Spoken Interaction Thematic Approach 1 - Children with Special Needs

Hi, my lovelies! I have a special treat for all of you who are dying for some fast romance!

I was sitting in Macdonald's by myself, uploading the blog and very much engrossed in my plugged in music when this Macdonald's waitress, who looked barely a day past 16 years, passed me this piece of paper saying that her 'friend' (she gestured to empty air) asked her to pass me this. When I scanned the area discreetly, all Macdonald's staff look like juvenile deliquents hoping to earn a fast buck and when I looked at the paper, it was a Malaysia number. Nice. The calibre of young men falling in love with me at first sight is becoming better and better. So I thought, why not share it with you guys, seeing that you are single and ready to mingle? *Insert mad grin* Please do not sms crude things to this poor malaysian boy ok, or worse, give my number!

On to today's lesson -

Spoken Interaction not only tests you on how well you speak, but rather, how you develop your ideas, and how you infuse your own personal response into it. Prior general knowledge is needed; otherwise you will seem like someone who is out of touch with this world. In today’s lesson, we will look at all the possible angles dealing with children with special needs in Singapore.

Possible questions that you must answer by the end of today’s lesson:

(1)   What are your thoughts about more and more special needs students joining mainstream schools?

(2)   Describe how you feel when you see someone whom you know clearly has a special need, either in your school or in public.

(3)   'The way to an enlightened society is by education'. Do you agree that if more Singaporeans are educated on people with special needs in Singapore, people will be kinder to them?

Students with special needs in Singapore:

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), dyslexia. (please do your research on what people of these disorders exhibit)

Not every child with a special need can enter a Special Education School (SPED) because of the long waiting lists. As a result, there are special needs students entering a mainstream school from young. There are also those who were initially deemed as ‘normal’ but later diagnosed as having a special need when they are in the mainstream school.

The number of special needs children in mainstream schools has doubled from 5000 to 10, 000 in the last five years.

Challenges of special needs students in mainstream schools:

(1)   Not all mainstream schools have allied educators who are specialised in special needs. Normal teachers may not have the knowledge themselves, to recognise a student with a real special need, and to help them.

(2)   The other normal students are very unkind. Children and youths love to harp on differences between one another and because students with special needs are obviously different, they may be the subject of much unwanted attention and bullying. The root cause of this is a lack of understanding as well as insensitivity. While a lack of understanding can be overcome by education, sensitivity is something hard to culture.

(3)   Children with special needs more often than not cannot cope with the regular curriculum as well as the teachers’ teaching styles because the teacher’s teaching is usually pitched towards the needs of the class.

(4)   Children with special needs may experience a lot of problem in communication and other social skills. They often do not have social awareness and cannot fit in.

(5)   Some parents of special needs students deliberately placed their children in mainstream schools because they are in denial themselves, about their children’s condition. Most find it a source of shame, and to avoid the social stigma of a SPED school, they try to ‘normalise’ their children by sending them to mainstream schools. These parents usually have the same expectations for their special needs children as they do towards normal children, and this will cause great stress to these children.

The underlined words are the thematic vocabulary that you are expected to produce for such a conversation. Can you jot down your responses to the 3 questions above on a piece of foolscap paper? After that, please stand in front of the mirror, have eye contact with yourself in the mirror, smile (not too retardedly) and answer the 3 questions you ask yourself.

 You must do this from today, to be truly comfortable. Better still, record yourself to hear yourself. Your prelims 1 marks weren't too fantastic because oral wasn't included, the way it would be for prelims 2. You would then see quite a change in your marks. Therefore, for those already good in oral, make yourselves impeccable and for those struggling, there is time for you to get a decent grade, but only if you start now! :)

xoxo