Social work declared a "scarce skill"

As some of you may know, we're in the process of fostering and adopting a little boy so this is something that we have experienced first-hand.

There is a good article on the Skills Portal website by Caitlyn Smythe about the demand and funding being set aside for social workers in South Africa. Check it out here.

An Additional Learning ADDventures Course organised!

Venue: Rondebosch Boys High School
HAVE YOU BOOKED YET?

Book Now: Pat - 082 559 3364 or pat@ladd.co.za

Due to numerous requests for assistance with family interventions, client meetings and an additional course, we are extending our stay in Cape Town until the 24th May.

We offer a 2 hour appointment at R400 for individuals, couples and families.

Our 2 hour AD/HD impairments Assessment which includes a detailed written report is R800.00. For further information or to book an appointment call Pat on 082 559 3364 or e-mail her at pat@ladd.co.za

If you would like us to speak at your school (I know it is short notice) contact Pat.

Details of courses and workshops below.

1. Learning ADDventures for 16 - 22 year olds - R400 only.

We have had a flurry of requests to put on an additional course and we are now running it on Saturday afternoon from 2 - 5pm (16th) and from 7 - 10pm on Monday evening the 18th.

Exams are looming and time is short but if they can get the right attitude and find their passion they will flourish.

Parents attend the final hour on the Monday evening to find out what their offspring have learnt and how to sustain it.

Give your children a jump on their peers.

Prepare For Your Future
Are you in Grade 10, 11, 12, battling to find your first job, at university or college and struggling to get through all the work?

Do you know how to study?
What is your time management like?
Do you procrastinate?
Have you made the RIGHT career decision?
Are you battling with peer pressure?

If you answer yes to even one of the above questions this workshop is for you!

Why?
The Learning ADDventures 1 Day course provides both learners and parents with valuable tools to enable better learning and studying.
The course includes modules on Time Management, Decision Making, Values and Behaviour, Overcoming Procrastination, Developing and Achieving Realistic Goals, and a range of studying methods to suit every learner.
These courses are aimed at 16 - 22 year olds with an opportunity for parents to participate.
The course is interactive with group break-away periods providing an exciting “discovery” experience as each student finds their best method for planning, studying and learning.
The skills learnt enable your child to concentrate better, remember what they have to do, and achieve better and realistic results.
The courses offer a unique opportunity for parents to become involved in a hands-on way; to ensure that they have the tools and knowledge to assist their children to develop and sustain the learning changes after the course. The parents' session is included in the price.


2. Study Tips for Parents - Tuesday eve - 12th May - R300 per person or R400 per couple

NB - This was scheduled for last Tuesday but postponed due to our car accident.

Parents, find out how to inspire your children to WANT TO LEARN and work to their attention limits. This course was requested by School of Achievement in Gauteng and is a wonderful workshop to find out how your AD/HD children learn and how to inspire them.

4. AD/HD & Marriage Workshop - Saturday morning 16th May - R300 per person or R400 per couple
From 09h00 till 12h00.

ADDers are high maintenance and co-dependency is common.
S/HE has no faults.
Love is a VERB!

www.ladd.co.za

Therapy room to rent

Room to rent in therapy practice in Highlands North. 15 square metres with own bathroom. Ideal for educational psychologist, speech therapist, remedial therapist. Contact Gerald on 0739236479 or maidensgk@yahoo.co.uk

Educational Psychologist or Lacanian Psychoanalyst

Are you looking for an Educational Psychologist or Lacanian Psychoanalyst in the Gauteng region?

Check out Sharon Doubell Robins' listing on RemSpecED.

A reminder to medical professionals - Occupational therapists, Psychologists, Education Professionals, Physiotherapists etc - that they can have their practice listed on RemSpecED.

For further information please mail marc@rival.co.za

Occupational therapy recognized as a - “Best Career” by US news & world report

The following is a news release that was posted on the American Occupational Therapy Association website and RemSpecED thought it was a fitting article to highlight on our site:

Read the complete article here.

Recovery from Autism is possible

The following is an article published by the Autism Research Institute in the US which RemSpecED thought would be a good place for parents to start to get their heads around autism.

Read the complete article here.

Bring Back Fun in our Schools

The Department of Education often comes in for quite a bit of stick for the state of South African education, so its great to see them making some positive statements.

The following is an article that was posted on their site and maybe gives some ideas of their thinking:

Read the complete article here.

Homework Study Skills Lessons From A Football Quarterback

A study skills expert explains how important it is to have a strategy for homework and provides a fun example from a football game recently played by Aaron Rodgers of the Green Bay Packers.

While it is a US article, RemSpecED thought there were some nice lessons in it for parents to try and draw from. Hope you enjoy:
Read the complete article here.

Learner Facilitator

Mara Blokpoel is an experienced special needs learner facilitator; qualified Foundation Phase teacher.

See her listing here on RemSpecED.

List your practice for R175 excl. VAT for 1 year on South Africa's leading Remedial & Special Education website

Outcomes Based Education (OBE)

Outcomes Based Education (OBE) has been something of a hot potato for South African educators and administrators in recent months with some very tough questions being asked of government.

In theory, the idea is sound, but the reality that is actually happening in the classroom is very different with teachers drowning in paperwork and a constantly 'moving target' of what is and isn't allowed.

Those being educated also seem to be getting rewarded for mediocrity.

Give us your comment on whether South Africa needs to drop OBE or what changes need to be made to the system to make it effective in educating South Africans.

Future proof your child - Parenting the wired generation

Nikki Bush, who has previously written for RemSpecED has written a great book that is an ideal gift for parents and teachers.
Read the complete article here....

Wellness vs. Training

Author: Rival Wellness (www.rival.co.za) – Paula Barnard
Many companies and HR departments battle to distinguish between Wellness and Training when considering budgets. Ultimately this is because Wellness requires a certain level of hands on "Training" or Education for staff but "Training" itself doesn’t necessarily contribute to Wellness.

In this article Rival Industrial’s Wellness division takes a look at how to balance your Wellness and Training requirements.

Areas of overlap
Both Wellness and Training require:

• Skilled staff able to assist, develop and educate other members of staff
• Depending on the nature and size of your organisation you will may require certain investments in technology to communicate a effective Training and Wellness policies e.g. Intranets, Education material, software etc.
• Follow-up education programmes to promote Social and Professional Staff Development

Scenario
Lets consider for a moment the impact of a Financial Wellness program within a fictional organisation:

• You currently employ 50 staff in a Manufacturing environment
  70% of your workforce are on entry level wages working in your factory
• Your business is battling to meet legislation around Broad Based Black Economic Empowerment (BBBEE) supplier requirements
• Failing to meet the BEE requirements is capping your Business to Business opportunities within your sector
• If you had your choice you would wish to promote from within to develop a BBBEE component rather than bring in outside parties you don’t know
• Poor Money Management does plague your staff and they are often finding themselves in trouble for poor credit repayments, meeting medical expenses or saving anything that down the line could be used to develop themselves with additional training
• Ultimately as an employer you would like to begin an education program for these staff to warn them of the dangers of Credit Cards, Debt, no savings for a "rainy day" or no retirement planning
• You the employer cannot justify investment in these staff to attend SAQA / NQF rated Financial courses where the staff are very likely to be out of their depth *

Your needs
In this scenario you as the employer probably have a couple of goals:
Social Responsibility – you want to find a way to encourage your staff to understand some fundamentals of money management with the end goal that you would like to reduce employees approaching management for loans, school fees for children, funds for training and the emotional stress of debt
You would like to establish a "baseline" from which you can assess general employee Financial understanding and eventually establish which of your staff would benefit from development of managerial / financial development
Succession planning like this can lead to a smooth introduction of a BBBEE element within your organisation

You cannot afford to have large chunks of your workforce involved in training exercises simultaneously as this would lead to a loss of productivity

Strategy
Training is easy – if you want somebody to reach a certain skills level you identify the person, select the course, write the cheque and send them on their way to the training institution.Wellness strategies require a bit more planning to get the maximum value out of them.

Firstly it’s essential to market the idea to your staff. This immediately will show your staff you have their interests at heart and when they understand the benefits of attending and getting involved they will be a motivated delegate. A motivated delegate takes in more and contributes more.

Secondly you will need to break up staff into manageable groups to ensure no reduction in productivity. It is also a good idea to look at dividing staff up into comparable income brackets as they are more likely to speak freely and openly about their challenges if they believe others in the room will be in the same boat.

Depending on the size of your organisation you may decide to invest in a Financial Wellness week where staff are split into groups for various 1 hour workshops culminating with a feedback session on the Friday.

Staff work through the Wellness week and they are provided with a platform from which to ask questions and in this instance a general improvement in overall Financial Wellness.

Management is able to build some employee loyalty as they demonstrate a willingness to retain and look after their staff. They are also presented with an opportunity to assess a broad staff component and identify / earmark staff demonstrating potential for additional training. Hopefully you will also have taken the first steps to better educated employees around financial matters.
South Africa undeniably suffers from horrendous skills shortages in most sectors. These problems can only be addressed by accredited training courses. However a Wellness program offering staff education on issues such as Financial Wellness, Addiction, Nutrition etc. can be a fantastic way to develop a workforce from within.

It can also be hugely rewarding for management to see their investments in staff paying off.

An HR manager that can strategically balance the Training and Wellness requirements of the business may find they reap dividends of a happy, well trained workforce.

* This comment definitely does not deride from the quality of SAQA / NQF rated courses. This comment simply means that you feel your business may not feel it will see a return sending your employees on a course when they do not have a certain base-line qualification.

About the Authors:
Rival Industrial (www.rival.co.za) is a Gauteng based Wellness company. The Wellness Division is headed up by Occupational Therapist Paula Barnard. Rival supplies Wellness Solutions over a broad spectrum including Financial Wellness, Nutrition, Addiction, Sensory Wellness, Flu Management etc. For further information please contact Paula Barnard on 011 673-4421 or e-mail paula@rival.co.za

Receive South Africas top Remedial & Special Education publication

To receive South Africas leading Remedial & Special Education publication please download the subscription form and fax back to us on +27 11 673-9975

The form can be downloaded here

Cost is R275 for the year and subscription can be paid via internet transfer or credit card (Master / Visa)

For further information please contact Paula Barnard on +27 11 673-4421 or via e-mail (paula@remspeced.co.za)

Educational Software

On-line sales agents appointed

Internet AdSales has been appointed as the on-line sales agent for the ManufacturingHub.co.za (Manufacturing) and RemSpecED (Education / Parenting) titles.

Publisher Marc Ashton comments - "Both on-line sites have readership of 3000 plus unique users per month and this figure continues to rise. By partnering with Internet AdSales we are not only offering a professional sales function but we are able to extend our brand exposure to potential advertisers beyond the Gauteng region."

For on-line sales please contact Internet AdSales on 021 762 5863

Print sales and editorial enquiries can be addressed to Marc Ashton on 011 673-4421

Demand for Education products remains strong

RemSpecED's diverse portfolio of Education products has been well supported since the launch of our on-line store.

Products including:
Therapy equipment, educational books and DVDs, Acorn Kids products and other have seen a consistent demand for teachers, parents and therapists.
Thank you to all the customers who have supported us to date and we look forward to continuing to offer you a diverse range of products.

Kind regards,
The RemSpecED team

www.remspeced.co.za

New Designer for Rival

Rival Industrial (www.rival.co.za) , the publisher of RemSpecED is pleased to announce the appointment of a new addition to our Design team. Our design offering is now able to further build on its skills in Print, On-line and hand drawn design.
Baba Tjeko a former NEMISA student has joined our team as of the 1 April 2007. Baba can be contacted via e-mail (baba@rival.co.za) or on 011 673-4421.Rival is now able to offer:

• Competitive print design for brochures, adverts, letterheads and business cards
• Design of on-line creatives for web branding
• Packaging design and layout
• Animation
• Free Hand drawing / illustration
  

For further information on these offerings please contact Marc Ashton (marc@rival.co.za) or on 011 673-4421.Alternatively visit www.rival.co.za

Exciting events from Bella Vida Therapy Centre

Bella Vida Therapy Centre and Dr. John Demartini invite you to attend:Attention Surplus Order (ASO), tackling ADD and ADHD from the inside out.

Powerful Parent – Powerful Child(Filial Play Therapy Training)
For further information please visit www.remspeced.co.za