Thursday

Photos include pictures of the mall -the 1st photos, posted on Tuesday,of the view from our window were of this area. We are surrounded by huge malls. This particular area above is lined both sides by eateries which spill out onto the street. Our friend Lisa owns one of these- Thai Express. She has been our guide and driver thankfully.

Today was spent holding workshops for those who will be running the Gross Motor and Fine Motor Programs we are introducing. Believe it or not this will be done by their Physiotherapists who spend their day treating the many children with cerebral palsy. These men and women are doing an amazing job!! There are a few children who were unable to move at all, but as a result of their dedicated therapy twice a day are now able to use their upper limbs to drag themselves around. Others are beginning to open their hands from a clenched fist when encouraged. They seem keen to be involved in other ways at The Home.

For those of you that know me and my passion for special needs you will know I really do explain things too quickly to adults. For any parent that has been to my workshops at home it is full on, so you could imagine what it has been like today for these wonderful people.....ARRRR ! The language difficulty- Tamil and Bahasa Malay as well as English, the non -teaching background. The culture means they are a quiet, reserved, respectful people and then there is ME ! It has been a great day. We have given them a crash course on how the brain processes information, children's learning difficulties within a learning environment, methodology in general,teaching strategies and programming. We even had a parent, not connected with the home, hear about the workshops and ask to attend. Tomorrow I will be presenting workshops in Literacy and Numeracy to teaching staff as well.

Next week is still to be decided after we meet with The Home's trustees, committee, and volunteers on Saturday. Yesterday we felt there wasn't much to do next week but after today I am sure there is 'much' to do !!! The Physiotherapists have requested we demonstrate our Gross Motor and Fine Motor programs each day showing them how to manage, organise and encourage the childrens' participation. I am sure after tomorrow the Teachers will want the same !!!

PS we were going out to buy a baby gym tonight but miraculously one was in their donation box today!! We had assessed the children with Cerebral palsy yesterday and believed a few may be capable of tracking and grasping at objects and wanted just this.God is good!!! even better two children did just what we thought they would.
We are now off to Toys r Us to buy equipment !!!

Wednesday

It has been another busy 2 days.
On Wednesday we spent the morning visiting a Special Education Centre for high school aged children.
This was a very big centre with many programs in place for the students.(above photos include their tomato green house and dragon fruit) The staff there have recently visited Melbourne to view 2 schools and their Educational programs, and an industrial workplace( corporation) which employs young adults with special needs. The woman who co-ordinates the programs at this centre is amazing ! She is battling 'the system' to create a better life for Malaysian children and their families. These children must sit the same exams as everyone else and complete the same curriculum. I was as impressed by her programs as I am by those of my friend's at Prairiewwod High and those at Mater Dei. My comment to her was, the only thing she lacked was our facilities and equipment.She didn't need our advice! She would like us to arrange visits for her!
Life is hard here for these children. Her school is difficult to get into, there is a waiting list and if placed she requires all parents to be involved.They have raised 200,000 Ringgits in the last year( about $80,000) but crime and theft is high. A few days before we visited, all their hospitality equipment was stolen. Everything and anything movable that could be taken was taken! It is so bad that when we window shopped at one of their biggest centres last night there was security guards with shotguns slung across their chests.
They are also about to attend a conference with 600 representatives from the education and welfare fields to try and persuade the government to allow assistive communication (boardmaker style communication pictures etc) in Malaysia as currently educators are not allowed to introduce them into the school environment. We are about to introduce them into the home which does not have to follow these rules. If The Home's children arrive with them then it is allowed.

The afternoon was spent back at The Home and by 5pm we were exhausted. We spent our time with the children in different ways - reading stories, counting and naming numbers etc, showing them how to play elastics, throw,catch and roll a ball in a variety of ways. This involved showing them how to take turns, line-up, and make a circle. There was lots of excitement for the children who had not done this before, probably too much!!

KL Early Days yet !!

Hi all,
Sorry, I have been a bit slow getting to the Blog! But we have not stopped since our arrival in KL and now it is Wednesday morning.

We left Sydney airport at 2pm and arrived in KL after 8pm. Reached the hotel at about 10pm where we were met by Baskin, the gentleman that manages the orphanage. There was some confusion over our room bookings but finally headed up to the rooms only to find they were still not right. On our way back down to correct this we had our next visitor, Lisa our sponsor and good friend. I won't continue on suffice to say it became a very late night by the time we unpacked clothes and organised our teaching gear !!

Tuesday arrived and we were taken to The Pusat at 9.30am expecting to visit the children's schools so we were all dressed neatly ready to go. Unfortunately this didn't happen. Instead we spent a very busy day at the home which is spread over 3 sites- which in Australian terms equates to 3 small home sites/ terraces. These house about 140 children plus carer's.We spent the day with the children who do not attend school. They are children with severe autism, down's syndrome, cerebral palsy and global developmental delay. We left the home at 6pm. Not sure who was the more exhausted us or the adults there.


Will post more later as we are now off to the Home. Time is am !! Photos were taken from our hotel room. Jessica and Tracey's room faces the front of the Hotel.

George's Music

Hi all,

George's Music is beginning to take off !!
If you'd like to have a listen to some of his current music, written and composed by him, then .....
click on the title of this post
..... and it will link you to his ' reverbnation' music site. He could really do with your support ...so have a listen, even become a fan.

Love Lynne

Our trip to Kuala Lumpa

Well, we had our 2nd and last meeting with Lisa our sponsor/facilitator for our visit to the 'Pusat' in KL. We leave for Malaysia on Monday week and are beginning to get excited.
There will be so much to do when we arrive. We are touring the children's schools on Tuesday, both State schools and special needs schools. We are also visiting with one particular Special Needs teacher and her class who is keen to meet with us.
Other days will be spent at the Home with teaching staff developing some simple Literacy, Numeracy, communication, Gross and Fine motor programs and livening up the rooms.
George will be sourcing info from Local authorities for licensing of 'sheltered workshops', and helping to organise a charity concert for next year when we return.
.... And yes we will be doing the tourist thing as well!!! Lisa, our sponsor, will be taking us on some day trips -Malacha, Batu Caves, the Night Markets, Chinatown etc.