Achievement Learning Center of Dominica, My Child and I Charity and Little Sunshine Stimulation Centre joined forces together to host eight days of teacher for special education teachers as well as mainstream classroom teachers at the Derrick Smith school and vocational center in Barbados form August 19-28 2019. According to Francine Charles, from My Child and I Charity, the partnership between the organization started In January 2018, after the devastating effects of Hurricane Maria when My Child & I and Little Sunshine early stimulation center facilitated parent empowerment workshop for parents of the ALC.
It was there that the idea was born to invite the teaching staff of the ALC to Barbados in order to offer a special education teacher training for that team as part of teacher exchange program. After many months of planning (and quite some obstacles along the way), the three organizations were able to obtain funding from DARDRA (Dominica American Relief and Development Association), Maria Holder Memorial Trust, and Sandy Lane Charitable Trust to host the workshop. The workshop was open to other special education teachers, professional and mainstream school teachers working with children in Barbados.
The teachers were exposed to training in DIR /FEDL approach which stands for the Developmental, Individual Differences, Relationship-based Model originally developed by Dr. Serena Wieder and(the late) Dr. Stanley Greenspan. It is this developmental model that guides assessments, interventions and interactions of children with special needs. FEDL stands for Functional Emotional Developmental Levels, which guides the understanding of a child’s capacities.
Also, the teachers heard from Occupational Therapist, Speech therapists and other paraprofessionals who provided useful information on movement-based learning activities, communications strategies in the classroom, student transitions, supporting difficult behaviors, teacher-based portfolio assessment, differentiated teaching, floor time strategies, classroom set up and environment.
Ms. Rhonda Celaire, principal of ALC said that although all the teachers could not attend the training, the teachers who attended are better equipped to work with the students and those trained will pass on the information to their colleagues. Ms. Liesar Lewis one of the participants said that this training was very informative. She learned a lot of different developmental functional ways with children with special needs, their different sensory profile, ways to transition in the classroom and also for her self, intervention strategies(e.g. safety, self-check).
Moving forward she will use all what she has accomplished from the training in the classroom and also assist the other teachers that were unable to make it to the training. Ms. Dianne John another participant said that attending this special education training in Barbados was awe-inspiring. “I learnt new concepts on how to deal with students with special needs and the different strategies to employ when dealing with students with special needs”. “I had the opportunity to meet other teachers who work in the same field and was able to share the different challenges we face in the classrooms and how we overcome them”. She stated, “It’s never too late to learn so whenever I get the opportunity to develop my personal skills, I embrace it “. Ms. John said that Achievement Learning Centre will be the best special Education school in Dominica since we plan on teaching as we learn. Our goal is to reach the top”.
The team will be returning to Dominica on August 29, 2019.
