A heartfelt thank you to all of the parents who completed our recent Parent Survey! Your feedback is important to the CDC as it enables us to better address your needs and to listen to your ideas. Through the comprehensive survey, we are more aware of some issues that were raised by you, and which we would like to respond to as follows:

The CDC environment

We have repeatedly received feedback that the waiting area at the Wan Chai centre is too limited. We could not agree more but these space limitations are difficult to address.  We suggest families come on time, which means not too early, when attending and leaving sessions, to avoid crowds over extended periods at the lift lobby.

Teaching and therapy quality

Concerns were raised about the quality of teaching and therapy due to changes of staff this year. Please rest assured that the CDC’s services are as sound as usual regardless of the changes, which are currently a normal phenomena across many industries. To assure the maintenance of high quality in the group and individual sessions and for our staff’s well being, our management team and/or clinical supervisors conduct observations and weekly meetings with frontline staff members. 

Besides the biannual report, some parents expressed the wish to receive more feedback and guidance on their child’s learning progress and development from us. We would like to encourage you to make use of our parent meeting / home visit services, or to join the free play welcome at the beginning of group sessions to have a quick chat with your child’s teachers and therapists. We are more than happy to update you about your child's achievement on those occasions. In addition, to learn more about the group session contents, every month’s teaching theme, learning goals, home activities, and book recommendations are available in our Monthly Classroom News on the CDC’s website. If you would like to receive more information about how you can carry on intervention at home, please feel free to reach out to the teachers and therapists anytime. 

Regarding the 6-monthly assessments, we are going to adopt a new system where group-based on-going observational assessments will be conducted, supplemented by individual pull-out where necessary, and feedback from you. This will allow the children to be assessed in a “natural” environment as much as possible. Please stay tuned!

Parent experience and support

As for parents who wish to have more opportunities to communicate and interact with our teachers and therapists to get tips on coping with young children with learning needs, we do offer regular parent workshops in English and Cantonese where there is opportunity to raise questions and talk to our frontline staff directly. The workshops cover a wide range of SEN-related topics, previous topics including “Building Communication for Children with ASD”, “How to Build Emotional Resilience in Our Children?”, “Getting Your Child Ready for Primary One” etc., and provide constructive advice and strategies. We strongly encourage parents to join these informative and educational workshops. They are all free of charge! 

The CDC also emphasises the importance of providing support to parents. While parents are always welcome to voice their concerns to our staff members, if you are experiencing emotional distress and are looking for more goal-oriented and individualised guidance for you and your child,  please reach out to us to book for an individual counselling session or behaviour management packages with our clinical or educational psychologists.

Raising awareness in the community

Constructive feedback from parents suggested that the CDC should publish more stories about the life journeys and daily challenges of children with additional needs, as well as the societal pressure experienced by their families and caregivers. We appreciate and agree with this feedback, and will look into inviting parents to share their stories through multiple CDC channels. We also look forward to receiving more ideas which add on to our public Inclusive Day which we have held for the past two years. 

Moreover, we are actively looking for more ways to publish the SEN Tips articles, written by our teachers or therapists, in our partners’ channels or media to expand the reach of knowledge and useful tips, thus empowering families to better assist their child, and the general public to be more understanding of the needs of individuals within the community.

The CDC app

Regarding the CDC app, we understand the current limitations, but the good news is that an upgrade is in progress and expected to be launched in the new school year! We believe that the updated version of the app will provide a more engaging experience where you can better access the plentiful resources the CDC offers and keep track of your child’s learning progress.  

In conclusion, we would like to thank you very much for your many positive comments about the CDC and its staff! The most commonly-used words to describe the CDC were “caring”, “professional”, and “supportive”. Staff members greatly appreciate receiving this feedback. As always, please do not hesitate to contact us at any time if you have any questions, concerns, comments or feedback.