AQUA KASEH and Social Competence

I read with interest a research paper titled Affective Social Competence by Amy G. Halberstadt (North Carolina State University), Susanne A. Denham (George Mason University) and Julie C. Dunsmore (Hamilton College) published in Social Development, 10, 1, 2001 (Blackwell Publisher Ltd. 2001). What's interesting about this paper is the way it explains the process of emotional exchanges in social interactions, especially among children. But what compelled me to share this paper is when the writers explained how their research is relevant with "nonnormative populations". What they referred to as nonnormative populations is populations that have conditions such as Autism, Diagnosed Behavior disorder, and Maltreatment which caused them to have social competence deficits. Children with the above conditions progressed in their social competence development slower than the normal populations. Therefore, their ability to blend with the general  population or society is less compared to their normally developed  peers.

It gives me some sense of the challenges faced by teachers, parents and caregivers of Special Children to ensure that these children are prepared face "normal" life i.e. to blend in, to gain acceptance in society. I use quotes for the term normal  because to the special children their world is normal, as much as we view our world as normal.  We called them Special Children because to our normal standards they need special care and attention just to survive in our so called normal world. Nonetheless, society is becoming more aware of the needs to provide special education and development program for this segment of society.

When I designed Aqua Kaseh my intention was to provide an opportunity for Special Children to acquire one survival skills i.e. swimming (or more accurately Aquatic Competence), so that they are at least one skill closer to the their normally developed peers. By acquiring the Aquatic Competence, they will also be one step ahead most of the normal population as not many of us have Aquatic Competence.  The program equipped them with skills to be as normal as any person,  in the water the water that is.