THE RIGHT TO EDUCATION FOR CHILDREN WITH LEARNING DISABILITIES – FOCUSING ON PRIMARY EDUCATION 56 Panel 4: Education for CWLD: What Matters by Mrs Dharshini Ganeson, Parent Support Group. 15. Ms. Dharshini shared her experiences in raising her 22 years old dyspraxia58 daughter. Miss Preeya Nanthini is a special individual as she was diagnosed as dyspraxia, by her speech therapist, Ms. Ragbir Kaur in 2000, when she was ten years old. During her childhood, she attended private schools and developed high social skills but low academic skills due to her dyspraxia. 16. She later told the audiences that a private doctor diagnosed her child with delayed development. However, until the age of 5, Nandini’s progress was still slow. The parents noticed Nandhini’s weaknesses when researching her symptoms over the Internet. 17. She highlighted the difficulties that she faced in finding aid for her daughter: • No comprehensive information on learning disabilities in Malaysia. • The screening/test to detect learning disabilities was limited in Malaysia and hence she had to take her daughter to Singapore to do so. • In the early years, the assistance and services for children with learning disabilities were unknown and almost non-existence, except for several NGOs which were working on the matter. • Expensive fee for treatment (speech therapy, occupancy therapy, etc). • She flagged the main weakness of the Disability Act (PWD Act 2008) which is the lack of enforcement power. PLENARY SESSION II OVERCOMING THE STIGMA: ROLES OF LAWS, POLICIES AND BEST PRACTICES Panel 5: Prioritizing Primary Education for CWLD: Policies & their Implementations by Mr. Mad Kassim Abdul Malek, Head of Policy Unit, Special Education Department, Ministry of Education 18. Mr. Mad Kassim highlighted the efforts taken in order to improve the accessibility of education to children with learning disabilities including the current initiatives to amend the Education (Special Education) Regulations 1997; and to improve and upgrade the special education module and facilities in schools. Individuals with dyspraxia often have language problems, and sometimes a degree of difficulty with thought and perception. Dyspraxia, however, does not affect the person’s intelligence, although it can cause learning problems in children. Developmental dyspraxia is an immaturity of the organization of movement. The brain does not process information in a way that allows for a full transmission of neural messages. A person with dyspraxia finds it difficult to plan what to do, and how to do it. Source: http:// www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/151951.php. 58