Remedial & Special education blog

We have a new school listed on the RemSpecED website:

The SpiritedKidZ LearnsPace is a full service school which caters for children with mild to moderate learning support needs. The child’s IDP includes the academic goals as well as the therapeutic objectives. The school offers one-on-one teaching approach with daily therapies (occupational therapy, speech therapy and physiotherapy) in addition to art, music and guided reading. Each child has their own teacher who is trained in each child’s specialised program. We offer the service of training your facilitator or we can introduce you to suitable SACE registered teachers. The school offers education, exchange forums and financial guidance to the families with special needs children.

Full details here.

If you would like to have your school, product or practice listed on RemSpecED – South Africa’s leading remedial & special education resource – please e-mail sales@rival.co.za and our team will assist you in putting something together.

One of my greatest concerns is that: denial that there is a bit of a problem often robs a child of early intervention. It is alarming that over the past 10+ years I have heard nursery and pre-school teachers claim that they always knew there was something developmentally not up to par with a child, but they did not inform the parents as they were concerned that the parents would:

a) think they are a bad teacher

b) blame the school and remove the child from the school (not the most ethical of concerns!)

c) blame it on a personality clash and do nothing about it…

So the problem is left because the first time the parent is told there is a difficulty is in the 2nd term of grade 1, and then they do think the teacher is crazy – because hey! There was no problem at pre-school. It is then shelved till mid grade 2 when the next teacher picks up the delay, and the child’s self esteem is taking strain because the child can see there is a problem.

Yes, high horse but it has been a real experience over the past years, and where better to raise it? But it is not only the preshool teachers, it also comes down to sound parenting. In almost all cases, the parents already know that something is not quite the same as other children.

So why is early intervention important?

a) the less developed the brain and body; the more opportunity there is to optimise development in the right direction.

b) the older the child the more “bad habit” coping strategies (stiff pencil grasp, etc) they adopt. Now the “bad habit” needs to be kicked before new ones can become habitual… Ever try stopping smoking???

c) economically this means a shorter duration of intervention, which costs less.

d) intervention happens befor self esteem is really impacted.

Do you have any opinions?

South African Remedial & Special Education resource RemSpecED (www.remspeced.co.za) is now on Twitter. We will be providing updates on article links, blog posts, teaching and therapy jobs and other related topics.

If you would like to follow us on Twitter please go to – https://twitter.com/RemSpecED

If you would like to contact us regarding the RemSpecED website or about the RemSpecED therapy centre in Gauteng then please e-mail paula@remspeced.co.za or contact Marc on 082-561-1585.

We look forward to engaging with South African therapists, teachers and other medical professionals to continue to establish ourselves as a premium resource for all stakeholders.

We look forward to hearing from you and would like to remind therapists who wish to submit expert articles to the site to please e-mail newsdesk@rival.co.za or via Paula’s RemSpecED e-mail address above.