AN author and a casual teacher at a Dromana school has launched a new book that aims to ensure children with additional needs are well supported in their education journey.
Anne Vize, also a specialist education teacher, said she was excited to announced her newly published book called Partnerships with Families of Children with Additional Needs. Ms Vize said she wrote the book after realising how many teachers and early years workers found it challenging to work with families even though they are often confident teaching children. “This latest book helps teachers understand different family experiences, the impact caring can have on the whole family and how to support families through difficult times,” she said. “I’ve met and worked with many families who are supporting children with disabilities, and one of the things I’ve noticed is how important it is to build a really strong relationship with families as well as with the child.”
Ms Vize said the book focused on how to support families in practical ways. “Often families want to know and do more than just come along to a meeting once a term or be asked to help with events, costumes and assemblies. They want to really know what is working well for their child – and what is not,” she said.
Ms Vize, a Frankston resident, began teaching “probably more years ago than I care to remember”, firstly at Nepean School in Frankston, where she worked with students who had physical disabilities, before moving onto TAFE at Dandenong and Moorabbin where she began writing.
“Many of my students found reading and writing pretty challenging, but they were young adults, so they were interested in all the things that young adults usually are – getting a licence, being independent, joining in activities outside of TAFE,” she said. “I began writing short stories about experiences like having a support worker to help with community activities and getting a job for the first time.”
More recently, Ms Vize has worked as a casual teacher in specialist schools in Cranbourne, Frankston and Dromana. Today she writes for publishers as well as writing and selling her own work online with teachers using her material in the USA, Canada, the UK and Ireland. “I’ve learnt that teachers and young people with additional needs share many of the same needs, interests and learning challenges no matter where they are in the world.”
When not writing she enjoys spending her time on the peninsula, bushwalking, sailing and windsurfing at McCrae Yacht Club and sitting on the sand to “dream up new ideas for books, stories and characters”.
First published in the Mornington News – 15 October 2024
