“Emmanuel Care Centre (ECC) started off as a community project by the church. We cater specially for education. There are a lot of centres that are doing early intervention programmes from age 2-6. But back then, there weren’t many centres that cater from age 7 onwards to 19 years old. So our purpose is to fill in the gap for this age group. One class has about 10-13 kids. Although most of our teachings are group-based, we still try to give the child 1-to-1 attention.
Another reason why this community project came about is to cater to families who are not as financially stable. Private sectors can charge pretty high, even up to RM 2000-3000 a month. As a result, many parents are unable to send their kids for these services. We do charge, but it is definitely lower in comparison to the prices in private sectors.
The most common disabilities we deal with here are those with autism spectrum disorder, down syndrome, ADHD, cerebral palsy, and some with chromosome disorders. What we teach are more catered for kids with learning disabilities. We teach fine motor (hand-eye coordination), gross motor (exercise), and functional academics (English, Maths, and Science). We don’t follow the government school syllabus, we have our own syllabus. Our syllabus and teaching materials first came from Malaysian Care. From there, we improved on it over the years.
We observe each individual child and their needs. Based on the kid’s level and ability, we will provide them with an Individualised Education Plan (IEP). For younger children we often focus more on functional academics, fine motor and gross motor skills. As they grow older we teach them more self-help skills, housework, cooking, packing things. Learning to be independent. We would love to see our kids being able to work, so that’s why we try to equip them with these skills. By the time the kid leaves our centre, our hope is that they are able to be independent. What we aim to achieve in this centre is for these kids to at least have the capability to take care of themselves.
To be honest, I never thought I would be working in special needs. I studied Psychology. I loved research, so I also went into market research. I took a break after that, but somehow I knew I wanted to help people – I just didn’t know where to start. I sent out a lot of resumes, and this care centre called me for an interview. That was my start. I have been working here for 8 years: 4 years as a teacher, and subsequently I was promoted to be headteacher.
I personally witnessed the gradual improvement of a girl we had over the years, who just graduated this year from our centre. She was already attending this centre when I first arrived. From what I know, her gross motor skills was weak and she couldn’t really walk straight. Her fine motor skills in terms of doing housework wasn’t that great either. Throughout these many years, I realised one thing that struck me was her change in behavior. When it comes to being a teenager, all kids have their own thoughts, they may rebel. One day I asked her to do something with another child that she doesn’t like. She got so angry that she threw a tantrum. I told her that she had to learn to work together despite not liking them. She did cry a lot. But surprisingly since then, things changed. She became more obedient. These kids do have emotions that they want to express. We just have to give a bit more patience, care and love. Eventually, they will be willing to learn and change. I did feel sad to see her go, but I felt happy that she learned so much and she is now able to take care of herself.
Not just normal kids, but these kids too need consistent training. It’s not like you teach them in one week and they will remember all the way. For them, it may take years. Sometimes people find it boring if we are always doing the same thing. But we know it helps them. So we will just keep going until they understand how it works. Our activities are very intensive, because the kids come here for 2 and a half hours a day after school. What we provide here is more of a supplementary class. The time period we have with them is very important to us, so we train as much as we can.
During my time here, I used to focus more on behaviour in the beginning. When you go out, you have to be obedient and behave well. But in recent years, I notice that emotions play a very important role and I don’t think many are aware of it. If you are not emotionally stable or ready, there is no point in talking about changing your behavior or learning effectively. Over the years we’ve taken a holistic approach, working on their behaviour, physical, mental, and emotional wellbeing.
Based on my experience here, there is a tendency for a child to be fixated on something – but they can be different things. It can involve rigidity in terms of arranging things, things has to be neat, or in a certain pattern. Their rigidity is one of the main things we have to work with, telling and showing them the benefits of flexibility in life.”
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Photostory and edited by Win Li
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Amy Kyo is the Principal of Emmanuel Care Centre (ECC). Their email address is eccemcpj@gmail.com. Their telephone number is 03-78065660.
– Humans of Kuala Lumpur
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