Faqs

• infants and children with feeding difficulties (e.g. premature babies, children with cerebral palsy)
• children with speech and language disorders
• children with autism and other learning difficulties
• children with hearing impairment
• adults with speech, language and/or swallowing difficulties following
  • stroke or brain injury
  • brain tumours
  • degenerative neurological diseases (eg. Parkinson’s disease, motor neuron disease, dementia etc.)
• head and neck cancers

Cognitive Speech Training is meant for young children from 4 to 12 years old  and will focus on enhancing the child’s reading, planning and communication skills. The training will boost the child’s confidence and self-esteem in speaking and communicating in social, home and school setting.

Learning Difficulties is a general term that is used to describe specific kind of learning problems. Generally, people with learning difficulties can have trouble learning and using certain skills. The skills most often affected are: reading, writing, listening, speaking, reasoning, and doing math. Common learning difficulties affecting school children are: Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Autism, Asperger Syndrome Disorder (ASD) and Dyslexia.

ADHD: Children with ADHD then to act impulsive, are hyperactive, and have trouble focusing. They may understand what’s expected of them but have trouble following through because they cannot sit still, pay attention, or attend to details.

Autism and ASD: Children with autism or ASD have issues with social interaction. Common characteristics displayed are problems with communication, social interaction, little or no eye contact when talking to people and difficulties in coping with changing environment.

Dyslexia: Children who are Dyslexic may face specific reading and writing difficulties. Such difficulties can be extended to Mathematics and other language skills such as Mandarin. Common traits include sequencing issues, forgetfulness, writing in mirror image and skipping words or sentences when reading.

Being diagnosed with Learning Difficulties means these conditions affects the brain’s ability to receive process, store, respond to, and communicate information. Basically children facing Learning Difficulties does not necessarily means that their IQ is low. In fact, it is quite common that such children are of average or above-average intelligence. Instead, their struggle with their schoolwork is the result of their learning difficulties couple with operating in a school system that does not cater to their learning needs.

Parents who suspect their child may have learning needs may choose to seek professional help in order to receive an official diagnosis. Based on our experience, most children with undiagnosed difficulties in learning tend to exhibit the following traits:

• poor academic results
• inability to focus on schoolwork
• low self-esteem
• frequent change of tutors

If you have further queries, you may call us at 6100-2665. We will be pleased to answer any questions that you may have regarding your child’s challenges and frustrations.

Cognitive Development Learning Centre, although specialises in handling special needs, support children in the mainstream syllabus. We follow the MOE Curriculum and has fulfilled the criteria set by the standards of MOE. More information can be found on the MOE website.

We offer English, Mathematics and Science academic support and behavioural training for Preschool, Primary and Secondary school students. Please refer to our Programs to get more details.

At Cognitive, we provide our students with a specialized kid’s Gym where they are able to express their emotions candidly. Through our structured games, our children are given the opportunity to develop physically, intellectually, emotionally and socially. Experience has shown that our children are motivated, more confidence and are more lively and fun while working in a non-competitive and yet stimulating environment.

We will not be able to provide concrete recommendations on the number of sessions required by your child until he or she has been assessed by our educational specialist. Every child has generally three areas that require improvement, as seen from experience. These are:

• Remediate: Typically the child is seriously at risk. Some of the symptoms are low grades for English and Mathematics, the child is sometimes up to 2 grades below his or her classmates. Low academic standing may but not always be accompanied by behavioral issues such as inattentiveness, restlessness, inability to concentrate. Consequentially, this child tends to suffer greatly from low self-esteem and low confidence. For these children, we recommend at least a 3-day session per week, optimally a 4-day session is preferred.

• Prevention: Academically, the child is about a year or less below his or her peer group. Behaviourally, this child is capable of having a fairly good attention span but noticeably, there is a marked, progressive deterioration in both their academic performance and their behavior. We would recommend a 3 day session per week. A greater number of sessions at our learning centre would not be necessary.

• Support: A child who has already been through our remedial and or prevention program. This child remains at risk but is becoming an independent learner. Parental feedback has been good but some time is needed to confirm that this child can learn independently and no longer needs our support. We recommend that such a child attends our 1 or 2 days sessions. We have found that 2 hours is optimal for allowing children to learn at their own pace. To prevent boredom and inattentiveness, we vary the activities that the children have. The duration of each activity is carefully calibrated to ensure that the children remain interested and do not lose focus.