LUCCA Support & Care Centre, SkillBuilders Academy

ad a huge impact on Lucca’s progress but as a mother of a special needs child there has always been that “something” that has been missing. I have spent many years doing research on the approach, learning methods, therapy intervention and communication methods available for our children BUT what I realised is that we as parents of special needs children seem to expend great efforts on trying to find out how we treat the brain or the body of our children with disabilities that we sometimes lose sight of their hearts and minds. Being a child with special needs is an overwhelming emotional experience for that child. They are constantly challenged by their differences, despair and frustration and as parents we don’t want them to struggle. With the best intentions we tend to focus on the tangible needs of our children, learning needs, mobility needs, therapy intervention and subsequently enrol them into intensive interventions which can make them feel overburdened. Children with difficulties often do not get enough time to just have “time out” or to play on their own terms. It can be very disparaging for a child to always have to concentrate on the very areas that make them feel inadequate, a constant reminder that they are different. Our special children can end up feeling very alone and can end up suffering their emotions in insolation. To ensure that we support them, we need to support and develop an effective way of how to communicate their feelings to avoid compromising their development. When we have formal assessments done, the focus seems to be on what the child CANNOT do, what about doing informal assessments as well and find out what the child CAN do, and let’s start focusing on their hearts, minds, dreams, interests, strengths, abilities and talents. We know that professional therapy intervention is needed for most of our children and yes that will be offered at L.U.C.C.A, but what is so exciting is that we have the ability to tap into the CAN LIST and approach our teaching and communication methods based on this. Would it not be wonderful to know as a parent of a special needs child, that your child’s heart comes first before anything else.