james14

Hi all, I am looking to move to Dubai for work with my wife, child. My child is 5yo, now at school since September and has been diagnosed with ADHD and SLI (Speech Language Impairement - essentially delayed speech). He receives mild medication to manage the ADHD at school. Two question I have for the group:
1) Would either of these to your awareness interfere with temporary working visas/entry to Dubai?
2) Does anyone have any experience or advice on schooling?
Any help very much appreciated - thanks.

scot47

international Schools are not always good at handling children with these issues.
Certainly in KSA both in Jeddaha nd in Khobar I encountered parents whho had p[roblems in getting places in schools that had competence in dealing with this.

carcajou

Concur with scot47. I think adequate schooling will be a serious issue - both finding places and in having staff competent to manage the situation.

james14

Thankyou very much for the help - I've made a short list for the schools that might be good choices - hoping to find our availability and pricing tomorrow. A few published online sources suggest that schools are very supportive of having the likes of shadow staff support, but your accounts above suggest a different reality, which I'll take as the honest state of things.

TGFKASE

My 5 yo son was diagnosed being on the Autism Spectrum (ASD) before we moved back to Dubai at the end of last year. He also suffered from SLI.

This will not impact your visa/entry to Dubai.

Although Dubai likes to trumpet their Year of Determination, the school system here is NOT as friendly as it could be. We had schools offering places and begging for money, until we mentioned ASD. The we would get the "We have no places available'...

It was only thru the power of social media that my sons current school eventually caved (we knew a lot of people who had kids at that particular school, and some that were in the same position with one of their children. The Inclusion Head and Primary head woke up to very full Inboxes and Message machines the next day!!!) and actually conducted the review and, finally, we got an offer.

Check each schools site for their Inclusion policy, and dont waste your time getting excited about getting an offer to tour the school, as they will NOT guarantee your kid has a place until their Inclusion has had a chance to review your kid. We wasted days touring schools, having advised them of our sons developmental needs, only to be told, as we took our check book out, that there were no available places due to their Inclusion sizing being full.

https://www.khda.gov.ae/cms/webparts..._Policy_En.pdf is where Dubai wants to be, and its handy to have this to challenge some of the crap some schools spew about their Inclusion requirements.

And that will only address the ADHD. No school will conduct additional assistance for the SLI, and we had to go outwith the school for that seperately. My only suggestion for that is stay away from Kids First. What they spout on their website and what they actually do once you've dropped 4-5K for a 2 month course are two drastically different things.

All I can say is Best of Luck. You WILL need an iron constitution, and the bloody-mindedness of a toddler you are trying to force fed broccoli to get your son sorted, but it has to be done.

james14

@TGFKASE thank you for a great post. I appreciate the determination and tolerance needed to fight for good support for our children with needs - its tough wherever you go.

I'm going through that PDF to mark up some challenge points - good shout. Also contacted two private schools this morning to see about allocation/availability (they have space) and both presented openness and support for our son - and want us to share latest reports/targets with the Inclusion officers to review prior to confirming acceptance. One mentioned the Inclusion officer may want to see the child after reviewing the reports (but apparently after confirming a space). I asked about shadow support, but wont get info till I speak with the Inclusion officer. Shall update the thread with how we get on.

Yes I agree it will never be easy, in the UK it's been a significant challenge to get good support and wade through so much BS. Expensive too. So our expectations are already set appropriately.

Thanks again and good luck to you too!

james14

Can I follow up on the above discussion and ask about ADHD medication... Our son is prescribed Medikinet, by a psychiatrist in the UK.

For those who have crossed this path already - How do you get medication in Dubai? Do you work with a Dubai consultant who prescribes, or do you continue to work with a UK consultant and import them? If the latter, how do you work with the Ministry of Health?

All replies much appreciated

TGFKASE

Leaving aside any issues with your health insurance provider, and assuming it isnt on the "Banned Substances" list, Id get him in to see a GP, and get a referral to a child psychologist, to get the prescription locally. Only if that doesnt go anywhere, would I go down the route of trying to work with the MoH...

scot47

Local specialist.