Orientation for Parents and Caregivers of Newly Enrolled Children to the EIPIC Programme

At the orientation, the participants will get to know more about the Early Intervention Programme for Infants and Children (EIPIC) and meet the EIPIC team that will be working with [...]

Key takeaways:

  • To help parents understand what to expect when their child is enrolled in EIPIC, the centres would invite parents of existing or former clients to share their journey.
  • Parents were also given a tour of the centres’ facilities such as the classrooms, therapy rooms, and caregivers’ room.
  • “The orientation provided a good platform to let the parents have a deeper understanding of the programmes provided by SPD that can help our child. (I am) looking forward to more close collaboration with the team”.

At the orientation, the participants will get to know more about the Early Intervention Programme for Infants and Children (EIPIC) and meet the EIPIC team that will be working with them and their child. Besides highlighting the overview and principles of early intervention and the importance of caregiver’s involvement in the child’s learning, the staff also introduced other support offered by SPD.

The SPD Building Bridges EIPIC Centres conduct orientation for parents and caregivers of newly enrolled children to the programme to help ease them into the learning journey while they are on the programme. At the orientation, the participants will get to know more about the Early Intervention Programme for Infants and Children (EIPIC) and meet the EIPIC team that will be working with them and their child. The latest session was held at the centres at SPD@Bedok and SPD@Jurong in December 2017.

Orientation for parents and caregivers being conducted.

To help parents understand what to expect when their child is enrolled in EIPIC, the centres would invite parents of existing or former clients to share their journey. The centre in Jurong invited a parent whose child has progressed to Primary One to share about her experience with EIPIC and a video featuring caregivers in the programme sharing their journeys was screened at Bedok.

Activities and games were conducted by teachers and therapists to engage the children.

While parents attended the sharing session, the teachers and therapists engaged the children in activities and games where they got to interact with their new friends.

Parents were also given a tour of the centres’ facilities such as the classrooms, therapy rooms, and caregivers’ room.

Many parents and caregivers welcomed such orientation sessions.

“(I am) pleasantly impressed with the orientation. I have gained more understanding about SPD. The sharing by a parent about her child attending (one of the) programmes in SPD makes me confident that my son can achieve similar, positive results,” said Ms Zarinah Bte Ahmad whose child has started attending the programme at SPD@Jurong.

Another parent from SPD@Jurong, Ms Lee Lay Chee, who also appreciated such sessions said: “The orientation provided a good platform to let the parents have a deeper understanding of the programmes provided by SPD that can help our child. (I am) looking forward to more close collaboration with the team.”

The Building Bridges EIPIC Centres at SPD Ability Centre and SPD@Tampines also hold orientation for caregivers of newly enrolled clients. A group or individual session may be conducted depending on the size of the enrollment..