Change Ministry of Magic to – The Ministry (i.e. Department of Education) and Mr. Weasley to – Zaidee.
Today was pretty much all…
Speech
We set of this morning bright and early in our wonderful Moo Moos. Ready for an official day of ministerial visiting, smiling and learning.
Zaidee introduced us to his boss in the Department of Special Education, Liyana. She was extremely hospitable and welcoming – even offering for us to stay with her at her house instead of going to Kuching…
After having met the entire staff of the Special Ed. Dept. (including those people in finance and the pay office) we went on a tour of Putrajaya, which is basically their version of Canberra. The Prime Minister lives in Putrajaya, has his office there, all sorts of official buildings are there – it is a beautiful place, but I dare say just as enthralling to live there (with almost as many circles) as Canberra. It was a shame we could not take photos from the car of the amazing buildings and mosques, but we did not wish to get out of the air-conditioned car.
Liyana gave us a wonderful tour of the Service Centre. This is the MAIN centre in Malaysia, which provides therapy (Speech, OT, Physio etc) and assessments for all children with special needs – such as Autism, cerebral palsy, speech and language difficulties, audiology, low vision etc… We were continually asked if the equipment was of a good enough standard, if the rooms were set up okay, if there is anything we could suggest to make it better etc etc. Liyana seemed to be under the impression that we were fully qualified speech pathologists and ready to take on a therapy session right then. We had to do a lot of explaining that we were only just starting our second year, and that we had not seen many of the main service centres in big places like Melbourne and Sydney. From what we could tell, the equipment was all fantastic, and Jess and I especially loved the Multisensory room… so many pretty lights…
There was another room called the soft play room, which was also sensory. If you were to step on the different numbers – music would play – very cool!
Having said the centre services children with speech difficulties and hearing impairment - I should have said there were rooms and equipment for kids with these problems. Many people told us throughout the day that there is a big need for speech pathologists in the education department. Currently, they conduct one group session once a week for children with speech and learning problems, and one for the children in need of audiology. Liyana is a qualified Audiologist, and Oh May Ling, the qualified speech pathologist cannot work for the Dept. of Education and the government does not recognise the course she did in Australia – even though they suggest people study in countries like Australia!!
On the same note, Liyana also said that so many of the deaf children have difficulty speaking because there was no early detection… a universal hearing screening for infants has only been recently introduced in some hospitals.
On a different note… parking is nuts!! It’s okay to double rank and block people in their park here, as long as you leave your hand brake off and your car in neutral, so it can be pushed out of the way when the person needs to leave!
We had an interesting conversation with Liyana before we left about Muslim dating. Apparently before marriage couples aren’t alone together. Nor are they allowed to kiss. The logic behind this =
Kissing leads to sex.
Sex leads to babies out of wedlock.
Which means the man can leave.
The mother then dumps her baby.
Therefore – no kissing!
After having much fun with one of their massage chairs we left the Ministry around 4.30pm – and stopped off at Zaidee’s old home town for food and Wipeout on TV. And then off to Zaidee’s home in Melaka… for more food! “I am FULL” and “No more food please” results in the response of “please help yourself, don’t be shy”.
ARGH.
Time for bed and to relax my aching cheeks from all the smiling!
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