Julie Y. Daza
HER pupils call her Teacher Ting. She’s about to finish her masteral thesis, treating ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) with the use of aqua play. There’s something about water: Babies love to splash around in it, reminding them of their time in the womb, and as an obstacle course, it’s fun even as it exercises muscles and limbs.
Little is known about disorders like ADHD, autism, Down syndrome, speech delay, and mental retardation because little is known about the brain. This much we know: The stigma is no longer what it used to be, so it appears that more and more children are being born with these handicaps.
As toddlers and kids come out of their little worlds and are encouraged to socialize with others their age and older – there are about 30 learning centers for special children in Metro Manila, with uneven standards – we have to wonder why we don’t see many adult autistics and ADHD’s in the malls, supermarkets, and restaurants. Only those with Down syndrome (mongoloids, as they used to be called) are doomed to a short life; the others live to a ripe old age, able to take care of themselves with the skills they learn in school and therapy class.
Teacher Ting – Cristina Valdepeñas to you – is on the staff of the newly opened Speciabilities Development Center in Quezon City, near Siena College, on Biak-na-Bato St. Ting comes from a family of pedagogists (her mother is president of St. Louis University in Baguio) and her field is special education, or Sped. The owners of Speciabilities, Joseph and Nanette Yu, are the parents of twins, boy and girl, of whom Jethric is classified as ADHD.
Unhappy with the education that their son was receiving, the Yu couple did the next logical thing, which was to put up their own school for special kids. Special it is, indeed: 2,000 sq.m. of classrooms, pool, badminton, tennis, and basketball courts, not to mention seven teachers like Ting who all have their degree and experience in Sped.
When the school opened softly last October, only 20 kids and one adult, a 40-yearold heiress, were enrolled. However, there’s room for 200, suggesting that the field is wide open for BSE graduates to step up to Sped.
Special children need special tutors, but they also need special parents – a unique breed who in turn need God’s special grace to pull them through a hectic, frenetic day. As one special parent said, rearing an autistic child one day at a time is more stressful than running an election campaign for 90 days.
|
