Talk at SUREA on Montessori for Special Needs

Tonight, I attended a brief talk on Montessori for Special Needs, at SUREA. It was a very brief talk, about 90 mins, so I didn't learn a whole lot.
What I did learn:
- I think I'm on the right track in terms of using the techniques he teaches (proximity, distraction, least adult involvement and something else I forgot!) I've certainly not mastered it, but it looks like I do to some extent use those.

- model the behaviours that I want my child to have rather than just saying it...which is what I try to! I'm far from perfect but I do make a conscious effort.

- get hands on, physical. For e.g. when teaching handwriting, hold the hand gently and guide. At least tonight, I've laid to rest my uncertainty on whether it's right for me to do that.

- when I'm teaching him I've to be very careful and examine my own behaviour and thinking. We're a product of our upbringing and environment, bringing different values and thinking. He uses terms I'm not familiar with in describing their philosophy. Kinda hard for me to summarise this point of his cos it's rather pyschological too and I didnt get a good understanding of it.

- when giving instructions, do it step by step, and make it clear. I thought I knew this point. But he pointed out my subtle mistake when it was my turn to role play in front of the audience. My mistake was when telling the child to "Come with me. I've something to show you." as a method of distracting, a split second after starting to say that, I walked away, for the child to follow me. He said, just give one instruction at a time. Eh? I should have finished saying the instruction first, then walk.

- There's a single person who can keep more than one idea in his head at a single time. He repeated that phrase several times so it must be important. But I didnt understand that as he didnt elaborate. Perhaps it's related to the point above.

I spoke to a teacher there who advised that my son shouldnt be put straight away with his peers. She advised that he be with those slightly younger for say 1-2mths for him to gain self confidence, then only move him up. This is a decision I struggle with - start him off with his peers (4-5 yr olds in 2010) or younger (3-4 yr olds in 2010). That's a subject for a separate post, so I wont go into it here.

I'm considering attending his talk this weekend but will need to think about it. I'm sure I'll learn useful lessons that I can use for my son. But, I hesistate because (1) it's 2 full days, which is a lot of my time to commit (2) it's RM400, which is no small sum (3) it seems to focus on kids with behavioural problems, which I dont think my son has (4) I'm likely to fall sick either before this weekend or during the weekend cos I'm having the symptoms of a blocked nose type of headache with stiff neck the whole day today

I want to write about my discussion with the principal on their programme they run at SUREA, but I'm really tired now. It's a school night (I sound like I'm back in school, eh?) so I've got to sleep now.