Inclusion Therapy

Thank you to our Team, Parents, Teachers, Schools, Therapists, and more importantly, our Focus Students we earned the privilege of helping!

With changes and uncertainties in this last year, there have been just as many ups and downs for us as a company, let alone for the children with special needs we support. When faced with challenges, we can only keep moving forward, learn from them and stay true to our purpose at Inclusion Therapy.

This would not have been possible without the trust, effort and support from everyone. We are proud to be Singaporean and even prouder to contribute to this beautiful nation and the people who live in this island we call home.

Happy 56th birthday Singapore!

Singapore experienced it's first of many days without any Covid19 cases reported on October 13, and this is a hopeful sign of further progress to come! As a locally-owned company, Inclusion Therapy feels privileged by the government, when we resumed operations in June 2020, and along with our clients who required our support, with out whom, we would not have been operational. It is also a sign of the uphill climb of rebuilding we have ahead as a nation for the next year or two.

To further support this, Inclusion Therapy has discounted its fees for Inclusion Support rendered between January 2021 to December 2021, for all inquiries* from now until December 31, 2020.

*Parents can contact us via email at [email protected] to arrange for a free-of-charge, non-obligatory consultation meeting.

We celebrate Inclusion Therapy's 8th anniversary today! It is hard to imagine we would be posting this message 8 years later, in what appears to be and we hope, is the end of a global pandemic. As always, we take the time to look back at what we have accomplished, and it is a good reminder of the work we have ahead of us, as there is never a destination.

The situation in Singapore is gradually improving, and we look forward to resuming our face to face support, but in the mean time, our Online Support is available to any families who need it. The first session is free to all families who apply. Each session is limited to up to 2 hours, for optimal benefit for the child. Contact us for more details.

- Looking out for genius –

By Chandra Thanabalan

October 25, 2019

The word genius has been reserved for a handful of individuals, with a broad range of brilliance, but in the case of young students, who are still in the midst of figuring out about themselves, having someone to be their champion, and bring out the genius in the child or student, is a heaven sent these days. Dr. Rita Pierson, an educator for over 30 years, stood by this philosophy, as did her mother before her.

My team members and I, from Inclusion Therapy, have the utmost privilege of stepping into classrooms across Singapore, as a "Shadow" for students with special needs, in mainstream schools.

Since I started in the role in 2008, of what we now refer to as, an Inclusion Support Advocate, I worked with about 50 of our clients, whom we refer to as our focus students, which is best left unknown to them for the entire period of our support, if we have carried out our role successfully. This unusual arrangement has also resulted in the additional privilege of seamlessly helping the other students in the same classrooms, who are referred to as “neurotypical”, but may also need some form of additional assistance, in specific areas they struggle with.

Two instances come to mind, when I was in a mainstream classroom, and spotted genius, not only in my focus student, but two other neurotypical students in the classroom who were usually penalized and seated aside from the rest, usually for not following the expectations, which would be considered common knowledge. Some of the teachers thankfully noticed these sparks of genius from the students, and they were quick to reinforce them, and if you watched closely, a tiny smile appears from beneath the constant frown of these children's mouths.

During a music lesson, the class was singing together to a pop song, and I immediately noticed the head of the boy, who usually keeps his head fixed on a table or in a storybook, pop up, and smiling like he never did before and making a significant attempt to sing along. I kept my gaze towards him, which may have led the teacher to also notice what had caught my eye, and she picked him to join the group in front and sing together, and he did so, without hesitation.

Where is the genius in this you may wonder, and this is exactly what our organization stands for when we say “Celebrating Personal Best”, which is to find even one remote strength a child may have, in relation to Dr. Howard Gardner's multiple intelligences, and manipulating this to its fullest, to the benefit of the child.

Another student, from the same classroom, seemed to constantly be underestimated, or receive some form of verbal punishment for not following along, and his constant response was to smile and keep quiet, or not respond when spoken to. His instance of genius was while he was sitting on his own, and he spontaneously stated a few greetings fluently in Japanese, which I overheard. When I asked if he has been to Japan, he mentioned not having visited this country yet, and I suggested he should, since he was great at verbalizing greetings fluently.

A few moments later, when his classmate was struggling with an English worksheet, I walked over and gave her some idea of what to look out for. Upon hearing this, the boy stood up, confidently flipped open his textbook and started locating and brilliantly helping her, by calling out what the difficult answers could be, as he was working on the same worksheet, which was until then, incomplete.

Looking out for genius is easier than one would think, especially with these two steps for parents and teachers, which when implemented, can have a higher success rate of genius presenting itself:

1) Daily practice of Least Dangerous Assumption - keep away from negative discussions and complaints with other adults, about your student or child, preferably not at all. Such communication within audible distance of your student or child, can result in an increase of the same behavior you complain about.

2) Daily practice of Least Restrictive Environment – this is to ensure each student and child, receives equal opportunity within a classroom and home, and therefore enjoy being a member of these environments.

Chandra Thanabalan is the Founder and Director of Inclusion Therapy Pte. Ltd. and he has also provided support for students of various exceptionalities, in over 20 public and international schools in Singapore. He also started the Inclusion Support program in 2018, which is the culmination of various evidence based, positive approaches and strategies, and individualised for each student it helps.

Selamat Hari Raya Haji to all of our muslim friends!

Happy National Day and thank you to our nation's and generations, whose pursuiit and perseverance allows us to reap the benefits today, and the best way to honor them is by continuing to do better.

It was our 7th anniversary a couple of days ago, and we held off on this announcement, to spend some time to look back, if we have contributed to the community in Singapore.

Since we started in 2012, and as of May 2019,

We worked alongside 32 schools here, both local and international.

We worked alongside social workers and other professionals from various organizations in Singapore, to help children at risk, who are also with special needs, which amounted to about 200 volunteer hours.

Last and never least, we have helped just over 80 students, to the best of our ability.

The best part of it all is, at 7 years old, we are just getting started!

Thank you everyone, for your continued support!