Society for the Promotion of ADHD Research & Knowledge
President’s Report for the Year 2004

In the year 2004, much of the Society’s focus was still concentrated on expanding awareness of ADHD in the community. But we also started to explore what the Society should do beyond awareness education and parent support. The following activities were carried out :

1. ADHD Awareness Talks
Ms Cheng Kah Kee and Mrs Christine Keung continued to give talks on request to Primary Schools and other institutions on “Understanding and Managing the ADHD Child in class”. Please see Appendix 1 for the list of talks given to schools in 2004, as well as the ones given in 2003 and 2002.

In addition SPARK also participated in public seminar events to give talks on ADHD and to promote our educational materials (CD on “Managing the ADHD Child in Class” and the ADHD Handbook for Parents, Care-givers and Teachers).
Ms Cheng Kah Kee gave her talk on “Managing and Growing an ADHD child from a parent’s experience” at the following events :
a) Talk to Children’s Aid Society, organized by NCSS (15 Jan 2004)
b) Special Needs Seminar for PAP Kindergarten Teachers (15 May 2004)
c) IMH Forum on “Handling Children with Special Needs” (18 Sep 2004)

2. SPARK Newsletter
Three issues of the SPARK Newsletter were published in 2004. Very favourable feedback on the Newsletter has been received so far. The Newsletter now forms an important part of our publicity material on the Society and ADHD. Apart from SPARK members, the Newsletter is sent to all primary schools.

3. Parent Support Group (PSG) Meetings
The monthly meeting of the Parent Support Group at Child Guidance Clinic on the 1st Saturday afternoon (2-5pm) continues to be a major activity of the Society, to offer parents of ADHD children a forum to interact with one another and share information and tips with regards to management of their ADHD children. There are new parents who join the society at each meeting, and they benefited from the support and encouragement given by the rest.

External speakers invited to give talks to the parents in 2004 were as follows :

Jan 3 - “Coping With ADD in a Secondary School” : A question-and-answer session with Ms Tsjeng Zhi Ying, a Secondary 4 student from SCGS

Feb 7 - “Neurofeedback Treatment for ADHD” by Dr Kenneth Kang,
Spectrum Learning Pte Ltd

Mar 6 - Update on Proposed Research Study on Neurofeedback Treatment for ADHD children, by Dr Ang Kai Ling of NIE

Apr 3 - “ADD/ADHD : A Drug Free Biomedical Approach” by Dr (TCM) John Yeo, Complementary Health Care

May 8 - “Coping with ADHD Children – Start with Parents”, by Mr Anthony Yeo, Director & Family Therapist, Counseling & Care Centre

Jun 5 - “Social Skills and Anger Management for Children” by Ms Kati Harris, Special Needs Educator

Jul 3 - “ Teaching your Child in the way he should go” by Dr Francis Ngoi Ngie Huat, Director, Family Life Education Centre

Aug 7 - “Movement & Development, a Kinesiology Approach” by Ms Moira Dempsey, Kinesiologist

Sep 4 - “Intervention Programs for Children with ADHD”, by Mr Isaac Tan, Head and Educational Therapist, Care Corner Educational Therapy Service

Oct 2 - “Helping Inflexible and Easily Frustrated Children” by Dr Alefiya Nomanbhoy, Educational Consultant, Links

Nov 6 - “Behaviour Management with Neuro-Linguistic Re-programming for Parents and ADHD Children”, by Ms Cheng Kah Kee

There was no meeting in Dec 2004, but in its place, a year-end party was organized by Mrs Christine Keung for SPARK members and their children, which was held on Sat 20 Nov afternoon at West Coast Park. A total of some 30 children and 20 over adults had a great time. There were organized games for the children supervised by 3 NIE teachers, and lots of gifts for the children to take home. Another volunteer, Ms Ivy Tan assisted to take pictures for the event. We wish to express a big Thank You to all those who have helped in this event in one way or another, and in particular Mrs Christine Keung, who also sponsored the expenses for the party..

4. Registration of SPARK as a Charity
Following the amendments of the SPARK Constitution as required by IRAS and passed in the March 2004 AGM, our registration as a Charity was approved by IRAS, effective 3 July 2004.

5. President’s Challenge 2004
SPARK was selected to be one of the beneficiaries of the funds raised from the President’s Challenge 2004. This fund raising exercise raised more than $8mil. SPARK has been allocated $12,000. The money will be disbursed by NCSS in the 1st Quarter of 2005.

6. Request to Ministry Of Education
Following a Sunday Times article dated 29 Aug 2004, where it was reported that there are plans by MOE to set up special class for dyslexic kids in schools, we wrote in to the Education Minister on 3 Sep 2004 to request that ADHD students be included in this scheme, and that awareness talks to teachers to cover ADHD as well. We have yet to receive a response from the ministry.

7. Meeting with NCSS and MCDS
A meeting was held with NCSS and MCDS (now known as MCYS) on 15 July 04 at their request for them to understand more about SPARK objectives and activities. They wanted to know if SPARK intends to go into provision of services (similar to what Autism Resource Centre and Dyslexic Association of Singapore does for autistic and dyslexic children respectively). We were informed that capability funding for such projects are available through MCYS. We informed them then that SPARK is not ready to go into provision of services for ADHD children due to lack of expertise. Another reason is that there are other VWO bodies providing such services.

8. Meeting with NKF – Children Medical Fund
A meeting was also held with NKF – Children Medical Fund (CMF) personnel on 6 Oct 04 to explore ways where NKF – CMF can give support for SPARK’s work. NKF - CMF is now extending support for “life-long conditions” in addition to “life-threatening illnesses”. Over the years NKF has built up expertise and resources and intends to offer help to small charity groups involved with improving the lives of children with “life-long conditions”. The following are the potential areas of partnership with SPARK identified :

Financial scheme to provide support for needy families for medication and treatment therapies
Provision of education materials (eg. Translation of SPARK education materials into Chinese)
Penetration into primary schools for school awareness program to give educational talks on ADHD
Organising public forums to create more awareness, funding and publicity for the forums (incl. free use of the Auditorium facilities which can seat 300 people)

Plans for 2005
We will be following up with NKF’s offer of help listed above in the 1st quarter of 2005, and work out specific plans for action.

As the Exec Committee has decided that SPARK should not go into provision of services for ADHD directly, the Society will instead explore collaboration with other volunteer organizations which provide services to special needs children. One possible candidate identified is Care Corner – Educational Therapy Services which offers intervention programs for children with ADHD/ADD, reading difficulties and other special learning needs.

Reported by :
Bella Chin (Mrs)
SPARK President, 2004 – Mar 2005
30 Jan 2005