All About Autism

[DesertWind]

Double E:

After reading all your posts, I can totally feel you as me too, deep down in my heart, I am also harbouring the hopes that my son will be normal one day or at least he is so good that his traits are not so apparent to others. This is an expectation that I believe all of us are struggling to overcome. Like Tyegoh, I would have also try to upgrade him if he is doing well in the current class, to me, i won't know if he can make it or not if I don't even try. If he can't make it, I guess, then I will be more resigned to accept that he should stay back a year to catch up.

Hi Double E, Tyeogh,

Yes, totally can understand. For me, I prefer to think our boys need more time and cannot rush the growing up. From my experience, it is more painful for me to see my boy not keeping up with his peers at K2 last year compared to the thought that \"next time\" he will question why he not the same year as his peers?

See it like this, even at the university level all guys are two years behind right? Also funny for us that when we reach that level, the guys are all older than the girls. But how come nobody question why? Just take it as such.

So I am not too hung up over the 1 year of deferment. To me it really does not matter that extra year if it help my boy to blend in well with his cohorts a year later. And he much better prepared and can handle.

I think it is not wrong to try to upgrade him now because if really necessary, there is another chance to defer his P1 later on if you so decide otherwise.

[Eijmum]

Hi pinkamoon,


Thanks for being so helpful. Can I ask if you know of any good and affordable ABA therapist that you can recommend? The ones that I checked seem very expensive. I have two other kids to look after, got to plan the financial part of any therapy very carefully.

Thank you once again.

[scang]

Eijmum:

Hi pinkamoon,


Thanks for being so helpful. Can I ask if you know of any good and affordable ABA therapist that you can recommend? The ones that I checked seem very expensive. I have two other kids to look after, got to plan the financial part of any therapy very carefully.

Thank you once again.

All private therapist are in general more expensive, as most are usually in the range of $100-200 per session.

If you are accepted by SGEnable, it is subsidized by the govt, so it is more affordable depending on family household income.
It can range from $xx-5xx per month.

[pinkamoon]

Scang is right. ABA is expensive. I did not try ABA because of the cost. I think it can easily cost a few thousand dollars a month. If u want to DIY, u can try the following link.

https://www.rethinkfirst.com/aboutus/whyrethink.aspx

I almost signed up for this but ended up doing Son-Rise program
There are others who have tried ABA, maybe they can help you on this.

[Eijmum]

Thanks Scang and Pinkamoon!


Scang, my son is now at ARC through SG Enable. ARC is good but the teachers are not trained in ABA. And the class is only 4 times a week, 1.5 hour each time. Though he has improved (slightly), I thought of adding ABA therapy to curb his self injurious behavior (he still hits the head when upset and bites again recently, but it’s definitely much less compared to last time).

Pinkamoon, what is son-rise program?

Thanks!

[MummyOats]

Hi Ejimum


There is a book by Ivar Lovaas in NLB. Lovaas is considered the \"grandfather\" of ABA and his book gave very specific instructions on the ABA method for specific tasks. Hopefully it can give some DIY ideas in complementing the professional ABA therapy.

Do discuss with your doctor regarding the head-banging, it may be related to sensitivities issues instead but he cannot verbalise? Eg, maybe certain sounds (ok to us) could sounds like a shrill to him, hence triggering a reaction.

http://www.amazon.com/Teaching-Developm ... 0936104783

http://www.iidc.indiana.edu/?pageId=436

[pinkamoon]

Actually my son had self injurious behaviour too like throwing himself on the sofas ( ended up losing both front teeth before age 4), hitting his head and rubbing his head on the wall with a pillow in between. When he started to be able to communicate, I did ask him why and he said his head was painful. Just like how we will hit our head when our heads are painful. These are signs there are inflammation in the head caused by allergies and leaky gut syndrome. These behaviour stop after I implemented strict diets for a while. I took away all food that he is allergic to, remove milk and wheat and rice. He only ate vegetables (no carbohydrates) and meat and lots of marrow bone and meat soup.


As for Son-Rise program, you can read the link here. It is a DIY homebased programme. http://www.autismtreatmentcenter.org/

[Eijmum]

Thanks very much MummyOats and Pinkamoon! Greatly appreciate your help :))


Yes my son definitely has sensory issues as he tip toes a lot and likes to scratch and pinch. My hands are bruised by him when we fought last time and they are still scarred. He's non verbal and so he screams for things he wants. But all these are very much controlled now though not totally eliminated.

Pinkamoon, it's very hard to restrict his diet as he already has very limited choices of food. He takes only noodle stuff, pasta, a couple of biscuits and plain bread. He doesn't like new food.

[Eijmum]

Hi pinkamoon,


How effective is the son-rise program for your son? This is totally different from ABA but seems that it can cure autism… Can you share with me? I would like to know more. Many thanks.

[pinkamoon]

Hi! Ejimum and I have taken the sonrise topic off the forum.


Btw, how's everyone doing? It seems a bit quiet these few days. I bet many of you must have gone for a short holiday.