我的女儿Brandy，今年已经8岁了。还记得她4岁多进入幼儿园时，老师都有跟我们反映说孩子非常好动，且不能在课堂上静静坐着听课，也不能专心学习。而且，她的脾气很差，常常会有发脾气、乱丢东西的行为。当时，我们就一直为孩子寻求帮助，希望能得到专业的帮助或课程以解决孩子的问题。我一直都有透过网路来寻找资料，但是，结果却不很理想。一些资料内容都是国外的疗育课程；而本地的资料都是一些福利部或其他不相关的内容。我们都希望找方法来帮助孩子，奈何当时真的找不到适合的方法。直到Brandy六岁那一年，我们的家人和新邻居聊天，谈起孩子的问题。他们的孩子因类似的困难而正在接受疗育课程。经他们介绍后，我们第一次接触到A Zon生命教育学苑。我就打了电话与A Zon的心理咨询师预约做咨询。咨询后，我们就决定让Brandy接受疗育课程，每个星期要上两堂课。
起初在上疗育课程时，并不是太顺利。因为孩子很容易发脾气、也会乱丢东西、非常的不配合。每次上课时，都需要费上时间和力气让她稳定下来。大概是过了几个月后，Brandy才慢慢的可以配合疗育老师上课。但是，当时她的一些机能，如肢体的协调、与别人的沟通能力、自我控制能力还是很不理想。因此，除了在A Zon上课之外，我们也配合A Zon所给的建议及家课，让孩子在家中也练习。爸爸也特地为Brandy制作了平衡木，让她在家里也可以进行肢体协调的训练。
再过了几个月的时间，我们发现Brandy的肢体协调有很大的进步，手脚也灵活了许多。以前看起来肢体不太协调，现在甚至可以骑脚踏车了。再来就是她比较能够听从指示，自控能力也有明显的进步。以前在课堂上大闹的情况也较少了。一直到她上小学一年级时，由于学校人数太多，加上老师没有经验管教有学习、行为等困难的学生，我们决定让Brandy到一间私人的、且是为了这些特殊孩子而设立的学校上课。此外，我们也增加她在A Zon上课的时间，希望可以双管齐下，大家一起配合，让孩子的机能有所提升。
不知不觉，Brandy接受疗育课程已经快2年了。比起之前，她在多个方面都有进步。她的自控能力变好了，不再会有乱发脾气、乱丢东西的情况。而且我们发现她的认知能力也提高了，她可以理解并接受我们对她作出的一些解释与道理，并服从规矩。在社交方面，因自控能力与沟通表达能力变好，所以社交能力也提升了。在和其他小朋友玩耍时也比较规矩、礼让。由于专注力有改善，再配合她在学校的学习，她的学习能力也渐渐提升，在学习数学概念、时间观念等方面都有明显进步。对于她的进步，我们真的是很高兴。我知道我们已经是迟了一些让她接受早期疗育课程，但是，我们一样要坚持去帮助她。我也很感谢A Zon和学校的帮助与教导，让Brandy有所成长。
想对其他家长说的话…
我想和其他家长分享寻求专业帮助或疗育要趁早，不要拖延。我们身边的人往往会对我们说孩子还小，不需要太紧张。但是，如果我们没能及早发现孩子的问题，那么我们就会错过让他们接受早期疗育的黄金时期。当然最重要的还是要面对及接受孩子的问题。如果证实了孩子有学习或发展障碍，或者他们必须要上特殊学校，那么身为家长的要学习接受。因为只有接受孩子的问题，我们才会去求助，然后，孩子才会得到适合的帮助。可能部分家长的心理障碍源自于社会对这些特别孩子的眼光。其实，并不是所有学习或发展障碍的孩子都是我们所谓的“不正常”的孩子。总而言之，孩子是自己的，如果家长不能勇敢的踏出第一步去寻求帮助，那么还有谁可以帮助孩子呢？
My daughter, Brandy, is 8 years old now. When she was 4 years old, kindergarten teachers commented that she is very active and not able to sit still in class, and thus, she could not learn attentively. In addition, she had bad temper and displayed her tantrum (i.e. throwing things) frequently. We were eager to look for solution or professional recommendation for her problems. We tried to search for information through internet and various websites but the results weren’t very satisfying. We either found information about overseas intervention programs or other irrelevant content from local websites. When Brandy was 6 years old, and we talked to our new neighbors on parenting issues, we found that the neighbor’s son was encountering similar problems as Brandy. But the son was receiving intervention to help in reducing his problems. They encouraged us to seek for help from A ZonEducare Advisory. Without hesitation, we made an appointment for consultation with the consulting psychologist in A Zon. After consultation, we decided to enroll Brandy in the intervention course.
It was a tough time for everyone during the initial sessions. Brandy threw tantrum easily and she wasn’t compliant with instructions. The instructors often took a longer time and greater effort to calm her during the sessions. After a few months of continuous intervention, Brandy has gradually settled down and was more cooperative. However, her functional skills such as body coordination, communication, and self-control ability were inadequate. Hence, we also cooperated with A Zon for the Home Support System and trained Brandy at home. The father even tailor-made a balancing beam so that we could train her body coordination and balancing at home.
A few months later, we noticed great improvement in Brandy’s body coordination; she could even ride a bicycle. In addition, she could listen and follow instructions; her self-control ability had improved. Temper tantrums in classes had been reduced as well. When she entered primary school (Standard 1), teachers encountered difficulty to handle her behavior due to lack of professional experience and inability to pay more attention to Brandy. We transferred her to another private school which specially caters to children with learning difficulties. Furthermore, we increased the intervention lesson in A Zon in order to improve her functional skills.
Brandy has been receiving intervention for about 2 years now. Her functional skills in several areas have improved compared to her previous performance. Besides her improvement in self-control and her temper, we noticed that her cognitive ability has also improved. She can now easily understand and accept rules as well as explanation. In terms of social interaction, her ability has improved as a result of her better self-control and communication skills. She is able to follow rules, being tolerant during play. As her attention improves, her learning ability shows improvement as well (e.g learning about concepts such as math, time, etc.). We are glad that she has shown such improvement. We know that she is late in receiving early intervention at the age of 6, but we will continue to provide her any help and support. We would like to thank A Zon and the school for their teaching and guidance.
Words for other parents...
I would like to share with other parents, not to procrastinate but to seek for professional help as soon as possible. People we interact with tend to console us not to worry too much as our child is still young. However, if we are ignorant and fail to detect the child’s difficulties at a young age, we might lose the window of opportunity for early intervention. Most importantly, parents have to face and accept the child’s difficulties. If our child has been diagnosed with learning or other developmental disorders, or our child has to go to a special school due to his or her difficulties, we have to accept the fact. Only if we can accept our child’s condition, then we would take action and seek for professional help. In this way, the child would benefit from getting the necessary help such as intervention and special school placement. I understand that some parents are afraid of stereotyping or discrimination from society. In fact, children with learning or developmental difficulties are not “abnormal”; they just need special treatment and more care and attention from us. In short, if parents are unwilling to take the initiative to seek for help, there is no one who can help our children.
受访者 Interviewee： 美蔞（Brandy）妈妈 ~ 于18.5.2013
It was a tough time for everyone during the initial sessions. Brandy threw tantrum easily and she wasn’t compliant with instructions. The instructors often took a longer time and greater effort to calm her during the sessions. After a few months of continuous intervention, Brandy has gradually settled down and was more cooperative. However, her functional skills such as body coordination, communication, and self-control ability were inadequate. Hence, we also cooperated with A Zon for the Home Support System and trained Brandy at home. The father even tailor-made a balancing beam so that we could train her body coordination and balancing at home.
A few months later, we noticed great improvement in Brandy’s body coordination; she could even ride a bicycle. In addition, she could listen and follow instructions; her self-control ability had improved. Temper tantrums in classes had been reduced as well. When she entered primary school (Standard 1), teachers encountered difficulty to handle her behavior due to lack of professional experience and inability to pay more attention to Brandy. We transferred her to another private school which specially caters to children with learning difficulties. Furthermore, we increased the intervention lesson in A Zon in order to improve her functional skills.
Brandy has been receiving intervention for about 2 years now. Her functional skills in several areas have improved compared to her previous performance. Besides her improvement in self-control and her temper, we noticed that her cognitive ability has also improved. She can now easily understand and accept rules as well as explanation. In terms of social interaction, her ability has improved as a result of her better self-control and communication skills. She is able to follow rules, being tolerant during play. As her attention improves, her learning ability shows improvement as well (e.g learning about concepts such as math, time, etc.). We are glad that she has shown such improvement. We know that she is late in receiving early intervention at the age of 6, but we will continue to provide her any help and support. We would like to thank A Zon and the school for their teaching and guidance.
Words for other parents...
I would like to share with other parents, not to procrastinate but to seek for professional help as soon as possible. People we interact with tend to console us not to worry too much as our child is still young. However, if we are ignorant and fail to detect the child’s difficulties at a young age, we might lose the window of opportunity for early intervention. Most importantly, parents have to face and accept the child’s difficulties. If our child has been diagnosed with learning or other developmental disorders, or our child has to go to a special school due to his or her difficulties, we have to accept the fact. Only if we can accept our child’s condition, then we would take action and seek for professional help. In this way, the child would benefit from getting the necessary help such as intervention and special school placement. I understand that some parents are afraid of stereotyping or discrimination from society. In fact, children with learning or developmental difficulties are not “abnormal”; they just need special treatment and more care and attention from us. In short, if parents are unwilling to take the initiative to seek for help, there is no one who can help our children.
受访者 Interviewee： 美蔞（Brandy）妈妈 ~ 于18.5.2013
