1 July, 2023, Singapore.
MandarinStars Pte Ltd is pleased to announce that it is commencing operations with 2 Smartboard-equipped classrooms at 733, Bukit Timah Road, Second Avenue Junction, #01-06, Singapore 269748.
The centre is founded by Frances Yeo, a paediatric psychologist with over 20 years’ experience in diagnosing learning disorders and childhood psychological conditions, together with a core group of Chinese teachers highly experienced in special needs education and learning disabilities, to offer Chinese learning programmes aligned to the MOE school syllabus for Primary 1 to 6.
MandarinStars aims to address a gap in the market where students struggling to learn Chinese in mainstream schools, either due to poor working memory, dyslexia or possibly other learning difficulties, are unable to find a program that can fully support their differentiated learning needs.
By first assessing and understanding each student, the MandarinStars team will provide a customised learning environment that puts the student’s needs first. This approach is proven and effective with Frances and her team having helped once-struggling students bloom into confident learners.
Open letter from Frances:
Dear Parents,
Many students struggle with learning, not because they lack ability, but because they lack confidence. This often results from negative experiences at school, where they find it hard to understand the teacher and keep up with the class. We need to understand that each child is different. Children may excel at certain tasks while struggling at others because of the way their brains are wired.
From my years of experience working with students and the MOE school system, I have seen first-hand how making small changes in the learning environment can have outsized positive effects on the child’s learning outcomes. This is borne out by psychological and education research which promotes student-centred learning. We first need to understand why a child is struggling to learn Chinese and identify any hidden handicaps such as deficits in working memory or learning disabilities such as dyslexia, dysgraphia, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), autism spectrum disorder and others. It could also be the child simply finds the lessons boring.
Working with kids, I have seen many overcome their challenges if we can create the right environments. We started MandarinStars so that we can use insights from research and our collective clinical experience in order to help students struggling to learn Chinese.
Lessons are taught using multi-sensory materials with pictures and colours to depict characters so that students find them easier to recall. We make the kids move and engage in activities to encode the words in long-term memory.
I’m very proud of the work we have done so far and results we have achieved. Even though MandarinStars is a new centre, having just opened in July 2023, we are building on our past results and experience from years of working with children with special learning needs.
Every child is different and it is important that, we, as parents and educators, understand the unique talents and personality of each child. I invite you to join us on our journey to attune to your child’s needs and set them on a trajectory to success.
Frances Yeo,
MandarinStars @ Second Avenue Junction, 1 July, 2023.
