All About Autism

[nugget]

Does Taekwando really help? I see the Taekwando at my area, the coach is very fierce. I am quite worry about signing him up.

[mashy]

nugget:

Does Taekwando really help? I see the Taekwando at my area, the coach is very fierce. I am quite worry about signing him up.

I'm not sure if it helps. I just sent coz I was worried that he would be bullied. I only chose the nice coaches lah. What's the point of having fierce coaches for? There are many tkd schools around. Take your time to look around and check if they have trial lessons.

[nugget]

Yes Mashy,


Cos this one just at my void deck only. I went to see the training. So so quiet de. i think if a pin drop, you can hear it. Yup maybe I go to the other RC, there also have another Taekwando class.

[bb_ mom]

How about safra? Friends’ DD attends at safra toa payoh & I sat in to wait with her. Coach seems very friendly.

[johmom]

Hello again


Music therapy
Well, my son likes music and was learning the piano. But he's a bit of the perfectionist sort so... Long story short, two things happened and he stopped piano altogether.

Firstly, he was pushed to progress to quickly too soon. It didn't work well with his \"perfectionistic\" personality cos he would practice two hours a day and still struggle to get it right. And he was too young (my view).

Second, he made a three mistakes during a performance last yr and he's been scarred by it since. Hahaha. Sigh.

Anyway, music therapy is for him to explore music and musicing. The therapist uses music to explore social traits, let him blow off his \"creative steam\" within boundaries, coordination and sequencing... In the teacher's words

\"The main differences could be found in the goals and interventions we use. In Music therapy, we focus on other aspects of the child development though as opposed to working solely on acquisition of instrumental skills. For instance, connectedness, attention span, being communicative through music. It is a child-centered ( not child-led approach) where I try to structure each music session around who is he in the moment and the music/ideas that he brings in with him.\"

She's also part psychologist for my kid cos they have a connectedness now and every now and then he'll bring up something that's bothering him. And he looks forward to the spot of chess he gets to play at the end of lessons. Haha

TKD
He did it when he was 4.5yo. Then when he was 5 and realise his peers have gone on to the bigger kids class and he's still with the toddlers he wondered why. well, he couldn't bow to the flag cos it was wrong to him in principle. And he couldn't follow the steps or even kick higher than ankle height without falling over!

But he's interested to learn again and seeing how his coordination has improved slightly (probably at the 5yo level) we might let him try again second half of this yr.

[Couragemom]

Hi Johmom,


Woah! Music therapy sounds so good! It is like having music lessons without any pressure for grading exam, peer pressure etc.

Btw, all these extra classes like piano and tkd, how do you decide if our child is ready? Or your son pester you to let him attend? Like for my son’s case, he was sitting down well in his old playgroup circle time so I thought I let him try Berries Chinese class and he got ‘lost’ during class and I stopped.

[Couragemom]

Hi Nugget,


Any sports that needs our kids to do bi-lateral moves such as left leg/right hand out etc and balancing is good for their motor development. Swimming has an additional sensory input of water against skin.

[Couragemom]

Hi Niu2009,


Woah, your son’s kindy teacher is very nice. I tio complaints from my son’s old playgroup principal almost daily recently even though she knows about my son’s condition. Anyway the new pre-school teacher is very nice, she tells me to give my son time to settle down and tries her best to involve him in class activities.

Regarding your questions about OT/ST frequencies, it really depends on how ‘severe’ is his condition. Perhaps you can check with a developmental PD or an educational
Psychologist to see his gap with his peers? Then they can advise if you need eipic or sped or social class lessons etc.

Do you intend to declare your son’s condition to the primary school when you apply next June? If yes, then you need a full autism assessment report done before that.

[Double E]

Niu2009:

Double E:

Johmom,

Good to hear that your boy is doing good in P1. Same as couragemum, it does help to boost my confidence in my boy too.

Anyway, on my boy, his OT recently commented that he is still not up to par on his planning skills, not much significant improvement, so told me he has to continue his OT. Well, I don't intend to stop anyway, so I m not very much affected. And I am starting him on Taekwando, hope it will help to instill more discipline in him and learn some moves to defend himself, haha.

Hi Double E,

May i khow where you send you DS on Taekwando? Btw, how old is he now?

The TKD school is in Tanglin Shopping Centre, just beside Kidz OT. My boy is going to be in the same class as his younger sister. I signed both my kids up.

[Double E]

Couragemom:

Hi Double E,


May I ask at what age does your son start his neurofeedback sessions?

He started when he was around 4 years old. Yes , he is with Gavin Ong.