Expat Women
Insight|Profile
From Acorns to Oaks By Chutinanta Boonyamarn
How British expat Alison Owen helps children with learning difficulties to bloom
■ THE lack of support services for children with learning difficulties and other neurological problems in Thailand may not register on most people’s radars, but what if you’re a parent of a child diagnosed with Down syndrome, autism, or attention deficit disorder? Where do you go to ensure your child gets the assistance they need to develop and reach their full potential?
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These were exactly the questions swimming around British expat Alison Owen’s head when, together with her family, she moved to Thailand in the early ’90s following her husband’s new job, and discovered that parents of children with learning difficulties
couldn’t find suitable resources for their kids. “Not long after moving here I began helping out with children at an international school,” explains Alison, an occupational therapist with over 25 years’ experience, “and during this time I heard many parents discussing how difficult it was to find individual and effective interventions for their children outside of the classroom. “This provided a compelling wish to create a centre where the child, family, school and home are all taken into consideration in a series of carefully crafted support workshops and training facilities – in short, a real holistic approach.” In 2004, Alison brought that dream to life by opening the Acorns To Oaks Centre (ATOC), a unique facility in Bangkok’s Phrakanong district which provides specialist education
programmes for children with specific learning difficulties, all conducted by a team of experienced consultants and therapists. The centre operates adhering to five key principles: 1) To build the children’s confidence by helping them to believe in themselves, develop their skills, and work on self image as valued individuals. 2) To successfully use its qualified educators and quality resources to meet specific targets. 3) To help students to think critically using an approach that enables them to observe, reflect, evaluate, explain, and reason. 4) To increase each child’s capacity to learn and develop their academic readiness and achievement. And 5) To help young children to speak though oral therapy, speech and language training, and, when required, picture systems, signing and specialised computer software. “Our recommendations focus on the child within their family unit and we use a service model, making sure we follow ethical guidelines.” Counseling and training is an integral aspect of the support provided and the