During the pandemic, the CDC has been providing online classes as a safe alternative learning option. After experiencing online teaching for a while, some parents expressed their gratitude as well as constructive feedback for the online services they received from us.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, for the safety of all CDC families, we have been providing online teaching classes and home learning materials to families so that they can benefit from early intervention without interruption, as well as to support them in providing a learning-friendly environment at home!
To refine the quality of our online teaching, we interviewed some families to gather their feedback. We have been happy to hear many positive comments as well as constructive suggestions.
Amazing communication
One CDC parent, Cruzanne, expressed her gratitude to the staff: “We have been so grateful and blown away by the quality of the programmes and the teaching at the CDC. It has been incredibly valuable to our family. It’s definitely something that we look forward to every week. Now my daughter has done a few (online sessions), she is starting to recognise what is expected of her in that format, and has a little more patience and understanding that she needs to listen to the teachers and therapists as they talk to her.”
Cruzanne explained how the online classes encourage her daughter to practise her gross-motor skills: “A lot of music and movement that was happening in the classes have encouraged my daughter. Before, when we put on some videos, she wouldn’t dance or do anything, she would just watch them. After the classes, she kind of knows when we put on some music and are dancing, she should dance and move as well. The classes have been encouraging her to move in different ways.”
She also commented on the efficient communication between the family and the CDC: “The communication between us and the CDC staff is amazing. The teachers have gone above and beyond to share other resources with us,” said Cruzanne.
Improving online teaching experience
Parents Sophia and Jascha, gave positive comments regarding the online sessions: “There are instructions of what to prepare in an email before the session and we find it is reasonably clear. Also the home learning materials are thoughtfully done. The instruction is excellent and it’s as good as you can make it with this format.”
Jascha was also willing to share with us some constructive feedback on how to improve the online teaching format and the difference between face-to-face and online classes: “What will work really well is if you have the exact same set up at home of what the teacher uses, so when the teacher does something on the screen, you can do the same thing with the set up at home. One of the key difficulties for the kids is to focus on the screen, the attention time is much lower. If you can shift that to a physical object in front of them, then the attention span is much longer.”
Both parents acknowledged that the online sessions were a new experience for the teachers as well as for the children and parents! It is pleasing to know that our online teaching skills have been developing and improving throughout this time: “Doing these online classes is a learning experience. It is a new thing for the teachers, we think there has been some improvement in the instruction over time.”
To conclude, the parents said: “We are grateful for the quality of the CDC’s teachers and therapists. They did an excellent job, being in touch and giving us ideas of activities on top of the instructions of the online session.”