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Ilham untuk cerita tentang perkahwinan paksa oleh kerana sakit yang macam Zaril  Nia itu datang dari kisah dan pengalaman yang cerita oleh Vicky and Dr Michael  (Bukan nama sebenar  http://alinahaizar.blogspot.com/2010/08/help-at-hand.html).  Kisahnya tentang kegigihan seorang ibu hendak memeastikan anaknya yang sakit itu terjaga kehidupannya selepas ketiadaan ibunya nanti.  Dia minta Vicky carikan seorang gadis untuk anaknya itu.

Selepas dengar ceritanya itu, saya terfikir ini satu idea bagus untuk buat cerita. Tetapi ianya tinggal macam itu sahaja sebab masa itu sibuk dengan enovel Kasih Relakan Ku Pergi. Akak berpeluang ke Italy. Kebetulan pulak Kursus Dr Feuerstein di adakan di Turin pada tahun itu. Tapi akak bukan ke sana sebab itu.

Semasa di sana terbayang jelas cerita dua kekasih yang berpisah dan bertemu di Turin. Tetapi masa itu belum ada nama lagi hero dan heroin. Cuma keadaan bandar Turin yang begitu romantik yang membuat idea datang mencurah-curah, melihat apartment-apartment dengan balcony Juliet (Romeo and Juliet) itu membuat tidak sabar hendak duduk dan tulis cerita tetapi disebabkan tight schedule semasa di sana tidak ada masa untuk tulis tetapi tetap dalam ingatan.

Bial di rumah, mula kumpul facts, gambar2 yang sesuai. Kena ada banyak gambar... at least one for each chapter.. Satu hal juga hendak cari gambar.. heroin...tak cukup stok. Hero banyak juga stok gambar. Nama hero dan heroin pun satu hal juga. Anak perempuan yang sorang tu yang bagi idea. Dia hendak heroin guna nama singkatan nama dia sendiri N.I.A. kemudian apa pulak nama keduanya, we all settled and agree with Atirah.. Nama hero pula..pilih punya pilih.. rupa-rupanya nama-nama hero-hero bagi yang orang seangkatan dengan akak sudah boleh tak pakai lagi, Azman ke, Rashid ke? According to my children nama-nama tu nama orang tua. Nama-nama bapa-bapa, macam daddy... Oh!!! Macam tu..sebenarnya.   Sekarang ini hero-hero namanya Amir Farhan, Amirul Hakim, Lukman Hakim. yang perempuan pulak Fatin Nabila, Amirah ASyikin dll nama yang ada dua tiga nama serangkai berderet-deret, ikut buku.. `Pilihan nama-nama Islam.'

Jadi heronya akhirnya my daughther setuju dengan Zaril Ikhwan.

Quite a lot of study and research have to be done, in order to get the facts right. Kadang-kala tersalah juga facts-facts dalam cerita, kena re do balik.

Pada masa yang sama semasa out station di bahagian utara, ada sahabat yang bercerita tentang rumah-rumah jagaan bagi orang yang mempunyai masalah mental yang berceratuk di Ipoh.  Dia terpaksa memasukkan saudara kandungnya nya ke sana kerana isteri pesakit itu dan anak-anaknya sudah tidak berdaya untuk menjaganya terutamanya bila pesakit itu menganas dan mula memeukul semua orang.   Timbul ilham untuk mengaitkan semua itu menjadi satu cerita.

Mula-mula mengenengahkan Bab 1 AYKT pada bulan Februari 2010. Memang tak ada response langsung. Memanglah selalunya cerita baru lambat dapat response. But keep on writing sikit-sikit sebab CKMS juga sedang di postkan dalam blog. Story line memang sudah ada tetapi belum tahu lagi macamana flow dan jalan cerita ini akan terjadi seterusnya. Pembaca yang mula-mula beri response ialah BD Qim atau Kak nOOr, kemudian diikuti oleh pembaca-pembaca yang lain atau mana-mana anon yang beri response.. Sekarang ini terlalu ramai tidak tersebut dalam artikel ini.

 Okay..kadang-kadang frust juga bila tak ada comment. Bila dapat comment dari pembaca, naik semangat hendak tulis dan habiskan cerita. Bila dapat negatif comment tu, well kita try to improve...

Terima kasih ke atas semua komen-komen dari pembaca. Really appreciate it. It become highlight of the day, best moment of my life eversince..

Yang buat bersemangat hendak menulis hingga menjadikannya sebuah enovel lengkap bila bertemu dengan BD Qim di Pesta Buku in March (20 March). Dia beri semangat. Cerita AYKT ni sedap. Jangan tak publish. Wow! baru tiga chapter ,BD Qim sudah beri begitu confident untuk katakan cerita ini ada potensi. Lepas itu bersemangat balik hendak betul-betul menghabiskan novel itu.

Selepas hampir 10 bulan bermulanya projek AYKT ini, pratically akak have been living  Nia and Zaril lives. Duduk dalam minda dan hati Nia dan Zaril. Sudah rasa sebati dengan mereka berdua. Siang malam terkenang mereka, obsess dengan mereka berdua. Apa yang mereka buat, cakap, akan buat, tindakan mereka, perasaan mereka, reaksi mereka, suka, sedih, pilu marah, cemburu, gembira. Watak Hazeril tidak begitu sukar sebab my youngest son merupakan inspirasi. By hugging and kissing him, I can already relate to Nia's feeling towards her son.

Maxximo pula, I just can't resist it.  The men in Italy is so  handsome, with their blonde hair, smiling face and blue eyes sparkling eyes.  Just have to share with all.

Bila hendak tidur, sedang driving, sedang masak, mandi... sedang buat apa-apa pun asyik teringat apa hendak tulis tentang Nia dan Zaril. Kadang-kadang masa itu dapat idea baru.

It's truly the best experiences of my life to be able to be in their life all this while. Dan untuk menceritakan tentang cinta mereka is one of the best moment of my life. I really love Nia Atirah and Zaril Ikhwan. Sekarang bila cerita ini sudah selesai...rasa susah hendak berpisah dengan Nia dan Zaril. What's after this? Mesti rindu betul dengan Nia dan Zaril.

Help at hand

Wednesday January 20, 2010
Help at hand
Star Online
By PANG HIN YUE

With proper intervention, children with learning disorders can make significant progress, too.

WHEN the wiring is faulty, a light bulb blinks and dims. Tweaking the wiring may just do the trick. Similarly, neuroscientists and psychologists are attempting through various ways and means to tease and trigger neurons or nerve cells into working in harmony for those whose thinking process, speech and development have been impaired.

Among them is the venerable psychologist Dr Reuven Feuerstein from the International Centre for the Enhancement of Learning Potential in Jerusalem.


Good progress: Emy Lim is convinced that Feuerstein’s way has helped her son, Joseph Diong, 8, overcome speech impediment and propelled him to excel in school.

Dr Feuerstein strongly believes that the brain is modifiable. He says the brain is not a fixed, unchanged entity but is elastic and can be stretched like plastic. He postulates that with the right intervention, the brain, no matter the degree of damage or injury, can be made to function optimally.

The brain, he asserts, requires systematic stimulation to build cognitive function, that is, specific methods for interpreting information and problem-solving to support learning and development. This is the heart of Dr Feuerstein’s theory which he first tested out on children who were traumatised by the Holocaust and who showed autistic tendencies.

For the past 50 years, Dr Feuerstein’s teachings based on his Structural Cognitive Modifiability Theory and Mediated Learning Experience have benefited families and teachers in over 80 countries.

On the local front, therapists Foo Siang Mun and K.C. Soo have adopted Dr Feuerstein’s approach to teach their students on both ends of the developmental spectrum – from persons with autism, Down Syndrome, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder to those with high IQ. They notice the significant inroads their students are making. Those who could not speak, are talking now. Those who could not read, are reading now. Those whose memories had failed them, are now gaining ground in their studies.

“Prior to 2005, I had tried speech therapy, occupational therapy and behavioural modification therapy, but my daughter made little progress. Under the care of Foo, she is talking and reading,” enthuses Dr Ailina about her daughter, Aiman Syafiqah Mahathir, 10, who was diagnosed with autism at three.


Jane Yeoh was amazed to see her son, Ben, 6, improving in speech and behaviour.

“We help students with the right strategies to decode the meaning of words and symbols, understand causes and effects, ask questions, follow rules and ultimately, to learn independently,” says Soo.

“We unblock the barriers to learning and then build up the learner’s ability,” he adds.

Both Soo and Foo are science graduates, each with over 10 years of experience in corporate training prior to their current vocation as certified Feuerstein’s Instrumental Enrichment trainers.

They stress that teaching children with learning issues is never static. “The learning process is dynamic. As you teach, you reinforce what the student knows and mediate in areas where he is weak,” says Soo.

In their daily one-on-one sessions with students, they observe how the students tackle the task and decide on what they need to understand to enrich their learning. It could be decoding the meaning of words, learning how to retain memory for the task at hand, solving problems, decoding mathematical symbols or learning how to ask questions.

“Many with learning disorders do not know how to ask questions,” Foo observes. Because it is an essential skill for communication, Foo and Soo teach their students the need to ask questions and show them how to do it.

“When they learn how to ask questions, they gain knowledge. This lessens their frustration, especially when they are placed in an unfamiliar setting or situation,” explains Foo. When their level of frustration lessens, inappropriate behaviour will decrease, too.

Theoretically, a child with no learning issues, learns directly from his environment. But when a child has a learning disability, he needs a little nudge to help him make sense of the information presented to him. In doing so, he learns to interact with people and blend into the environment.

But that is only one side of the story. The person who teaches must also know how to teach. “The learning does not start and end with the student. The mediator or teacher must first know how to teach effectively and the only way to do it, is to learn with the right tools. We believe Feuerstein’s method is the way to go for parents,” explains Soo.

Concurs Emy Lim, mother of Joseph Diong, eight. She is convinced that Feuerstein’s way has helped her son overcome speech impediment and propelled him to excel academically.

“My son could not speak even at the age of five and had behavioural issues. He was taken to see a few specialists and he was advised to undergo speech therapy. But that didn’t help,” recalls Lim, a pharmacist. But when she took Joseph to Foo and Soo, she discovered that he had a problem with auditory memory. “He could not remember what he heard and saw,” she says. But as she worked hand-in-hand with Soo and Foo, Joseph gradually overcame his problem with memory and began to talk. To Lim, that is a breakthrough.

Now Joseph consistently emerges as the best student in the private school he attends. Talking to him, it is hard to believe this articulate boy with a ready smile once had learning problems. Today one of his favourite pastime is reading books. “I like to read about the adventures of Geronimo Stilton,” says Joseph. Geronimo Stilton’s character is a talking mouse and the series of books based on his adventures are considered one of the bestselling children’s books.

Jane Yeoh is another parent who feels that her children have benefited from Foo and Soo’s way of teaching. She gave up her job as an illustrator to care for her sons Keith, eight, and Ben, six, both of whom have learning disorders. “Ben underwent speech therapy for two years but he did not show any improvement,” says Yeoh.

Hard-pressed, she decided to give Soo and Foo a try two years ago and was amazed to see Ben and Keith improving in speech and behaviour. “What I like about their teaching approach is that they are flexible and creative in troubleshooting,” she adds.

Soo and Foo stress that parents play an integral role in interventional therapies. “The child’s progress depends on how much time the parents are willing to put in,” says Soo.

Wan Chik Hanoom, mother of two special needs boys, concedes parental involvement is vital. She gave up her job with a multinational company to care for Mohd Anas Syed Mohd, 13, and Abu Talhah Syed Mohd, 18.

For years, she had to bear the brunt of the wrath of Talhah’s teachers for his behaviour. While Talhah had no problem reading and talking, she says, he had no comprehension of what he read and his speech was inappropriate. In addition to that, she had to watch over Anas who has Down Syndrome.

But five years ago, she sought the help of Foo and Soo and together they worked through the issues her two sons faced. Now Talhah has not only completed his major government exams, he is looking forward to going to college. “Anas is able to talk without any tantrums and he is better at managing himself,” beams Wan Chik.

A healthy dose of optimism helps, too. As Feuerstein says on his website: “Have faith because there is hope.”

One Voice is a monthly column which serves as a platform for professionals, parents and careproviders of children with learning difficulties. Feedback can be sent to onevoice4ld@gmail.com. For enquirie, call Malaysian Care (03-9058 2102) or Dignity & Services (03-7725 5569). E-mail: onevoice4ld@gmail.com.

Foo Siang Mun and K.C. Soo will be conducting a two-day seminar entitled The Mediated Learning Experience, from March 12 to 13 at Tropicana Golf and Country Resort Club House, Petaling Jaya, Selangor. Fee: RM555 per person; group of four: RM475 per person. For details, contact Foo (019-322 2952 / siangmun@yahoo.com) or Soo (017-886 8295 / kcsoo2000@gmail.com).