Funded by the Chow Tai Fook Charity Foundation, Hong Kong YWCA has launched a 3-year project - “Y-Flight: Family-based Support for Children with Special Educational Needs (SEN)” in 2016. Early this year, the Association had teamed with the Hong Kong Space Museum to organize an astronomical programme offering an alternative learning experience for the SEN children and their families.
On the event day, 3 zones were set up: at the first zone, an “Inflatable planetarium” allowed the participants to learn about astronomy and gain knowledge of various celestial bodies by observing a simulated night sky; at the second zone, telescopes with light filters were provided to study the movement of the Sun. Furthermore, there was a matching game available at the third zone where kids could know about the Eight Planets of our Solar System. Kids were also able to feel the surface and study the features of the Moon and the Mars when they touched those 3D printed models of the two planets at the sensory experience zone.
Y-Flight aims to help those families with young children diagnosed with special educational needs, e.g. autism, dysphonia, attention deficit, hyperactivity disorder and dyslexia.
By adopting a family-centred service approach, Y-Flight strives to strengthen parenting skills, establish a healthy parent-child relationship, improve the children’s adaptability and efficacy and relieve the parents’ pressure. Services including parenting skills training, therapeutic and developmental activities for children, social networking for families and public education are also offered. It is expected that through creating a cohesive environment for those SEN children and their families, they could lead a better and brighter future.