F
or some, the fact a child has
special needs is apparent
from birth. For others, it’s
more of an instinctual feeling
and for others still, the news may come
as a complete shock. What is familiar
when parents learn that their child
has special needs is a cycle of feelings
that begins with denial, upset and
fear. The effect has been likened to a
bereavement process.
Whether a parent discovers special
needs at birth or later, protocol in
Hong Kong means that the process
of diagnosis follows a practiced
series of steps, both in the private
and public systems. When an issue is
flagged during milestone checks at a
Maternal and Child Health Centre
or through a private paediatrician
in the early years, a medical expert
will then refer the child, or later on,
a teacher at school refers the child
to a developmental specialist for
assessment. In the public system, this
will be at a Child Assessment Centre.
Based on the result, the medical
worker will apply on the child’s
behalf to government-aided early
intervention programmes.
Getting appointments and
referrals, and waiting on lists for
treatments, can be time-consuming,
frustrating and confusing. At any
point along this path, the parent can
feel very out of control. “There can be
all kinds of feelings, from jealousy of
friends and children without special
needs to upset to total denial,” says
Stella Wong, director of Watchdog,
a care centre that runs classes and
courses for children with special needs
in English and Cantonese.
Shock divide
“I fell apart, even though I knew he
had it,” says Jane Walker Smith, when
her son Duncan was recommended for
an autism assessment. Unfortunately,
it had taken over a year to get the test.
Says Jane, “We had taken him to a
developmental paediatrician at around
two to two and a half years old, as
he was not speaking or looking at us.
She interviewed us and recommended
speech therapy.”
The experience with the speech
therapist didn’t go well, and so Jane
enrolled Duncan in gymnastics
and playgroup, returning to the
developmental paediatrician eight
months later. “We were told not
to worry because his speech was
developing,” she recalls. But a year
after that first appointment, Jane says
April 2015
55
