THE main reason why assessments continue to be important is the impact they could have on the educational future of our children. Many a time parents, caregivers and even doctors have dismissed the slow development of a child to being a ‘late’ developer. While in rare cases, there are children who take time to speak and reach their milestones with some delay, by far and large, children with delayed milestones must be assessed professionally and the correct diagnosis reached.
I can only use my own experience to provide some insight on the difficulties involved in this area. While my eldest son had the usual babbling sounds before speaking, crawled and walked before two years, D. Preeya Nanthini, my second daughter displayed no babbling or speech, lying quietly in her cot, never crawled but eventually just stood and walked albeit slowly.
With the assistance of a close family friend, who was a doctor, Nanthini was referred across the causeway to the general hospital in Singapore, where upon assessment both medically and psychologically, there was a diagnosis of a global developmental delay and she was recommended for early intervention. And thus began Nanthini’s journey of therapy, in this case occupational and speech and finally private special education schools for her education. Nanthini’s diagnosis came at a much later part of her life, around ten years of age, when her then speech therapist Ragbir Kaur, also the first speech therapist in Malaysia, made the diagnosis of dyspraxia for her.
Most parents of special needs children find the prospect of assessment daunting. Many find it hard to accept that their child has a learning disorder, facing family members and the community remains a source of embarrassment for them.
Dr Choy Su-Ling, turned out to be a parent who took matters into her own hands, when her three children were diagnosed as dyslexic, including a set of twins. Having faced frustration in assessing her own children, Dr Choy, already with a strong linguistics background, where she specialised in English language and phonetics, with a Bachelor and PhD in media studies from Universiti Malaya, founded Altuz Academy in 2019.
Before opening the academy, she signed up with Orton-Gillingham Academy based in Melbourne, Australia, which specialises in helping struggling readers, especially those with ‘word blindness’, which later became known as dyslexia. This course over three years, which she attended both remotely and in person, gave her the confidence to teach her children and to provide intervention for them.
Her three children are well adjusted in a local private international school, attending a Canadian programme, where the focus is more on coursework rather than academic studies.
Today Altuz Academy, known as one of Malaysia’s leading Orton-Gillingham reading specialist centre, employs a number of academic language therapists, including Dr Choy, who is the founder of the centre.
“Proper assessment helps identify challenges early, allowing for timely support, “explained Dr Choy. “Early intervention can significantly improve a child’s academic and social development. It also enables educators to design individualised learning plans, accommodation and teaching strategies to best support their educational and learning needs.”
“It is also important to differentiate learning disorders from other factors such as attention issues, emotional distress, or even environmental factors.
Without a confirmed diagnosis, interventions may be ineffective or inappropriate and a diagnosis helps track the child’s progress, allowing specialists to adjust interventions.”
Mislabelling and punishment
Dr Choy also believes that without a professional assessment, teachers and parents could misintepret the child’s difficulties as laziness, lack of effort or even a behavioural problem, leading to unnecessary ‘labels’ and even disciplinary action, causing pain and embarrassment to the child.
“The earlier a learning disorder is identified, the more effective intervention can be.”
Why do parents avoid assessment?
Dr Choy said, “Some may have financial challenges but there are affordable options at government hospitals. However, the waiting list there may be long. Other reasons could be denial as parents are not ready emotionally and mentally to accept they have a child with a learning problem.”
Whatever the reasons may be, it cannot be denied that assessment remains the most important method of determining whether a child has a learning disability so that he or she can be intervened and have access to the tools for education and a bright future.
