I went to NH today. I wanted to help the staff to do the theme wall. There's a wall where all the children's photos are put up. To make it more interesting, the teachers change the theme of the wall every year. Last year, it was bears playing with balloons in a garden. This year, it's beach theme. Next year (the one I'm helping to do), is farm. The teachers will use colourful papers - draw, cut and paste to put up on the wall. It's a lot of work but it's fun and when you see your work completed, it's really satisfying.

Today, I was told that I'm in luck...cause some parents came and brought food for the teachers. I get to share the food as well.

Quite often, there will be blessing, especially in terms of food. When I was still working there, I remember eating a lot. There will be tea time most of the days, thanks to the parents. There will buy kuih, bread, cakes, fruits, sometimes tong sui, and some mothers even bake for us.

I remember that most Fridays, a very thoughtful mother would bring us breakfast. There would be yau char kuay, breads...and once to our surprise, she cooked fried meehoon and boiled tong sui for us. We were speechless then. And you can just imagine when it comes to Teacher's Day or Children's Day. Not only will there be food of all kinds, there will also gifts and flowers for each teacher.

This is how the parents show their appreciation to the teachers. This might be small gestures but we really appreciate it a lot. The parents are grateful for the patience, support and empathy that these teachers are showing them and to their children. It's not easy living with the fact that they have a special child, least of all trying to garner some understanding from the relatives or public towards their child. The teachers showed them that there is hope for their child and they will work together to help their child develop their full potential.

I know that it means a lot when someone finally understand. This is what I find in NH - a network of support for each other.

One of the beautiful things God show us about His children.

What is an early intervention center? It is a center for children with learning disabilities from the ages of 0-6. That is why it is called ‘early intervention’ – to intervene at an early age.

Most children diagnosed with learning disabilities, such as Down’s syndrome, autism, global developmental delay, attention deficit disorder (ADD/ADHD) and so on, will be referred to an early intervention center by the doctor. Other services referred are such as speech therapy, occupational therapy and physiotherapy (for those with physical diabilities). The earlier the child is diagnosed, the better are the chances for the child as he can receive intervention at early stages. That does not mean this can be cured completely from the disorder. A disorder is not a disease and can’t be treated with medicine. Getting early intervention means the child can be taught at an early age, skills otherwise a normal child can acquire on his own. This includes speech, fine motor skills, self-help skills, reading, writing and even social skills. All children go through the same developmental stages, whether they are normal or not. However, children with learning disabilities develop these skills at a slower pace.

I believe most early intervention centers in Malaysia are quite similar. Anyway, I’ll illustrate using New Horizons (NH), the center in which I have worked in.

When a child is brought to NH, he will be assessed to determine at what level he is at. A child of 4 years old could still be found to have skills of those at 2 years old. After determining the level, he will be enrolled into a group suitable to his abilities.

A criterion for enrolling the child into NH is that the child must be accompanied by an adult at all times. It could be his mother, father, aunt, grandfather and so on. The guardian must be there to observe how to teach the child so that this can be carried on at home. Teaching a special kid is a full time job. There’s no such thing as part time, where the parents can just push the job to the teachers and expect them to work wonders.

A child needs to come only once or twice a week - 2 ½ hours for each session. The first 1hr 10 min is for individual teaching. A teacher will sit with the child and his guardian, usually his mother. Here there will be all kids carry out all kinds of activities, according to his Individual Education Plan, after he is assessed. These activities range from picking up or naming familiar objects, matching colours, threading beads, sorting shapes, identifying numbers, screwing to playing board games.

Next 40 min is for gross motor, where children will be doing some light exercises. At NH, it could be obstacles race (crawling through a tunnel, jumping on a trampoline hopping from hoop to hoop and throwing bean bags into a basket), dancing with ribbons to music, rolling across mattress, shooting with water guns and other activities imaginable.

After that, the children will get a 20 min break to have their snacks. They are trained to line up and wash their hands before taking their own food out of their bags. These are the basic self-help skills they are expected to learn. They have to wash their own cups and replace them back to the shelf.
This is soon followed with art and craft. The children will be doing art work such as painting, making simple cards, pasting colourful papers and so on. Sometimes, they will be given dough to play with. After this, they will get to play with sand at the sand pit or water, usually basins filled with water with toys in it. These are great to stimulate their senses especially touch (tactile).

The last session of the day is language and singing. There are a wide range of activities for language. This includes story telling using big books, props or pictures; teaching about taste where the children get to taste foods that are sweet, sour, bitter and so on; teaching about objects while playing passing parcel; teaching sounds where children get to experiment with various musical instruments and so on.

Singing session is the finale where each child gets to choose his favourite song. Then everyone will sing along while doing the actions. Before they bid farewell, there will be a roll call and the teacher will call each child’s name. The child whose name is called is expected to respond by raising his hand and saying ‘Ya cikgu’.

Before the children left with their mothers, they are given ‘homework’. These ‘homework’ are loaned by NH and are to be carried out at home with parents’ guidance. They can be pictures of objects, a doll to teach body parts, board games, toy vegetables or animals, lacing cards, shape sorters, and perhaps musical toys to act as reinforcement. The parents are expected to teach their children at home and these ‘homework’ will be returned the next session and new ones will be given.

This is somewhat a rough idea on the role and function of an early intervention center.