Child Development: Support Services for Children with Special Learning Disabilities & School Social Service in Nursery Schools
The Hong Kong Council of Social Service (HKCSS) invited around 20 Caring Company representatives to participate in a community visit on 23 May 2008. This community visit, sponsored by the S.F. Express (Hong Kong) Limited, aims at providing an opportunity for representatives from various business sectors to know more about the importance and necessity of child development and to inspire the participants to generate ideas of possible cooperation with social welfare organisations. The cooperation would contribute substantially to a healthy environment for children to grow up.
The participants firstly visited the Caritas Jockey Club Integrated Service for Young People – Tak Tin (with coach service) centre to know more about the Supportive Services for children with Special Learning Disabilities (SLD) Scheme collaborated between Caritas and Johnson & Johnson (Hong Kong) Limited. Children with SLD are intellectually normal, but they face tremendous pressure originating from the hardship in learning and communication, hindering much of exploring their talents. The disadvantaged families often fail to arrange children with SLD to receive official assessment and professional training on a timely basis.
In view of this, the Scheme has been mainly tailored for the disadvantaged families who have children with SLD with the aim to build up confidence and to bring hope not only to children with SLD, but also to their parents. The Scheme stresses out the importance for both children with SLD and parents to face daily challenges together in an optimistic way. Complemented with individual tailor-made academic support, emotional counseling service and multiple intelligences training, children with SLD can grow healthily.
The participants then visited the Caritas Yau Tong Nursery School to know more about the 2-year project titled “School Social Service for Nursery Schools”, supported by the Lee Hysan Foundation and run by Caritas Hong Kong starting from last year in Yau Tong district. Many parents are unable to perform their parental duties due to stress from the fast-pace society and financial pressure. Most of them are not aware of the assistance available for them in the community. However, School Social Workers can provide complementary and supportive services to parents, to help the families to cope with family stress and to prevent family crisis on a timely basis.
The School Social Workers stated that students at Yau Tong district are from families characterized by low monthly income, low education levels, dual-employed or single parents, often newly-migrated from Mainland China, and those with special needs. With case sharing of some families, the participants have gained in-depth understanding about the substantial adverse impact on the children development caused by family problems. Timely mediation and intervention from social workers is of paramount importance.
Through this community visit, the participants have much better comprehended the needs of children with SLD and school social services in nursery schools. The business sector is encouraged to donate directly to these social service organisations. Alternatively, corporate volunteer teams can organise visits and activities regularly, joined by friends and relatives. Sharing of children's state of mind helps to build up a close and friendly relationship with children. All these volunteer works give positive impact on child development.
Sponsored by:
The Caring Company representatives know more about the children with SLD
The Children Play Therapy Room is crucial for children with SLD