Talk on Postural Control, Arm & Hand Strength - 19 May

19 MAY 2007 - SATURDAY

POSTURAL CONTROL, ARM AND HAND STRENGTH

Brief overview:

Conducted by 2 therapists, you will take home knowledge on:

• What is occupational therapy and who needs it?
• What is postural control? Why is it important?
• Normal development of arm, who will have weak arms and how to spot them
• Normal development of normal grip patterns, how to identify abnormal grips, effects of pinch & grip strength in a person’s life and lots of
• Activities to improve arms and hand strength

Speakers:

This session will be conducted by US trained Ms Minnie Tam and UK trained Ms Yam Pui Fun.

Ms Tam, a registered Occupational Therapist in the US, worked for a year in San Francisco. She started her career in adult-care; however, she has since dedicated her attention to children. Today, based in Cheras, Ms Tam has close to 10 years of pediatric experience.

Ms Yam obtained her BSc in Occupational Therapy from UK. Upon graduation, she ventured into private practice and to date, has more than 6 years experience working with young children.

Specially organized for parents, teachers, medical students and anyone involved with special-needs children.

This half-day talk will be held:

On: 19 May 2007

At: Sau Seng Lum Dialysis & Stroke Rehab Centre

Add: Lot PT 39480, Jln Industri PB3, Tmn Industri

Pusat Bandar Puchong, 47100 Selangor

Time: Registration starts at 9.00am

Session 1 : 9.30am – 10.40am

Tea Break : 10.40am – 11.00am

Session 2 : 11.00 – 12.15pm

Q & A : 12.15pm – 12.30 pm

Fees : RM60.00 per person ( RM45.00 for students )

Please note that in the event of cancellation, we are unable to entertain any request for refund. Thus, substitution of participant is strongly encouraged.

Register/Payment:

Please send Registration Form together with cheque ( with name and contact number written clearly on the reverse) made payable to : Glen Stream (M) Sdn Bhd or

direct debit into Hong Leong Bank account #19400009994. Kindly fax bank-in slip (with Registration Form) to confirm registration.

Please note that seat is confirmed only upon receipt of payment.

Organised by: Glen Stream (M) Sdn Bhd.

Founded by 2 mothers with sp-needs children, GS retails educational toys, teaching material and therapy tools, and also organizes seminars and workshops on a regular basis.

Glen Stream (M) Sdn Bhd

38, Jln Sri Petaling 1, Sri Petaling, 57000 Kuala Lumpur

Tel/Fax: (03) 9058 8014

Mobile : 012 372 3776 & 016 917 9955

[tags : disability epilepsy autism children pediatric neurology]

FGA Support Group - Mothers' Day Thanksgiving

FGA Support Group for Parents of Children with SpecialNeeds is hosting a Mothers' Day Thanksgiving Tea to honour all special mums, details are as follows:

Date : 6 May 2007 (Sunday)

Time : 2.30 - 6.00 p.m.

Venue : FGA, Main Building, Basement 6-9
Lot 689, Taman Goodwood,
Jln Kuchai Lama, Off Jln Kelang Lama
58200 K.L.


We have invited Stella Chan and family as our guest
speakers and they have lined up an interesting
programme for us.


Profile of Stella Chan

Being a parent of a child with special needs and realising the fact that parents are the first and
major support of any child, Mrs Stella Chan-Cheong quit her job in 1995 to dedicate herself to seeing her daughter Charmaine be what and who she is today.

Since Charmaine’s birth 17 years ago, Stella has been actively involved in a parent support group headed by Pn Kamariah Amin which meets once a month. She was also a committee member of the Kiwanis PJ Down Syndrome Parent Support Group and initiated a protem
meeting to form the National Down Syndrome Association of Malaysia. In March 2002, together with Professor Dr Madya Aishah Adam she initiated the formation of KSSD-HUKM (Kumpulan Sokongan Sindrom Down)- a one-stop-centre, so called 'Down Syndrome Clinic', parent support group and resource library at HUKM, Cheras.

Then in August 2005, together with a group of parents, she initiated an informal gathering of all
ex-students and parents of Kiwanis Down Syndrome Centres with the desire to start an alumni to help graduates live productive lives and create an environment and opportunities to develop their potential and abilities to the fullest.

She started' "CHIT-CHAT@TMLC', which is a free community service at Taman Midah Lutheran Church(TMLC) to meet and help other parents of children with special needs put in
that extra effort and walk that extra mile to ensure that their special children lead a normal life.

With the millenium challenge of 'Changing people's perspective of a person with Special Needs’ and turning the upside of 'Downs', together with Charmaine, both mother and daughter volunteer their services every Saturday at TMLC, every working Saturday at HUKM and once a week at the Kajang Children's Special Centre which offers early intervention programs, day training and work skills training programs for people with learning difficulties, workbase at Malaysian Care and supported living weekend program with Dignity & Services.


TESTIMONY
My Story by Mrs Stella Chan-Cheong

Before joining Taman Midah Lutheran Church (TMLC), I was from St Gabriel's Anglican Church in Sungei Besi where I lived and grew up. I attended Sunday School since Primary One. I also heard a lot about Jesus at Bukit Bintang Girls' School but only accepted the Lord when I was in Secondary One.

My youth days found me very active and involved in the Church Youth Fellowship, Music Ministry, Choir, member of The Singing Saints, Captain of the 2nd KL Girls' Brigade Company and a teacher in the Sunday School. As home was very near the Church, you could literally
find me there most of my free time.

I was still very active with Church activities during my working days until I became a tour leader with Reliance Travel. Due to frequently leading tours overseas, I found that I couldn't fit into Church and the people any more. Slowly I drifted away and backslided with a different lifestyle altogether. I had a good career and income. I found that I did not need God then. I was in spiritual silence until 1989 when Charmaine was born. It was a 'turning point' for me and the awakening of my spiritual life.

Charmaine was certainly a blessing in disguise! As the saying goes, 'There is a purpose for everything'. I believe there is also a purpose for Charmaine to be given to us and her birth is no coincidence but according to God's plan.

Not only has she been a joy and blessing to people around her, she has certainly brought our
family much closer and changed our lifestyle and attitude especially towards people with Special Needs and learning difficulties.

You can contact: Mrs Stella Chan-Cheong at
012-2987801 / chitchatsc@yahoo.com

We warmly invite all parents with special needs' children to celebrate Mothers' Day with us. Please do feel free to invite your friends who have special needs children to join us too!

Kindly RSVP by 2 MAY 2007 to facilitate our planning.
For more information, please contact Wai Sze at 016-3400849, Jill at 016-3944206 or email to
kwaisiong@yahoo.com.my


www.fga.com.my
[tags : disability epilepsy autism children pediatric neurology]

United Voice : Train Them, Don’t be Overprotective

Let go. Despite its implied simplicity, this is perhaps the most difficult thing for a parent whose child is intellectually impaired.

“Don’t be too overprotective or your child will have no future,” said Juan Fang, a homemaker.

Fang’s 28-year-old daughter Felicia is intellectually impaired, and “letting go” was what Fang had done over the years to teach Felicia independence and maturity.

The family had uprooted from Kuala Terengganu to the capital a few years after learning of Felicia’s condition so that she could have a better future.

“For Felicia to learn better and catch up in school, I made flash cards to help her. I didn’t give up,” said the soft-spoken Fang.

Today, Felicia is an office assistant at St Paul’s Anglican Church, Petaling Jaya. She has worked there for the last six years.

“She’s more confident and independent since she started working and interacting with people. Over the years, I had to let go bit by bit, or the family’s sacrifices and move to KL would be in vain,” said Fang.

Selangor Social Welfare Department statistics reveal that the registered number of those with intellectual impairment or learning disability in the state from 1998 till today stands at 13,924.

According to officer Eny Edayu Mat Ali, the actual figure is higher.

“The increase in the number of intellectually impaired from 2005 to 2006 alone, is significant – about 58%,” she said.

While the department has no records on the intellectually impaired who are currently employed, it admits they face a greater, if not the same challenges in getting job placements, no thanks to society’s prejudices.

“It’s even more difficult now than before,” said St Paul’s Day Training Centre (centre for people with intellectual disabilities) co-ordinator A. Annamaney.

Eny agrees, adding that the physically disabled have a better chance at employment than the intellectually impaired.

“Malaysian society holds very distorted views on disability. People are more
willing to employ the physically disabled as their limitation is physical,
whereas the intellectually impaired are just dismissed as cacat or
retarded.”

This has caused even high-functioning slow learners – who are capable of basic clerical, administrative and computer work, as well as despatching and packaging in an ‘open’ (real world) environment – to be mislabelled as unproductive.

“Given early intervention, those with learning disabilities can communicate,
think for themselves, and know how to be responsible in life and the workplace,”
said Eny.

Realistically speaking, seamless integration between regular society and the intellectually impaired community still appears a far-off goal.

“Japan was exposed to intellectual impairment at the same time as Malaysia, but Japan is far ahead of us today,” said United Voice co-ordinator Yeo Swee Lan.

United Voice is a self-advocacy society of persons with learning disabilities in Selangor and Kuala Lumpur.

United Voice's Website - http://www.unitedvoice.com.my/

Download United Voice's Jan's Newsletter - here


Source

[tags : disability epilepsy autism children pediatric neurology]

Breakthrough in Detection of Metabolic Disorders

Universiti Sains Malaysia’s Do- ping Control Centre (DCC) has made a break-through by being the first in the country to commercially introduce a screening test to detect 25 metabolic disorders in a newborn baby.

USM vice-chancellor Prof Datuk Dzulkifli Abdul Razak said yesterday the screening, known as Newborn Screening (NBS), was a test that helped doctors diagnose some of the metabolic disorders a newborn baby might have.

“This acts as a precautionary and pre-ventive step. The test can be performed on a baby as early as the first 48 hours to 72 hours after birth.

“This early detection followed by prompt treatment, can help avert mental retar- dation, severe disability and even death,” he said at a press conference to announce the introduction of the screening test.

Prof Dzulkifli added that DCC was ready to introduce the service with immediate effect to the public.

Early detection:Prof Aishah posing next to a poster on the NBS test developed by the centre.

DCC director Prof Aishah A. Latiff said the centre began research on NBS in 2000 and succeeded in creating the test in 2003.

She said the NBS and related services were currently available at the Institute of Medical Research (IMR), which was conducting a two-year pilot programme at 10 government hospitals. The project is expected to end this August.

Prof Aishah said the DCC had invested a total of RM4.5mil on three highly sophistica-ted tandem mass spectrometers to carry out the analysis.

“The DCC has adequate instrumentation and personnel to handle between 300 and 400 samples per day and therefore, is in the position to accept samples nationwide,” she added.

Prof Aishah said the test required a few drops of blood, obtained from a gentle prick on the baby’s heel, which were then dropped onto a filter paper and sent to the laboratory for testing.

“The results will then be despatched back to the doctor attending to the patients three days later,” she said.

DCC Metabolic Services head Dr Adi Tan Abdullah said babies must be referred by a medical doctor for the NBS and each basic test would cost RM85.

DCC has begun analysis on samples from its teaching hospital – Hospital Universiti Sains Malaysia (HUSM) – in Kubang Krian, Kelantan, he said.

Source

[tags : disability epilepsy autism children pediatric neurology]

First Signs of a Developmental Delay or Disorder

Red Flags

The following red flags may indicate a child is at risk for atypical development, and is in need of an immediate evaluation. In clinical terms, there are a few “absolute indicators,” often referred to as “red flags,” that indicate that a child should be evaluated. For a parent, these are the “red flags” that your child should be screened to ensure that he/she is on the right developmental path. Social/Communication Red Flags: If your baby shows any of these signs, please ask your pediatrician or family practitioner for an immediate evaluation: No big smiles or other warm, joyful expressions by six months or thereafter No back-and-forth sharing of sounds, smiles, or other facial expressions by nine months or thereafter No babbling by 12 months No back-and-forth gestures, such as pointing, showing, reaching, or waving by 12 months No words by 16 months No two-word meaningful phrases (without imitating or repeating) by 24 months Any loss of speech or babbling or social skills at any age “Most mommies and daddies tell me “I thought there was a problem at 14 or 15 months...and they told me let’s wait and see because sometimes some kids grow out of it.’ Well, that’s not a good answer. We’ve got to make the distinction between less important problems, where we can wait and see from core problems, which involve a lack of reciprocity and a lack of getting to know your world. For these core problems, we have to act on it yesterday. We can’t wait nine months, we can’t wait two months.” (Stanley I. Greenspan, M.D., Child Psychiatrist)

Source

[tags : disability development delay ]