A Little Help

Tell us more about your line of work.
I do development screening for children to see whether they’re on par with their peers. Not just special needs children—parents bring in their children if they feel they need to be checked. Sometimes, through screening, we can see that everything’s ordinary, and that the child may just have behavioural issues like a shorter attention span.

What’s the most frustrating thing about your work for you?
When I’m helping parents. They tend to have a lot of concerns about their children, and unload all of their worries on us. Of course, when they’re told that their child is different or needs therapy, there’s a feeling of “aiyah, sian”, but they’re also relieved since they now have a direction on how their children can proceed. There’s nothing wrong if children need intervention, I just think of it as extra help. And we all need extra help sometimes. 

How is your own personality aligned with your work personality?
I’m quite extroverted so I’m fine with talking to parents. I get to meet new people every day, which is tiring but doesn’t burn me out. What’s different is that this job requires a little more attention to detail and some clinical judgement, which were not my strengths initially. I’m more of a big picture kind of person, so it was hard to read the scales and make a judgement, especially in the short amount of time we get with each child.

What does it take to embrace people who are different from us?
As I learn about them, I know the difficulties that they face. If you don’t understand the struggles they face or how they are as a person, you might be very offended or triggered by what they do. The biggest part would be understanding them. Love and acceptance will come after that.

How do you think your experiences or your knowledge will shape the way you have a family?
When you have kids, you never know how they’re going to turn out, or if they’ll ever have special needs. That’s the part that scares me even though I’m working in this industry, because I really see the extent of it and how much support you need. That being said, because I know what kind of support is out there, I’d be more open to seeking help for my child earlier. In raising my kids, I also know that everyone’s different, so I won’t emphasise so much on their academic performance. I don’t want them to be lazy, spoilt brats, but I’d place more importance on their character, who they want to be, and of course, raising them to love God.