Story of Tan Shu Yun
What were the difficulties faced by your child before entering BEST?
Shu Yun academic performance was acceptably good in standard one but things changed when she was in standard two. Shu Yun was full of ideas and capable of arranging and prioritizing most of her ideas; however, she continuously failed in her studies. She doesn’t read nor revise, she also refused to share occurrences from her day at school. She did not dare to show us her result when the exam results were released. That’s when, I realized that there was something wrong with Shu Yun. I knew that she is smart but how she could not fare well in her academic achievement. As Shu Yun’s parents, we felt strange and began to worry about her future. On one occasion while sharing my fear with my sister-in-law, she told us about BEST Centre. So we brought Shu Yun to see Ms. Phoebe and found out that Shu Yun had learning disabilities. Most notable sign was Shu Yun could not differentiate between ‘b’ and ‘d’. This was the reason why it was difficult for her to figure out and understand the words the teachers wrote on the whiteboard. The children who failed to learn were stereotyped as stupid. Ms. Phoebe indicated to us the challenge we faced and guided us on how to exhibit positive attitude towards Shu Yun’s laxness and to collaborate with BEST Centre to assist her to breakthrough. We should remember that it is not about having sent the child to the Therapeutic Centre for one or two years and the child will turn to a new leaf. This process requires the whole family to participate and accompany the child. The first thing I learned in BEST Centre is that we need to change the home atmosphere. Our home atmosphere used to be very disarrayed, we watched television program during free time, often quarreled, which made our children miss a good learning environment. Now we have learnt to supervise the children and support them with their homework and revision. My wife practices the Brain Gym at home and invite other family members to join in. It is important for the parents to have the appropriate attitude, to love and to care for their children. Parents have to follow the strategies recommended by BEST Centre, if not, there would be no effect in the children’s conversion. Parents should not have the old school of thoughts which is “I pay and that’s all.” Changes will only take place when the parents have the right mindset to get involved.
As a parent, what have you done to support your child?
Whenever she gets better results we reinforce and recognize her good work and encourage her to further improve. It is important for the child to be recognized because children nowadays are very emotional and they might misbehave to gain your attention. Parents should be cautious if the child tries to gain the attention with some problematic actions. Parents then have to find out the reasons why the child is behaving in such manner and guide the child to behave in an appropriate manner. Parents need to equip with more knowledge on how to handle and support their child. As for Shu Yun, she likes drawing. We encouraged her to draw anything that she preferred. On completion she will show her drawing to us and we will definitely praise her to let her know that she is talented. Shu Yun then continues to draw with joy and satisfaction. In short, parents should be willing to sacrifice for the child in every aspect, including changing their attitude, mentality, and environment.
What are your child’s improvements?
Shu Yun attends BEST Centre three days a week and attends formal school the remaining days. After one and a half year, she is now able to differentiate the letters ‘b’ and ‘d’. She started to figure out the different words and showed improvement in her standard three class. Shu Yun seems to have revived after attending BEST Centre. She is now more focus and learns better, she is more vigilant and have endurance. While she was in standard two she used to cry and now we have learnt that those cries were to express her emotion. She wasn’t getting good grades from standard three to standard five. The whole family was worried that she is going to get bad results in her UPSR exams and all we were hoping was at least a pass in the exam. She learnt the technique on how to revise by herself after attending BEST Centre programs. She worked hard in standard six, and finally, she managed to obtain 6Bs and 1C for the subjects that she used to fail. We were all surprised at what she could achieve. Now, she is diligently working hard in all her academic subjects and capable of gathering relevant information from the internet. She also serves in the church as the youth fellowship leader. She has a lot of believes and she likes to share her believes and thoughts with me. She knows exactly what she wants to be in future and she has devised those plans and the next best thing for her is to achieve those set plans of hers.