As mentioned in my previous blog, there is another exciting seminar sponsored by UPSEC for Special Education teachers. Below are details about the seminar.
OVERVIEW OF THE SEMINAR
Content:
• Overview of Early Intervention
• The Role of Screening and Assessment in addressing the needs of
CSN
• The Processes that teachers can do for CSN in their classroom
• Getting the support of administration and parents
• Progress monitoring and evaluation
• Best practices in early intervention
Date: November 14, 2010, 1 - 5 pm
Venue: To be announced
Fee: P150 (Early Bird - 9/15/10 and Students with valid ID);
P200 (regular rate)
To support Special Education in the Philippines, UPSEC and the UP SPED Department, a new friend of mine and I would like to share our blessings by sponsoring ten teachers (incoming teachers, student teachers, public school teachers, private school teachers, parents, advocates to the seminar.
To get a free ticket, all you have to do is to:
a. Write in 200 t0 500 words what you can do to promote early intervention.
b. Post your answer in this blog
c. Subscribe and follow my blog (This is for win-win. Yipee!)
Now I fervently hope that the comments will not stop at ten as I think we teachers, parents, and advocates have so many bright ideas to promote early intervention not just in the classroom but also at home. So even if the tickets are taken just leave a comment to share with the exchange of ideas. Hopefully, we can get more people to get involved by pledging more teachers to come for free or maybe your idea can serve as an inspiration to start a program. The possibilities are endless as long as we have the common end goal and that is to help our children - who are all special in one way or another.
Hi I'm a first year student at the MA in SPED program at UP Diliman. That is to say, that I'm a certified newbie to the SPED scene. But I feel that from what little experiences I've had, I'd say the biggest enemy of early intervention is a parent in denial.
ReplyDeleteOf course, it is perfectly understandable. In most cases mommy and daddy carry high hopes about their child as early as the "Honey we're pregnant!" moment. I still remember that moment 14 years ago when I learned that I was going to have another younger sibling.
Everything seemed normal until my brother turned four years old and still wasn't talking. My mother worried and had him checked. Sure enough, he was given a good number of intervention services such as speech therapy & socialization.
I didn't really hear the term "Asperger's Syndrome" until later on. I guess it took a while for my mother to be able to open up a sort of "label" to us. But nevertheless, she took action as early as she suspected that he may have some special needs.
Now, he's a regular student not in a full-inclusion program, but as a freshman at the Ateneo de Manila Highschool. He's thriving and even socially he's not bad. As I write this he's enjoying music rocking with my other brother's guitar playing.
So I feel that promoting early intervention is about finding a way to get to parents' heads. It is about working together to help them out of that state of "denial" and into the state of "so what do we do?". I know Asperger's isn't as severe as most, but it is obvious that early intervention did its job for my brother.
Hello Teacher Fiel,
ReplyDeleteThis is such an inspiring story. I also credit early intervention to the success of our son and so many children I've met in Wordlab who had parents just like your mom. You definitely earned your ticket. I'll see you at the seminar. :)
Regards,
Teacher ia
A friend approached me one Sunday and confidingly asked me what I think of his child who is over 3 years old but still cannot utter clear or intelligible words. I quickly assured her that she should not compare her child to other kids, especially to girls who generally talk earlier than boys. I finished my advice by telling her to wait and not worry about it until later.
ReplyDeleteBut that same day, I realized that I was actually clueless about her kid’s special needs and concerns. If I were in her shoes, what would I do? Do I really think I’ll have peace of mind if I wait longer? I called up my sister who took SPED classes, and she introduced me to the term ‘early intervention.’ She told me that when in doubt, it would never hurt to ask a specialist. In fact, asking for help from an expert or a skilled teacher will always be more rewarding in the end. However, reality is, most parents tend to be defensive, since it’s hard for them to accept the situation - that their kid may need special attention, denying and fooling themselves in the process, until unfortunately the signs become clear and more difficult to address.
There are also other issues why most families do not ask for help even when it is attainable simply because they have not heard of this idea and they do not know where to go to and what to do. Most (including me) do not know the basic signs for concern in toddlers and have a notion that only wealthy families can afford the assistance their kids may need. I think we can start promoting this awareness program to our immediate circle: our family and friends. We can also convince our schools to include this important topic in ALL Education programs (even to Masteral/Doctorate courses, and not just in SPED or Preschool curriculums), and for our churches/ community to conduct seminars like this every year (most churches regularly organize parenting seminars anyway). Spreading the information is the key.
My husband and I are both teachers and soon to be parents, so this seminar will definitely help us understand the advantages of early intervention, which we can directly apply in our personal life and profession. We would like to support this seminar by posting your ad/leaflets in our schools and church, and spread the information to our colleagues, family and friends! (You may email us a PDF file ad of the seminar and we’ll print them for you.)
By the way, I had a chance to chat again with my friend and she decided to immediately see a therapist. Her kid now can’t stop talking but nobody is complaining. What a happy ending!
@ Jorele Thanks dear for the wonderful offer to spread the news. I will ask the UPSEC for the pdf invitation of the seminar.
ReplyDelete