30th Dec 2017 is a memorable day as Accelerated Child Development Center in partnership with Made4U Events mounted its first Special Needs Awareness Seminar, a step towards making our dream of spreading Awareness for Special Needs a reality, bringing our Ateneo LSE Biz Plan to life ~ establishing a Therapy Center for Kids with Special Needs.

We have grand plans for the future like establishing a support group or network for parents and teachers, full-scale school equivalent to a normal school of Kinder to College and empowering them to have life skills so that they will be able to have a source of income in the future, and a lot more.

But all these grand plans need to start with 2 small steps:

1. The Awareness Seminar – the first one was held last Dec 30 and we will do more in the future.
2. The actual putting up of the Therapy Center – Renovation is in progress and it is on-track.  In fact, this is where we held the Awareness Seminar.

The next challenge will be hiring the Specialists and Teachers who will help us in this endeavour.

During the Awareness Seminar, the following topics were discussed:

1) Understanding Autism
– Signs and Red Flags to watch out for
– Tips on Managing Children w/ Special Needs

2) Customized Money Management – why is money management important and relevant to this seminar when we are talking about Special Needs

3) Parents Personal Sharing

My Key Learnings from the Speakers:

1. I super loved Teacher Tin’s last slide – there is no manual but it is about a parent’s enormous capacity to love and never give up on the child.  This just not applies to children with special needs but to all children and as Managers our associates and subordinates are our children whom we need to provide love, attention and guidance.
2. Jovan’s slides on average monthly income of Filipinos based on 2015 survey (22,000Php) and comparing that with the minimum monthly cost of therapy assuming once a week session (9,000Php) was very powerful to visually show how expensive the costs entailed in supporting the therapy sessions and the need to manage our finances – increasing our income and decreasing our expenses.
3. Daddy Teddy’s personal sharing touched my heart that left me crying while trying to capture the essence of his short talk that revolved around 4 Key Words:

• Acceptance – It all begins with the parents and siblings accepting the special child as a precious gift from God and there is a reason why they were entrusted with this gift.  Powerful words: “Count the love and not the costs.”
• Understanding – Researching and understanding the needs of the special child (physically, physiologically, etc.) and also ensuring that the siblings understand the situation and their sibling’s special needs.
• Involvement – The whole family needs to be involved and support each other.  The siblings have specific tasks in taking care of their sibling with special needs – this makes the siblings become more responsible and will ensure a bond that will transcend through time and be there for each other.
• Confidence Building – When the special child is showered with love and exposed to the public and to other people, he will grow up to be a confident individual who believes in his capabilities and talents.

We are humbled by the overwhelming turn-out and show of support by the people of Negros Occidental taking time off from their busy schedule and attending the seminar instead of spending time with their families.

I salute the parents who attended the event but more so the teachers who wanted to know more about autism and how they can help their students.

We would like to thank our Speakers for travelling all the way to Kabankalan City to share their expertise and experiences.  We would also like to thank Perle Dragon and Melissa Joan who donated the story book “Christmas with the Pickles” which we gave out to the attendees of the event.  We will be forever grateful for your support in this endeavour.  Looking forward to your future support. 🙂

Watch out for future events and activities and the opening of our Therapy Center – Accelerated Child Development Center.

Please follow our FB page and blog for updates:

Facebook: Smiles 4 Autism

Blog: An Awe-tistic Journey

Sharing with you some pictures of the event.