Our Mission:
Our team of experts endeavors to:
• Provide quality education in various languages (Arabic, English, & French) using appropriate approaches and strategies.
• Build on individual strengths.
• Address unique learning needs.
Our Vision:
SKILD is a specialized center in Lebanon dedicated to providing:
• Individualized support for students with special needs.
• Community awareness.
• A transformational approach to families, children, adolescents, and professionals who deal with learning difficulties.
SKILD Center Director, Mrs Hiba Al Jamal.
My experience at SKILD Center and at our partner schools made me realize that indeed, like any child, children with special needs are God’s gift! This journey made me accept more than before, that God does not do mistakes as I keep hearing in my head the verse that reads:
For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth.27 But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong;28 God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are,29 so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. (1 Cor. 1:26-29)
Working with children with special needs is rewarding as you come face to face with the truth that God has a purpose and a plan for each one of us…
At SKILD we cannot but be more and more determined to serve students with different needs, embracing them with God’s love, and helping them reach their maximum potential!
SKILD provides services to a wide range of exceptional learners struggling with any of the following:
• Specific learning disorders
• Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder
• Intellectual disability
• Physical disorders
• Sensory disorders
• Speech and language disorders
• Autism spectrum disorder
• Emotional and behavioral disorders
- Ministry of Education and Higher Education (MEHE)
- Amended the version of the code for establishing private schools (to make sure they cater to students with special needs),
- Amended the version of the code that stipulates conditions to exempt students with special needs from sitting for official exams,
- A national plan to integrate students with special needs in public schools that was officially launched on February 13, 2012.
- Center for Educational Research and Development (CERD)
- British Council (BC)
Partners since 2013 to raise awareness about the rights and needs of individuals with special needs and learning difficulties.
Smart Kids with Individual Learning Differences (SKILD) and the British Council, in collaboration with the Center for Educational Research and Development (CERD) and the Ministry of Education and Higher Education (MEHE), have been working together to advocate for students with learning difficulties. We remain committed to the spirit of serving these students as well as securing their inclusion in schools and society, asserted through a joint Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), signed in 2013. This spirit and commitment has been the driving force behind a number of projects that were prepared in collaboration. Together, we have worked for more capacity-building, public school empowerment, and implementation of inclusion policies.
- Haigazian University & Missouri Baptist University
Dr. Tonia Crane from Missouri Baptist University gave three courses in Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA). These courses were offered online through a management system called Canvas. Students and professionals who were interested in taking the courses registered through Haigazian University, which credited these courses. The course titles were Foundations of ABA, Basics of ABA, and Application of ABA.
The Founding of SKILD
The founding of SKILD is rooted in the establishment of a special education program at Beirut Baptist School (BBS). Working with children with special needs at BBS, it quickly became apparent to the stakeholders involved that further assessment and supportive services were required, not only to work with individual students, but to support teaching staff and the families of students, and ultimately make a difference in the lives of all students across Lebanon. This realization set the scene for the founding of SKILD, fueling the ambition of the founding members to do something to change the lot of children with special needs in Lebanon for the better.
As such, the SKILD Center was founded in March 2011.
