Materia Medica Malaysiana

A sure hand with special children

YOUR child is different from others. He is unable to communicate with you and is aloof. He throws tantrums for no particular reason. He is autistic. What, as his parent, can you do to help?

Autism, a complex developmental disability that appears in early childhood and persists throughout adulthood, causes children difficulties in verbal and non-verbal communication, social interaction and leisure and play activities. The symptoms and characteristics of autism can vary. Whatever the diagnosis, children with autism can learn and function productively and show gains with appropriate education and treatment.

One school in Malaysia that provides education and care for special children is The Centre For Individual Education Programme or Surea. Managed by KRISTA Centre For Special Children Sdn Bhd, Surea takes in children with various mental disabilities, such as autism, Down’s Syndrome, dyslexia, attention deficit disorder, attention deficit hyperactive disorder and speech or language impairment. Surea conducts a special programme known as the 3S programme: Sure Learn, Sure Work and Sure Joy.

Sure Learn is based on developing cognitive, language and social skills. Sure Work prepares the children to acquire skills in areas covering career, home and community living. Sure Joy builds the children’s physical, aesthetic and personal development skills in an enjoyable and fun-filled environment.

These skills vary with the degree of development among the children. They are taught how to play, learn and care for themselves and even learn vocational skills. Teachers use a fun approach to enable the children to understand what is being taught. For example, every month they come up with a new theme such as animals, plants and colours, and conduct activities with the students according to the theme.

The children also attend swimming and taekwondo lessons organised by the school. "We conduct most of the activities outside the classroom as the children learn better that way. They can’t sit or concentrate long on one thing, so there has to be a variety of activities to keep them going," says Cynthia Lauren Arul, the school principal.

Nawarmani Balakrishnan, the managing director, said that the most important skill a teacher needs is patience. "These children can have unpredictable mood swings at any time and tend to throw tantrums. The teacher needs to be calm in order to reach out to the child. Aggressiveness will only lead to the child behaving badly and not co-operating with the teacher," she added.

Teachers also need to be flexible with their methods in order to keep the child’s attention on a certain subject.

"They learn fast once they get adjusted to the teachers," says Corrina Caroline Allvisse, one of the teachers in Surea. She has been with the school since it started two years ago.

Siti Zurul Ain Abdul Jabar, the freelance speech therapist who has been working with these children for the last six months, says eye contact is very important for the therapy to be effective.

Nevertheless, teachers at Surea say the most important role in a special child’s development belongs to the parents. "Parents need to come to terms with the fact that their child is special," says Arul. "Understanding their child’s behaviour and learning how to reach out to them will make their relationship with the child stronger. This is very important because if the parents don’t bother about what the child learnt in school and are not consistent in teaching him the same thing at home, the child will not improve and will in fact become worse."

"Six hours in school alone cannot help the child get better. Parents should also pitch in," says Cynthia.

Surea provides a communication book for parents to keep track of the happenings in school even if the child is unable to talk. The book will state what was taught in school for the day and tell parents what they can do to help the child at home. They also have a monthly assessment to show how much the child has learnt or improved. Cynthia says 80 per cent of parents co-operate with the school to ensure their child’s development.

A teacher says that one autistic girl who came to the school at the age of five did not know how to speak, read or write. But after attending the school for a year, she improved tremendously and is now attending a mainstream kindergarten.

Another autistic boy, aged 12, was very aggressive when he first arrived. He disturbed all the other children and caused havoc at home, too. The individual programme helped him to calm down. The parent’s positive and consistent work together with the teachers also improved his behaviour further. He is now attending a normal secondary school.

The school provides services for children between the ages of four and 18, and has classes from 8am to 2pm on weekdays. Now it has 16 children. Surea has four teachers and one speech therapist who comes in twice a week. All the teachers have at least eight to 10 years’ experience in teaching children with special needs. Fees are affordable. With education, life can be rewarding for a child with autism. While it isn’t always easy, you can learn to help your child find the world an interesting and loving place.

* Parents can contact the school at 03-7958-8535