A Special Door

I might look like I just joined a special force but nope, this is me in a mock-up gear to simulate the experience of being an elderly - navigating the environment with limited vision, heavy limbs, trunk inflexibility and relying on a walking assistance.

🤩Yet another new adventure I've embarked since August - I joined an eldercare service provider to do community engagement on a part-time basis. This was at a job orientation and training workshop.

Haha, talk about pivoting - from serving 10 year-olds (and under) to 60 year-olds (and over)! 😁

I just got my 'job confirmation' today (my last one was when I first entered the SpEd industry in Pathlight, 2004).

To be honest, the first thing that I (unexpectedly) had to learn was how to blend and sustain my energy in a role that is team and community-based, and to 'coop up' in a built space for more than 8 consecutive hours. Even when I was teaching in schools, there was plenty of movement and I changed classrooms every few hours.

As an educator working with sensitive, young children, I always knew to appreciate the shifting energy of people and spaces. But, my first month in this role was a whole new level of managing energetics, including my own.

It has been a growth journey, for sure; and it's continuing.

Walking the talk - Embracing learning, fostering growth. 😉

This photo was taken in July.

My husband and I had dinner with the team from Orego with whom I had finished doing the recording of two e-courses that will be published on the Orego learning platform.

(In fact, one is already up - Understanding Common Developmental Conditions and Learn Effective Learning Strategies. Link is in the comments if you’re curious.)

Orego is a trusted Singapore platform offering expert-led workshops and flexible online courses. Their slogan ‘Helping you help others’ resonated with me. I am so thankful to be in their circle of trainers, who support parents, caregivers, educators, and mental health professional.

But this experience was not just me being the educator. I actually had my own learning curve on how to look as natural as possible delivering lessons to nobody but a video camera. 😄 It was so easy to go off-track; I also had to look and smile at the camera every so often.

I am deeply thankful for the recording duo here in this photo (the two youthful faces in the front) for their encouragement and support, and for making the end result turn out much better than I had imagined in my anxiety. 😅

Of course, also delighted that I was able to randomly pepper our conversations with my limited Bahasa Indonesia. 😆

Producing the e-courses was one of my new learning curves this year. I’m so glad I did it.

ASD’s slogan ‘Embracing learning. Fostering growth’ starts from her founder - me! t

If you have been noticing a lot more silence from me this year, there's a good reason for this -
I have been taking the time to pursue some old curiosities (solo travel, watercolour painting...) and exploring some new interests (working with a totally new and much older segment of the population). Very thankful for all the opportunities for new growth!

I am still around. Still doing teacher-training and parents' consultation.

I am also forming new and meaningful collaborations; waiting to harvest the fruits of these collabs. Keep a lookout for those real soon!

Fun fact: Do you know that when babies are focusing their energy and brain resources on new motor skills, there can be a short period of time when they don't babble as much? They can be quieter for a few days - totally normal.

In a world that is getting noisier, let's celebrate the quiet spaces between the old and the new.

Before I became a special education teacher, I had already been giving tuition. So, technically speaking, I have been celebrating Teacher’s Day, and receiving tokens of appreciation from students and parents for more than half of my life. Always thankful for all those gestures of appreciation and encouragement! 🙏🏼

This Teacher’s Day is probably the first one that I have no student. ☺️

But then, yesterday, this mousepad landed in my letterbox. 😃

I guess, I can take myself out of teaching but I can’t take the teacher out of me. 👩🏻‍🏫

Happy Teacher’s Day to the teacher in every one of us who, in one way or many, teaches.💓

Last week, I caught up with a friend serving the same neurodivergent community. Some of you might find her familiar.

💕Samantha from Inspire Psychology

We got connected via a parent-advocate who is also a good friend of mine now. Funnily, the first time we met for lunch at Bishan, we hit it off as if we have been friends for decades. I remember she was talking most of the time and I was agreeing. 😄

We usually talk work when we meet (not often and definitely not regularly cos she usually has a lot on her plate). But, not last week.

Last week, we shared our own journeys of growth - self-awareness, self-discoveries and how we often need to find even more grounding for ourselves since we are working with a vulnerable segment of the population. 🧘🏻‍♀️

We talked about energy and boundaries, about letting go and finding our own directions and compasses in life. 🧭

A little more personal than professional but I really like that crossing over. An evolution of sorts. 🙂

As an interventionist and ed-therapist, sharing tips and strategies with caregivers on how to support their children is an important part of my work.
There were many occasions where I would get messages from them, exclaiming how the tips or strategies worked like a charm (some would add 'to my surprise'). However, there were also instances where a Mummy or Daddy would come back to me in a few days, deflated and discouraged, on how my suggestion did not work.

As a trained and experienced therapist, I have a much bigger toolbox helping me to tweak and modify strategies on-the-fly. But, even for me, I sometimes need to innovate and create new methods or new strategies based on the response and profile of the student.

The thing is, a strategy is just a way of helping you to communicate or connect better with your child and where he/she is functioning at or ready for, vice versa. One strategy might not always work for all children.

But what always will work is to see any situation from your child's perspective - to empathise with them so you can engage. That is where any kind of support must stem from. Otherwise, we are just setting ourselves and our children up for more frustration.

This could shine a light on what many of us have been experiencing when working with autistic children and adults. ❣️

Discovery of 4 different subtypes of autism paves way for personalised care It's a major step toward understanding the condition's genetic underpinnings and improving care. Read more at straitstimes.com. Read more at straitstimes.com.

This was at the new office of Be Kind SG last Saturday afternoon; I was invited to the cosy ‘office-warming’ session. Really nice to meet familiar faces of the parent coordinators and their children again.

I am so glad I remembered to take this photo too. I am beginning to feel that the world is spinning and tumbling so fast that memories can be precarious. A photo is a more reliable testimonial.

In 2023, I connected with Sherry of Be Kind through the founder of Friends of ASD Families and started some collabs with Play.Able (a division of Be Kind). Last year, I got to know Seow Ser, an author at Helang Books who writes stories for inclusion advocacy. We learnt that we have a mutual friend, an author of children’s book and a literacy specialist who owns and runs The Oak Planters (she was not available last Saturday). Soon after, Seow Ser got connected with Sherry too.

Isn’t that beautiful? 😍

Like-minded people who found one another in a timely fashion… the Universe being an invisible conductor weaving the tunes of different instruments into an orchestra in a seemingly effortless yet faultless fashion.

On a more personal note, I really appreciate the space we hold for one another - to be vulnerable yet hopeful, to be fatigued yet grateful, to be disappointed yet still kind.

That is a space, precious and priceless.

Be Kind SG extended an invitation for me to join them at the SSO x SOS ‘Stories and Symphonies of Hope’ session on Wednesday. 🙏🏼

In the last 10 years, a few parents of my students (some ex-students) turned to me as a listening ear for the stress and struggles they were going through. They first came to me seeking help for their child, but as time went by, I found myself supporting them through their personal and mental struggles too.

Maybe it’s cos I managed to create and hold a safe space for them where their child was concerned. Consequently, they also felt safe, seen and heard when they shared challenges from other aspects of their lives.

At the SSO x SOS session, one of the panellists shared that, each one of us can be the lifeline for another person. Indeed, we would never know if a moment of kindess and patience we show or a conversation we have with someone would end up being the lifeline for another person. It can be all they need to live another day.

It’s an unsettling world today. We must first try to find the light within ourselves. Then, be the light beyond ourselves. That, is my WhatsApp status.

Be grounded, be kind. Even the flame of a small candle can expel darkness.