Based on the proceedings of the conference, I will be giving a couple of 1.5 hour talk among selected staff who are responsible for managing and providing interventions to autism and other special needs cases.
The following are the topics to be discussed:
Workshop A
(morning)
Adressing children
with special needs in the classroom: Inclusion as an extension of good teaching
practices
When we hear the
phrase “special needs”, we often imagine children with hyperactivity disorder,
autism, mental retardation, learning disabilities and other clinical deficiencies.
But, have you ever realized that, in one way or another, all of us are people
with special needs? In this discoursive and interactive workshop, we will
attempt to reframe our paradigms about special needs and related concepts such
as accomodation, inclusion and special education. We will tackle fundamental
concepts of special education and how they apply to the regular classroom.
Ultimately, this discourse will, hopefully, bring all of us to the realization
that addressing children with special needs is not at all strange to us—It’s
just an extension of good teaching practices.
Workshop B
(afternoon)
Breakthroughs in
Autism Management: emerging modalities in managing autism
With the increasing prevalence
of autism—1:110 in the US and, somewhat close to Asia and other European
countries—applied and theoretical researches are conducted to provide and
evaluate practical and effective modalities in managing autism particularly for
early intervention. In this seminar, special educators, learning support
assistants and teachers, will have a peek at autism management through
different lenses. Emerging technologies in speech and language pathology,
dietetics, optometry, audiology, behavioural science, psychotherapy and health
and fitness will be presented and discussed.
There might be a greatly diverse discussion during the conference but by looking at themes and focusing on essential issues revolving autism, I hope that these workshops will benefit participants in gaining a better and more enlightened perspective about autism. ]
In the end, we are not actually working with autism. We are working with children with autism.
