
[tags : disability epilepsy autism children pediatric neurology]
Gathering information in Malaysia on help and support for Children with Disability, Development Delays, Seizures & Epilepsy, Autism and other Related Areas

19 MAY 2007 - SATURDAY
POSTURAL CONTROL, ARM AND HAND STRENGTH
Brief overview:
Conducted by 2 therapists, you will take home knowledge on:
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
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.
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. |
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.
The creation of this Blog came to me one day when we realized that in the entire process of searching for information in Malaysia on Seizures and Epilepsy, it was generally pretty limited.
We would like to put together as much information as possible that can be gathered from friends and family whose children are impacted with either epilepsy and seizures and have a common ground where we can share this information freely.
We are not sure how the blog will grow, but hopefully the information that you find on this blog would be useful for you. Would appreciate any feedback or information that you can provide as well. Click Here