For two decades, Christabel Hong was a National Institute of Education (NIE) teacher, counselling psychologist and an educational therapist. In May 2011, Christabel decided to dedicate her time solely to children with learning and behavioural difficulties. Together with her family, she started her own company – Juniors ‘n Friends (website: https://christabeljnf.com)

Christabel chose to be in the SpLD field because she noticed that many children with SpLD were mistaken and labelled as naughty, lazy or defiant and wanted to change this mindset. This motivated her to specialise in SpLD to better understand how to help these children and their families. To that end, Christabel, a Fellow in the Register of Educational Therapist, Asia (RETA) joined RETA to be able to keep in touch with fellow practitioners and keep pace with current developments and changes. More than ten years on in this field, and she is still happy that she has chosen this path. In her own words “It’s been a very fulfilling journey, helping children with SpLD look at themselves through more empowering lenses and live with a greater sense of purpose and meaning in a very competitive and demanding education system.”

After decades of work in this field, what puts a smile on her face? Christabel shares that it is when she sees that the children are confident enough to laugh at themselves and face failure squarely.

Christabel believes that it is important to have unrelenting patience, empathy, a resolute belief in the goodness and potential of every child. To add, she shares that it is crucial to create more avenues, pathways and longer runways for children who are not academically inclined to learn and contribute differently without clipping their wings too early. To her, it would be a dream come true if everyone stops judging and assessing children with SpLD on the basis of just academic grades.

‘There is only one unique you from eternity past to eternity future. You owe it to yourself to treasure every breath you have and to make good of it. Wake up to the next sunrise with a smile! You have many things to be grateful for!’

Well said, Christabel, and we couldn’t agree more.