Encouraging young minds to embrace reading

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“Believe in your child’s fullest potential and support them in everything they do. The road ahead may not be what you, as parents, hoped for. But your child is blessed, to have you.”

Meet Fiona Woo, a passionate educational therapist, with a zest for life and a heart full of love for children. Through engaging and fun methods, Fiona guides children on their literacy journey and encourages young minds to embrace reading, one word at a time.

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I am an Educational Therapist at the KKH Department of Child Development (DCD). We work as part of a multi-disciplinary team supporting young children with developmental delays.

Since young, I have always enjoyed being around children and even helped babysit my neighbour’s children. During my university holidays, I worked part-time in the preschool sector and realised my passion for working with young children. That prompted me to further my studies in this area.

I work mainly with 5- and 6-year-olds, teaching them to pick up appropriate skills to read and write independently. For most children, reading might come naturally to them. However, some struggle to recognise alphabets and read independently.

Each session with the children is made fun yet safe for them to learn at a pace that is suited for his/her learning needs. I use toys like Pop-It where the child will press each ‘pop’ while singing the alphabet song, or we may play games like hide-and-seek to find letters or words. Children often enjoy it so much that they always ask to play the game during the sessions. It is a joy to see them learn and make progress while having fun.

Through these interactive activities, we demonstrate to parents that learning alphabets and reading are not limited to the traditional rote learning, tied to classroom settings, or through pen and paper activities.

I recall seeing a child with significant language delay, who struggled to read. Together with her speech therapist, we worked to build her vocabulary and introduce simple but essential words. For example, it is important for young children to understand instructions or position words like ‘on’, ‘in’. We focused on teaching the child how to read these words using letter sounds, with the eventual goal for her to gain both reading and language skills.

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At DCD, we believe in providing family-centric and accessible services for parents. Some of our clinics are located outside of KKH, and based in residential areas, such as Punggol and Outram.

These clinics are specially designed to help children ease into their surroundings. Each clinic is thematic, for example, the Punggol clinic mimics an ocean with walls teeming with various sea creatures.

At the end of the day, we want children to enjoy attending the intervention sessions and leave the clinics with smiles on their faces.

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It is difficult to choose one favourite story as every day is special to me, with many moments of joy that I hold close to my heart. It is always heartening to see children progress little by little, through their own efforts, to see them learn and learn happily. Every high-five received warms my heart.

My favourite moments are when parents see beyond the developmental issues, recognise their child’s potential, and feel encouraged to try the strategies at home. They then return to the next session sharing how their child has taken the initiative with a book or asked to be read to. These stories always brighten my day.

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I enjoy going for walks. Whenever I am on holiday, I plan a hike. The scenery in each country is unique and different, and the view makes me feel energised and recharged.

I also enjoy flower arrangement, making scrap books and beading. These make unique gifts for others too.

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I am grateful to have met many people who have inspired me at various stages of my life. From my teacher in primary school, to colleagues at work, they have taught me to be kind and open-minded. They also taught me that the battle is half won when we believe, and have faith, in what we do.

I believe that mentors are not appointed but people whom you meet and build a connection with; and they guide me to become a better person every day.