If you have responsibilities as a parent or teacher for a child or children with learning difficulties, no matter how mild or extreme and you struggle with giving them the actual learning that they need and you’re on a budget, you’ve come to the right place. My years spent in the Caribbean have given me much to share.
Waking up the Children is all about waking up the brain. Some practices may make slight brain changes, whereas others will impact and fire neurons extensively causing visible and profound developments in the child or adult using them.
Having obsessively researched techniques, strategies and programmes that claim to do this, I have been able to try many of these myself and have seen the benefits or pitfalls with my own children and those I have worked with over the years. In doing so, I have sifted out the expensive, time consuming, exhausting and unnecessary and I am going to write and share everyday practices and programmes encapsulated in the stories and the events that took place on the Island of Trinidad. You will find that we can use these in a relaxed family or school setting.
I was born in London and at 35 moved to the Caribbean with my husband and three children. Having previously studied and worked in the Early Years, obtained a BSc in Education and Social Science, and for a while was child-minding while running a playgroup with events that go with that, I also trained as a tutor in a specialised programme that uses many brain waking techniques including multi-sensory and the learners own voice; A.R.R.O.W.
The Southern most Islands of the Caribbean
I spent eleven years in Trinidad and Tobago using my knowledge (which was still growing daily), skills and training working closely with schools and parents and watching many (although not all) children’s (and adults) brains wake up. Children who had reading deficits of two, three, four and more years, poor self-esteem, poor concentration, poor speech, behaviour challenges, children with complex needs such as Cerebral Palsy, Autism, Trisomy 21… the list goes on.
Since returning to the U.K. in 2015, and now a mother of four, with my own young child who has Trisomy 21, I realise how these experiences are unique and worth sharing. The value of parents and teachers are priceless in bringing about the change that the children in need are desperately waiting for us to deliver.
I know together we can and will wake up more and more brains and provide that promising future deserved by all.
I’m looking forward to this journey with you as we continue to learn and wake up.
Cornelia Bonterre