Dubai: The Baraem Early Development Screening Tool, an integral part of Dubai Health Agency’s Official App has reportedly screened more than 81,000 children for developmental delays over the last 2 years.
Once a child is spotted with any developmental delays which require medical follow-up, they are then referred to specialized centers for timely intervention.
Speaking about the service, Dr. Fatima Sultan Al Olama, Consultant and Head of the Child Health Unit at the Dubai Health Authority, observed that the Baraem Tool is expected to detect developmental delays in children aged 9 months to 6 years.
Dr. Al Olama further elaborated that the aim of this service is to ensure early detection and timely intervention to provide children with the best possible medical outcomes, support and encouragement.
There are certain skills that children need to acquire by a certain age, such as stepping for the first time, smiling for the first time, waving and pointing. These are all aspects of developmental milestones that children should meet. Developmental delays happens when the child does not reach these milestones in time.
Dr. Fatima Sultan Al Olama remarked
The DHA Official emphasized that the all-encompassing tool contains a set of quick, easy-to-action, high-accuracy and credible questions to assess the child’s development in terms of movement, social-emotional and cognitive skills, speech and language skills.
The screening tool, which is available on the DHA’s App creates an immediate child assessment report where parents can see the results, and a copy of the report is sent to the electronic medical record system for DHA clients, noting that patients using non-DHA health facilities can also view their results.
Al Olama concluded by observing that the introduction of Baraem Tool has raised awareness of the need to screen children to ensure they are meeting their development milestones.