MYANMAR and foreign specialists held an advanced training course in Yangon for teachers of intellectually disabled children, a director of the Department of Social Welfare, U Maung Myint, said last month.

The three-week course was attended by a total of 20 teachers from the department’s schools for the disabled in Yangon and Mandalay and from the Eden School for the Disabled in Yangon’s Insein township, he said.

The course began at the department’s School for Disabled Children in Mayangone township on May 7.

It was presented by a paediatrician and a psychologist from Yangon Childrens’ Hospital as well as a speech therapist from Malaysia and an occupational therapist and a special education therapist from Singapore, U Maung Myint said.

The course was needed because there are no speech or occupational therapists in Myanmar, said U Maung Myint, who added that the three overseas therapists presented the course on a voluntary basis.

Subjects in the course included speech and occupational therapy, educational therapy for children with special needs, teaching methods for children with delayed mental development and parental counselling, he said.

The course was arranged by the department in coo-peration with an Italy-based non-government organisation, New Humanity FOCSIV, which covered its cost.

It followed a basic-level course held last year.