The Road to Integration: An Online Training Kit for Supporting Students with Special Educational Needs
Overview
In order to enhance people’s understanding of students with Special Educational Needs (SEN) and raise mental health awareness among students and staff, the Wellness and Counselling Centre (WACC) of the Office of Student Affairs (OSA) has produced a set of online teaching materials entitled “The Road to Integration: An Online Training Kit for Supporting Students with Special Educational Needs”. The content of this educational kit included videos introducing various types of SEN ranging from psychiatric illnesses of major depression and anxiety disorder to developmental problems like dyslexia and autism. These case demonstrations allow viewers to better understand SEN students’ distress, their learning problems and social difficulties. At the same time, we have invited different scholars and professionals, including psychiatrists and psychology professors, to talk about the characteristics of different types of SEN and effective ways of supporting students in need. We hope this teaching kit can achieve the following goals:
Goals:
- To enhance the “mental health literacy” among colleagues at university so as to raise their understanding on students with Special Educational Needs (SEN).
- To de-stigmatize the negative label inflicted onto students with Special Educational Needs (SEN) and to encourage provision of appropriate supportive measures and reasonable accommodations.
- To cultivate a harmonious and caring culture in the university and to attain integration and a barrier-free campus life to students with Special Educational Needs (SEN).
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