SPD’s Development Support Programme (DSP) Tampines team, which conducts the “Identification and Classroom Management of Preschoolers with Learning Difficulties” every month, was invited to the inaugural Early Childhood Conference on 21 November to share with other early childhood educators the different learning needs of young children and simple strategies to manage related challenges in classrooms.

The trio consisting of senior occupational therapist, Ms Quek Xiuling, educational psychologist, Ms Lim Li Hong and speech and language therapist, Ms Tan Li Huan, addressed an audience of about 80 participants. Their 90-minute presentation at the Singapore Expo Convention & Exhibition Centre covered the overview of an intensive training which is aimed at helping mainstream pre-school teachers identify and use practical strategies to assist children who have learning difficulties due to a number of underlying factors.

These would include sensory-modulation difficulties that affect classroom participation, speech and language difficulties such as pronunciation and communication, literacy difficulties such as reading, writing and spelling which affect classroom performance, and finally behavioural difficulties due to environmental and/or other underlying learning difficulties affecting classroom participation and performance.

“We urge every early childhood practitioner to sign up for such training so that children with learning disabilities can be identified early and referred for support,”

said educational psychologist, Ms Lim Li Hong.