Back to uni taking my postgraduate in Early Childhood Education, I encountered the term whole school approach. Whole school approach simply means all levels of workforce in a school should work hand in hand together to reach a common goal, to solve a common problem and most importantly, to support its teachers.
My question is -- Is this working in the school you are in? Not for me...
Recently, I was working on a suspected special child case. The child isn't the worst I've seen, but definitely a difficult one. He was not making any eye contact at all, never responds when his name is called, can hardly follow simple instructions and doesn't understand the concept of discipline. He still babbles at the age of 2 years 6 months with NO CLEAR WORD at all coming out of his mouth, meaning he is not picking up the sounds he's been hearing.
I was told that the child is just spoiled and I should not bother myself observing him. That even if he is diagnosed, it will not make any difference since he will still be in my class. I fought my way to the management and was given a chance to prove my case. I made a journal, created an assessment worksheet based on the readings I've made, took pictures and videos of the child in class. I was surprised that after all these, responsibility has been passed on from one level of management to another. I finally decided to talk to the parents, and the child has recently been diagnosed with multiple behavioural, attention and speech problems.
Due to all the delays created by the management people, the child is now due to move up to preschool. I told the management that the child is not ready. This is what I was told -- The parents agreed to it, they will be paying more money since the child is attending five days of preschool. It's time to pass the responsibility to them, Dana. It's no longer your problem.
Whole school approach? Where is it?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
That must be really frustrating, but it sounds like you've done everything you can. I've had a number of those kids over the years and I've found that parents often have to hear it a number of times from a number of people before they buy it. There's a certain amount of denial they have to work through because of the stigma attached to an autism spectrum diagnosis.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I love teaching those kids, especially when parents work with me by teaching me the "tricks" they've learned to get through to their child.