learning disabilities and difficulties.

For Dr Schullenberg the most important thing to her is the participation of local personnel in that when the conference is over and all the foreign participants leave, parents and teachers will now know who are available locally to turn to for assistance. For us it’s really exciting to get involved, she added.