Child Development Programme, Department of Child Development (DCD), KKH

Early childhood intervention programmes can shift the odds towards more favourable outcomes in development, especially for children at risk. The Child Development Programme (CDP) funded by MOH is a multi-disciplinary, community-based, family-focused and child-centric programme, with partnership and integration between government and voluntary welfare organizations. The main objectives of CDP are identification and treatment of children with developmental and behavioural problems so as to correct developmental dysfunctions, minimize the impact of a child’s disability or of prevailing risk factors, strengthen families, and establish the foundations for subsequent development.

The KKH CDP receives over 2,000 new referrals and over 5,000 medical follow-up consultations per year. About 90% to 95% of these children are in their preschool ages and their first referral is between 2 and 3 years of age; with 85-90% of referrals from the primary healthcare services, i.e polyclinics and family physicians.

The multi-disciplinary assessment at DCD will arbitrarily channel the children into various categories of management strategies, based on our available resources.

The different types of low to moderate severity but high prevalence developmental problems diagnosed made up 85% of the annual cases going through DCD.

In the follow-up evaluation of children under DCD, it has been consistently shown that between 85% and 95% of children demonstrate improvement in their performance and functional skills. This is assessment from both professionals and parents, and improvement has been uniform across all the categories.

Physician and Parental Feedback on Child’s Functional Status on Follow-up