Sharjah Center for Autism has been busy in November 2008 with many activities such as formulating Mothers' Board and Youths' Center, educating local community by organizing visits to several schools, taking students in picnics to a number of locations inside Sharjah city, and participating in the activities of Environment Protection Group. Here are detailed explanations about these activities.
Consultation for Parents and Formulation of Mothers' Board:
Under a full supervision of Mrs. Mona Bagh the head of the center, many technical sessions were held between social workers and parents. Preparations such as setting outlines for each session time, topic, and participants were made by center crew members. In addition, students' case studies were prepared for parents to discuss.
The center aims at evaluating the work of crew members, displaying the results of previous workshops, providing psychological and technical support for families in order to make them involve in rehabilitation plans, exploring parents priorities and expectations, and showing parents their children's progress in order to reach a certain level of cooperation with them. 27 sessions were provided with 68 amounts of working hours.
The sessions were satisfactory. Parents were pleased with services provided for their children by the center. This was indicated in their evaluation of the sessions and the ideas they have drown from it. They noticed how teachers deal with their children and the importance of outlines in rehabilitation process. They learned how to use pictures to teach autism children at home.
Parents expressed their admiration and appreciation for the splendid courtesy of crew members and for the enormous efforts of center's administration. 22 families of 27 said that sessions were 90% successful, while the other five said sessions were 100% successful.
Formulating Mothers' Board & Youths' Center
As part of activating the role of mothers and make them participate in SCHS activities, Mrs. Mona Bagh has called upon the mothers of students to formulate a board in order to function as a link between parents and the center. The board will enable the center from knowing families priorities and expectations about their children. Therefore, a president, a Secretary, and the Treasury were elected for the Mothers' Board.
Educating local community by organizing visits to several schools:
Sharjah Center for Autism is very concerned in educating local community about autism disability. Therefore, a visit was made on Wednesday, 26, November, 2008, to Al Majd Model School to speak to students about the services provided for autism children. Moreover, the students of both schools participated in variety of activities.
The visit was satisfactory for Al majd Model school students, who came to SCHS for a meeting with Mrs. Mona Bagh. She started the meeting by questioning the students about autism in order to know the extent of their knowledge on the subject. Then, students toured the center, entered classes, and shared students in their daily activities such as sports, arts, and sign language. They have seen at a closer look the tremendous capabilities of autism children, which they have not been aware of. The meeting was concluded by a session with the head of the center in order to evaluate the extent of experience acquired by students after the activity was finished. After examining their ideas, Mrs. Mona Bagh discovered that many of them had changed their faulty ideas about autism children. For example, some of students' answers were "autism children speak and play differently than normal children. They live normal life with a few differences than us. Some autism children don't speak but they communicate with signs and gestures".
Students of Al majd Model School expressed their attention to deliver the message they have received during their visit to Sharjah Center for autism to their friends and colleagues by displaying the videotapes they have taken during the activity. The visit ended by distributing souvenirs and gifts to all students.
Integrating students by organizing picnics to number of locations inside Sharjah city
Integrating autism persons in public life can be considered the main objective of Sharjah Center for Autism. The center is working on plans to do so. Therefore, many picnics were made to several locations inside Sharjah city such as Malls, hypermarkets, and restaurants. These places received students on regular basis. This aims at changing students daily routine, helping them to adjust to normal people, making them develop their skills, filling their spare time with something useful, establishing a quit good level of integration with surrounding environment, and achieving the goals of rehabilitation plans. These picnics were satisfactory for both students and parents who asked for them either by verbal means or by sign language.
Participating in the activities of Environment Protection Group
Organizing a campaign to clean the environment in Sharjah Cornish on Thursday, 27th, November, 2008, was one of SCHS constructive activities. SCHS believes in the important role of Sharjah Environment Group in planting the principles of cleaning the environment in the minds of students. The team worked in harmony to protect the costal side of Sharjah city.
As part of activating the role of Sharjah Environment Group, coordination has been made with local institutions to benefit from their experience in environments matters.