News

Signposts now in Singapore

Signposts is now available to families in Singapore, following a partnership agreement between the Parenting Research Centre (PRC) and KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital in Singapore.

This exciting collaboration brings together two organisations with a shared commitment to delivering high-quality, evidence-based programs to support parents of children who have developmental delays or disabilities.

The formal partnership with KK Hospital is the first of its kind for the PRC and came about following a presentation on Signposts by PRC staff at the International Association for the Scientific Study of Intellectual Disability (IASSID) 2nd Asia Pacific Conference in June 2009.

KK Hospital will be a Lead Provider for Signposts and will collaborate closely with the PRC on delivery of the program and research initiatives into the future.

PRC’s Professional Services Manager and manager of the Signposts program, Christine Cameron, recently returned to Singapore to train the first sixteen facilitators.

Selected ‘leading’ facilitators will soon be trained by the PRC to provide training and support to other facilitators in Singapore. PRC staff will continue to work with this group of leading facilitators.

It is expected that Signposts will support more than 1500 families in Singapore every year.

Working with families from diverse backgrounds

New information for facilitators working with families from diverse cultural backgrounds is now available on the Signposts website.

Working with families from cross cultural backgrounds can present particular challenges for professionals.

The new information on cross cultural consultation provides tips on working with families from diverse backgrounds and guidance on using interpreters to communicate with parents.

Signposts News Update

Please click the following link to view the December 2009 News Update

Signposts in Singapore

Wednesday, 24 June 2009

The Parenting Research Centre recently introduced the Signposts for building better behaviour program to an international audience at the International Association for the Scientific Study of Intellectual Disability (IASSID) 2nd Asia Pacific Conference.

IASSID is an international and interdisciplinary scientific nongovernmental organisation with official relations with the World Health Organization. It promotes worldwide research and exchange of information on intellectual disabilities. The association was founded in 1964 and has sponsored eleven World Congresses. IASSID is the first and only world-wide group dedicated to the scientific study of intellectual disability.

Associate Professor Jan Matthews, Director of Research and Practice presented at the conference with Christine Cameron, Manager for the Signposts program. Professor Matthews reported, ‘There was a lot of interest in our three papers which outlined the research on the development and dissemination of Signposts over the years. Our workshop was well received with participants from many countries, including Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Pakistan, New Zealand and Australia'.

Signposts in the UK

Thursday, 18 June 2009

In August 2008 Signposts travelled to the UK to train a group of leaders. This visit was part of a larger extension program for Signposts for building better behaviour. Staff from the Parenting Research Centre travelled to Cheshire, UK to train people interested in being Signposts Leaders.

As part of the dissemination plan for the program the role of the UK leaders was to provide support to practitioners in their use of Signposts who would then go on to train more practitioners in Cheshire and Wirral in the use of the program.

Since the visit PRC staff have continued to provide telephone and email support to the leaders particularly once the dissemination of the Signposts program began across the county.