Learning centre for Autism – “Every child is Unique”

"Help to build a learning centre for children with autism"

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Introduction of campaign

Autism. How much do we really know? What is special needs education? How does early intervention works?

The campaigns is to build a learning centre to support children with autism in education.

To provide children with autism a fair chance in education and maximise their potential, the first step is to help these children to learn a English language from a young age (3 to 7).

Why English? Language is the basis of communication and only those who can speak English can express themselves effectively in schools, and read English which can help them excel in their studies.

The fundamental of English language is “phonics“: how an alphabet make a sound. Phonics is the "door opener" to English. It can be taught to children in the most interesting way via recital, music or story and many more. With a good foundation in English, Children with autism will face lesser psychological stress to cope with their studies.

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Our initiative for the campaign

After 15 years in education industry, we realise a social problem: children with autism are neglected and their unique talents are never developed.

The many problems faced by children with autism include delay or deprivation of early intervention, lack of professional special needs education and limited support from their parents (which may be caused by denial of autism in their children).

The two main factors leading to the problems are usually the cost of special needs education and professionalism of the educational institute.

Therefore, we want to start a learning centre that offer both affordable education and professionally certified educators, catering to children with autism.

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How we do it?

The new learning centre specialising in phonics teaching for the children with autism will have 2 focuses:

* Guiding and teaching phonics to the learners through engaging and interactive games and activities, which the activities will cultivate a social skill or life skill to help them in developing their well-being. We respect each child has a different way of learning. Therefore, they will have individual portfolio to manage their materials an show others their achievement during the course.

The children will be enrolled into either a 6 months programme or a 12 months programme depending on the diagnosis.

* Educating parents who want to learn how to teach phonics to their children with autism. Education cannot stop at school. Parents must be involved in the learning process, which we have a program to help parents.

Parents will have tools to help their kids to learn at minimal disruption to their personal or work life as we know parents are busy adults.

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What happen after the campaign is successfully funded?

We do not stop at this stage after the launch and success of the campaign. We will strive to do better with other campaign in 2021:

* Offers non-clinical diagnosis on children have autism, and consultation to parents on talent development of their children with autism.

* A one-year programme for the children to learn life skills. The programme will tapped on technology so that parents can be engaged in the programme to help the children learn.

* Social skills programme for older children (aged 7 and above) as enrichment courses for the children with autism to handle their daily activities and life skills and learn independency.

* An online course on "awareness of autism - basic level" for the general public who wished to learn more about it and published for free on MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) platform.

* A certified course for parents and educators to learn how to manage children with autism. The course provide methodology and tools that are effective classroom management techniques.

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What we do with your donation?

The campaign will fund the following set-up cost. We would launch the programme and start enrolment in December 2020.

The cost involved included but not limited to:

* Certification fee for 2 Teachers * Materials and tools needed for teaching phonics (up to 30 students) * Centre certification as autism learning centre * Curriculum development consultancy with a psychologist * Advertising and publicity effort to promote enrollment in 2021 * Website development * Rental deposit of 3 months of learning centre

Note: All other expenses involved in the set-up and daily operations will be incurred by the learning centre itself and not using the fund from the campaign so that we do not abuse the funding. We will post our development and milestones of the learning centre to ensure the credibility and accountability of the fundings.

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What is our belief and philosophy?

People or children with autism should be treated equally like any one of us.

Long term learning and education will reinforce the awareness of autism, acknowledge the capabilities of people with autism, accept their behavioral preferences and adjust to their comfort level, to create a complete and loving society.

“ Autism simply means a variant of personality. People diagnosed with autism should not be discriminated or feel embarrassed to reveal it.“

- Founder of White Cocoon