All About Autism

[helplessmum3]

http://m.wimp.com/devotionsister/


A brother devotion to his special needs sister

http://m.wimp.com/devotionsister/

[Couragemom]

Hi everyone,


Here’s wishing everyone peace and contentment in the year of the horse!

[Couragemom]

Hi everyone,


Here’s wishing everyone peace and contentment in the year of the horse!

[lavendery]

My girl is born end of Dec. Next year she should go for primary 1. She do not have any speech delay as of mid of last year. She is quite chatty but i still feel that she talks differently. Her speech is not as ‘flowery’ and eloquent as neuro typical kids of her age in her K2. She could sit down, pay attention in class and do her work independently in class. However this is a totally different story at home.


She has some fine motor skill such as poor handwriting and also problem understanding facial expression, body language and not consistent with eye contact. Other than that, she can chat, jokes around (without boundaries which i scare will provoke her friends), play and join her K2 classmates in group activities and play with unknown kids in the playground.

Should I defer her for Pri 1? I feel that she is shortchange considering she is born year end Dec and she is autistic. Should I retain 1 more year in K2 and work on her deficits or I should continue let her progress to Pri 1?

[Gifts from Heaven]

lavendery:

My girl is born end of Dec. Next year she should go for primary 1. She do not have any speech delay as of mid of last year. She is quite chatty but i still feel that she talks differently. Her speech is not as 'flowery' and eloquent as neuro typical kids of her age in her K2. She could sit down, pay attention in class and do her work independently in class. However this is a totally different story at home.


She has some fine motor skill such as poor handwriting and also problem understanding facial expression, body language and not consistent with eye contact. Other than that, she can chat, jokes around (without boundaries which i scare will provoke her friends), play and join her K2 classmates in group activities and play with unknown kids in the playground.

Should I defer her for Pri 1? I feel that she is shortchange considering she is born year end Dec and she is autistic. Should I retain 1 more year in K2 and work on her deficits or I should continue let her progress to Pri 1?

Your child doesn't sound like she is autistic. Even if she is, the 'problem' is probably v v mild, or is Aspergers since from your description, her deficit seems to be more on social. But yet, if she can join and play/chat with her peers, then it may not even be social. Is your kid diagnosed autistic or you feel that she is autistic? According to my boy's psychologist, if behaviour outside home and inside home is different, then the issue is due to parenting, not ASD.
Just to share, my boy is diagnosed Aspergers when he was in K1. His problem is in social awareness/communication. He did not have friends in school 'cos he doesn't know how to 'behave' when he was with them. So the kids said he's naughty 'cos he 'disturbed' them during play. We sent him to social skills classes. Today, he is happily settled in mainstream P1. Yesterday, he came back with a candy in his pocket. He said he got that candy from his classmate. He said the boy wants to be his friend. I'm so happy that he has finally found a friend :rahrah: .

[Couragemom]

Hi Lavendry,


I have the same sentiment as Gifts from Heaven, ehh… your daughter is formally diagnosed as autistic? She sounds quite ok to me on the social front! The psychologist also said that an ASD child behaves consistently both at home and outside.

Hi Gifts from Heaven,

I am so happy for you. It is really nice when our child responds to their peers! Today my son’s friend greeted him at the school entrance and he managed to reply appropriately ‘Hi, xxxx’ (but of course with my prompting!). I am happy and hopefully one day he can respond socially spontaneously!

[lavendery]

She was clinically diagnosed as ‘mild autistic’ by private psychologist when she was 3yrs old and ‘autistic’ by KKH psychologist when she was approximately 3yrs 9mths. Back then she was pre-verbal with speech delay (echolalia), walking around in class, short attention span, hands flapping, no interaction with peers and teachers, cannot hold pencil properly, sensitive to loud sound, low muscle tones etc etc


Her current social still not typical as her peers. She is more chatty with adults than with her peers. Chatting with classmates still consider as minimum compared to her neuro typical K2 classmates. She will play with her classmates when they approached her. However her teacher did not notice her taking the initiative to approach her classmates to play/chat.

[nugget]

lavendery:

She was clinically diagnosed as 'mild autistic' by private psychologist when she was 3yrs old and 'autistic' by KKH psychologist when she was approximately 3yrs 9mths. Back then she was pre-verbal with speech delay (echolalia), walking around in class, short attention span, hands flapping, no interaction with peers and teachers, cannot hold pencil properly, sensitive to loud sound, low muscle tones etc etc


Her current social still not typical as her peers. She is more chatty with adults than with her peers. Chatting with classmates still consider as minimum compared to her neuro typical K2 classmates. She will play with her classmates when they approached her. However her teacher did not notice her taking the initiative to approach her classmates to play/chat.

Hi there,

Your girl sounded like my son when he was 3-4 years old. Right now he is still socially awkward and often goes out of topic..
He just entered P1 this year.

Like your dd, he is also very chatty with adult , usually he lead the topic talking abt thing that interests him. With peers, he is more shy but lately I heard he asked his friend to go recess together. (an improvement!)

My son is quite humorous, likes jokes but sometimes very lame or sarcasm kind - from watching too much Mr Bean Cartoon!

I feel your dd is way much better than my son when he was in K2. Mine still doesnt play with other kids in playground and only have 1 friend when he was in K2.

But one thing to note, also pointed out by ImMeeMee, is penmanship. They write a lot in p1. Need to practice now if you want her to go P1 next year. Have to get her to write everyday.

Also do look around which Primary School you want to enrol her in. Find a school that knows how to support your girl.

Good luck

[sharonkhoo]

lavendery:

My girl is born end of Dec. Next year she should go for primary 1. She do not have any speech delay as of mid of last year. She is quite chatty but i still feel that she talks differently. Her speech is not as 'flowery' and eloquent as neuro typical kids of her age in her K2. She could sit down, pay attention in class and do her work independently in class. However this is a totally different story at home.


She has some fine motor skill such as poor handwriting and also problem understanding facial expression, body language and not consistent with eye contact. Other than that, she can chat, jokes around (without boundaries which i scare will provoke her friends), play and join her K2 classmates in group activities and play with unknown kids in the playground.

Should I defer her for Pri 1? I feel that she is shortchange considering she is born year end Dec and she is autistic. Should I retain 1 more year in K2 and work on her deficits or I should continue let her progress to Pri 1?

Your daughter sounds a bit like my daughter was, although mine was less sociable. Given the choice now, I would have delayed mine by a year even though she is a Jan kid. We just didn't think of it at the time. My daughter is now 17yo and going into Pre-U this year, so she did actually survive school! We had to support her a fair bit through school, and some teachers were less sympathetic than others, and some periods were worse than others, but overall she has coped OK. But if you have the choice, why not give your daughter another year? One year is nothing, and it might make the learning curve just that bit less steep. That's my opinion, anyway.

By the way, your comment that she's different in school and at home - that's quite normal actually. Some kids try very hard in school to comply with 'normal' behaviour, but it can be stressful and tiring. Once they get home, they relax and become less controlled. With time and practice, her stamina for 'normal' behaviour will get higher, but she will always need that time to relax and unwind after reaching home.

[Tamama]

My boy is being deferred this year. That was my choice, cos I know him well that his penmanship is not there yet. And the requirement to writing in pri 1 is pretty much for him. (Lucky I have my elder girl showing me what was required when entering pri school)

In fact your girl sounds so good to me. If she can write and willing to write, then I don’t think it’s a problem for pri 1 next year. But if she is like my boy who is not so keen on writing task, sometimes even try to avoid it, always need a lot of encouragement to start writing, … Then deferring one year to prepare her better may be a good choice.