The Social Factor organises workshops and talks to help young people develop a positive sense of self. This includes programmes to help individuals better understand how their past has shaped who they are today, and workshops to help individuals at the crossroads of life to have a clearer picture on the direction that they plan to take.
We are also of the firm persuasion that all individuals should be able to develop to the fullest of their potential. As such, we have designed a series of workshops to help parents and educators better understand children with special needs. There are also workshops to help parents walk alongside their children to achieve success in life – both in academic as well as non-academic situations.
Understanding Children with Special Needs
This workshop will help teachers derive a clear understanding of what special needs are; to identify the general characteristics of the main special needs categories, e.g. ASD and ADHD/ADD; and to obtain new skills and methods to help manage students with special needs in the classroom. It will also explore some of the key issues in the area of special needs, e.g. anger management and bullying, as well as help teachers manage and deal with family members of children with special needs.
Workshop Duration; Either 2 half-day sessions or 1 full day session.
How to Help Your Child Succeed
A family’s involvement in a child’s social, emotional and educational life serves as the foundation for his or her success in life both in academic and non-academic situations. Numerous research studies have pointed towards the involvement of the family as a key indicator influencing a child’s holistic development and subsequent success in life. This workshop is for parents to gain insights on how to help their children succeed; they will learn that affective aspects of education such as affirmation and encouragement are strongly related to academic aspects of education. The workshop will touch on parental expectations and how to guide children in academic work as well as how to help them make a wise career choice. It will also suggest how parents can guide and support their children.
Workshop Duration: One session of 1.5-2 hours.
LIFE Story
Everyone has a story to tell. There are happy stories that make you laugh; there are sad stories that make you cry. And there are the stories that make you stop and reflect on what life is all about. This workshop session will utilise the tool of scrapbooking to help students tell their own life stories. This will be done especially in the area of identifying student strengths, interests, motivations and values.
Workshop Duration: Either two sessions of 2 hours each or 1 session of 3 hours Session 1 – Identifying defining moments; articulating life stories. Session 2 – Scrapbooking session to craft the life story narrative.
Crossroads
Everyday we have to make numerous choices. Some of these decisions may be as minor as what to wear and what to eat. But there are other choices that will determine how we live our life and what we do with the time we have. This workshop centres on the process of decision-making involving the difficult choices in our lives. Should we pursue further studies or go straight to the workplace? What are our goals and ambitions? Students will learn important concepts such as the relationship between self-awareness, self-identity and self-esteem, externalisation vs internalisation, and how attitudes of responsibility and ownership can make a difference in the choices we make.
Workshop Duration: One session of 1.5-2 hours.
Passion & Professionalism
It is often said that passion is the fire that ignites the desires of our heart. For without passion we cruise through life without a meaningful purpose and the tasks that we do become lacklustre and dull. What exactly is passion? How can we discover what is our passion? How can we use our passion to choose our future careers? What is the link between passion and professionalism in our work? This introspective workshop examines all these issues and more; students will uncover their individual personalities and passions, and learn how to channel these to build a successful career.
Workshop Duration: One session of 1.5-2 hours.
Parenting Workshop Series: Knowing the Heart of a Child
To know the heart of your child is the first step to winning his heart for life. Come explore these issues with us as we share our parenting strategies and stories over a cup of tea. Concurrent activities for children will be run just so parents can sit back and have a cuppa!
- Knowing Your Child’s Love Languages
- Celebrating Your Child’s Unique Personality
- Understanding Your Spirited Child
- Celebrating Giftedness
- Helping Your Child Learn Through Play
- The Involved Father – Why Daddies are So Important
- How to Really Honour Your Child
- Understanding and Helping Children with Special Needs
- Managing Anger & Loss – How to Open the Can of Worms
- Parenting Teenagers – Establishing Loving Boundaries
Knowing Your Child’s Love Languages
Communication forms the cornerstone of relationships. This workshop has the following aims:
1) To help parents have a better understanding on love languages and to identify the type of love languages that their child has; and
2) To equip parents in the communication of love languages with their children; with emphasis on encouragement and how this helps children develop their social-emotional vocabulary.
Building Self Esteem
This workshop will discuss issues of self-esteem & self-worth and how these are essential towards a child’s success in life. The workshop will adopt an introspective approach, helping teachers and parents to have a better understanding of the self-concept. It will examine the role of emotions and their role in influencing the self-concept, also discussing key issues involved in parenting e.g. discipline attention and gender roles, and how these have a major impact in the development of the self-concept.
Workshop 3: Managing Anger
This workshop will discuss the role of anger & depression and how they affect a child’s social interactions & outcomes in life. It will examine key questions such as the following:
1) What is anger? What are the roots of anger?
2) How do we help our children to manage anger?
3) How about depression? What does it mean when our kids get “emo”?
The Social Factor 