Remedial education in Singapore

[Esha]

Am looking for help. is there any institution or school that specialises in remedial education as an add-on to regular schooling for children with learning disabilities? For a child who is so high-functioning that she is unfit for special schooling and yet has difficulty in keeping up at regular school because she has a learning disability?

[micknlea]

Dover court has special education needs for children with learning disabilities of varying capacities alongside mainstream classes, they integrate for many subjects as well. My children are both high functioning but with learning delays etc and they do well there. It is a fairly small school as well, making it a little less daunting than some of the others.
Suggest you check out their website, it may not be too up to date with some of the info, but it is all accurate. It may be worth talking to them.

http://www.dovercourt.edu.sg/

There are also many other places here that offer additional tutoring etc, but could be pricey from what I have gathered.

[Esha]

Thanks Micknlea, checking it out right now. I realise purely remedial education is hard to come by everywhere! And expensive too.

[kaurikid]

Special ed is pretty bsaic here.
Brain Train has good tutors and specialists

[skye]

SAS and Tanglin both have good learning support delivered by specialist teachers within the mainstream curriculum if that is the type of support you need. If your child would struggle to cope in mainstream school, Dover Court is your best bet. "Remedial" isn't a term you will find used, "learning support" is what you will see referred to on the school websites. In addition, there are many private groups like Enigma Variations, Brain Train etc offering specialist learning support outside schools.

[ksl]

Am looking for help. is there any institution or school that specialises in remedial education as an add-on to regular schooling for children with learning disabilities? For a child who is so high-functioning that she is unfit for special schooling and yet has difficulty in keeping up at regular school because she has a learning disability?

I think one must be very careful, not to be so judgemental, in many instances even so called experts have made very bad assumptions on children, from child abuse to god knows what else.

I sympathise with your situation, because my young 5 year old, was amazingly difficult for me, with her tantrums, and mummy didn't help by giving into her all the time. but the problem seem to have solved itself, by getting her more involved in activities, she wants to do. I found it very hard to satisfy her social needs at home, and couldn't keep her occupied for such along period.

It appears she is quicker than we realise, and does the Abacus course at 5 and goes to English reading, ballet, swimming, all after a long day in childcare, and really she loves the child care and doesn't want to come home, unless she has a course to attend.

The magic thing that happend, is she is well behaved now, and goes to bed, without any problem, she seems content, and knows what she wants to do, and it isn't the things her mum and dad want her to do.

Hyperactive kids, are always demanding, and i see to many parents, that say, the kids suffering from some form of disorder, which is a very sad and dangerous assumption, when its probably the parents, like myself, that are pulling at straws to find out whats wrong.

Maybe your child just doesn't want to learn just yet or she is not interested in the subjects you want her/him to be interested in!

I sympathise with you, but look at other alternatives, maybe like the Rudolf Steiner ways. It worked well for my child, to let her decide, what she wants to do.

The trueth of the matter is she would like mum and dad, to be home together more, which is impossible here in Singapore, with the working hours. Mum working a 12 hour day 6 days a week, is not really the answer to any childs welfare, and niether is passing the problem to a nanny, like most do. and all I hear is that it is the Asian culture to work 12 hrs.

[Esha]

[Maybe your child just doesn't want to learn just yet or she is not interested in the subjects you want her/him to be interested in!

The trueth of the matter is she would like mum and dad, to be home together more, which is impossible here in Singapore, with the working hours. Mum working a 12 hour day 6 days a week, is not really the answer to any childs welfare, and niether is passing the problem to a nanny, like most do. and all I hear is that it is the Asian culture to work 12 hrs.]

Its nothing like this at all, this is a child with a well-diagnosed pervasive developmental disorder but a high functioning one, with full time parental [mother] care. If no extra support is available by way of a sound remedial system for math etc, I'd rather not relocate to Singapore! No matter how lucrative the offer is. As for Asians working 12 hours, I'm from India and that is not so, its a personal choice. Yes we are used to staff, maids etc but not necessarily because we want to go out to work.

Thanks everyone, for your suggestions, I'm checking out the schools mentioned in your responses. It feels nice that all of you are concerned and responded so quickly.

[micknlea]

I do hope that you find something that will suit your family needs. There are quite a few opportunities here to look into.
It is a difficult situation to be in and makes decisions like moving countries even harder. Good luck in your search and with your final decision.

[ksl]

[Maybe your child just doesn't want to learn just yet or she is not interested in the subjects you want her/him to be interested in!

The trueth of the matter is she would like mum and dad, to be home together more, which is impossible here in Singapore, with the working hours. Mum working a 12 hour day 6 days a week, is not really the answer to any childs welfare, and niether is passing the problem to a nanny, like most do. and all I hear is that it is the Asian culture to work 12 hrs.]

Its nothing like this at all, this is a child with a well-diagnosed pervasive developmental disorder but a high functioning one, with full time parental [mother] care. If no extra support is available by way of a sound remedial system for math etc, I'd rather not relocate to Singapore! No matter how lucrative the offer is. As for Asians working 12 hours, I'm from India and that is not so, its a personal choice. Yes we are used to staff, maids etc but not necessarily because we want to go out to work.

Thanks everyone, for your suggestions, I'm checking out the schools mentioned in your responses. It feels nice that all of you are concerned and responded so quickly.

No matter how lucrative the offer is. As for Asians working 12 hours, I'm from India and that is not so, its a personal choice. Yes we are used to staff, maids etc but not necessarily because we want to go out to work.

I'm delighted you say that, I can now show the response to my Chinese in laws. I agree with you, that we do have choice, but me being a westerner, doesn't make it any easier, they never listen. I wasn't really pointing fingers, I am well aware that choice comes into it, but when you have stubborn-in-laws, that say 12 hrs is the norm.

What does one do! I mean i wouldn't mind if they were productive in 12 hrs, I could certainly encourage the employees to be productive and give them a day off. But that would be me pokeing my nose in.

I feel that slavery went out of fashion long ago, and that employees, should be looked after, if they are worth looking after, by that i mean they should be rewarded for effort, and not used. No offence intended. good luck!

[skye]

Hi Esha, Forgot about Waldorf- Steiner as my child is a lot older. There is a WS style pre-school somewhere in the East Coast area, set up I believe by a group of mums. It only went up to about 6 when we arrived here a couple of years ago so it was already too late for us but if your child is younger, it may be worth contacting them for more info. My child is at Tanglin Trust and while we have our ups and downs, they have been mostly supportive. At one point when our child was having more difficulties that usual (she has AS) they organised a teaching assistant to help her in the classroom for part of the week at extra cost to us. It helped a lot and we have gradually weaned her off that extra support. I have also heard good things about the American School. Life is full of stresses when you have a child with a developmental disorder but Singapore isn't a bad place to live. The good thing about International Schooling is that I think the children are more accepting of differences than in our local school back home.

[Esha]

Thanks Skye... am talking about AS too!. Will follow up for sure.
Hey KSL, no offence taken. Life's tough for all of us wherever we are. In Canada more corporates are kind-of accepting of the idea of job sharing for women, and in India too, hope the same happens in Singapore. Its great for Moms to share jobs; but if a Mom is very career driven, I think the opportunities for growth may not come as easily. Family support in any case, means so much!
Aspergers is hard to handle for parents too. Are there support groups for parents, anyone?? Altho at this point this is not my primary need.
I'd ideally like to see remedial or support learning side by side with regular school.

[micknlea]

Hi Esha, have sent you a PM about local AS group, hope you can read it. let me know if you can't. You need one more post to do a pm reply I think.

[Esha]

Lea, I don't know how to thank you. Got your PM, very, very encouraging! I could not PM you, not enough posts. Am going to mail them....
I'll let you know as things progress. Thanks again.

[micknlea]

You should be able to PM now as you have 5 posts made.

If you don't get an immediate reply from them please pm me your details and I will try to get you some more information.

[Esha]

Hi All
I made a trip to Singapore and checked out lots of stuff. Not too happy with what was available from the supportive education angle, but the move to Singapore seems inevitable, so am going to keep at it. Meanwhile am taking courses myself so that if all else fails I'll be able to do the best I can for my child for the few years that we'll be there.