All About Autism

[Couragemom]

Hi mommies,


Do you all have any shadow teachers recommendation?

[nugget]

belachanbabe:

Hi all, been a long time since I popped in here. Nice to see new faces and continued support for each other. Jia you! Fighting!


On a positive note, do you find ASD kids especially endearing? At the risk of sounding bias being parents and all, I noticed that adults that they encounter in their daily lives i.e. teachers, get very attached to my boys and they always say that their heart melt and they find them very cute etc. Almost all go the extra mile to accommodate them and I don’t feel that it’s out of pity or reluctance to cater to their condition either. Maybe they are less cynical, selfish and cunning than NT kids. Some intangible X-factor which should bode well in the real world. :imcool:

I agreed with this. I do find some teachers like my boy cos he is really very innocent and genuinely funny. By nature he is fun loving and humorous to a certain extend.

As my son is the mild non violent type, teachers who usually really spend time with him can see the beauty of his innocence.

He is in primary one mainstream now. I am still in awe how he gets everyday in school. So far he is coping ok. Doing his homework, learning his spellings weekly. And i take it as no news from teachers means good news...

Have fate and one day we will be amazed at what our kids can do to impressed us.

Of course there are always days where they feel a little down and drained. We have to be sensitive to those times. Everyday I will tell him that I am so proud of him and I love him very very much.. I really can see my son is very tired after each school day. Though he is tired, but he is much happier than he is in preschool.

May all our kids keep progressing and be happy.

[Couragemom]

Hi mommies,


Need advice again! My DS’s current playgroup don’t serve lunch and parents pack the kids’ snack for snacktime, so effectively I side-step the issue of my son not daring to try new food in school. The strange thing for DS is, he dares to try all sort of food that we eat when we dine outside (he will even cry if we are slow in serving him the new food!) but once in school, he is hesitant to try new foodstuff eg, birthday party or different racial celebration like CNY. He can self-feed so it is not an issue of not being able to hold spoon/fork.

Now I am in the midst of looking for a new school for him. I quite like this childcare (thinking of half-day) and this lunch issue crops up again. My hubby told me to hold back his breakfast and snack so that he gets very hungry by lunch and eat the new stuff, but my son is not very fat to begin with (he is in the 50 percentile range), so let him starve???

[Couragemom]

Hi mommies,


If got 2 cc choices, which one will you choose:

CC 1
1. CC is 10mins drive.
2. Accept special needs child.
3. Experienced teachers.
4. Abit run-down, lunch is at 11am, so for half-day child, learning is only 2hrs, so by the time reach K1/2 where serious academic learning is expected, must convert to full-day or else not sure can prepare for primary school sufficiently. But not sure if DS can convert as still need continuous therapies.

CC2
1. CC is 20 mins drive.
2. Accept special needs child on trial basis.
3. Teachers 3 years’ experience.
4. Nice infrastructure, lesson is from 9-12pm, lunch is 12.15-12.45pm, so have option to opt out until DS is older and hopefully work out his sensory issues (with regards to food). Lesson is 3hrs daily, so even K1/2 also quite ok not to convert to full-day.

Advice please.

[mashy]

Couragemom:

Hi mommies,


If got 2 cc choices, which one will you choose:

CC 1
1. CC is 10mins drive.
2. Accept special needs child.
3. Experienced teachers.
4. Abit run-down, lunch is at 11am, so for half-day child, learning is only 2hrs, so by the time reach K1/2 where serious academic learning is expected, must convert to full-day or else not sure can prepare for primary school sufficiently. But not sure if DS can convert as still need continuous therapies.

CC2
1. CC is 20 mins drive.
2. Accept special needs child on trial basis.
3. Teachers 3 years' experience.
4. Nice infrastructure, lesson is from 9-12pm, lunch is 12.15-12.45pm, so have option to opt out until DS is older and hopefully work out his sensory issues (with regards to food). Lesson is 3hrs daily, so even K1/2 also quite ok not to convert to full-day.

Advice please.

I will bring my boy there and see how he reacts to the environment. I brought my son to several cc to check it out then. He was so at ease with the cc we finally chose. On our visit, he already like treated it as his school, just walk around as he likes. He didn't even cry when he started there. At the kindy before we changed, he as crying everyday and clinging onto my legs. So listen to your son and see what he chooses.

[sharonkhoo]

Couragemom:

Hi mommies,


Need advice again! My DS's current playgroup don't serve lunch and parents pack the kids' snack for snacktime, so effectively I side-step the issue of my son not daring to try new food in school. The strange thing for DS is, he dares to try all sort of food that we eat when we dine outside (he will even cry if we are slow in serving him the new food!) but once in school, he is hesitant to try new foodstuff eg, birthday party or different racial celebration like CNY. He can self-feed so it is not an issue of not being able to hold spoon/fork.

Now I am in the midst of looking for a new school for him. I quite like this childcare (thinking of half-day) and this lunch issue crops up again. My hubby told me to hold back his breakfast and snack so that he gets very hungry by lunch and eat the new stuff, but my son is not very fat to begin with (he is in the 50 percentile range), so let him starve????

Maybe you can ask the school to help you do a phased transition - initially, you can let him have a small snack from home and have the teachers slowly encourage him to try the school food. After a while, don't provide anything from home (or let the teachers have it just in case, but don't let your son see). Also, you can ask the school for the menu and you can introduce him to the type of food he will encounter in school so it's less strange. Don't worry about kids starving - hungry kids will eat eventually. Even if he doesn't eat much during the day, he will probably eat more in the evening to make up.

[mashy]

slmkhoo:

Couragemom:

Hi mommies,


Need advice again! My DS's current playgroup don't serve lunch and parents pack the kids' snack for snacktime, so effectively I side-step the issue of my son not daring to try new food in school. The strange thing for DS is, he dares to try all sort of food that we eat when we dine outside (he will even cry if we are slow in serving him the new food!) but once in school, he is hesitant to try new foodstuff eg, birthday party or different racial celebration like CNY. He can self-feed so it is not an issue of not being able to hold spoon/fork.

Now I am in the midst of looking for a new school for him. I quite like this childcare (thinking of half-day) and this lunch issue crops up again. My hubby told me to hold back his breakfast and snack so that he gets very hungry by lunch and eat the new stuff, but my son is not very fat to begin with (he is in the 50 percentile range), so let him starve????

Maybe you can ask the school to help you do a phased transition - initially, you can let him have a small snack from home and have the teachers slowly encourage him to try the school food. After a while, don't provide anything from home (or let the teachers have it just in case, but don't let your son see). Also, you can ask the school for the menu and you can introduce him to the type of food he will encounter in school so it's less strange. Don't worry about kids starving - hungry kids will eat eventually. Even if he doesn't eat much during the day, he will probably eat more in the evening to make up.

Haha, doesn't happen for all kids. My boy will rather starve. He didn't eat eventually coz he just drank water to fill his stomach. That was when he was still in kindy. Really stubborn kid. Till now he is still below 3% in terms of weight.

Anyway, I packed his lunch for half a year in kindy. He only ate corn, carrots, egg and rice at that point in time. I even had to go feeding clinic coz of his diet. After that, I let him eat with the other kids. Guess watching what others eat make him curious and wanna try after a while.

But glad that his appetite has finally gone up a bit. He used to order the smallest bowl of fish ball noodles in school and still couldn't finish it. He has just gone up a level to order the medium bowl. He can finally finish his lunch! Hurray for that too.

[ArielMermaid]

Hey,

Just want to share about free therapeutic riding lessons (10 lessons) offered by Riding for Disabled Association, Singapore. You may wish to go to the website (http://rdasingapore.org/ride-with-us/) to register your interest. My son's lessons have not started, so I'm not sure how it'd go.

Based on website http://autismsd.com/
The focus of hippotherapy is on the movement of the horse. Horses move in response to their handlers or riders. The child with autism learns to communicate desired movements to the horse, establishing joint attention and reciprocity. These are often key factors that are missing in optimal development and are addressed in the hippotherapy setting. Other benefits from hippotherapy include improved muscle tone, strength, balance and coordination. Sensory processing has also been shown to improve with regular sessions in hippotherapy. Through the interactions with the horse, the child learns to be aware of his body and his ability to use it to communicate. The horse reduces anxiety by responding to the communication effort without the pressure of verbal language. These benefits combine to make hippotherapy one of the most comprehensive treatments available.

[Couragemom]

Hi Arielmermaid,


Do let us know how it goes because it is quite an established form of therapy of sensory integration disorder in USA.

Hi Mashy and Slmkhoo,

I think most likely my son will be like mashy’s boy, he rather starve than eat something strange in school, thus I am more keen on CC 2. Principal wants to meet me and son to observe him abit. Keeping my fingers crossed my son don’t throw tantrums that day!!!

[nugget]

Couragemom:

Hi mommies,


If got 2 cc choices, which one will you choose:

CC 1
1. CC is 10mins drive.
2. Accept special needs child.
3. Experienced teachers.
4. Abit run-down, lunch is at 11am, so for half-day child, learning is only 2hrs, so by the time reach K1/2 where serious academic learning is expected, must convert to full-day or else not sure can prepare for primary school sufficiently. But not sure if DS can convert as still need continuous therapies.

CC2
1. CC is 20 mins drive.
2. Accept special needs child on trial basis.
3. Teachers 3 years' experience.
4. Nice infrastructure, lesson is from 9-12pm, lunch is 12.15-12.45pm, so have option to opt out until DS is older and hopefully work out his sensory issues (with regards to food). Lesson is 3hrs daily, so even K1/2 also quite ok not to convert to full-day.

Advice please.

Hi Couragemom,

JTS: My thinking is a bit different from other mummies here. I am a FTWM so I would choose whatever that is convenient to me as long as the school is aware of my child's condition and is willing to accept him.

But maybe that is also the reason why my son dislike his CC cos is not so tailored to his needs (its one of the anchor operator in SG). But I have no choice as logistics, costs and convenience all plays a part.

I take it as letting my child to adapt to different kind of environment.
But for his EIPIC and Primary school. I really hunt for those that are caring and willing to do extra for him.