For Parents and Professionals (Autism and Special Needs) I
The Magic of Scaffolding: Let’s Make Learning Fun and Meaningful!
(3 hours, $530)
One of the biggest challenges that parents and teachers face with teaching those with moderate to severe intellectual disabilities is engaging them in doing academic tasks, especially worksheets. A key problem often lies in the fact that the worksheets are not “meaningful” for these learners because they entail performing repetitive tasks that lack any context to make them interesting.
In this workshop, participants will learn how they can create interesting worksheets that offer meaningful and interesting contexts, while providing sufficient in-built scaffolding and task diversity for the learners to do them independently. Moreover, the institution of a clear structure allows for repeated practice to be incorporated naturally into the step-by-step task process, without boring the learners. Participants will not only be introduced to actual templates that can be used as a basis for creating worksheets, but also have the opportunity to design engaging worksheets during the workshop!
The Dos and Don’ts of the Caregiving Marathon:
You Don’t Need to be a Hero
(2 hours, SGD350)
Parents who are engaged in the hands-on care of their autistic children (as well as other special needs children) assume a tremendous sense of responsibility in caring for their dependent children. They are often self-sacrificing in investing all their time and effort to cater to every need of their autistic children. A chief factor that is motivating them to lead such a self-sacrificing lifestyle is their relentless hope that they can help their autistic children to be “normal”. In a nutshell, they take on the pressure of “saving” their children. As such, they can run the risk of burnout and frustration.
In this honest and reflective workshop, participants will be challenged to reflect on their current caregiving lives and their expectations of themselves with regards to their care of autistic children in small group discussions. By sharing their reflections with one another, participants can offer support to others and discover the changes they need to be making to their attitudes and lifestyles in order to survive the caregiving marathon. I will also be sharing my caregiving insights on the different levels of acceptance of our children’s difference and letting go, based on my experience of raising an autistic adolescent and “separating” from him.