Play our Role

Oh man, I was so busy and so tired now! We had a new kid today. He's Benjamin Soong, known as Benji. He was quite good for a first timer in the center. He is only 2 years old. He's very chubby. He got lots of baby fat seriously. I can only feel his flesh when I hold his hand. His tummy is big and he is so cheerful! The mother is weird to me because she viewed her son as if he's an alien. Well, I don't blame her because this is her first child. She was like can't imagine how her son can learn and will be able to acquire the skills that we targeted for him.

Having a baby is suppose to be a joyful thing for the family. It supposed to be... However these bunch of parents get endless worries and hurts after they delivered their babies. Some thought after a safe delivery, they are safe. Who knows when their sons or daughters reach 2 or 3 years old, they discover some differences between their children and others. They start to question why their sweethearts have no speech yet, why they lost their first words after a while, while no eye contact from them, why are they so cranky all the time, why they dislike cuddles even from the family members and why they have sleep disorder and so on...

Then they start to ask around and they are suggested to see a doctor and then they will get the diagnosis from the doctor. That's when their despair starts. Some mothers go into depression and are not able to accept their children and some start seeking for help from then on. They start to look for early intervention center, speech therapy, physiotherapy or occupational therapy. Some even start to look for tuition for the kids and they don't mind spending as long as it may help the kids. Some of them even seek help from the bomohs.

These are the scenario of my parents in the center. They really need much support from the service providers and their family. They may seem to accept the child, however, deep down in their hearts, there are endless worries and questions. They are still seeking the answer and they are still seeking help from every where no matter what kinda services they are receiving now. Some times they may confuse their children even more.

As a service provider, our responsibility is not only to teach the children, we are to encourage the parents and give them comfort and assurance when need to. Our responds and our comments to the child is very important. The way we convey our message will affect the parents' emotions and they may feel discouraged if our respond is always negative. When we are teaching them, we really need to practice patience. We maybe frustrated because of the behavior of the child, but we should not show it on our face or express it verbally to the parents. We need to find our way out. Using the appropriate method will help the child work better and to avoid ourselves from being annoyed.

This is our responsibility. When we face difficulties in teaching these children, before we can complain about the children, we should check ourselves. How well are we doing? Are we helping them to solve the problems in learning or are we there to add burdens to the parents? What's our mission as a special education teacher? Is beating, shouting, blaming the right methods? What can we do about it? What is our responsibility? I disallowed my teachers to use cane, I even banned my parents from using it. I want them to communicate with the children, I want them to help the children listen to instructions instead of listening/ obeying the cane. Are we not worth of any respect? The cane is gaining respect from the children. What are we then?

I just hope that we are playing our role well. We are to be blamed when we receive any complaints from the parents. That shows that we are not playing our role well. When there's complains, check ourselves instead of blaming them for being demanding or being fault finding. I always believe that the parents are very appreciative. When they complain, that means we really are not playing our role well. I really hope this person can see the problem and start playing his/her role.