Two new articles on special needs awareness and bipolar disorder on Awakening Minds.sg

Dear Everyone:

As part of my New Year's resolution to use Awakening Minds as an active platform for challenging society's awareness about individuals with special needs and mental illnesses in 2010, I have resolved to send out regular email updates with at least one new article uploaded to the Website each month.

For this particular email update, I would like to highlight the changes and additions to my Website:

1. "Special People and Us" by Choo Kah Ying [www.awakeningminds.sg (Media tab)]: I was inspired to write this article after catching a snippet of a Channel 8 drama serial that featured children with special needs. In this scene, the conversation between an older woman and her daughter concerning the latter's daughter with special needs illuminated society's unchallenged assumptions that people with special needs are burdens who rob their caregivers of any prospect of happiness in life. I sought to challenge this assumption in my article.

2. "Opening Hearts, Awakening Minds" by Nurraihan Hamid (published in People's Trends, December 2009) [www.awakeningminds.sg (Media tab)]: Ms. Hamid decided to do a story about my journey of recovery from manic depression after attending my talk at the Singapore Writers' Festival. Her article offers one of the best concise descriptions of my experiences of depression and mania with details about the origins of my illness and my current work as a homeschooler/writer/ educator and my physical and mental health regimen. I am greatly appreciative of her willingness to let me upload the article to the Website.

3. There are also new and updated talks and workshops for both Education and Mental Wellness [www.awakeningminds.sg (Education Tab) (Mental Wellness Tab)]. In my latest changes to my workshop selection, I am reaching out to caregivers and professionals of typical individuals, as well as the learners themselves. The strategies and learning approaches that I have developed, modified and used in the area of special needs can also be applied (with creative modifications) for typical learners.

In the area of mental wellness, I hope to motivate caregivers and professionals to cater to the cultivation of mental well-being of typical learners. The new workshops are also targeted directly at typical learners to encourage them to focus on their mental and psychological well-being.

I hope that you will take the time out to check out all of these updates and be motivated to awaken your minds and open your hearts to people with special needs.

Best regards,

Kah Ying

+6581634509

Awakening Mind's Educational Workshops for Teachers, Caregivers and Students

Dear Educators and Caregivers:

Happy 2010! I would like to highlight AWAKENING MINDS©' series of new workshops and programmes that are targeted at educators, caregivers and students. In addition to addressing the challenges of raising and educating learners with special needs, AWAKENING MINDS© is also seeking to introduce its innovative perspectives, teaching strategies and learning tools to caregivers and educators of typical learners.

Each of these workshops can be customised to fit a two- or three-hour format, accompanied by a slide show, demonstrations, learning materials and handouts. I am also open to modifying all workshops in order to meet the specific objectives of your organisation/institution. Detailed proposals of these workshops are available upon request

Educator Workshops [SPECIAL NEEDS]

• Odyssey into an Unusual Mind: Insights into the Complexity of Autism. Educators gain insight into the complexity of the autism spectrum though an in-depth study of the characteristics of the diverse profiles of autism.

• Teaching Special Students: Practical Strategies for Working with Students with Autism and Other Special Needs. Educators learn about practical strategies for working with students with autism and special needs in the following areas: social/communication, academic, sensory and behavioural.

• Functional Behavioural Assessments: Diagnose, Design, Execute and Evaluate. Educators learn how to design and implement Functional Behavioural Assessments (FBAs) to address the behavioural challenges of targeted students within the classroom setting.

• Designing and Implementing Lesson Plans that Engage Students with Autism and Other Special Needs. Educators learn how to design and implement differentiated and effective lesson plans for students with special needs in classroom settings.

• Transforming Outings into Diverse Versions of "Real-life Stories" with Learners of Various Functioning Levels: A Step-by-Step Guide. Educators are challenged to think outside the box about breaking down the steps of the writing process by forming a story from scratch and customising them to match learners of various functioning levels.

ALL NEW! Caregivers-Educators Collaboration Workshop [SPECIAL NEEDS]

• Bridging Points of View on Students with Special Needs. An highly interactive workshop, this workshop addresses the areas of conflict that often arise between caregivers of students with special needs and educators pertaining to the effective integration of these students in the mainstream school environment. Through moderated discussions and a series of small-group exercises, caregivers and educators can learn how they can collaborate with one another in a team to maximise the learning experience for the students with special needs.

Learning Materials and Writing Workshops for Caregivers and Educators [SPECIAL EDUCATION and GENERAL EDUCATION]

• *The Magic of Scaffolding: Every Kid can Learn. Participants learn how to develop and apply various types of scaffolding ranging from external tools (readily available for purchase or home-made) to the insertion of in-worksheet prompts that can augment their students' (special needs/typical) ability to engage in the learning with independence.
  
• Introducing Words, Pictures, Story! (WPS!): A Writing Template for Students with Autism and Other Special Needs. Participants obtain an in-depth understanding of the nuts and bolts of the WPS! Writing Template, used as scaffolding for writing and literacy development.

• Words, Pictures, Story! (WPS!): Doing Mathematics through Stories. Participants learn how to create WPS! writing templates with mathematics underlying their storylines.

• * Transforming Words, Pictures, Story! (WPS!) into a Story Map. Participants learn how to help children with autism and other special needs move to the next level of story writing by incorporating WPS! components into a story map and putting together a story.

• * Brainstorming a Story: Let’s Compose a Story Together. This workshop introduces educators and caregivers to a fun, dynamic, but yet structured, approach of transforming the story writing experience into an interactive group activity. In this approach, children, working together with one another and guided by the teacher’s posing of questions, “brainstorm” the content of diverse components that will go into the making of a story. Additional ingredients such as pictures and props can be incorporated to stimulate inspiration and imagination.

* These two workshops can also be customised for teachers of typical learners, by setting higher expectations and requirements.

ALL NEW! Creative Writing Workshops for Primary School Learners [GENERAL EDUCATION]

• Words, Pictures, Story! (WPS!) My First Steps in Writing. This is a comprehensive 10-week storywriting course for student learners, involving the use of the WPS! writing template, workbook, and my latest modification -- WPS! templates in a box. Thus, teachers will have a ready-made programme that can be implemented. This storywriting course is an ideal supplementary literacy course that can enhance student interest and learning in story writing, language components and story composition.

• Writers' Theatre©: Story, Acting, Revising -- A New Storywriting Process (A Workshop for Typical Primary School Learners). This fun, creative and dramatic workshop will enable students to experience the dynamic quality of the creative brainstorming process that goes into the writing of a story. Working in small groups, students will dramatise a simple story that contains implausible story lines, grammatical errors and poorly defined characters. Through their dramatisation of the story, students can return to re-work their stories and improve their version.

Caregiver Workshops[SPECIAL NEEDS]

• * Bridging Life and Learning: Creating an Individualised and Customised Learning Programme. Caregivers learn how to transform the routines and life experiences of their autistic children into a customised learning programme that matches the latter’s learning preferences and functioning levels.

• Tough Love: Taking Charge of Your Autistic Child. Caregivers learn how to manage the behaviour of their autistic children at home and in public to increase compliance and extinguish negative behaviour.

• The Human Touch: Alternative Healing Techniques to De-stress You and Your Autistic Child. Caregivers learn about the use of non-invasive alternative healing techniques to enhance their ability to manage stress for themselves and their autistic children, while addressing the latter’s sensory sensitivities.

• Open Your Mind, Open Your Heart: Grieving and Loving Your Special Child. Caregivers address their sense of grief and confront their attitudes and mindsets, which undermine their ability to cope with the challenges of raising their autistic children.

* I also create customised home learning programmes for interested families who are either interested in homeschooling their children or supplement their learning with creative and innovative learning worksheets and materials.

Caregiver Workshops [GENERAL]

• Developing a Positive Parenting Style. This workshop will address the following areas: a) forging a close relationship with one's children; b) developing alternative approaches of discipline; and c) spending quality time with one's spouse.

• Connecting with Your Child through Effective Communication Strategies. Caregivers are challenged to reflect on their attitudes, explore various topics of interest and acquire the techniques of delivery, which will make their effective communicators.

• Making Your Child Teachable. Caregivers learn how to manage the behaviour of their children at home and in public to increase their compliance and extinguish disruptive behaviour.

To learn more about me and the workshops that I have conducted, please click the "Events" tab of my Awakening Minds.sg Website (www.awakeningminds.sg). I look forward to hearing from you and customising a workshop that will meet your objectives and transform your perspectives.

Sincerely yours,

Choo Kah Ying

+6581634509

Two inspiring articles on autism and adolescence

Dear everyone:

Please check out two inspiring and empowering articles on my latest interest in autism and adolescence on my Awakening Minds Website.

a. "Bedwetting: Teenage Rebellion, Autistic Style": This is a humorous and reflective piece of the lessons I learnt in overcoming Sebastien's deliberate bedwetting behaviour. From this starting point, I talk about the challenges for parents to deal with letting go of their kids with special needs so that they can grow up.

b. "The Skating Milestone: Go Sebastien! Go!": This is a heartwarming piece about my sense of pride and gladness in Sebastien's unexpected enjoyment of inline skating. In this essay, I talk about how my feeling of pride in Sebastien who has fought hard to be a confident young man was further transformed with his foray into inline skating.

Please feel free to share these articles with others and check out the rest of the Website.

Kah Ying

choo.kahying@awakeningminds.sg/+658163-4509

Two Talks on Autism and Manic Depression in the Heartlands

November 7^th, 2009: “Splintered Beauty: The Road from Manic Depression to Recovery”, an intimate, informative and inspiring talk on manic depression

About this event: Join me as I talk about my personal struggle and triumph over the 'roller-coaster' ups and downs of manic depression. I will also offer practical suggestions and strategies for achieving and maintaining a medication-free life.

This will be a one-hour talk with a 30-minute Q&A session. Autographed copies of my book, Five Little White Pills… and Then There Were None: A Journey from Manic Depression to Recovery, will be available for sale at $16.00/each (no GST charged).

Date: Saturday, November 7^th, 2009

Time: 2:30 – 4:00 p.m.

Location: Teck Ghee Zone ‘F’ RC KTV Room, Blk 344, Ang Mo Kio Ave 3,

(opp Ang Mo Kio Hub)

FREE OF CHARGE

November 14^th, 2009: “Odyssey into an Unusual Mind: Insights into the Complexity of Autism”, an Educational and Practical Talk on Autism

About this event: In this educational talk, I will provide an overview of autism that debunks limited and stereotypical concepts about the condition. You will also learn about the challenges (social/communication, academic, sensory and behavioural) faced by autistic people and practical ways for caregivers and the public to help people with autism.

This will be a one-hour talk with a 30-minute Q&A session. Autographed copies of my book, Raising Sebastien: Realising the Potential of Your Autistic Child, will be available for sale at $16.00/each (no GST charged).

Date: Saturday, November 14^th, 2009

Time: 2:30 – 4:00 p.m.

Location: Teck Ghee Zone ‘F’ RC KTV Room, Blk 344, Ang Mo Kio Ave 3,

(opp Ang Mo Kio Hub)

FREE OF CHARGE

Interview on Primetime Morning, October 21st, 2009, 8:50 a.m.

Dear everyone:

I will be interviewed, along with a doctor, on the topic of bipolar disorder, on Primetime Morning, October 21st, 2009, at 8:50 a.m. I will be sharing about my experience of struggling with bipolar disorder and how I succeeded in weaning myself off medication and staying off it for the last four years. Finally, I will also share my reasons for writing Five Little White Pills... And Then There Were None: A Journey from Manic Depression to Recovery.

Please tell others about it and tune in...

Thanks,

Kah Ying

Singapore Writers Festival Book Launch of Five Little White Pills… And Then There Were None: A Journey from Manic Depression to Recovery

In this talk-cum-book reading, accompanied by a Powerpoint slideshow, I will share with you the compelling story of my struggle and recovery from manic depression. I will also talk about my reasons for writing this intimate exposé of my checkered past and the writing process.

Apart from the talk, I will also be showing a five-minute Channel News Asia documentary featuring an interview with me and excerpts of my medication-free life with Sebastien, my autistic son, who is an integral part of my inspiring story of recovery..

Finally, there will be a Q & A session for you to pose questions.

You can also purchase a copy of this book and have it autographed (S$16.00, no GST charged).

Details:

Sunday, October 25, 2009 , 6:30 p.m.

Earshot Café, located at the Arts House,

1 Old Parliament Lane, Singapore 179429

RSVP: This event is open to the general public. No RSVPs are required, though it will be greatly appreciated for me to gauge the turnout. Email me at choo.kahying@awakeningminds.sg.

AWAKENING MINDS: AUTISM, SPECIAL EDUCATION & MENTAL WELLNESS

Dear everyone:

My name is Choo Kah Ying. I am a writer/educator and a homeschooler of Sebastien, my 12-year-old autistic son and my inspiration. I am also a recovered sufferer of manic-depression. Both of these conditions have shaped the trajectory of my life, sculpted the landscape of my character and influenced my perspectives in my work.

Since my return to Singapore from the U.S. in August 2005, where I had worked as an academic researcher for eight years, I have integrated my academic training and work with my challenging life experiences and converted them into inspirational books, articles, workshops and consultations pertaining to autism and manic depression.

Through my work in these areas, I have come to realise that the "awakening" of the minds should not be applied solely to those whom we help, but also to us caregivers and educators:

If we are to be effective, we must open our hearts, transform our conventional mindsets, transcend our own limitations in order to connect with them in a respectful manner.

It is with tremendous gratitude, hope and passion that I present the Website of my company, AWAKENING MINDS©, to you.

The AWAKENING MINDS© Website comprises the following sections:

a) autographed copies of my books on autism and my recovery from manic depression;
b) education workshops on curriculum design and teaching strategies targeted at children with special needs and autism
c) useful learning aids that will supplement learning;
d) mental wellness talks and workshops;
e) consultations for caregivers and educators in special education and mental wellness;
f) upcoming and past events;
g) articles that I have published on autism and mental wellness, and articles about Sebastien and me.

Please feel free to share the information about this Website to your friends, family and colleagues! I look forward to hearing from you and exploring all possibilities for bringing my unique message about "special people" to everyone.

Kah Ying
choo.kahying@awakeningminds.sg