Language package puts special children in the learning loop
DEVELOPING a curriculum for teachers of special needs children was just the start of Lam Siu-ling's dream of finding a more effective way to teach the mentally handicapped.
Ms Lam, the principal of P.L.K. Yu Lee Mo Fan Memorial School, said: 'I started my work in special education 30 years ago. I realised that communication was the greatest hindrance for mentally handicapped children. First, they have to overcome language barriers, or they would have a lot of difficulty learning other things. Mentally handicapped children have a language ability that is below kindergarten level. There were no studies on how children with such low language ability learn Cantonese. Teachers at special schools need help in teaching their students, so I decided to do something to fill this gap.'
Ms Lam and her colleagues Ng Yee-ling and Yip Yee-fa have filled the gap admirably, an accomplishment that has earned them the Chief Executive's Award for Teaching Excellence.
P.L.K. Yu Lee Mo Fan Memorial School serves mainly moderately mentally handicapped children, aged six to 18.
In 1998, the school invited the Department of Speech and Hearing Science at The University of Hong Kong to work with it to create a language development profile. They carried out tests on students to see how they learn, from non-verbal language to short sentences, divided the process into stages, then developed the language development profile. The profile was significant because all the teaching materials developed since are based on it.
In 1999, Ms Lam and several speech and hearing therapists developed the Language Learning Package. This includes a 10-year curriculum plan with 18 themes, for example school and family. The themes are divided into three levels. The first level is for Primary One to Primary Three pupils, the second for Primary Four to Primary Six, and the third for Secondary One to Secondary Three. There are 54 chapters, and the themes are rotated each year.