The Ministry of Health and Welfare yesterday expanded subsidies for the nation’s 75 child development centers, as the number of children with delayed development has nearly doubled in the past decade.
The nation had 52 such centers last year, which provided assessment services for about 18,000 children, Health Promotion Administration (HPA) Director-General Wu Chao-chun (吳昭軍) told a news conference in Taipei.
With the rise in suspected cases of developmental delays, the centers would be short on funds, hence the increase in the subsidies and the number of centers, Wu said.
Photo: Chiu Chih-jou, Taipei Times
The additional centers are expected to expand capacity for assessment services to more than 30,000 children, he said.
Chen Hui-ju (陳慧如), director of MacKay Memorial Hospital’s Preventive Care Assessment Center, said that child development varies from individual to individual, requiring cross-specialty professional assessments.
Parents could follow suggestions listed in children’s health manuals and fill out the form in the manual, which would help parents identify signs of developmental delay and take preventive measures, Chen said.
Preventive measures would allow doctors to be more informed in conducting assessments, and arranging appropriate care, she said.
Taiwanese Society of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry president Chou Wen-chun (周文君) said that mental development issues could have a physical cause, while other reasons, such as autism, attention deficit hyperactive disorder, or abuse and neglect, were also common.
These make it difficult to analyze and arrive at the cause through medical examinations, and can only be carefully observed through children’s actions, their interactions with family, or through scale measurements and daily-life recordings, Chou said.
The HPA said that professionals from pediatric neurology, pediatric medicine, child and adolescent psychology, and physical therapy and rehabilitation departments would be paired with assessors from among clinical psychiatrists, language therapists, occupational therapists, social workers and audiologists at the centers.
The assessments would be one-on-one and the centers would provide follow-up suggestions for medication.
The HPA said that it intends to achieve 100 percent assessment center coverage for outlying islands and other remote areas.
It would fully subsidize travel expenses for people from outlying islands or mountainous areas who need to visit assessment centers, it added.
The program hopes to remove as many obstacles as possible for people to visit the centers, the HPA said.
VIGILANCE: The military is paying close attention to actions that might damage peace and stability in the region, the deputy minister of national defense said The People’s Republic of China (PRC) might consider initiating a hack on Taiwanese networks on May 20, the day of the inauguration ceremony of president-elect William Lai (賴清德), sources familiar with cross-strait issues said. While US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s statement of the US expectation “that all sides will conduct themselves with restraint and prudence in the period ahead” would prevent military actions by China, Beijing could still try to sabotage Taiwan’s inauguration ceremony, the source said. China might gain access to the video screens outside of the Presidential Office Building and display embarrassing messages from Beijing, such as congratulating Lai
REPORT: Taipei has expressed an interest in obtaining loitering munitions matching the AeroVironment Switchblade 300 or the Anduril Altius-600, ‘Foreign Policy’ said Taiwan is seeking US-made kamikaze drones in an apparent concession to pressure from Washington to focus on asymmetric capabilities to defeat or deter a Chinese attack, Foreign Policy said in a report on Wednesday. Taipei has expressed an interest in obtaining AeroVironment Switchblade loitering munitions or other devices with similar capabilities, it said, citing four sources familiar with the matter commenting on condition of anonymity. The Switchblade 300 is a tube-launched drone designed for attacking ground troops, while its larger sibling, the Switchblade 600, could be used to destroy tanks and entrenched troops. Ukraine has utilized both systems extensively in its fight against
Police officers yesterday morning apprehended the prime suspect of a triple homicide case, after raiding the suspect’s hideout in Taichung. They transported the suspect to New Taipei City for questioning and recorded his statement last night. The suspect, identified as a 24-year-old man surnamed Chang (張), is believed to have used his hands to strangle his wife, surnamed Chen (陳), 29, along with his three-year-old son from a previous marriage and his wife’s mother, 69. The three dead bodies were wrapped in blankets when they were discovered inside their apartment in New Taipei City’s Sanchong District (三重) on Saturday. Chang was holding a
STRIKING A BALANCE: A nutritionist said that only 9 percent of respondents were concerned whether they had a sufficient balance of vegetables and fruits Nearly 60 percent of respondents said that they are affected physically and mentally due to lack of a regular breakfast routine, while only 9 percent ate a balanced diet, a Formosa Cancer Foundation survey showed. Thirty percent of respondents do not eat breakfast at home, saying it is more expedient to buy it, said Hsu Kuei-ting (徐桂婷), the foundation’s nutritionist, citing its most recent poll on nutritional intake for people aged 20 to 60. The poll showed that 60 percent believe they do not eat breakfasts that have balanced nutrition. At 62 percent, convenience was the most commonly cited factor in deciding whether