Support for Students with Special Needs during Circuit Breaker Period

Mr Speaker, both our mainstream and Special Education (SPED) schools have worked hard to ensure that students with Special Educational Needs (SEN) as well as their parents and care-givers have support since MOE started full Home-Based Learning (HBL) on 8 April 2020.

Teachers prepared lesson packages that were delivered to the families ahead of time so the parents could use these to guide the children through HBL. The packages included both online and offline learning materials. Offline learning is an important part of HBL, especially for students in SPED schools. Teachers adjusted their materials and pedagogy to engage the students online and accommodate their learning needs. For instance, some use recorded instructions and "live" lessons to help students with reading difficulties.

SPED teachers prepared customised lesson packages with high levels of interactive, visual and concrete supports.

Schools also loaned computing devices, dongles, routers and provided SIM cards to students without devices or internet access to ensure that they could participate in full HBL. For students with sensory or physical challenges, schools have ensured continued access to needed assistive technology and communication devices. This includes the loan of customised devices and tools to support students' learning at home.

Teachers and other school personnel check in regularly with the students or through their parents to monitor their well-being and learning progress.

For students with ASD, schools share strategies and resources with parents, including social stories to help them cope with the changes. SPED School Allied Professionals such as psychologists, occupational therapists, speech and language therapists and physiotherapists also work with teachers to integrate interventions into lesson plans or share these with parents through video or teleconferencing.

A small group of students with very high support needs and assessed by the schools to need school-based interventions have been invited to come back to school for limited services, with the necessary safe-distancing precautions in place.

With the extension of the circuit breaker to 1 June 2020, MOH has re-categorised allied health services out of the public healthcare institutions, including therapy services, as essential services, effective 29 April 2020. Hence, therapy services can continue, but with safe distancing precautions. These include keeping therapy one-to-one, and prioritising face-to-face consultations for patients whose condition may significantly or rapidly deteriorate otherwise. In other cases, providers are encouraged to deliver their outpatient services by tele-consultation.

We understand that full HBL can be challenging for parents and care-givers of children with SEN, especially if they have to work from home or have other children who are also on HBL. I would like to assure them that they do not journey alone. They should feel free to reach out to their child's school for guidance, help and support. They can also tap other sources of assistance, such as the National Care Helpline, that various Government and Social Service Agencies are offering.

A group of over 200 parents led by Sun Mei Lan of Friends of ASD Families has provided very useful feedback on the experience of families with children of SEN across age groups. MOE, MOH and MSF will reflect on these findings carefully and use them to inform our efforts to support you and your children.

One thing that comes across in the survey is how critical it is for children with SEN to spend some time outdoors. This is necessary for self-regulation, especially for children with ASD and ADHD.

I call on everyone to be more understanding when they see a parent with a child with SEN in a park or public space getting a bit of fresh air. Sometimes, the children – and they could be adult children – will not be wearing a mask. The Government understands and has stated that enforcement will be flexible for such persons. So, give those families a smile and a friendly wave to show that you understand.

I thank the Minister for the comprehensive answer. It is indeed heartening to note that specific efforts have been put in place to support parents. I think that you rightly pointed out, it is a challenging journey, especially for the parents; it can be quite frustrating because it is not easy. With the teachers' help, it actually facilitates a lot of the training for the kids when they are in schools, but at home doing it on their own, it can be a bit challenging. So, I am glad to know that there is support through teleconferencing, teleconsultation.

Given the circumstances, especially as you highlighted, for some of those children with special needs, the fact that they now have to limit their time outdoors or to limit their interactions with other peers, these all have an effect on their development. So, I am wondering whether the school, looking at various safe distancing measures and how we can support this, could also look at how we can have more of sessions physically aside from just leaving it to the parents. I know that you have a few students who are actually going to the schools to receive therapies but these are for the more serious cases. I am just wondering for the regular cases, whether you could also consider having sessions where parents and the students could come to school and have regular interactions, because I think that would matter.

Secondly, whether we could create a more pervasive structure for the teleconsultation because I understand that this is in place but I feel that it is a little limited, and I am wondering whether schools and also the other Ministries like MSF as well as MOH could look into this.

I thank the Member for her suggestions and her input. On the question of whether we can have more sessions for physical interaction, there are two kinds. There is, of course, the limited service where some of the children have been allowed to come back to schools, especially for those who have particularly high needs. But the teachers also made great effort to do exercise sessions online. I know this because I participated in one of them, and I have to say that the workout was not a light workout, you could work up quite a sweat. You could see that the teachers prepared the exercises beforehand. They used very simple instructions. They made sure that the children were paying attention and following online. It is not the same, obviously, as when they are in school, they can see their friends face-to-face and they interact with the teachers directly, but the schools have made an effort to ensure that the children do continue to have physical exercise during home-based learning (HBL).

The other thing that the teachers have made a great effort to do is to try and ensure that there is routine, because for those who deal with SEN, you will know that routine is very important for some of these children. It helps them to feel safe and to follow a regular structure. But I do take on board the Member's point about how we can look for other ways to facilitate interaction. We will look at that. And also that suggestion of teleconferencing and how it can be done better.

As I mentioned yesterday, this period of HBL has thrown up a lot of learning lessons. We will take them on board, see how we can refine them to make sure that we have a good process, going forward.