Special Education Week

I saw a tribute to special education week in my Facebook newsfeed earlier on. Honestly, I never knew such a week exist. Nonetheless, I am elated to know of its existence! I went to google to search for the exact dates of this special week. However, it seems that there is very little information online; except Facebook. I found the page on special education week and 'like' it but the dates are not reflected as well. Hence, I am writing a tribute to this week without knowledge on the exact dates. Do pardon me for the lack credible information.

What is special education week?

Special education week is an initiative from the United States on raising awareness to help children with special needs in their education system. The initiative is not yet a national week; nonetheless, it is being proposed towards being a national week.

Why I love the initiative?

During my teaching stint, I was fortunate enough to meet a few children with special needs. Out of the few, only one child was diagnosed. The rest were not diagnosed but clearly displayed the traits of various special need. One child left the biggest impact on me as that child faced a great amount of challenges; with teachers, with parents and with the classroom. Ever since such an experience, I became more passionate in my support for people, especially children, with special needs. Such an initiative (if practiced in Singapore too) would benefit young children who do not have access to early intervention. An initiative like this could raise public awareness on special education and even special needs. This means that parents, teachers, educators or even relatives of a child displaying traits of special need would be aware of it and hopefully proceed towards early intervention if the child is diagnosed with a special need.

Only adults can help children.  Let’s do our part.

I found some useful local resources in my tribute to special education week. These are outside of special education schools resources. They were designed from the National Library Board, Singapore team.  

Public Resources in Singapore for Special Education:

MOLLY the Mobile Library

"When it is not easy for readers to move around, Molly goes out to them. Reaching out mainly to the disadvantaged groups in our community, Molly is an innovative mobile library with 3,000 books on board and equipment for book borrowing and returning. Programmes such as storytelling are also conducted."

I have been on the MOLLY bus a few times before and I must say, it is a real library. There are a good number of books in there and the best part is, you get to borrow them too (if you like). Just remember to bring your library card or any other identification card along. It works just like any other public library and it feels super cool to be on MOLLY. It was an interesting experience.

Project Deliver Me

"This is another initiative worthy of your support. With the help of volunteers, this project delivers library materials to the doorsteps of people who are unable to visit the library because of physical disability or illness."

As stated, this is a wonderful initiative. This initiative helps people who face difficulties moving around or getting to places due to physical challenges; inclusion of everyone to have access to library materials.  

If you know anyone who needs such services, do get in contact with librarians at your nearest library or write in to ask@nlb.gov.sg

I hope the information serves you well.