Here at Hope Montessori Autism Care Centre, our staff strength organised to meet the needs of our children in a way that defines your vision as a parent. Our staffs are commitment to quality, creativity and professionalism, you can be rest assured that you are in the best hands.
Hope's teaching team consists of qualified Primary Education Teachers, Montessori Teachers, ABA Practitioners, Behavioural Analyst, a Speech and Language Therapist, an Occupational Therapist and Special Need Assistants. This diversity of staff qualifications is represented within each classroom. This ensures that all the child's needs are catered for under one roof.
My name is Sherene Powell and I came into the field of autism when my daughter Sinead was diagnosed with ASD at 2.5 years. Despite being a qualified primary teacher I know very little about ASD and how to help my child and the diagnosis was a big shock to our family. I found there was not much support available for my daughter and had to source all supports myself. My daughter is now doing well in a unit attached in a mainstream Primary School but spends most of her time in the mainstream class. I decided to open Hope to help other parents using my experience and knowledge of different treatment approaches. The aim I have for my daughter is for her to be given the chance that all typical developing child is given. This means that I wanted her to start off with preschool to get the pre-requisite skills that children her age needed before going to primary school. These skills I found was best achieve through the Montessori Method and using it with the best evidence based approached Applied Behaviour framework worked amazingly and so we used it in all that we do at Hope. My favourite thing about ABA is how it acknowledges the individuality of each child and all programmes are based on their own strengths and challenges. At Hope, we have adapted Montessori, Aistear, primary school pre-requisite skills into our Curriculum which we use for our comprehensive and individual assessments for each child. Hope opened with only one children and has now expanded to eight ASD classrooms across three locations and one Montessori class. I continued my education in special needs by getting my degree in Psychology and a Masters in ABA working towards becoming a Board Certified Behaviour Analyst. It is hugely satisfying to see and be a part of the progress the children make at Hope, and to be able to work directly with other parents who are in a similar situation to me. I feel my own experiences with autism are a huge benefit when helping other families.
Dr Okafor is a co-founding director of the company and is in charge of the operational aspects of the management of the company. He brings with him a wealth of experience in clinical and healthcare management and has an outstanding understanding of the strategic vision of the company and how to deliver this vision. |
Felicia Dejicoo joined the Hope team in March 2015 as a teacher and climbed to the position of the Director of Education in the company. She currently oversees all school Centres in the different counties in the Republic of Ireland. Her job includes managing the admission of new children, overseeing all aspects of the children’s educational programs, recruiting and training teachers, liaising with other professional bodies on the welfare of the children, meeting with parents to discuss Individual Education Plan (IEP) and the progress of the children.
| |||||||||
