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Shaklee Teacher from Croatia Comes to Heartspring
 Vucinic
and her colleagues are visiting Wichita as guests of Heartspring thanks
in part to the generous support of Jack DeBoer and partner Greg Kossover.
While at Heartspring, the Croatian visitors will be participating in a
teacher exchange program through Heartspring World Reach and Ms. Vucinic
has been selected as a 2004 Shaklee Teacher. In addition, they will be
touring and observing at several other programs for children and adults
with developmental disabilities in the Wichita area.
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Zeljka Vucinic -
Biography
 Zeljka
Vucinic has been a special education teacher at the General Hospital in
Slavonski Brod, Croatia, for the last ten years, and has earned her
Bachelor’s Degree from the University of Belgrade in 1982 where she
specialized in working with children with physical disabilities.
She is currently working with children of various ages and with a broad
range of disabilities -- cognitive, physical, emotional, learning, as
well as children with autism and other behavioral disabilities. She
provides help to her students though both group and individual therapy,
parental counseling, play-occupational therapy to develop fine motor
skills, and special instruction to develop cognitive skills and assist
students to integrate into general curriculum. She collaborates
extensively with preschools, elementary, middle, and high schools and
many professional institutions for children with disabilities.
In 2000, Ms. Vucinic founded the Association for the Stimulation and
Healthy Development of Children and Youth with a goal of helping
children in their development, regardless of their disability. Together
with a team of experts, all of whom volunteer their time, she provides
therapy, rehabilitation, education and counseling for the children.
Ms. Vucinic has written four books for children and those who work with
children with disabilities. Three of the books help preschool aged
children to better prepare for school by developing perception,
concentration and cognitive skills. The fourth book explains and
illustrates exercises for the development of a child’s motor skills from
birth to age seven.
For the last 16 years, Ms. Vucinic has volunteered for the Muscular
Dystrophy Association in Slavonski Brod, and is also a member of HOPE
(Hospital Organization of Pedagogues of Europe)
Tomislav Goll Biography
 Mr.
Tomislav Goll is a skilled computer programmer, graphic designer,
journalist and freelance writer, web designer and technical and
graphical editor. In addition, he attended the International College in
London, England to perfect his command of the English language.
During his varied career, Mr. Goll has written computer programs for
human resources applications, worked as a journalist at a radio station,
started his own graphic design studio, served as a music editor of a
major country radio station at Radio Slavonia, and freelanced for a
number of newspapers and magazines.
A diagnosis of Muscular Dystrophy at the age of 16, spurred Mr. Goll to
become interested in supporting services and research for neuromuscular
disorders. He is has acted as the vice president of the Croatian Union
of Neuromuscular Associations and currently serves as the vice president
of European Alliance of Neuromuscular Disorders Associations (EAMDA).
Mr. Goll became involved in the Association for Stimulating the Healthy
Development of Children and Youth in 2000 and has since served as the
organization’s secretary general.
Ljiljana Plavotic Biography
 Ms.
Ljiljana Plavotić graduated at the University of Special Education and
Rehabilitation in Zagreb, Croatia. She is a specialist for children with
behavioral disabilities. She is a special education teacher to
elementary students included in a regular education classroom. She works
in three schools in the Slavonski Brod region.
Ms. Plavotić provides direct instruction to students in a resource room
and co-teaches some subject matters in the general education classrooms.
She works with small groups of four to six students. She instructs and
provides support to teachers and directors of all 25 primary schools in
Slavonski Brod. She provides individualized programming for students
with learning disabilities, behavioral disabilities, emotional
disturbances and physicial disabilities.
Ms. Plavotić is member of Commission for the Categorization of Students.
She creates the primary school newspaper and is a leader of some
sections in the school including Healthy School and The Young Scouts.
In the Association for Stimulating the Healthy Development of Children
and Youth, Ljiljana helps pupils in the school program and instructs
parents in models of learning with their children.
Kiwanis Featured Speaker for Friday, June 25, 2004
Three members of the Croatian Association for Stimulating the Healthy
Development of Children and Youth with be the featured Kiwanis speaker
for Friday, June 25, 2004. Vucinic and her colleagues are visiting
Wichita as guests of Heartspring thanks in part to the generous support
of Jack DeBoer and partner Greg Kossover.
Zeljka Vucinic, president and founder of the association and two of her
colleagues, Ljiljana Plavotic and Tomislav Goll, will share their
inspirational story of providing advocacy and early intervention
services to children with developmental disabilities in their city of
Slovonski Brod, Croatia.
Vucinic is joined in the Association by 13 clinical and special
education professionals who also volunteer their time. The professionals
include teachers, nurses, pediatricians, psychologists, physical
therapists and other special therapists. Despite a chronic lack of
resources, the Association serves children and their families with
mental retardation, motor disabilities, emotional disturbances, learning
problems, behavior problems and autism.
While at Heartspring, the Croatian visitors will be participating in a
teacher exchange program through Heartspring World Reach and Ms. Vucinic
has been selected as a 2004 Shaklee Teacher. In addition, they will be
touring and observing at several other programs for children and adults
with developmental disabilities in the Wichita area.
 
Heartspring World Reach
The mission of World Reach is to promote excellence, innovation
and dedication in serving children with special needs through:
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Recognizing people, programs and
emerging practices
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Serving as a resource nationally and
internationally-encouraging, sharing and increasing
knowledge
2004 Shaklee Award Winning Programs
Xingxingyu (Stars and Rain) Education Institute for Autistic
Children Beijing, China
Xingxingyu, lies on the
outskirts of Beijing. It was founded in 1993 by Tian Huiping,
after her son was diagnosed with severe autism. At that time,
children and families of children with autism had no resources
in China to turn to for help with treating and educating these
children. After searching for help, Tian learned about a
behavioral program in Taiwan that gave her hope that improvement
was possible for children with autism. She was inspired to build
a program and opened the preschool for children with autism. It
was the first institution in China to use behavioral therapy to
help children with autism.
Director Tian has struggled financially to keep the program
open. Parents attend the school with their children for the
duration of the three-month behavioral program. They often must
relocate for that time being from all over China. Some see it as
their last hope. Over 500 families of children with autism from
all across China have benefited and a waiting list exists.
Families spend the equivalent of approximately 365 US dollars
for the 10- week training program, as well as all living
expenses.
Tian and the Stars and Rain program will be recognized and
awarded the first Shaklee Program Award at the China-US
Conference on Educating Children with Special Needs held in
Beijing, China.
To read more about Tian Huiping and the Xingxingyu (Stars and
Rain) Education Institute for Autistic Children go to:
http://www.cbw.com/btm/issue69/28-31.html
http://www.vaccinationnews.com/DailyNews/May2002/XingxingyuBoonFamilies.htm
http://www.globalinteractions.org/2004-Students/Students-home.htm
The
Association for Stimulating the Healthy Development of Children
and Youth
The Association for
Stimulating the Healthy Development of Children and Youth in
Slavonski Brod, Croatia was founded in June of 2000 as a
volunteer association. According to president and founder,
Zeljka Vucinic, the main reason it was founded was due to the
hard economic situation in Croatia. Institutional care was not
meeting the need of families and youth, particularly those with
special needs.
The Association is open to disabled children and youth, as well
as a host of professionals. Although membership costs are
equivalent to about 6 US dollars per year, only about 1/3 of the
current 90 members can afford to pay. Those members include 60
children and youth with special needs. The remaining 30 members
are professionals and others who are interested in supporting
children with disabilities in the Slavonski Brod region of
Croatia. Vucinic reports that there are many others who would
like to join the Association, but they cannot include more
members because of the lack of financial support.
Vucinic , who has 16 years experience in as similar association
for people with Cerebral Palsy, is joined by 13 clinical and
special education professionals who also volunteer their time.
Those professionals include nurses, pediatricians,
psychologists, physical therapists and other special therapists.
Despite the lack of resources, The Association serves children
and youth with mental retardation, motor disabilities, emotional
disturbances, learning problems, behavior problems and autism.
President Vucinic and two colleagues will travel to Wichita for
a two-week opportunity to share and learn with professionals
serving children in Kansas. They will participate in the Shaklee
Summer Session ‘’04, where Vucinic and The Association will be
recognized and will receive a Shaklee Program Award.
To learn more about The Association for Stimulating the Healthy
Development of Children and Youth, go to:
http://www.ashdcy.netfirms.com/prva.html
Shaklee
Teacher from Croatia Comes to Heartspring :
Questions and Answers with Zeljka
Vucinic
Association for Stimulating the Healthy Development of Children
and Youth
What services are available for children in Slavonski Brod?
Slavonski Brod is a small town of about 70,000 inhabitants and
has one hospital, one special school, five to six kindergartens,
10 primary schools. Some primary schools and one secondary
school integrate children with mental retardation.
What clinical professionals make up your team in the
Association?
I have an expert team 12 different experts, including a
neuro-pediatrician, neonatologist, a physiotherapist,
psychologist and we work all in team. Parents come with disabled
children and I give instructions on how to work with children at
home. All of us are volunteer.
How many children do you serve through the Association?
There are about 50-60 children included in our programs
ranging from 0-24 years of age.
What services do you provide to children?
Three special teachers are in charge of the following
activities:
One works with a group of preschool children helping them
prepare for school, with special attention paid to their
perceptive, intellectual, grapho-motor and social abilities.
Their work is both group and individual, including the
instructions to parents how to eliminate negative symptoms, and
guidance of both parents and their children to the appropriate
psycho-social development. Another special teacher deals with
the development of speech, improving speaking abilities,
eliminating speech difficulties.
The third special teacher works with school children included in
the regular school system, but with difficulties in learning.
Besides giving them direct aid, their parents are also
instructed how to help. The number of such children has
considerably increased lately, due to new school curriculum
requirements, which are too difficult for children with
development difficulties. Our intention is to help such children
remain in the regular school system, but with an adjusted
curriculum to their intellectual abilities. Our special teachers
cooperate with schools and other professionals.
Playschool is lead by a Croatian language and literature teacher
who also volunteers in the guidance center for the children-war
victims (PTSP). Playschool is attend by both healthy children
and children with difficulties of various ages (pre-school to
primary school).The children are taught through a variety of
activities, including playing, singing, drawing, reciting,
modeling.
Physical therapy is provided by a qualified physical therapist
that works with babies only a few months old to children until
the age of the three. Bobath therapy is used in motor-defects,
while early development gymnastics is practiced in neuro-risk
children to prevent or reduce developmental delays. Parents are
also instructed how to help their children with motor exercises.
We are also provide counseling led by a pediatrician for infants
to preschool children on recognizing normal developmental
milestones and on feeding problems and certain rehabilitation
procedures. A psychiatrist works with parents on addressing
behavior problems and a lawyer gives free advices to parents
about their human rights. A social worker works with parents
seeking help to solve the problems connected to their low social
status and marriage problems. They also come to share the
negative attitudes from the community that they experience and
to deal with prejudice towards themselves and their children.
Some parents of handicapped children (fathers) have
post-traumatic stress as consequence of participating in the war
in Croatia . These psychological problems influence the family
relationship, especially towards the wife and children. In order
to decrease existing problems with these fathers work
psychiatrist and social worker. The social worker tries to solve
their financial problems by getting the help from social
welfare. All these problems make difficult to the whole family
with handicapped child
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