Special needs parents? Whatever happened to children with special needs? Who are these people?

I am so happy to brag write about this. Woohoo!
Click here to read my article posted at FilipinoMomBlog.

Mobile phones have revolutionized the way communication has evolved.

Now it is easier to contact one another at a touch of a button. Those with good finger dexterity, they can send text messages in a flash.

Parents, couples, friends, business partners and “textmates” can send text messages when there is a need to let a message known. In short, communication is made easy (well as long as the mobile has enough credits to do such things like send text messages or make phone calls) with mobile phones.

There are, of course, negative effects to this. One is that in the case of children or a spouse or a partner, one can just call or send a text message to the other person even if that person is in the workplace.

Imagine a scenario when one is about to make a report to a board meeting and receives a text message that the baby fell from the crib and has a big lump on his head. Or in the case of couples who are having a misunderstanding, one calls and calls and never minds if that person being called is at work and is very busy.Talk about stressful situations.

And what about the murder of the spelling of words. I mean, come on, who hasn’t sent words texted in short cut and sentences with missing punctuation marks? And who hasn’t received messages like these?

And do we even think that this kind of spelling stops at text messaging? No! It is seen in test papers, in reports, in letters (yes, some still write letters), in bulletin boards, in emails, in signs, everywhere.

Are we to be alarmed? Yes, we should be. Read how spelling supports reading.

Here is a sample:

continue reading this entry »

Parents expect a lot when they have their children go into therapy, whether it is occupational therapy or speech and/or language therapy and physical therapy.

Of course, they expect a lot because they pay a lot of money to be able to get these services for their children.

Here in the Philippines, parents/families of children receiving therapy services pay for these services, unlike those children in other countries who get these as part of their tax benefits.

Getting into these therapy services don’t mean instant relief and instant improvement of the developmental and behavioral problems that need to be addressed.

So what should parents expect during the first few weeks of therapy?

Below are a few observations I have made during the course of working with these therapists:

continue reading this entry »

Writing or composition is one of the most difficult tasks children with developmental problems can do, especially those with Language Learning problems. Several  of my students have this problem, with grades in the Language subject bordering on the failing status. Why does this happen? Read here.

Yes, some of them have difficulty understanding the grammar rules or the syntax. The fact that they have difficulties understanding some of the finer skills in language like pragmatics and semantics, writing seems not a priority.

Many times this has happened to several of my students, they are able to explain in detail what was asked of them. But when they were asked to write down what they have just explained, they look blankly at me and ask: “What am I going to write?” When I tell them to write what they have just said, they really have that blank look on their faces like I have said something foreign to them.

Writing is a complex task and there are several ways to do this, to teach this:

• Plan what to write. making a graphic organizer or writing down key words and concepts would be a great help.

• Be sure that basic grammar rules, particularly subject-verb agreement is understood. Sometimes children can do this in drills but can not apply what has been learned in writing.

• Write in drafts so that corrections are easier to spot.

• Clear rules for what needs to be revised should be made known. It is also important to explain why the revisions need to be done.

There are many ways to encourage children to write and here are some suggestions:

• writing down a telephone message.

• Writing ideas, thoughts, dreams, quotations heard,movie or TV lines heard and even writing down information like phone numbers and addresses are just some examples.

• Writing down instructions like when to take the medicine and how to operate something.

continue reading this entry »

I think we have a budding artist and writer in our midst.

No, not the eldest child nor the middle child but our youngest child, who is 5.9 years old.

Tania has always been advanced with her fine-motor skills even when she was younger.

She can draw well using the pen and paper. Please take notice of the dimensions of the bunch of balloons.

She can also use the MS Paint in the computer.

She also loves to write her own stories. I know I have thrown out some of her stories and have not documented these but now that she has a new set of stories, I plan to put these together and make something like children’s book with her drawings and written stories in it.

This would be a good gift for relatives especially grandparents during Christmas or special occasions. You might want to try this too

Every Saturday, participants post photos based on a theme. The theme for this Saturday, June 14, 2008 is EMOTION (S). Being a Special Ed teacher, I have been privy to emotions running high: with the parents of my students, with colleagues, with the children themselves and with myself. I am a very emotional person, I cry easily and am passionate about the things that I believe in. Below are some photos I wish to share to show why emotions played a big part:

A lot of people came to the Angels Walk for Autism which we attended. In the photo are my co-workers, Occupational therapists and speech therapists (not in the photo). Some children performed on stage and everyone was proud about each child’s accomplishment.

A long-time student, JEM, performing guitar accompaniment for me while the song plays on his Nokia Express Music phone. Good job, JEM I am so proud of you!

JP, sitting down to do a table top activity for a change, instead of running around the room. I hope he would be able to adapt this behavior when he goes back to school. Your mom was very happy about this

The last day of our Storytelling/Narrative Group for the summer (school starts in June here in the Philippines) where everyone brought their favorite books and told these stories in front of the group. All in all, we were really happy about the results If only I could show their happy faces. That is my son, Julian at the rightmost photo. The girl in green is my daughter Tania. Below is a rather emotional entry for me, which I wrote a post here in my other blog as an entry for another Photo Meme participated by Filipinos.

Here is a part of my post: I was uncomfortable, I was not happy, not because they were asking for money but because its late. Its past 9pm! Shouldn’t they be resting? Why do they still continue what they were doing? This puzzled me. Isn’t this a form of child abuse? Isn’t this child exploitation? My feelings were hurt for them, I was “on fire” so I had to get the camera and to take their photos. I wanted to write about this, to vent off my steam about this kind of treatment, about this kind of system. And to think they are staying with a foundation. Why do they have to do this to them? May I ask what photo drew a unique emotion from you? photohunt