Xiao Min graduated from Leshan Normal School, majoring in education for children with hearing impairments, in 1996. Since her graduation, she has been exploring different practices, in order to find the “best teaching approach” for special education.

Years of experience have led Xiao Min to realize that ideally, a special needs teacher must feel genuine affection for the children in their care, be able to identify their unique strengths and needs, and be very flexible, since each child is so different.

Faced with the challenges of limited resources and the demand for a more inclusive, diversified and flexible curriculum, Xiao led a team in developing a “tasty and nutritious” curriculum based on a large-scale survey of over 300 children with different disabilities aged 3-15. The curriculum includes widely-acclaimed courses such as handicraft, fun campus games, employment-oriented psychological guidance, and home instruction for children with severe and multiple impairments.

To train more capable special needs educators, in January 2009, Xiao’s own studio was established under a National Training Program, which has since organized a range of capacity building activities for teachers from different parts of China.