MY SON'S SPECIAL SCHOOL

I took this picture of my son Abdullah two years ago he was at a concert in his old school and he was crying so much that I needed to take him off stage and put him in my lap when he got on my lap he was so exhausted that he just fell asleep fast forward two years and now he's doing this as you all know my son Abdullah is diagnosed on the autism spectrum and a lot of you have been asking about his progress but I didn't want to tell you I wanted to show you welcome to the El Karma the ELCA llama school was opened in early 2019 and is dedicated to serving and educating children on the autism spectrum now we're gonna take a look inside one of the classrooms that I'm really excited to show you because it is probably one of the main areas that I've dull has been progressing it so I'm gonna take a look inside the class to see what they do similarly to mainstream schools but more importantly what they do different so you're a teacher here at Kannamma school yeah no I need to ask you about the classroom how are things done differently in in a classroom here than in a mainstream school but we tend to have different zones that help the children with autism so they might start together at the front altogether and then break away into small groups where they the teachers can work one-to-one with them or one to two and then if the children need to go and do their own independent work they can work at a workstation and then they can do their own tasks there that they've been taught by the staff how are things done similarly to mainstream school where we're following the national curriculum for Britain so with the children who are able to do that they can progress at normal speed for the other children they will have what we call p levels which is below a level one so we can help them build up their skills into small steps so I know you firstly having taught my son Abdullah and and the question I have to ask you as a teacher to share with teachers around the world and what are the creative ways that you use to engage with a child on the autism spectrum so you you find out what their strengths are like what their interests are they unique mixture each child so you would get to know the child very well and then using their interests you can link it that into your studies so they're motivated to they want to learn and that's down to how you design the worksheets the activities they do if they struggle with working with other children you build up the social skills or the communication skills and so it all comes together in a in a positive way Abdullah here a lot of sticks ours all those we use that as part of us is actually going to sit down and so he works in the Clanton's workstation he's going really really like I'm I'm just he's gone very fast and that to me is a very good skill for employment in the future and different fields of employment it'll be really useful the staff includes a team of dedicated therapists and teachers who work hand in hand so the students can meet their goals we're about to go inside one of four multi-sensory rooms located on-site in the school let's go inside so I'm an occupational therapist based on the students need we can use this room for different things at the multi-purpose room the reason it's called sensory circuit room it has a lot of our children here will have done tree poses and difficulties so sensory poses and difficulties relate to children who can't understand what all the senses are trying to tell them so we can make it like a sensory circuit where we do different games so we'll do things where we alert the children so wake them up work on their organizing skills and then we do some calming activities at the end to calm them down why are why are we taking our shoes off for efficient control purposes this room is padded Oh got you all right I see colors I see lights I see bubbles I see padding I see all this stuff what happens here so this is a specialized room we use it for different kind of purposes and we use it with all kind of life with all ages of students basically like I've been working in the UAE since 2009 and I'm so proud and happy like to have such a facility where like a collaboration between the education are like a therapy work together and happening actually in UAE we do provide us we're like an indirect services where we work collaboratively with the parents with the teachers with the TLT a staff with the shadow teachers inside the classrooms and in different settings and environments we are now in the multi-purpose hall which serves as a place for the children to undertake activities and PE and there are two things that make this hall special number one is its soundproof to manage the children's sensitivity to sound and the second thing let me show you on the sides of all the walls are padding to manage the safety of the kids to be able to play in this environment so what's Pease function here in the school the main purpose the main purpose for the PE sessions set improving the gross motor skills and how to develop the learning for them this is make full task and it's teach them how to improve for waiting learning so actually it's many things to improve the students I love it so it's like a circuit yes I love it [Applause] Anna now we're in the what you call the Oasis and what happens here so this is like an indoor play area and we use it for different kind of purposes whether it's like therapy or we can use it for recess as well our students can do like can have their movement make a recess inside like this beautiful like indoor area what's a movement break so basically it's part of the sensory diet and we use it for with students who are like hyperactive and they move a lot or seats like more movement inputs okay and we gave these kind of like movement breaks throughout the day so they might have like three or four like movement breaks a day to keep them all calm organized and to give them the opportunity to move their body in different kind of like areas and like spaces I got you what's this so this is a trampoline in the middle of the plate yes in the middle fragrant and we can I get it yeah so basically we have two here and we have four outside [Music] [Applause] it's pretty like heartwarming you know especially when you've had a son or a daughter a child on the spectrum in a mainstream school to see the challenges that they have to go through because little to no effort is made to cater to their needs and then to see a school that is fully equipped with the tools and the people necessary for them to succeed not only in education but in life miss Lucy you've been on this project since day one why does a school like this need to exist because it's very important for children with autism to have ambition for their learning so one of the things that we've developed is in actual school for autism very very different from the center so it's looking at the the level of the child and how much they can progress the most important things for me is actually having an ambition for learning no matter where the child is placed on the spectrum it's thinking actually they can learn and they will you know first of all I a kayak or everything you see because that my son's here so I've seen the difference in him in just a very short period of time which was why it's so important for me to make this video but the real reason I want to make this video is I want people to learn what is the message that you would give to governments organizations education institutions around the world to be more inclusive to what's the overall message that you would give them through your experience here there's a lot and I think what's important is the training the training for staff that in a school like this both for the teaching and also for the therapy it's making sure it's making sure that the children are actually leveled in assessment and it's to recognize that actually you can really make a difference in so many areas for these children you can make change for them you can improve their quality of life by education that you and the team have been working like crazy and I just wanna as a parent I just want to say thank you from the bottom of my heart Abdullah has grown dramatically in such a short period of time and we are so proud that he's part of the school and we're proud of every single one of you for all the work that you do but thank you so so much thank you and the United Arab Emirates children with special needs are called children of determination which means that they are determined they determined to learn they are determined to grow and they are determined to be contributing members of society despite any challenges that they face in their life and it is our responsibility as parents as governments as communities as institutions to give them the tools that they need to not just succeed at education but to succeed in life can I have one toy which one I'll take and that is what the school is doing it is giving my son Abdullah and children around the world a chance and the Bubba loves you but unless you and as a parent that is all I could ever ask for much love and God bless you all you

Channel: Khalid Al Ameri

Views: 838,006

Rating: 4.963273 out of 5

Keywords: Khalid Al Ameri, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, Dubai, Autism, Autism Awareness, Special Needs, Special Needs Education, School, Education, Parenting, Family, Muslim, Islam

Id: OSxVAe0vfnM

Length: 10min 33sec (633 seconds)

Published: Tue May 21 2019