Child Development & Training

Special Child Care Centres (SCCCs)

Special Child Care Centres serve to provide five-days-a-week professional intensive care and training to help special needs children maximize their potential and to lay a solid foundation for their further learning and development.

Target Service Group

The major target groups are moderately and severely disabled children from 2 to 6 years of age.

Enrollment Criteria

SCCCs are open to those children who:

are assessed as experiencing one or more of the followings:
- moderate or severe mental handicap;
- moderate or severe physical handicap;
- deafness or severe to profound hearing impairment;
- blindness or severe visual impairment; or / and
- severe behavioural / emotional problems, hyperactive
disposition or autistic disorder;
do not require constant medical care in hospital;
cannot benefit from the integrated programmes in mainstream child care centres / kindergartens; or / and
are not attending an EETC programme

Scope of Service

SCCCs provide a range of services for the holistic development of the children:

Developmental assessment and individualized educational programme

Each child is assessed upon admission and periodically thereafter. The results of the developmental assessment are used to plan an individualized training programme which sets learning goals for each child.

Centre-based individual and group training

Individual or group training programmes provided at centres aim at maximizing each child's developmental functioning in all aspects, including intellectual development, motor development, language, social skills, play skills and emotional development. A special provision programme is provided to facilitate the learning of children and their adjustment to the centre routine and training programmes.

Occupational therapy

Occupational therapists carry out assessment on children based on their specific needs. Training is carried out in sensory-motor, sensory integration, self-care and social aspects through the use of therapeutic activities and environmental adaptation, aiming to improve the functional performance of children in self-care, play and learning.

Physiotherapy

Physiotherapists of Heep Hong provide developmental assessment to children and, based on their individual physical needs, come up with proper therapeutic motor activities, designs of special aids and home training programmes in an effort to enhance children’s motor development.

Speech therapy

Based on children’s individual needs, Heep Hong’s speech therapists design therapeutic programmes to facilitate their speech and language development and to enhance their social and communication skills. Parents are encouraged to participate in various training activities to strengthen their own skills in building up the communication abilities of their children.

Daily child care services

Child care services including the provision of meals and nursing care are provided to enable children to benefit from training programmes. Honorary medical consultants pay regular visits to centres for providing medical advice to both parents and staff.

Services for parents

Social work services are provided to parents to enable them to cope with the challenges of raising their special needs children. Regular parents' meetings, support groups and seminars, which help to enhance parents' knowledge on child development and other related topics, are organized. Through these activities, mutual support and sharing among parents can be promoted. Parents are also strongly encouraged to actively involve in centres' activities and to continue appropriate trainings of their children at home.

Psychological service

The Society's psychologists visit centres regularly to give advice on the training programmes, and to provide consultation related to training and management of children's emotional / behavioural problems to the parents and the staff.

Occasional child care service

Occasional Child Care (OCC) service provides temporary day care service for young children whose parents need temporary relief or have to attend to personal matters. The aims of OCC service are to prevent children from being left unattended at home and to provide temporary relief for the parents / carers under pressure. For details, please contact our centres.

Service Hours

Monday to Friday: 8:45am - 4:00pm

Fees

Free of charge. A transportation fee of HK$100 per month is charged for children who need the school coach service. The fees are laid down by the Social Welfare Department and adjusted on needs basis.

Application Procedure

Referrals are made by the Central Referral System for Rehabilitation Services operated by the Social Welfare Department. Parents may approach paediatricians, Maternal and Child Health Clinics, Child Assessment Centres, medical social workers or family services centres for referral.