WHY SPECIALIST INTERVENTION PROGRAMME
We are halfway through the first school term of 2022. And we are into the 4th session of our newly-launched Specialist Intervention Programmes!
The kids look like they are having a lot of fun! The feedback from parents have been great too. Just over the weekend, one parent proudly shared how her son is now about to sit and attend a public library 20-minute story telling time!
When we first launched this series of programmes, it was called Early Intervention Programme. We quickly realised that many parents thought it was like the commonly-known "Early Intervention Programme", where the goals include all areas of development, i.e. gross motor, fine motor, adaptive, cognitive, social-communication and social domains. However, that is not our intention when we started our "Early Intervention Programme". Therefore, within a fortnight of launching the programme, we changed the name to "Specialist Intervention Programme" (SIP), to more accurately reflect why we started this series of programmes. And here are the reasons...
SPEECH THERAPY FOCUSED
After many years in this field, we hear parents searching for an "Early Intervention Programme" which focuses on speech, language, communication, social skills, feeding goals, i.e. Speech Therapy goals. They have shared that those early intervention programmes which their children are enrolled in, work on all the developmental areas. Very little time and attention is given to the Speech Therapy goals, which is what their child needs the most. This is one of the main reasons why we started our Specialist Intervention Programme - to focus mainly on Speech Therapy goals.
AFFORDABILITY
This is where Be@Summer's and Learn@Summer's comes in.
Be@Summer's is a 1:1 programme with our Early Childhood Interventionists (ECIs). As we work with the children in our Speech Therapy sessions, we noted that many of these children needs more therapy than just one hour, once a week or once a fortnight (research has also showed that 3 times a week frequency will be ideal, especially for children with motor planning difficulties). However, in Singapore, such intensive speech therapy is not affordable for many families. Hence, we came up with Be@Summer's, to train a group of ECIs to carry out the speech therapy goals. Each hour of Be@Summer's is $100, as compared to $180 for Speech Therapy. You may wonder if our ECIs are qualified to do what our Speech Therapists do. No...it is not our intention for our ECIs to be Speech Therapists and for sure, our ECIs are NOT qualified Speech Therapists. However! Our ECIs are trained by our Speech Therapists. And our Speech Therapists are still the one setting the goals and monitoring the children's progress.
Learn@Summer's is another programme aimed at making speech therapy more affordable. In our work, we come across a group of children with mild-moderate language needs. They do not need the intensity of 1:1 Speech Therapy. These are usually children in mainstream schools or doing the maintream curriculum in Special Education Schools like Pathlight. They are able to benefit as much in a small group setting. Being in a group, cost fees are more affordable. This is where Learn@Summer's comes in. 'Language for learning' is the main framework for this programme.
BEHAVIOUR MANAGEMENT
It is not uncommon for parents to come to Speech Therapy with a therapy history of "We tried speech therapy when he was younger and the therapist could not manage his behaviour. It was really stressful for him and for us. And hence we stopped." In our Speech Therapy sessions, we have been quite successful in getting the children to follow our tasks, using a variety of behaviour management strategies. However, some children do need more time to settle down. And often, we realise that in our Speech Therapy sessions, we are spending more time on behaviour management, than working on the Speech Therapy goals. And these are the children we have in mind for Be@Summer's as well. In Be@Summer's, the child has the opportunity to learn structure and routines in a "therapy" setting, while working on their Speech Therapy goals. We use ABA-VB and TEAACH approaches. With appropriate behaviour management strategies, we can now focus more on speech therapy goals, in that very limited time we have with the children. (Note: We do NOT provide ABA-VB therapy.)
GENERALISATION
Many of the children come to us with little/no speech. Soon speech started developing and their language skills followed as well. However, soon, we reached a roadblock. The children needed a group environment to practice their newly acquired speech and language skills, to help with generalisation to a bigger environment, as well as with peers. This is when we created Talk@Summer's, a group programme. In this programme, the goals are to improve language skills, communication skills, group skills and social skills. These are goals which will support a child's success at home and at school. For example, being able to remain seated in a group, to take turns, to raise hand to get attention, and to follow group instructions like 'go take your water bottle and line up'. These are what we called group skills. For language, communication and social skills, we are looking at the children learning to interact and communicate with teachers and peers using socially appropriate ways. For example, tapping gently to get attention, using social words like 'thank you' and 'please', asking for permission "Can I go to the toilet?", requesting for items "I need scissors, please.", and requesting for help "Help me cut. Thank you."
Another group of children who will benefit from group sessions are children with emerging interest to play with peers. These children can play with adults and now it is time for them to play with peers. Play is an vital part of a child's development - it helps a child make sense of the world, it develops thinking, learning and problem-solving abilities, it builds language and communication skills, it enhances imagination and creativity, and it also supports social and emotional development. Our hearts go out to the children who have difficulty playing with peers, especially those with Autism. Some people think that these children do not like playing with peers, but no, this is absolutely not true. These children want to play with peers - they want to form meaningful relationships with others through play. But they do not know how. This is when direct teaching of play skills will help - it helps the child make sense of what their peers are doing and how they can join in the play. This is where Play@Summer's comes in.
So Be@Summer's, Talk@Summer's, Play@Summer's and Learn@Summer's are the four programmes in our Specialist Intervention Programmes. We hope to fill in the service gaps and support the children and families in ways other than the traditional 1:1 Speech Therapy.
Do feel free to Whatsapp us at (+65)97665067 to find out more!
Comments
Post a Comment