Educating Parents
One of our key features is that we educate our students’ parents to be effective and understanding as it is critical that they understand their child. Understanding your children is an important part of parenting and this is even more vital when it comes to a disabled child. Teachers and parents are an essential part of a child’s progress, and we consider parents an integral part of the child’s team.
Parents often come to us really depressed because all they hear from doctors, as well as their families, is that ‘nothing can be done’. Understandably, they fear for their child’s future. Already stressed out by the day-to-day challenges of their lives, they are further upset by their perception of their child as a ‘hopeless case’ requiring a lifetime of care. Seeing their child learning and becoming more integrated into the family really helps them alter their view.
We are careful not to give parents any unrealistic promises when it comes to their child. We only promise the parents that we work as hard as we can with their child and that we will never give up.
Bimal (name has been changed), a child with severe cerebral palsy, took one year to start pointing to words but we never stopped believing that he could do it. Finally, our tenacity got the results that we hoped for.
The parents and professionals in Sri Lanka do not have access to new developments in the field of disability studies. We take it upon ourselves to bring this information to our parents, families and professionals in digestible forms.
Traveler’s Tales – my journey with autism
Our co-founder/president has published his book ‘Traveler’s Tales – my journey with autism’. It has been called ‘a treasure trove of findings told from the inside out’ by Douglas Biklen, Emeritus Dean of the School of Education at Syracuse University. We have translated the book into the local languages and, as a part of the Foundation’s mission to educate parents and professionals, we are selling the book for an extremely nominal price. It is currently available through the Foundation and on Amazon Kindle.