All About Autism

[tyeogh]

sitting around waiting for botakgundul reply too

[Double E]

Hi all,

Am just thinking, are u all game for a Xmas gathering? my house is not big but is a 1300 sq feet 5 room flat. If you all are open, we can try to organise one in Dec?

[ImMeeMee]

Double E:

I did thought of having a dog to help my boy too but I am no pet lover and my younger gal is petrified of animals, so I shelved the idea.

Your boy is so cute. My boy is train and train. And now that he can recognise the logos of all car brands, he will name them whenever we are on the road. He can do that through out the trip: \"Look mummy, is a Mini-cooper\", \"Look mummy, is a toyota\", \"Look mummy, is a Mercedes\", \"Look mummy, is a Honda\". \" Look mummy, is a Nissan\", and the list goes on and on and on. To be frank, sometimes I will ask him to keep quiet, cannot talk while daddy is driving because it can get really distracting.

lol, you will be surprised (or maybe not?) my GAL is into trucks, trucks and more trucks - cement mixer, dump truck, army truck, tow truck. You name it. We have all sorts of big and small truck toys at home. At one stage, all the family members bought trucks for her during Christmas, until I have to tell everyone to stop ...

[ImMeeMee]

tyeogh:

I am considering a pet to aid my DS connect socially. Perhaps he can relate to animals as a baby step. Read some articles on how pets help autistic children. Medically unsubstantiated though, as far as I know. Any one with any experience in this area?


Ps: no, I am not getting a pet bec of him only. My other kids want one too. I am prepared to \"goalkeeper\" the pet if my kids lose interest. Considering a netherland dwarf rabbit.

tyeogh

If you happen to try this out, do share how it goes. I have read some books on how pets (usually dogs or horses) will help ASD children. While it is not evidence-based, there are anecdotal success stories.

I too am not a pet person, and unlikely that we will have a pet dog cos we are staying with the ILs and they are not into pets too. But I would be keen to learn about how this works.

[belachanbabe]

Does anyone have a suitable and patient optician and dentist to recommend?


My younger boy confirm cannot sit still kind and might possibly have a meltdown at the place.

Double E: Good idea and intention but probably hard to execute as this is still a public forum.

[botakgundul]

nugget:

botakgundul,


Was it difficult to transfer into Pathlight?

My son was recommended pathlight as well but we decided to go for mainstream instead. But we are prepared to let son into pathlight if he is really unable to cope.

Thanks for all the pointers. I will discuss all these with AED when I see her during orientation.

If you don't mind, can you share with me what kind of support will AED provided the ASD child during class? Will they help to draw up schedule? Assign a student to be the prompter? What other info/things do I need to ready myself to make this successful?

Was it difficult to transfer into Pathlight?

It's not difficult.

For my case, I don't need to wait for too long. I submitted the application in May 2013 and I received PL confirmation in Sep 2013. However, you may take note that I enroll my son for P3 next year. It may be more challenging for upper primary (P4 onwards) because the demand may be more.

Just for sharing...

1) First, please obtain psychologist report and share it to your son form teacher and AED teacher. The report should come from EP (Educational Psychologist). This person shall know how the mainstream school operates and should be able to advice you (as parents) and the school teachers (form teacher & AED teacher) what kind of support required by your son.

For my case, once I obtain the report from my EP, I setup a meeting with my son teachers (form teacher & AED teacher) and read the report together. The purpose is to ensure they read the report and understand from them if there's a question or concern raised.

As mentioned that the AED teacher only supports my son when he is in P2. I asked the AED teacher to focus more on social skills. E.g. observing my son behaviour during recess time and exam time and provides feedback, teaches my son on how to make friends using social skills picture books etc.

Please take note that I don't depend only on the AED teacher in the school. I also engage other therapist such as OT (Occupational Therapy) & ST (Speech Therapy) for my son.

For drawing up schedule, I assume you are referring to the class schedule. The form teacher would provide you the class time table.

2) Second, please ask your form teacher to let your son sit in front near teacher desk so your son will get less disturbance and can focus better.

3) Third, please ask your form teacher if the teacher could implement buddy system for your son.

For my case, my son's P2 form teacher nominates 2 pupils as my son's buddy. Only 1 buddy is available at one time and they work in alternate week or month (not too sure on the details arrangement).

The purpose of buddy system is to help your children familiarize with his class and school routine. In short, my son's buddy is his form teacher PA (Personal Assistance).

My son's buddy will remind my son to submit his assignment, to write down homework into school diary, to stay focus in the class (in case he's day dreaming) etc.

Last but not least, I only share with you what I've done. Hopefully, the above information helps you to achive your objectives.

[AdeleisG]

Hi, regarding autism, I’m not sure whether this was mentioned previously in any page, but having read and once contacted a teacher who’s experienced in helping autistic children, I would suggest swimming therapy for them. The swimming therapy may not be cheap though useful in helping them deal better with surrounding.


Water is in fact a good way of helping them in terms of thinking; I’m not very clear about how it works either but it’s been proven to be really effective. Sg also has some schools which specialize in swimming therapy for autistic children.

Hope this helps!

[botakgundul]

belachanbabe:

botakgundul


Thanks so much for the insights in coping with primary school. You must have gone through a lot of agonising with your eventual decision to transfer your boy to PL. But you seem to have made the right decision.
Am in the same situation as nugget, what types of support are AED officers expected to or are able to provide given that they have to take care of so many students?

My boy’s school has 2 AEDs but that’s because there’s 330 students per level. That’s 1,980 students. Say there are 10% students that require more help: not only autistic but ADHD, dyslexia etc. still 99 to take care per AED teacher. Most schools have 1 AED but the ratio should be the same.

Practically, am not expecting any other help than to monitor my kid’s progress in the school with feedback from his teachers. Yeah, low expectations.

There are mainstream schools with strong support of AED teachers such as Naval Base (Yishun) and St. Andrew (Toa Payoh). It may be more, you may want to explore more.

For Naval Base, it's not our favour due to distance.

For St. Andrew, it's not our favour due to long waiting list.

[botakgundul]

Double E:

Thanks very much for your sharing. Is really useful.
For your friend's son who is also mildly autistic but yet coping well in P4, was it due to the good support by AED in school or is just his ability?
And I have the same question as nugget, how easy or difficult is it for you to transfer to Pathlight mid way? And how long did you wait for the transfer to be approved? Do you have to send your boy for assessment at Pathlight? I am thinking, can the transfer be done during mid-term or must he complete a year in main-stream before he can transfer? Also, your boy will go to P3 in Pathlight next year or he has to start all over from P1?

Sorry for the many questions.

thanks

For your friend's son who is also mildly autistic but yet coping well in P4, was it due to the good support by AED in school or is just his ability?

When I mentioned that my friend's son is coping well until he's in P4, I'm not referring to his academic result. Her son is still facing challenging on his creative writing and oral. However, her son is able to submit his homework independently, can focus better recently (especially when he entered P4 this year), have few friends and no major issue is reported by the class teachers and school DM (Discipline Master).

My friend exempted her son for Chinese since P1. She submitted the form during P1 orientation and it's approved once the school is reopened and her son entered P1.

My friend is only outsourcing English to the tuition. She's teaching her son Math & Science.

how easy or difficult is it for you to transfer to Pathlight mid way?

I didn't transfer my son mid year because it'll be very disruptive.

Do you have to send your boy for assessment at Pathlight?

Pathlight school invites me to bring my son for class stimulation assessment in September.

Here are detais:
- The assessment lasted for 2 hours from 9.30AM to 11.30AM.
- Have to give my son $4 in case he wants to buy food during recess.
- My son joined the existing class (P2 class).
- According to my son, he's having test for Math and English.
- I saw my son having recess with his P2 Pathlight friends and he was playing UNO card happily with his new friends.

your boy will go to P3 in Pathlight next year or he has to start all over from P1?

My son will join P3 in Pathlight next year. However, you may take note that if you want to transfer your children from Pathlight to mainstream school, you have to downgrade her/him to 1 level below.

Let say, your son is in P5 Pathlight this year, 2013. Then you want to transfer him to the mainstream school next year, 2014. Then, your son will be in P5 mainstream school for 2014.

I hope I answer all your questions. Cheers!

[botakgundul]

ImMeeMee:

botakgundul


My doter is enrolling into PL P1 next year. There is an orientation towards the end of December. I just received the registration package and there are quite a few things to follow up, eg. booklists, uniforms etc.

Hope you are getting the required information for the transfer too?

Hi ImMeeMee,

I just received it last night. Thanks for letting me know.