Matters Magazine | Not-For Profit Copywriting & Journalism

Mater Dei is a NSW based organisation providing early intervention therapy, education and residential programmes for babies, children and young people with an intellectual disability or developmental delay and Matters is an important tool for keeping the Mater Dei community – and the public at large – informed. I penned a series of short articles for Matters Magazine’s June 2012 issue on topics including speech therapy and Zumba.

A Novel Approach

Speech Pathologist Simone Radman, who works with Mater Dei’s students as part of the Early Intervention Program (EIP), has recently become accredited in the pioneering family-focused Hanen approach to early language intervention, and is already seeing results.

Founded over 35 years ago by a Canadian speech-language pathologist, The Hanen Centre teaches several programmes aimed at providing parents and speech-language pathologists with the knowledge and skills to help children develop social, language and literacy skills.

Simone, who became Hanen accredited in April 2012, says that the Hanen approach is “one of the strongest evidence-based training courses, and is very effective in training parents in how to interact with their children to facilitate the development of their communication.”

The Hanen approach is “particularly effective for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder and general developmental delays,” says Simone, making it ideal for participants in Mater Dei’s Early Intervention Program.

Simone’s recent training will enable her to run “group programmes for our parents in EIP and teach them valuable skills in how to create the optimum environment for the development of speech and language skills”, and Simone is hoping to run the innovative It Takes Two To Talk programme for parents at Mater Dei later this year.

It Takes Two To Talk is highly effective for “parents of young children who are just developing expressive communication skills” and also provides a “valuable opportunity for parents to meet and support one another and learn strategies from one another” says Simone.

Promisingly, Simone has already started seeing results with the Hanen approach, reporting that the method is “working very effectively for two of my clients who were using very little expressive language and are now copying words readily and trying to make verbal requests!”

Ladies Who Lunch

It was a definite case of ladies who lunch at Mater Dei’s fourth annual Ladies Lipstick Luncheon, which was held in Campbelltown at The Cube on May 11. One of Australia’s best-known and most-loved comedians, Wendy Harmer, acted as MC for the luncheon, entertaining 496 ladies (and four men) in a wonderfully successful event which raised $38,000 for the children of Mater Dei.

Guests were treated to an inspiring performance by the Mater Dei student dance troupe and choir and were then entertained by Wendy, who presided over almost two and a half hours of laughter and emotion as she shared her unique and humorous insight into being a woman, a mother and the funny business of life itself!

Mater Dei’s Director of Development, Debbie Gates, said that Wendy’s “brilliant compering” ensured that the luncheon was “hugely enjoyable” for guests, as well as being a special event for the students who performed. “The hard work by our performing arts students over the last couple of years was evident in their brilliant performance and our student dance troupe and choir stole the show!”

The Ladies Lipstick Luncheon would not have been possible without a fantastic venue, a dynamic organising committee, and the generous support of event sponsors including The Rotary Club of Narellan, Perich Group, Blooms the Chemist, Commonwealth Bank, Karen Hexton, Marsdens Law Group, Macarthur Credit Union, Noni B, Peter Hammill and O & G Practice.

The $38,000 raised by the luncheon will be used to fund community participation programmes for Mater Dei’s students, which include inclusive schooling, structured work placement and daily excursions into the local community. “All valuable experiences that really do provide our students with the skills they need to help them take their place in their communities as confidently as they can,” said Debbie.

Dance Fever

The Zumba fitness craze, which combines dance and aerobic exercise with upbeat Latin and world music, has reached Mater Dei and it’s not just our pupils who are having fun according to instructor Joanne Heaton, who says that teaching at Mater Dei is “one of the most rewarding things I have ever done in my life!”

Joanne started teaching the popular Colombian fitness class at Mater Dei at the beginning of the school year and teaches Zumbatomic, an exercise system for children aged 4 – 12 which has been found to improve focus and self-confidence and increase metabolism and coordination.

Zumba is all about “enjoying the music and just moving” says Joanne, who started teaching Zumba almost two years ago after falling in love with the exercise craze. “You don’t have to be perfect at it! You put your own groove to it. I also put no pressure on the kids, it’s not a boot camp I just want them to have fun with it! “

Although Joanne first introduced Mater Dei’s students to Zumba with some of her simpler moves, she says that week by week she has been able to “throw out more and more of my more difficult routines and the students just wow me with how well they pick it all up!”

Joanne says that the confidence of many of Mater Dei’s students has soared since starting Zumba classes, with “many of the quieter students really blossoming in this class. It’s the most amazing thing to see pupils who used to hide up the back of the class now coming right up the front and dancing with me!”