A care system for children with learning problems by teachers, doctors and parents

Learning problems are a major issue that Thai society has paid more and more attention to over the past decade, especially from reports of the situation of Thai children's IQ, which is found to be lower than the standard when compared to other countries in Asia, causing more awareness to take care of children's intelligence, IQ, and EQ.

Factors that cause learning problems are diverse, including family care problems, teaching quality, and the children themselves, especially child mental illnesses that affect learning. For example, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), found in about 8 percent of Thai children, causes children to lack concentration, be naughty, and restless, and cannot learn to their full potential. Learning disability (ADHD), found in about 5 percent, causes children to have problems reading, writing, or calculating, even though they can communicate. Intellectual disability (6.1 percent in Thailand, about 3 times higher than the international average), causes children to learn slowly and develop later than the standard. Overall, there are more than 20 percent of children and adolescents with mental health problems who should receive care. Currently, most children and adolescents with these problems have not received care. Although screened by schools, they do not receive public health services due to a lack of personnel and resources to provide services, resulting in a very low access rate to services. Autism is the most accessible disease, with only 12 percent accessing services (12 out of 100 autistic children receive care). As for ADHD, specific learning disabilities, and intellectual disabilities, all have access to services of less than 5 percent. When these services are not accessible, these children do not receive care, have continuous learning problems, and are unable to stay in the school system. Or even if they can survive, they do not use their abilities to their full potential. When they are not successful in their studies, they are at risk of developing emotional and behavioral problems, which often manifest as behavioral problems in adolescence, such as teenage pregnancy, drug abuse, delinquent behavior, and violent aggression, etc.

The Education Office of Khon Kaen City Municipality realizes the importance of screening students to lead to care, development, assistance, behavior adjustment in the classroom and individual special curriculum for groups with learning problems, including other mental health problems effectively, covering both promotion, prevention and treatment and rehabilitation. It aims for children at risk to receive care and access to medical services more to transfer to higher grades with quality and efficiency.

• 1. Study, analyze, and design tools for student screening.
  • 1.1 Study the problems that occur in schools under the Khon Kaen City Municipality and analyze the problems.
  • 1.2 Brainstorming meeting to design tools with relevant people such as teachers and school administrators.
  • 1.3 Create tools by relevant people such as doctors, psychologists, teachers, and programmers.
  • 1.4 Testing the tools with teachers in schools under the Khon Kaen City Municipality.
  • 1.5 Improve and develop tools for use in student screening.
• 2. Provide training to teachers in schools and child development centers under Khon Kaen City Municipality.
  • 2.1 Provide knowledge about child care, observing child behavior, and adjusting child behavior.
  • 2.2 Provide knowledge on how to use tools to screen students.
• 3. Teachers conduct screening of all students under the jurisdiction of Khon Kaen City Municipality.
• 4. Doctors visit schools to re-screen and diagnose symptoms, with homeroom teachers and parents providing additional information to divide into groups for care and assistance.

• Teachers in schools and child development centers under the Khon Kaen City Municipality
• Kindergarten teachers and early childhood development teachers
  • Number of people: 75
• Primary school teacher
  • Number of people: 345
• Secondary school teachers
  • Number of people: 110
• Number of people: 110
  • Number of people: 20
• Total of 550 people

1. Meeting to plan the work of the project committee to develop a care system for children with problems, learning by teachers-doctors-parents of schools under the Khon Kaen City Municipality for the academic year 2024 to determine the project organization and operational guidelines
2. Write a project proposal for approval
3. Meeting to assign tasks according to the assigned missions/duties
4. Perform within the specified time frame
5. Evaluate and summarize performance results

• School-aged children in schools under the jurisdiction of Khon Kaen City Municipality who have learning problems receive services to promote life skills, prevent, treat and rehabilitate mental health problems comprehensively and effectively.
• Establish a sustainable screening, promotion, prevention and referral system for school-age children with learning problems.
• Teachers and parents have knowledge and understanding of learning problems, mental health problems, and have the skills to solve basic problems of students.
• A strong network of teachers and parents working together has emerged.

Treatment of disease

• Homeroom teachers and parents pick up medicine from the hospital and give it to the children.
• Teachers and parents take children to see a doctor for follow-up appointments to monitor symptoms.

Behavior Modification

• Doctors give advice to teachers and parents on how to adjust children's behavior while at home and at school.
• Teachers and classmates are cooperative and provide assistance in behavior modification while at school.
• Parents cooperate in behavior modification while the child is at home.

Groups that require medical care

• Follow-up by teachers observing symptoms and behavior while children are at school and visiting homes to inquire about additional symptoms from parents.
• Conduct supervision and monitoring of the organization and observe children's behavior in the classroom while conducting classroom visits.
• Request additional information from parents who bring their children to see a doctor.
• Teachers track and enter data in the App Care system regarding ongoing and non-continued treatment, in order to plan for further assistance, such as economic problems, time problems, understanding problems, etc.

Behavior Modification Group

• Follow-up by teachers observing symptoms and behavior while children are at school and visiting homes to inquire about additional symptoms from parents.
• Conduct supervision and monitoring of the organization and observe children's behavior in the classroom while conducting classroom visits.
• Teachers track and enter data in the App Care system regarding ongoing and non-continued treatment, in order to plan for further assistance, such as economic problems, time problems, understanding problems, etc.