Star Teacher

Mandarin Oriental Manila officially turned over donations from their Christmas Tree Fundraiser on February 18, 2010. SAS cannot thank them enough for making us the bene ciaries of their 2009 Holiday fund-raiser. Their generosity of spirit will go a long way in enabling students from all over the Philippines to bene t from their education.In January, SGV & Co., long time partners of SAS, decided to give a generous donation to the Foundation. Their donation will enable two schools in Caloocan City, Cecilio Apostol ES and E. Rodriguez ES, to implement the SAS 31-day, in-classroom Reading Program!

What is apraxia and how do you handle students with this disorder? Read on for a better understanding.

Educators are beset with a number of challenges every single day. Certain students hardly display any enthusiasm or interest in class, refusing to pay attention and avoiding participation in class activities.

The sheer size of a class also presents many difficulties to teachers, as they need to consistently sustain the attention of students. What more if among the 100 or so students is a child suffering from a serious neurological disorder? How would teachers be able to detect it and how should they go about teaching the afflicted student?

Apraxia: An Appreciation

What exactly is Apraxia? According to Jerilee Casas, certified speech pathologist, member of the Philippine Association of Speech Pathologists, and consultant to the Neurodevelopmental Center of St. Luke’s Medical Center and Therabilities, Inc., apraxia is a neurological childhood speech sound disorder.

Also known as Developmental Apraxia of Speech, Dyspraxia, or Childhood Apraxia of Speech, apraxia is a condition where there is an impairment in the ability to transmit the speech message from the brain to the organs involved in producing speech (e.g. jaw, lips, tongue, voice box, mouth). There is difficulty in the programming of motor action necessary to produce speech sounds, which more often than not affects patterns of rhythm and sound or intonation.

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