All About Autism

[bb_ mom]

DS had his assessment done this morning at Cognitive Learning Centre. I liked the place. They’re not pushy to tell me I need to quickly put DS with them so that he can catch up or else he’ll fail. It’s not teeming with kids since each class size is supposed to be small. The classroom, from when I peeked in, is a very open concept. I saw 2 kids working together at a "station" so that they won’t be bored with sitting down doing worksheet after worksheet.


The director told me I had to be mentally prepared that it would take a bit of time for DS to be taught the skills to process information properly and then answer questions coherently and correctly. They don’t tell me to put him down for the maximum number of classes but recommended the number of classes based on how DS performed at the assessment. At the end of the 1st 3 months, the teachers would have identified specific areas that DS needs help with and move on from there.

It’s not cheap but DH and I decided to try them out and hope for the best. There’s a quarterly update session with parents. So, I’ll have to see how DS improves with them.

[Couragemom]

Hi bb_mom,


Woah, seems like the structure in place in this school is good! Hopefully the teachers (software) is as good! Thanks for sharing your observations with us. Hope your son will blossom in this school.

[nugget]

Hi all,


Haven’t been updating a while. Been busying with work and kids at home. Its the exam/test week now.

I need some pointers from parents. My boy doesn’t seem to understand what is exam and the seriousness of it.
So far there have been bite size tests. Sometimes he does very well. Sometimes he fails… After discussion with teachers, we realized that he cannot focus on doing his test paper because he is easily distracted or nervous due to the time limitation.

I tried to implement cue cards but was told by teachers need to get MOE approval.
We are not to sure how long the process will be and if we need to update the contents of the cue card, we would need to submit again??

Although we are not harp on about getting good grades. But I really hope he don’t fail because if he fails, it might affect his self esteem.

How do you get your child to focus and do papers? Will be really grateful if anyone can share tips.

[Couragemom]

Hi parents,


Does anyone has a good ST and OT to recommend me? My son goes to KidzPOTC and Leapfrogs for OT/ST respectively and it affects 3 out of his 5 days of school as his therapies are in the morning. I want to change to afternoon slots but there are none available at the moment so I am exploring other therapy centres. Kindly share and advise. Thanks!

[Couragemom]

Hi Nugget,


Can the AED tells you what type of concessions the school allow without going thru MOE channel? For example, can your son brings a digital alarm clock into the class during exams? Then you tell your son to do 1 question every xx mins? As for distraction, can arrange a seat near the walls and not near the windows? Sorry if my idea sounds weird or rigid as I don’t have any experience to share with you. Just thinking aloud only.

Then after this round of exam, you try to get the past year’s exam paper and work out a system of budgeting the exam time with him at home? Then he will know what to expect?

[nugget]

Hi Couragemom,


Thanks. I think KKH did send them a recommendations of where he should sit and help he needed. However I don’t think they have implemented it cos he is quite tall. Cannot be seated in front.

AED told me she will be in the class to give him prompts so he can get started on his tests. My OT teaches me to tap on the table. So we are practicing that with him at home. Tap table means continue to write answers.

Yes now we are practicing papers with him. But he often talk to us, getting distracted and all. And worse thing is he keep checking the timer i set for him… see if time is up. Then not doing his work. I need to condition him to know how to take test papers.

Let me try to request to have him sit right in front of the class… first row during exam. Hope it helps.

Thank you for your tips!

[Niu2009]

nugget:

Hi all,


Haven't been updating a while. Been busying with work and kids at home. Its the exam/test week now.

I need some pointers from parents. My boy doesn't seem to understand what is exam and the seriousness of it.
So far there have been bite size tests. Sometimes he does very well. Sometimes he fails.. After discussion with teachers, we realized that he cannot focus on doing his test paper because he is easily distracted or nervous due to the time limitation.

I tried to implement cue cards but was told by teachers need to get MOE approval.
We are not to sure how long the process will be and if we need to update the contents of the cue card, we would need to submit again??

Although we are not harp on about getting good grades. But I really hope he don't fail because if he fails, it might affect his self esteem.

How do you get your child to focus and do papers? Will be really grateful if anyone can share tips.

Hi nugget,

Have you tried let him do test paper at home? Like mock test? Practice at home do help him. When he was in K, got any problem to finish his worksheet or spelling?

[nugget]

Niu2009:

Hi nugget,

Have you tried let him do test paper at home? Like mock test? Practice at home do help him. When he was in K, got any problem to finish his worksheet or spelling?

Hi,
Yes, we are practicing with him at home. But he tend to just talk to us, check the clock, Stare into space.. and when I tap on table (which is a cue).. he will sometimes continue to do or sometimes just laugh and talk about other things.

I guess he is aware that it is not a \"real\" setting so is very relax over it.

When he is in K, he was in CC environment, sad to say teachers didn't care about him much. Partly also due to him not around most of the time due to Eipic. Also there are 2 teachers to 28 kids. They just left my son alone, only when they have time then they will teach him. So even if my son don't do spelling or worksheets, is he sort of being excused. We wasnt even sure if he can make it to mainstream or not during that time.

[mathtuition88]

Just to share an inspirational video about autism and math:

http://mathtuition88.com/2014/03/09/jak ... ism-video/

At age two, Jake Barnett was diagnosed with autism and his future was unclear. Now at age 13, Jake is a college sophomore and a math and science prodigy. Jake says his autism is key to his success. Morley Safer reports.

All autistic kids are special in their own way (might not necessarily be in math or science), hope this video helps.

[mashy]

nugget:

Hi Couragemom,


Thanks. I think KKH did send them a recommendations of where he should sit and help he needed. However I don't think they have implemented it cos he is quite tall. Cannot be seated in front.

AED told me she will be in the class to give him prompts so he can get started on his tests. My OT teaches me to tap on the table. So we are practicing that with him at home. Tap table means continue to write answers.

Yes now we are practicing papers with him. But he often talk to us, getting distracted and all. And worse thing is he keep checking the timer i set for him.. see if time is up. Then not doing his work. I need to condition him to know how to take test papers.

Let me try to request to have him sit right in front of the class.. first row during exam. Hope it helps.

Thank you for your tips!

That was my greatest worries too. So we had practice sessions at home. We set a timer and got him to do his test paper. He isn't allowed to talk or ask questions when he is doing his test paper. Put him in a corner so that it's free from distraction. For the timer, we put far away so he can't check how much time left and meddle with it. It's also good that he could tell the time already. In primary 1, we gave him a watch. It helped him then to keep track of time.

My son is pretty competitive in his marks. So when we told him those he didnt manage to finish will simply get a zero, he got more serious.

I think it also helped that in school, they had a lot of mock tests. It got him prepared and do what other kids are doing.