4 minute read
Special needs recognized and fulfilled
Now aged 19, she is doing Fitness and Sports Studies with the Vocational Training Council and expects to graduate in 2021 with a Diploma of Vocational Education. She already works as a primary school ice hockey coach and the next step will be to get a full qualification. It will be possible because she will join the HKFYG Train the Trainer programme, partnered by The Hong Kong Jockey Club.
“HKFYG has played such an important role in my life. I’d like to thank everyone who encouraged me,” says PoonMan, “First, the Youth SPOT gave me a place to hang out after school when otherwise I would have been hanging around with my gang, wasting my time. Then came the friendships and team spirit of the HKFYG Phoenixes. And now, again with CTS, I have a good chance of a job in sports. What would I have done without that help?”
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Whatever help PoonMan needs, we hope she will go onward and upward. She deserves it.
More details Community Team Sports cts.hkfyg.org.hk
It seemed so hard for Jimmy to concentrate. Eveline had no idea what was wrong with him. Sometimes she was convinced he was just being naughty. She was at the end of her tether by the time she got in touch with the Parent Support Network at HKFYG.
Jimmy was seven when Eveline first contacted the Parent Support Network (PSN). After finding out a bit about her problems, the social workers recommended a talk by a professional. It was about attention deficit disorder (ADHD).
“I had never heard of ADHD but Jimmy’s other symptoms matched. As well as losing focus in lessons, he often lost his temper in those days and started yelling with no warning. I learned a lot about this kind of problem at talks arranged by PSN and learned that Jimmy is a borderline case.”
Jimmy’s special educational needs had been recognized by the staff at PSN and that was the first step in easing Eveline’s problems. PSN doesn’t only give professional advice. It works effectively as a network for parents and they help each other.
When another parent told Eveline about a child like Jimmy, she said playing board games had helped. Eveline decided to give it a try even though didn’t understand how it could make any difference.
“I was a bit sceptical at first, but we borrowed the game from PSN anyway and took it to a café to play. That was a few years ago but it was the turning point…
…As I explained the rules to Jimmy, I saw how carefully he was listening. He was concentrating in a way he never normally did. Why? He wanted to beat me!”
Playing that game was a catalyst for Eveline and Jimmy, but the best outcome was when Jimmy mastered the first game and Eveline bought another. “I could see I needed to give him another challenge. Then we started to play at home and one day when his father got back from work I had such a surprise. Jimmy took the initiative. He asked his dad to play.
That’s when we all realized how much we enjoyed playing and spending time together. It was amazing to see how such a simple thing could improve our life at home.”
Now, when Jimmy loses a game, he no longer loses his temper. By the time he was 10 or 11, he was teaching the younger children in his group and responds very well to being given that responsibility. “He even knows how to tell other kids how to play games nicely. Being with other people has taught him how. What a change,” Eveline exclaims.
“I realized then that the earlier you start a programme like this with children like Jimmy, the better it is. I would never have believed simple board games could have such an effect. There were lessons for us as parents too. I suppose we knew deep in our hearts that we should spend more time with Jimmy when he was little, but he used to be so difficult. It was too easy to ignore him, leave him with the helper, go to work or pick up the phone and simply escape.”
Although Jimmy’s school now also gives Eveline professional help and advice, it’s limited to specific situations like homework and exams. “But mental health problems can affect his life at any minute,” she says. “Although we can get some government help, it’s not enough and you have to wait a long time. I have been waiting for Jimmy to do the government’s special needs test since 2017.”
With PSN, help came quickly and effectively. “I now volunteer to share what I have learned with others in the same predicament. I don’t think of myself as an expert but perhaps one day I will be able to make all the difference to another family, just like that mother did for us one day a long time ago when she first told me about the board game.”
