When two weeks ago the Diagnostic and Orientation Centers (CDO) of Florencia and the main municipality were accredited with the Certificate category —as part of the process of improving Cuban education—, seven of the ten municipal centers of this type with which account Ciego de Ávila managed to accredit themselves and thus guarantee their quality in the psycho-pedagogical diagnosis, orientation and monitoring of learning deficiencies from an early age.

Carlos Rafael Olivera Isern, director of the Provincial CDO Technical Advisory Team, explained to Invasor that the mission of these institutions is aimed at guaranteeing the diagnostic process with quality and a preventive approach, through the work of orientation, monitoring and specialized evaluation, with specialists preparations that advise the methodological teams of the different educational levels and guide families.

One of the ways that has guaranteed intervention from an early age, says the specialist, has been the identification, by the promoters and executors of the Educa a tu Hijo Program, the nursery school educators and the preschool teachers, of those infants in Early Childhood who do not meet the developmental milestones established for that stage. To this end, the preparation that these educational personnel receive from the CDOs is essential to detect warning signs and, from there, to be able to intervene with specialized care.

Just as important for preventive work with Early Childhood has been the close link with specialized consultations of the Public Health system, such as Neurodevelopment —second and fourth Wednesday of each month—, Hypothyroidism, Audiology, Ophthalmology and that of Child Psychiatry (associated with Autism Spectrum Disorder), up to which the specialists of these centers arrive. However, as the director of the Provincial CDO Technical Advisory Team points out, family concerns are very relevant for work with these ages, since the number of parents who approach these institutions in search of specialized help is not negligible.

Follow-up and guidance continues at later ages, from the preventive, participatory and enriching diagnosis that the CDOs propose as a mission, for which, Olivera Isern details, the preschool diagnosis constitutes a key element. From there, the follow-up continues in the readiness stage of the first grade and, at the end of that grade, it is evaluated whether or not the child manages to overcome the objectives of this to determine if the process of deepening the diagnosis is passed. All this, from the informed family consent, where the infant is approved to join the guidance work, because "there are families that refuse care and we have to abstain, even though we know that this child needs it."

To this action is added guidance and family dynamics, as well as attention to higher grade students with certain socio-emotional disorders, which affect behavior. To ensure the quality of these services, the municipal CDOs have not only achieved the completion of a staff that includes six specialists (psychologists, educational psychologists, speech therapists, psychometrists, educationalists and a team leader), but also the stability and improvement of these, one of the key aspects to be accredited.

In the particular case of the municipalities of Ciego de Ávila and Morón, as they have a larger population, they have a team of two people who exclusively attend to the early age, which has allowed strengthening the intervention in these ages.

Currently, 1,609 minors are in guidance and follow-up in the CDOs of the province, of which 716 are from Early Childhood, 842 from Primary Education, 24 from Basic Secondary, five from Pre-University and 22 from Technical and Professional Education.