McCam Child Care & Development Cen The

Description:

The McCam Centre was opened in 1986 to respond to the need for educational programming for children with a range of special needs. The composition of the student population is targeted for mainstreaming or integrating children so that they have the benefit of each other’s skills. As the children work and play together they become aware of and sensitive to each other’s needs.

When established McCam provided a nursery and preschool programme to serve the needs of all children, including those with special needs between the ages of six months to six years, in an integrated environment. Its services have grown over the years to include educational assessment, therapeutic intervention, parent group counselling and professional training. In September 1987, the Unit for the Total Development of Special Needs Children (UTDSC) was opened under the umbrella of the McCam Centre as a non- profit organization with a focus on those children with special needs in the programme. The UTDSC is governed by a Board of Directors whose policies are directed towards offering this programme to a wide cross section of children.

Mission Statement

The McCam Centre is guided by its commitment to excellence.

To provide an integrated environment based on development levels for the entire range of children whether they are developmentally gifted or delayed.

To provide a community that promotes the recognition and acceptance of the similarities and the differences among us.

To changing attitudes and social structures which serve as barriers to children that are viewed as different in the wider community. To the growth and development of its staff who sees the centre’s philosophy as part of themselves.

To gaining of ourselves the little extra needed to help each child reach their maximum potential.

Objectives

To provide individualistic educational programmes in small groups within an integrated setting.

To provide therapeutic intervention directly and indirectly.

To develop a curriculum of systematic instruction based on normal development patterns for children in Jamaica.

To increase the knowledge of teachers and caregivers of children with special needs annually through workshops and seminars.

To encourage the implementation of mainstreaming strategies into the regular school system so that integration can continue for these children beyond six years.

To promote consultation for those schools which have implemented some degree of integration.