Educating young blind children for a better future

Yeap was born premature after thirty weeks and was diagnosed with retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) stage four and Bilateral Inguinal Hernia. He has uncertain vision and almost insignificant sensitivity towards his surrounding.

The moment we at St Nicholas Home (SNH) met him for the first time, he was three years old. His parents are both working. He also has an elder brother who is not visually impaired. Yeap’s grandmother looks after him when his parents are at work.

Yeap depended too much on his family and thus he was still not toilet trained, did not eat solid food and could not communicate with others effectively. When he came in to St.Nicholas Home via the Early Intervention Program, he could not stand or walk on his own, was not able to socialize and needed a lot of assistance in managing daily activities such as bathing and eating.  Furthermore, he cried a lot when his father walked away after bringing him to the classroom at St.Nicholas Home.

The Early Intervention Program (EIP) enables children like Yeap to develop a wide range of important skills which consist of daily living skills, cognitive, language, social, fine and gross motor skills.  Yeap is showing tremendous improvements since he came to St.Nicholas Home in 2009. He socializes better, is happy to go to our school program and is able to play with the other children. We are proud to see that Yeap went through a positive growth during the past four years. He loves music and is able to follow the rhythm of the music and also tries to sing along with the songs he hears.

Yeap used to be very slow in tactual stimulation such as picking up small items and using a cup to drink. Now he is able to count by using rhymes and able to match symbols according to the shapes. The boy who was unable to communicate is now able to say a few words. He lacked in having interaction with teachers or classmates and was unable to focus more on interactive activities such as role plays with other children. Nowadays he plays with his classmates and is able to say a few words to his teachers. He was not capable in moving around outdoor but today with little assistance he is capable to walk outside. Furthermore, due to his overprotective family he was not able to feed himself in the beginning. The EIP trainers instructed the family to guide Yeap to direct his hand with food to his mouth. What’s amazing is that Yeap is now able to feed himself without any hassle.

Although six year old Yeap shows a lot of skills improvement, he still needs to be trained further. He is in need of more trainings in terms of communication skills as he speaks only a few “baby words” but could not speak whole sentences yet. In addition, he needs to improve his socialization capabilities with others. His teachers from the Early Intervention Programme have good hope for Yeap to be enrolled into a special program in a normal school by next year.

One major objective of the Early Intervention Program is to educate children like Yeap to adapt to a normal school environment. The staff of the EIP work closely together with the children and their parents in order to develop their cognitive skills in functional academic skills such as paying attention, reading and writing braille, memory and participation skills. The Early Intervention Program has enabled Yeap to lead a more independent life on the long term. Additionally, it will be easier for him to go to school and find a job in the future.  By accomplishing the Early Intervention Program, he has the opportunity to use his skills which will give him a more fulfilling existence.

Your donations and generous contributions are the reasons that our children could blossom and build up their self-confidence. These kids are learning new skills in a safe and caring environment which is helping them to create a better future. Yeap is one of the fortunate kids who stood a chance to progress in life disregard of the type of complications that he endures. We hope that you will continue to share your compassion for them. You can help us to continue planting the seeds of success and make a difference in the lives of these special children.

Links:

• St.Nicholas Home Official Website