Three non-governmental organizations have collaborated to train classroom and special education teachers on teaching special-needs students. The training will run from August 19 to 28 at the Derrick Smith School and Vocational Center in Barbados. The three NGOs are the Achievement Learning Center (ALC) of Dominica, My Child and I Charity, and the Little Sunshine Early Stimulation Center.
The initiative was sown when My Child and I together with Little Sunshine Early Stimulation Center organized training workshops for parents of the ALC in January 2018 after Hurricane Maria. Following the success of this programme, the facilitators agreed to invite teachers of the ALC for further training on special education in Barbados. This fact was disclosed by Francine Charles of the My Child and I organization.
The Barbados programme also involved special education teachers working with special-needs children, as well as normal classroom teachers and schoolchildren in Barbados. It was not easy coming about because of the difficulty obtaining initial funds in the face of other logistics, but eventually, sponsorships came from the Dominica American Relief and Development Association (DARDRA), the Maria Holder Memorial Trust, and the Sandy Lane Charitable Trust.
The workshop exposed teachers to the Developmental, Individual Differences, Relationship model and the Functional Emotional Developmental Levels model (DIR/FEDL) originally developed by Dr. Serena Wieder and late Dr. Stanley Greenspan. The DIR model centers on the assessments, interventions and interactions required to develop children with special needs; and the FEDL model centers on understanding the physical and intellectual abilities of special-needs children.
Meanwhile, occupational therapists, speech therapists, and other professional experts also exposed the participating teachers to –
- Movement-based learning activities
- Communications strategies in the classroom
- Student transitions
- Supporting difficult behaviors
- Teacher-based portfolio assessment
- Differentiated teaching
- Floor time strategies,
- Classroom set up and environment
ALC Principal Rhonda Celaire revealed teachers who attended the workshop will pass on their training to those who could not attend.
“I learnt new concepts on how to deal with students with special needs and the different strategies to employ when dealing with students with special needs,” said Dianne John, one of the teachers who participated in the workshop. “I had the opportunity to meet other teachers who work in the same field and was able to share the different challenges we face in the classrooms and how we overcome them.”
Another participant, Liesar Lewis, said she learned a lot from the workshop, adding the training opened her eyes to the functional abilities of children with special needs, their different sensory profiles, ways to transition in the class, as well as self- and safety checks among other self-intervention strategies.
This article is copyright © 2019 DOM767
