- Introduction
- School’s learning support program
- Individual learning program
- Home learning support program
Learning support was given from the first day I entered primary school. My mother accompanied me to school every day during the first 3 months in primary 1. During that period, she observed my learning needs and made arrangements with my form teachers to support my learning weaknesses and alleviate my anxiety in a big class environment. The first 2 months in primary school was a nightmare and I was a total nervous wreck. Whenever there is any changes, which are many, eg change of teachers and change of subject every one hour, assembly time, break time, physical exercise time, I will be totally lost. I can’t find my way around the few blocks of school building. I am therefore, very dependent on kind teachers, helpful classmates, considerate school mates and patient school bus driver, all of whom I had acknowledged in the Home page.
School’s learning support program
On the 2nd week of school, a strict looking teacher came to class to test the literacy standard of the class. As I cannot read and write, I broke down and bawl my eyes out. Not surprisingly, I was placed at the bottom 15% in the school and placed on the school’s Learning Support Program. The strict teacher became my Learning Support Teacher.
A month after I started primary 1, my mother engaged a private educational psychologist to develop an Individual Learning Program to help with my learning difficulties. I attended an hour session once a week together with my mother for the first 9 months of primary 1.
With feedback and guidance from the school’s learning support teacher and educational psychologist, my mother developed further supplementary language skills and organizational skills to help me to manage my learning difficulties after school hour. The program continued throughout the first 2 years of my primary school education.
During this period my mother also communicated with the school teachers, providing them with information given by the educational psychologist in the form of simple checklist and extracts which helped the school teachers to understand my learning needs and anxiety.