“He who is best prepared can best serve his moment of inspiration.” – Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

Our thanks to the childcare teachers of Presbyterian Community Services (PCS) for allowing us to conduct a workshop on the nuances of teaching visually impaired children.

The Kids Konnect! June Holiday Programme was conceived to provide an avenue for our children with visual impairments to socialise in a non-threatening environment and, through cooperative and educational activities, learn and practice life skills such as preparing their own simple meals. The activities comprised interactive and fun music and movement, plasticine art, junior chef and sports stacking.

On the 18^th April, we had a parent support group. The topic of discussion was “Critical Skills for Success in Schools.” We had 6 parents who attended this informative session. Parents had to brainstorm on the skills required to carry out activities of daily living so as to create an awareness. After the brainstorming exercise, parents realised the difficulties visually impaired children and youth face with respect to performing these tasks. These skills are transferrable to the school environment and is critical for the success to perform in an academic setting. Parents had a more heightened awareness of the skills required for the success in schools.

iC2 conducted two workshops on 17^th & 18^th April 2015. It was tactile making workshops where participants work alongside with the vision teachers to make resources for the children and youth of iC2.

On the 17^th April, we had 4 volunteers who attended the tactile workshop. Participants were from ANZA (Australian & New Zealand Association), Expat-giving and Youth Corp. On 18^th April, we had 25 volunteers from SINDA (Singapore Indian Development Association) and 6 volunteers from SOTA (School for the Arts). The volunteers were given an introductory session on iC2 and its services. They were then given pointers by Mary McPherson on how these tactile resources has to be made so that the materials are easily accessible by the visually impaired. It was an enriching experience for the volunteers who decided to sign up after the workshop to continue the services with iC2. We had a total of 15 people who signed up for the volunteer support services with iC2.

“Making Teaching and Learning Accessible to Students with Vision Impairments”

The training team was invited to conduct a half-day session with 25 tutors and lecturers of Temasek Polytechnic on 23 Mar 2015. Topics covered ranged from

1. “Understanding Low Vision and Vision Impairment”,
2. “Supporting Students with Visual Impairments”, and
3. “Accessibility and Information: How to Ensure Information is Accessible for People with a Visual Impairment”.

The Kids Konnect! Holiday Programme was conceived to provide an avenue for our children with visual impairments to socialise in a non-threatening environment and, through cooperative and educational activities, learn and practice life skills such as preparing their own simple meals. On 16 March 2015, the Kids Konnect! March 2015 Holiday Programme was conducted with six students aged five to nine. The activities comprised interactive and fun songs, exercises, stories, pizza-making and kite-making. We had 3 volunteers and 6 beneficiaries who participated in the event.