Bridging The Gap

Our Early Intervention Programme in Singapore encompasses multidisciplinary services such as Child Speech Therapy, Occupational Therapy, Educational Therapy, Social Skills Training, Multi-sensory and Preschool Readiness Activities to help young children with special needs develop their potential and overcome their developmental delays. We also aim to ensure that each child’s strengths and challenges can be addressed and to help them reach their goals in terms of their daily living skills, functional skills and social thinking skills.
Our Early Intervention programme is suitable for Preschool-aged children, who are unable to access mainstream preschool settings. Your child will learn effectively in a small teacher-student ratio with highly specialized instruction. At our private Early Intervention Centre in Singapore, we offer a 3 or 5 day intensive programme which aims to maximise the potential of every child.
We design multi-sensory activities for children with learning difficulties, enhancing their growth in each area of development. In addition, we use multi-sensorial materials and techniques that stimulates a child’s learning. We help children with developmental delays learn effectively by targeting multiple senses – touch, sight, hearing, smell and taste.

Information Source : Official Website/Facebook Pages of "Bridging The Gap"

What is School Readiness Programme (P1 Preparatory Classes)?

School Readiness Programme is an individualized intervention programme to assist children with unique learning challenges transit smoothly and confidently into mainstream schools. Not only that, Physical, Cognitive, Social, and Emotional Development are all essential ingredients of school readiness. Our programme provides opportunities for your child to develop to their full potential whilst having fun through our specially designed activities, learning resources and facilities.

In Bridging the Gap, we promote the following:

1. Mind and Body

We want our children to live an active and healthy life and this programme also includes Brain Gym and Sensory Integrated Gym classes which develops a child’s gross motor skills, fine motor skills and self-help skills.

2. Thinking Skills

This part of the programme covers all the areas of academic skills including literacy, numeracy, language, colour and shape recognition. Literacy skills are an extremely important part of development for your child. We believe that literacy skills include a variety of aspects, not just reading and writing. This also include the usage of words in conversations and words to communicate, Reading, Writing, Listening, and using Digital technologies.

3. Self-Awareness

This is all about your child becoming familiar with themselves as an individual, learning how to express themselves and share their feelings and emotions. It is important that your child feels welcome and has a strong sense of belonging to the school, to their friend and teachers. This also includes having care, empathy, and respect for diversity, understanding oneself, being confident and being part of a community.

Information Source : Official Website/Facebook Pages of "Bridging The Gap"

At Bridging the Gap, our speech therapy sessions are held in a conducive and less-stimulating environment in small groups, or mostly one-on-one. As part our “all-inclusive” early intervention program, our speech therapy sessions are conducted on a weekly basis and is reinforced by the early interventionist daily.

Speech therapy exercises and activities vary depending on your child’s disorder, age, interests, and needs. During speech therapy for children, the Speech and Language Programme will include:

• Interactions through play, and usage of high-motivating toys/activities as part of speech and language intervention to help stimulate language development

• Modelling correct sounds and syllables for a child during age-appropriate play to teach the child how to make certain sounds

• Provide strategies and homework for the child and parent or caregiver on how to reinforce speech therapy at home

• Ensures that the skills children learn are transferrable out of the therapy room and into the classroom setting or home setting. Communicating strategies with the teachers and the caregivers so that the child’s learning is facilitated across most settings

• Being flexible and refining the goals as the child’s communication profile changes or improves

• Being creative and incorporating the goals into the activities that the children like to play/ do to ensure maximum engagement and motivation on the task

Information Source : Official Website/Facebook Pages of "Bridging The Gap"

At Bridging the Gap, our occupational therapy sessions are held in our safe and fully equipped sensory integrated gym. Moreover, we have specially designed sensory wall to make every session more fun & engaging. Our sessions are conducted one-on-one so we can focus on the child’s area of difficulty and individual challenges.

As part our “all-inclusive” early intervention program, our occupational therapy sessions are conducted on a weekly basis and strategies used by our therapists are reinforced by the early interventionists daily, in the classroom setting.

Occupational therapy exercises and activities vary depending on your child’s disorder, age, interests, and needs. Various therapy approaches are implemented to maximize function. Our safe sensory gym is used to accelerate your child’s development.

Information Source : Official Website/Facebook Pages of "Bridging The Gap"

Educational Therapy is a customized intervention programme which helps children with learning difficulties. A qualified special needs educator uses multi-sensory methods such as manipulatives, games, and other activities, to teach children skills and strategies to help them manage their learning or attention issues and improve their academics and self-confidence.

We make sure that we develop a programme that will cater and facilitate the learning of our students with different learning difficulties. Providing them with safe and nurturing environment will help them develop their skills and appropriately interact with peers and with adults.

Once the child is ready for mainstreaming, we would ensure a collaborative approach by building a positive working relationship with the teachers and other professionals so best support will be given to our kids.

Information Source : Official Website/Facebook Pages of "Bridging The Gap"

Bridging the Gap’s Social Skills Training programme is designed to improve your child’s social interaction, initiation, non-verbal communication and verbal communication skills.

Social interactions do not always run smoothly and there may be times where conflict resolution skills are required.  Hence, social skills training can teach your child how to implement socially appropriate strategies to maintain & sustain strong friendships in school.

We use a developmental methodology – “Social Thinking”, to help children effectively interact with others, helping them figure out the best way to think or act in a social situation. This helps them realise that whenever they are around others, the way they behave will affect how others think about them. This will train our children’s brains to understand and decipher what people around them might be thinking.  This social thinking methodology will also teach our young learners how to create positive thoughts about themselves and others.

Information Source : Official Website/Facebook Pages of "Bridging The Gap"

The Bridging the Gap Playgroup is a Preschool program which provides opportunities for young child aged between 18 months to 3½ years to develop and learn through both structured and free play. We aim to increase each child’s competence in all developmental areas and build on his/her natural interest in learning. Through motivating activities in a friendly and stimulating environment, our preschool program gives children the opportunity to explore and make discoveries every day.

Children 18 months to 3 years old are highly imaginative and live in a world of imagination and make-believe. A typical day in our Playgroup programme is filled with lots of stories, dramatic play, songs and rhymes, sensory play, arts & craft and gymnastics exploration.

Bridging the Gap’s Playgroup curriculum focuses on learning through play where we use a thematic approach in our curriculum to spark a child’s natural curiosity and enthusiasm. We also highlight sensory play activities which provide stimulation for learning, enabling greater information retention in young learners. The curriculum is also linked to an age-appropriate theme that changes every term.

• Language and Literacy
• Arts and Craft
• Music and Movement
• Dramatic Play
• Story Telling
• Gymnastics and Fitness
• Sensory Play & Manipulative Exploration

Information Source : Official Website/Facebook Pages of "Bridging The Gap"

Cases of bullying have been rampant around the world. Many cases are from schools which involve our children. Many students miss schools due to fear of bullies. This is why in Bridging the Gap, we have our Bullyproof Program to instill our children the unshakable confidence so that they can overcome bullies without violence. This is open to all the children ages 5-13 years old.

We will teach our children to use verbal assertiveness to deter bullies and several non-violent self-defence techniques to stay safe if physically assaulted. Importantly, we don’t teach how to punch or kick, since this often does more harm than good. Instead, we use leverage-based control holds to neutralize threats without violence. Numerous school districts have embraced the defensive nature of the Bullyproof program techniques as a reasonable, nonviolent response to bullying.

The bottom line is: we will prepare your child to defend themselves against bullies without turning them into one.

The Bullyproof program prepares your child using a three-pronged approach:

• Increased Awareness: Harassment comes in many forms. Sometimes, a victim doesn’t take a stand because they can’t differentiate between “joking” and “bullying.” We teach your child to differentiate between harmless play and harmful harassment so they know precisely when and how to act in each circumstance.

• Unshakable Confidence: A confident child is a Bullyproof child. Bullies seek “easy targets” – those who will tolerate their abuse. We arm your child with the tools needed to overcome physical, verbal, and psychological harassment, so they are so confident in themselves that no bully will try to harass them.

• Total Responsibility: We prepare your child to deal with bullies without turning them into one. We emphasize discipline, responsibility, and respect throughout the course, and teach five “Rules of Engagement” to ensure they never abuse their power.

Information Source : Official Website/Facebook Pages of "Bridging The Gap"

Bridging the Gap’s Nursery School programme provides a comprehensive curriculum designed for children aged between 3 years to 4½ years old. It is a progression from our Playgroup programme where the curriculum focuses on a holistic learning experience for children to engage in fun learning.

Furthermore, our Nursery School programme promotes the development of cognitive competencies and encourages a natural interest in learning. This helps our young learners adapt to routines and structured activities which they will soon experience in their academic careers.

Bridging the Gap’s Nursery curriculum is Play-based. We believe that play is an essential strategy for learning. We use a child’s natural curiosity and desire to have fun and play to encourage the development of key learning, thinking and communication skills. When children engage all of their senses in learning tasks, they increase their ability to learn. Play-based curriculum engages all senses in learning.

• Language, Literacy and Phonics
• Sensory Play
• Arts and Craft
• Music and Movement
• Gymnastics & Fitness
• Science and Math Discovery
• Introductory Writing Skills
• Dramatic Play
• Show and Tell
• Manipulative Exploration
• Circle Time

Information Source : Official Website/Facebook Pages of "Bridging The Gap"