Smile A While Foundation Helping to Bridge the Gap to Understand and Support the Whole Child

At Smile A While, we believe every child with special needs in the Caribbean can have a bright future when given the support they need. As an organization, we know the importance in having consistent access to therapy services in order to improve quality of life.

Currently, in Jamaica there are 10 occupational therapists compared to the approximately 139,077 in the United States. We know that Occupational Therapy plays an important role in enhancing a child’s ability to learn and thrive in their educational environment – this is what fuels our team to work towards increasing access to quality, consistent therapy in Jamaica.

In October, the Mico Child Assessment and Research in Education centre is hosting their biennial conference, “Bridging the Gap: Understanding and Supporting the Whole Child”. This is an event that is attended by hundreds of teachers and stakeholders in the education system. Smile A While Foundation’s Founder, Joanne Oates-Toussaint, has been invited to present at this event.

Joanne’s presentation, “Understanding and Correcting Handwriting Challenges,” will equip classroom teachers with the knowledge and strategies to address handwriting challenges in children. Our goals are to cover the importance of handwriting in academic success, common difficulties, and contributing factors such as fine motor skills, visual-motor integration, and environmental influences. Attendees will learn to identify handwriting difficulties using various assessment tools and explore effective interventions, including fine motor skill activities, letter formation techniques, and classroom accommodations.

Occupational Therapy in schools focuses on using purposeful activity to facilitate a child’s active participation in self-maintenance, academics, and play within school environments. Our hope is that attendees of this session will learn new skills to increase access to occupational therapy in school to help children with special needs can have a bright future and pursue their dreams.

Join us on October 17 &18, 2024 for Mico University College CARE Centre’s 8th Biennial Education Conference 2024. SIGN UP HERE