Independence and Dignity

Please read this interesting article about how a learning disabled person, Johari Jamali, of United Voice, managed to climb the slope of slow learning and negative public perception to head the first self advocacy group to prove a point: that it is not impossible to cross into the realm of normal living if there is both a will and an opportunity.

The will comes from the disabled person, his family and his trainers. The opportunity comes from society and prospective employers. On the eve of our 54th Merdeka Day celebration let us be mindful that even the disabled people in our midst long for independence as well, and to have it with dignity, not sympathy. At PBSNS we aim to provide both and hopefully to also set up a similar advocacy group for our clients to spur them forward.

Early Intervention Help Restore Self Esteem

Below I've captured some encouraging advice for parents of children with learning disabilities. You can read the whole article HERE.

“Learning disability is confirmed if a child scores high on the IQ test but does badly in the achievement test,” says Dr Ting. It is well documented that some of the high-achieving personalities such as Albert Einstein and Sir Richard Branson have suffered from some form of learning disability such as dyslexia.

“Parents must understand that most children with learning disabilities have the cognitive ability to learn,” explains Dr Ting. Given the right remedial programme, she said children with learning disabilities stand the chance of being on-par with the rest of their classmates.

“As the reading skill is a pre-requisite for students to learn many subjects in school , it is imperative that an early intervention programme is administered on those who are found to have dyslexia,” she reiterates.

She also recommends that children with learning disability undergo psychotherapy as some of them may suffer from damaged self-esteem.

Common Signs of Learning Disabilities

I wish draw your attention to THIS article that appeared in today's newsreel. I believe it is relevant and important to connect to this report to help us better understand what LD is and is not. LD has NOTHING to do with intelligence. To suggest that people with LD are 'stupid' is uncaring and even rude. Children with LD tend to have the following traits:

1. Slow to speak
2. Poor eye and hand coordination
3. Poor hearing and understanding skills
4. Slow to understand mathematical concepts
5. Slow readers
6. Tires easily
7. Difficulty in recognising space

Early intervention will help the child with LD overcome his difficulties earlier.

LD Tell Tale Signs

In THIS news report the writer revealed signs in young children who may be learning disabled soon. Early detection will allow parents and caregivers timely intervention to help these children overcome their disabilities sooner than later. Here are some signs.

In young children

Red flags in preschool-age children:

• Pronunciation problems.
• Slow vocabulary growth.
• Trouble finding the right word.
• Trouble learning numbers, the alphabet or the days of the week.
• Extreme restlessness, a very short attention span and a poor ability to follow directions or routines.

As they get older

Red flags in elementary school-age children and older:

• Reversals of letters and words when learning to read.
• Failure to pay attention to details or making careless mistakes in schoolwork.
• Difficulty sustaining attention.
• Difficulty following through on instructions and failure to finish schoolwork.
• Seems very disorganized and/or often loses important things.
• Has trouble reading charts and maps.
• Has difficulty mastering number knowledge (e.g. recognition of quantities without counting).
• Has difficulty with learning and memorizing basic addition and subtraction facts.
• Has difficulty learning strategic counting principles (e.g. by 2, 5, 10, 100).
• Poorly aligns numbers, resulting in computation errors.

If you know of a family member, a neighbor's child, or a child of a church member or working colleague with any of these signs, you can point them to the possibility of LD.

Anxieties of Pending Disabilities

I happened to read this post and would like to share it with you. I believe this is a concern some middle age parents understand and with more people choosing to delay marriage and setting up their families the risk of conceiving a child with disabilities grow. Some would want to get rid of the 'inconvenience' or 'burden' but this particular writer has come to term with the reality. Let me quote from his blog:

And we thought about the possibility of how a disabled sibling burdening the three children now. We reasoned that disabled or not, each sibling should be treated equally and that in itself is the meaning of life.

We could no longer think about the risks. It now became clear of what to do next: forget about amniocentesis. We would keep the pregnancy, whatever it comes to us. There is no longer the need to evaluate the risks. It feels so liberating to us suddenly.

Those of us who do not have any disabled family members may not fully understand the turmoil and anxieties associated with having disabled family members. At best we empathise, at worse we think they can use money to overcome whatever inconvenience they suffer.

In PBSNS we stand in the gap. We see how different families of our trainees deal with them and we see how different trainees respond to the work they are given to do. At the one extreme, we can see how some families love their disabled children; at the other, they silently hope that they will cease to trouble them. It is really sad that some disabled people are written off so easily. They did not ask to be disabled nor did they cause disabilities to be upon them.

Acceptance. This is the key word that families with disabled children ought to consider if they have not. Not to view disability as a curse, a bad omen, troublesome or time consuming, but to see the life within that disabled person and how to involve him or her within the family circle as a living person. Like the example set by the newly installed Yang DiPertuan of Negeri Sembilan (or Yamtuan), Tuanku Muhriz Tuanku Munawir whose youngest son Tunku Alif Hussein Saifuddin is a special child. You can read about the royal family HERE.

Many of us spend our lives being anxious of many issues. Like the blogger above, stopping to think about the risks give him and his wife the opportunity to be free to live a fuller life.

Remember to watch the 2 videoclips. They are powerful and an encouragement to everyone.

A Learning Disabled Susan Boyle Shows the World

How many of us do not know Susan Boyle? The 47 year old unemployed single lady with a learning disability who sang her way into 2nd place at the Britain's Got Talent 2009 Season 3 shows how we tend to write off people with LD as incapable or untalented. You can read more of Susan HERE and HERE. In her own words, Susan said,

"I had a slight disability, but rather than let that rule my life I had to find my abilities and make the most of them instead," she said. "This feels like a good way of making up for that – a very, very enjoyable way of making up for it as well."

Susan also said she was tormented by classmates and beaten by teachers because of her learning disabilities. "I'm just a wee bit slower at picking things up than other people," she said. "So you get left behind in a system that just wants to rush on, you know? That was what I felt was happening to me."

"There was discipline for the sake of discipline back then," Boyle continued. "But it's all very different now. I think teachers are taught to understand children with learning disabilities a lot better."

I just hope that Malaysians will stand up for people in our midst like Susan and help find the hidden talents in them. If you like to listen to the extraordinary rendition of 'I Dreamed a Dream' by Susan please click the link below.

Government Asked to Help Learning Disabled

The Star in its today's edition under 'Friday Reflections' by B.K. Sidhu (Page B2, StarBiz News) appealed to the government to pay more attention to the learning disabled by providing a bigger budget to help them acquire specialised education to overcome, or at least reduce their disabilities that they may develop useful careers. She asked the education minister to 'not miss an important chapter which involves children with learning disabilities and special children.'

She said that 'a child with learning disabilities who is nurtured in the right environment can be a winner'. She gave the examples of Bill Gates and Richard Branson who were diagnosed with dyslexia but they are successful businessmen. Similarly Tom Cruise and Whoppi Goldberg have also done very well in their acting careers.

Sidhu explains that often children with mild dyslexia and Down syndrome are lumped together under learning disabilities, which should be segregated. According to Dr Aili Hanim Hashim, consultant psychiatrist from Universiti Malaya, children with mild learning disabilities can be in normal classrooms.

Sidhu felt that kids with learning disabilities, such as those with mild dyslexia, slow learners, hyperactive and mild intellectual impairment, should be in normal schools but, even if they are there, are often marginalised simply because of the lack of awareness in handling them. As such the government should revamp the education system to make learning disability a priority.

The private sector can also help as part of its corporate responsibility work.

B.K. Sidhu is a deputy news editor of Star.

The Meaning of Money

It has been over a month since I last blogged here. April was a busy month for my family which is why I could not write a post then. Today I found an interesting article in the April issue of the Reader's Digest (US Edition) that I'd like to share here. For more details check HERE.

When asked why he continue to give to charities in tough times, Frank replied that giving is part of our humanity, a manifestation of what is best within us, a capacity to love and sacrifice for others. I think Frank encapsulated his thoughts in the simple but not too obvious fact that our desire to give has been built into our nature but it is the environment and our desire to preserve our selves that often content against that desire. I believe that NOT giving often hurt us more than giving hurt our pockets.

This post is not a solicitation for PBSNS but a request to consider our general and overall management of our wealth.