Learning never ends , and it is certainly true, especially in today’s rapidly changing world.
In this article, we will discuss and understand more about the importance of learning never ending , from the perspective of Rosalina Alexander McKay.
Start with learning without limits.
From her personal experience of caring for a child with special needs , Ms. Rosalina Alexander Mackay sees the importance of sharing knowledge, encouragement, and experiences as a guideline for raising a child to grow up with satisfactory development.
For this reason, she and her friends established The Rainbow Room Foundation as a center for raising positive awareness about children with special needs. Throughout the past 10 years of working, Ms. Rosalina and her friends in the foundation have always been committed to working for parents and children, emphasizing learning new information to systematically develop children. At the same time, they also emphasize observing, synthesizing, and analyzing each child to see the differences and provide better care methods for each of them. This is so that they can grow to their full potential and live harmoniously in society in the future.
Take action to inspire others
The Rainbow Room Foundation is a community established to work to create positive awareness about children with special needs in Thai society. It is co-founded by Ms. Rosalina and her friends.
“Actually, my full-time job is being a mother. My hobby is working for the foundation, but I work almost all day,” Rosalina said . Rosalina said that the foundation was founded when her youngest daughter, Gabrielle, was diagnosed with Down syndrome a few days after she was born. As a mother, she said that the first question that came to her mind was where to find information about caring for her child. Luckily, at that time, she and her family were living in America, where there were resources and agencies with therapists who specifically helped children with special needs. She had the opportunity to learn how to properly care for her daughter with academic principles and understanding.
But when she and her family returned to live in Thailand, she found that there were not enough resources and support networks for children with special needs, and that many families with children with special needs did not know where to find information or who to turn to. The Rainbow Room Foundation was therefore established to fulfill that role.
The Rainbow Room Foundation has now been around for over 10 years. In addition to helping many parents, the time has also given Rosalina a deeper understanding of the meaning of life and the importance of caring for children with special needs.
“The first thing we learned is that children are children, whether they have special needs or not. Their basic needs are love, understanding, and adults who will help them grow to their full potential. We see that children who come here develop and grow with the understanding of their parents,” said Rosalina about what she learned. “We learned that encouragement is very important. On days when we are not sure what is happening or what will happen next in life, on days when we cannot see the way out, sharing experiences will give us the strength to keep going. Knowing that we are not alone on this path, knowing that there are friends, other people who have similar experiences, makes us not lonely and gives us the strength to keep going.”
Learn about children’s needs
As a mother of a child with special needs, Rosalina knows how much other parents need information to raise their children. She makes it a point to research new information so that she can raise her children more deeply and effectively. At the same time, she realizes that although information is important, every child has different needs, so parents must be both knowledgeable and attentive to their children’s needs.
“We work in data. We have learned that having a comprehensive and fresh set of data will deepen our understanding of our children. It is very important to seek knowledge and techniques for caring for children because they cannot develop naturally like other children. They need the help of their adults. But if the adults do not know what we can do to help them, we cannot help them in the right way.”
“At the same time, experience is an important way to learn because we are all individuals, no one is the same. Every parent can take good care of their children. They have to see what their children are like, what they like, what they don’t like, what they do well. Therefore, if parents understand, they will be able to figure it out and be able to take care of their children.”
Rosalina said that understanding is an important learning process in raising children with special needs because when parents understand their children’s needs, they will be able to respond to their children’s growth to the fullest. At the same time, if society understands the differences, they will be able to adjust and live together naturally.
“Not only family is important for children, but also the outside society. Everything is related. Because if parents take good care of a child, they will have confidence and pride in themselves. Including the outside society that understands differences, understands that everyone is not the same. It will make us more aware. Knowing our own heart, we will know other people’s hearts. When we understand ourselves and others, we can live together harmoniously.”
Shift your mindset to change your process
From her first-hand experience and constant search for new knowledge, Ms. Rosalina knows that children with special needs need different teaching methods. The Rainbow Room Foundation is responsible for creating understanding about the development and behavior of children with autism, Down syndrome, learning differences, or limited attention spans.
“We will share experiences, information, encouragement and support from parent to parent, while working with experts who will provide academic knowledge to support the experiences and information,” said Rosalina, who shared her experience living abroad, which gave her insights into the useful ways of caring for children with special needs, which she has adapted to use in Thailand.
“When we came to America, we saw how therapists worked with children. We saw that they put fun into almost every step of learning. Every class was about play, fun, laughter, smiles. So we came back to see that maybe a social development approach could be a way to help children have a warm, confident, confident, and positive learning environment.”
Including seeing the ‘Stop the R-Word’ campaign abroad that made her believe that changing the mindset towards children with special needs is the beginning of creating a lasting change in the way society treats them.
“In 2006, we saw the Stop the R-word campaign, where the word R stands for Retard. When we saw it, it really hit us because personally, we don’t like this word at all because we feel that it is an insult to the dignity of other people. We feel that when we label someone with certain words, it creates limitations. At first, it limits the attitudes of parents.
“Because when we hear the diagnosis that our child has this condition, what will happen to parents is that they feel that their child will not be able to learn anything, that their child will not be able to do anything. Parents will just leave them be. But if parents have the right understanding, they will know that this word cannot be used with their child. In fact, it cannot be used with anyone. Because when they have this condition, providing information, teaching, and learning are the keys that will help a person move forward in the future,” she said about the importance of changing mindsets.
“Because everyone can learn. The saying that learning never ends until we take our last breath is true,” confirms a mother who has created learning for her child with special needs and has helped develop many children.
Even children with intellectual delays can learn if we use the right teaching methods that suit them. We have to find out what kind of learner they are. If they learn from images, we show them something visual. If they learn from sounds, we use sounds. If they like to learn from touch, they must have that experience. Therefore, we have to see how they learn and we are the ones who help them learn in that way. Therefore, putting labels on them doesn’t really help anyone. It makes the progress of the family, themselves, or those around them stagnate.
Ms. Rosalina believes that everyone in society must work together to create a new attitude towards children and believe in their potential so that they grow up to be quality individuals, encourage them to move forward, make their potential be fulfilled, and make their dreams come true without any limitations.
This whole story from Ms. Rosalina Alexander McKay is a confirmation that learning never ends. It is indeed true.
The story is based on an interview with Ms. Rosalina Alexander McKay.
From the Transformative Learning Project
Supported by the Health Promotion Foundation (ThaiHealth)
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