Plern received her M.A. in Special Education with an emphasis in Early Childhood from San Francisco State University in 2010. She is currently a PhD candidate in the Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health and Developmental Disorders program at the Interdisciplinary Council on Developmental and Learning Disorders (ICDL) Graduate School.
Plern has over 7 years of experience working with children of various ages and needs and has worked in both Thailand and the United States across a wide range of settings. In January of 2010, she co-founded and is now a director of Thailand’s very first special needs awareness center, ‘The Rainbow Room’, which became ‘The Rainbow Room Foundation’ in 2011. She also works as an Early Interventionist in Easter Seals Bay Area’s Early Intervention Autism Project, a home-based intervention program for children on the autism spectrum.
Plern is a proud advocate for early intervention, play- and relationship-based therapies, high-quality education, and equal opportunity for all children. Her dream is to establish a model intervention program in Thailand that values the child, appreciates the family and is run by adults who engage in reflective practices and bi-directional learning, so that in time, society at large can adopt a more positive view of the child with special needs.
The Rainbow Room “We share. We celebrate. We believe”
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRtmaJcoRrM[/youtube]
The Rainbow Room is a non-profit special needs awareness center. We are parents, families and friends of individuals with developmental and behavioral special needs, including Down Syndrome, Autism, Asperger’s, PDD-NOS, Cerebral Palsy, ADHD, and other genetic challenges. We raise positive awareness through sharing of information, experiences, encouragement, and empowerment, using a “Parent-to-Parent” model.
At The Rainbow Room, we offer:
- A welcome package for new parents
- basic and specific information about special needs
- resource directory
- Weekly parent support group meetings
- Sibling support and social activities
- Monthly talks covering interesting topics
- Parent educational and recreational workshops for self-development and self-care purposes
- Weekly playgroups for peers and siblings of different ages and interests
- A library with books, magazines, DVDs on special needs, parenting and leisure reading material, up-to-date research, and a variety of children books
- Continuous collaboration with schools, community centers, hospitals, and professionals from different fields to plan and implement a variety of self-advocacy programs and social awareness campaigns.
Through all of these projects, we encourage independence, confidence and pride in individual differences. Our goal is simply… to inspire. So that individuals with special needs are afforded better opportunities through community acceptance.
The Rainbow Room “We share. We celebrate. We believe”
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