Here at Headstart For Life, we dedicate ourselves to helping young children achieve their full potential and learn to cope with the everyday tasks most adults take for granted.  

The world can be a busy and overwhelming place- and we pride ourselves on offering a safe space with a small teacher-student ratio to maximise learning opportunities for your child to thrive. Our priority is quality intervention through highly specialised instruction in the following areas: 

• Motor Development  
• Communication Skills 
• Cognitive Functioning  
• Social and Emotional Development 

• Adaptive Skills 
• Self-help Skills  

 Our goal is not to replace a school curriculum but instead build a strong foundation to help them cope within mainstream school setting.  

 Why Headstart For Life?  

 1) Small Teacher: Student ratio  

We are the ONLY early intervention programme in Singapore that has teacher, Speech Therapist and Speech Therapy assistant running the programme together.  We limit class size to 4 kids maximum, so our kids get the maximum benefit. 

 2) Open communication between all stakeholders in the children’s lives 

– It takes a a village to raise a child. Here at Headstart For Life, we work closely with parents, caregivers and other healthcare professionals to assist our students achieve their full potential.  

 3) Options for every learning profile  

– We provide multi-sensory learning activities to appeal to all types of learners. Research has shown that children learn best when exposed to a range of sensory stimulation and we aim to do the best we can to stimulate their learning.  

 4) Intervention tailored to your child and family  

– Each child undergoing our programme receives an Individualised Education Plan (IEP) with specific goals tailored to their needs. We also provide a Home Embedded Learning Schedule which describe strategies and suggested activities that can be embedded into daily routines for home practice.  

5) Integration with the mainstream setting  

– Classes are run 2x weekly for 3 hour blocks so our children can attend mainstream schools. We encourage open communication across all school settings and work closely with mainstream education providers to ensure our children receive support that they need both on and outside of our centre.  

6) Evidence-based, established methods 

– We use strategies and methods that have been proven to help our children lay the foundation of their early years. Some of the approaches we use include: 

• PECS ® Developed by Lori Frost and Andrew Bondy: 
  The Picture Exchange Communication System or PECS approach is a modified applied behavior analysis program designed for early nonverbal symbolic communication training. It is not a program designed to teach speech, although the latter is encouraged indirectly and some children begin to spontaneously use speech while enrolled in the PECS program. The PECS training program was developed at the Delaware Autistic Program. PECS training occurs during typical activities within the natural settings of the classroom and the home. The communication training occurs within a broader positive behavioral support context entitled the Pyramid Approach.  

• TEACCH ® Developed by Dr. Eric Schopler and Dr. Robert Reichler: 
  TEACCH is a method that aims to utilise the unique learning needs of people with Autism, such as strengths in visual information processing and difficutlies with social communication, attention and executive function. Using external organizational supports to address challenges with attention and executive function, visual and/or written information to supplement verbal communication and structured support for social communication are avenues to address our children’s unique learning profiles.   

• Social Stories by Carol Gray  
  Social Stories are a social learning tool that supports the safe and meaningful exchange of information between parents, professionals, and people with autism of all ages. 

• Routines-based Intervention  
  Routines that occur within natural environments for young children provide the most effective framework to support and sustain early intervention activities. When care providers use daily routines as the context for a child’s developmental interventions, they can integrate them into natural activities without disrupting the flow of what children are doing and learning 

7) Integrated Occupational and Speech Therapy Sessions  

– All our children receive group Speech therapy sessions within the class timetable as part of their curriculum.  

– Additional individual Speech Therapy, Occupational Therapy and Behavioural Therapy is available at a separate cost.  

  Find out more about our educational programmes at headstartforlife.com.sg