All About Autism

[Tamama]

Eijmum,

You can find sonrise program in FB support group. And google for it and you can see the difference of this and ABA.
I like this program and I heard of the founder of the program will come to sg next yr. I look forward to it.

[pinkamoon]

Hi Tamama, I heard Raun is coming to Singapore. He is the son of Bears and Samahria, the founder of Sonrise. He was the autistic boy who recovered. Happy that u practise sonrise too.

[richiegal]

Hello everybody… anyone has any good speech therapist that can introduce? My son is 26mths and is slow in speech. No words at all.

[pinkamoon]

richiegal:

Hello everybody... anyone has any good speech therapist that can introduce? My son is 26mths and is slow in speech. No words at all.

Hi! Maybe u want to try speaking more to him, talk to him when u shower him, feed him and in everything. The speech therapist I went to was not fantastic, so I cannot recommend u any. Sorry.

[fluttershy]

hi mummies & daddies,


it's been a while since i wrote here. i'm in dilemma right now. my son will turn 3 in january 2015, i planned to him on a montessori kindergarten in the afternoon. so he's still having his 3-hour ABA and the afternoon he will attend 4-hour kindergarten.

the thing is that his behaviour consultant thinks that he's not ready for a mainstream kindergarten. she thinks that to be able to attend mainstream, he needs to know how to be social with his peers, understand simple instructions (eg. stand up, sit down, come here). right now the therapists are working hard on these receptive language skills. looking at where he is now, the behaviour consultant thinks that he won't be ready to attend kindy next year. it made me so so sad that he might have to delay a year

she also stressed in to me that she's afraid that my son will develop a pattern where he will behave appropriately in the morning because it's therapy time but then he will start doing inappropriate behaviour, stimmings and all that 'bad' behaviours in the afternoon during the kindy session because let's face it, the kindy teacher will need to handle other kids as well and most probably he will be doing all sorts of thing that he wants including the bad behaviours.

so i'm really puzzled whether i let him go to N1 or delay it to prepare him better. any thoughts and opinions is totally appreciated!

[sharonkhoo]

fluttershy:

hi mummies & daddies,


it's been a while since i wrote here. i'm in dilemma right now. my son will turn 3 in january 2015, i planned to him on a montessori kindergarten in the afternoon. so he's still having his 3-hour ABA and the afternoon he will attend 4-hour kindergarten.

the thing is that his behaviour consultant thinks that he's not ready for a mainstream kindergarten. she thinks that to be able to attend mainstream, he needs to know how to be social with his peers, understand simple instructions (eg. stand up, sit down, come here). right now the therapists are working hard on these receptive language skills. looking at where he is now, the behaviour consultant thinks that he won't be ready to attend kindy next year. it made me so so sad that he might have to delay a year

she also stressed in to me that she's afraid that my son will develop a pattern where he will behave appropriately in the morning because it's therapy time but then he will start doing inappropriate behaviour, stimmings and all that 'bad' behaviours in the afternoon during the kindy session because let's face it, the kindy teacher will need to handle other kids as well and most probably he will be doing all sorts of thing that he wants including the bad behaviours.

so i'm really puzzled whether i let him go to N1 or delay it to prepare him better. any thoughts and opinions is totally appreciated!

I would opt to delay. What's the hurry? If you can give your kid more time to consolidate the desired behaviours and avoid developing undesirable habits, it's a good thing. It will make everything so much easier as he goes on up the levels. That's my opinon, anyway.

[fluttershy]

thanks slmkhoo! it's just the fact that he'll be behind his peers make me so sad and also deep inside i was thinking that maybe putting him in the mainstream kindergarten will hopefully made him

overcome his autism. i know it's a wishful thinking on my part that autism can't be overcome that easily. in fact, he may not overcome it

sorry to sound so negative just not a good day for me..i was imagining him going to mainstream kindy with his peers & having his birthday celebrated in his school in the normal setting. sometimes i just took a deep breath whether he'll be able to have a birthday celebrations just like other typical kids :please:

[fluttershy]

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.

Eijmum, I think the reason why ABA is so expensive is because for it to really works, we need lots of hours (20-40 hours a week) & consistency. The team itself consists of several therapist & 1 behaviour consultant who will design an ABA program to suit to your child's need.

I can understand that it can be very expensive. I have to take out my savings since my husband's salary is not enough to cover the monthly therapy. But what choice do I have here? I just try to look at it that it's not going to be forever, it'll take maybe 2-3 years or 4 years at the most depend on how each child is progressing :xedfingers:

My son is 2,5 years old & has been doing ABA for about 4,5 months now & I can see he's improving. He knows how to match up to 8 items. He can match similar items as well. He can imitate 3 gestures simultenously & the play program that he's at enable him to actually pretend to cut vegetables, cooks, stirs & eats it. He can name all 15 objects at one go without losing his concentration (eg. therapist shows him a picture of car, he will say \"car\" and follow by other items up to 15pcs). He's starting to request (eg. saying help, come if he needs something with prompting). He loves basketball (throw the ball to the therapist & put the ball into the loop).

I showed him the word \"mama\" he will look at me & after I said \"mama\" he will say \"mama\". On the bus ride, he can request for the bus card & to tap the card by himself when he enters & exits the bus (I believe this is one of the self-help skills). He can get & put his shoes on the shoes rack properly. And best of all, he's able to follow me wherever I go, he used to run around by himself and I have to grab & hold onto his hand ALL the time as I scared I will lose him otherwise. And many more that I didn't mention here.

I really believe that all these is because of ABA that he's in now. Before ABA, he can do none of these

[little doggie]

Hi Fluttershy,


Can you share with me your ABA therapists contact. How much does it cost.

Thank you.

[sharonkhoo]

fluttershy:

thanks slmkhoo! it's just the fact that he'll be behind his peers make me so sad and also deep inside i was thinking that maybe putting him in the mainstream kindergarten will hopefully made him

overcome his autism. i know it's a wishful thinking on my part that autism can't be overcome that easily. in fact, he may not overcome it

sorry to sound so negative just not a good day for me..i was imagining him going to mainstream kindy with his peers & having his birthday celebrated in his school in the normal setting. sometimes i just took a deep breath whether he'll be able to have a birthday celebrations just like other typical kids :please:

It's something you have to come to terms with. I know it's hard and parents often go through ups and downs as they get to know their kids' limitations. But remember, they have their strengths too! For our kids, I feel it's better to let them gradually grow into their strengths and overcome their weaknesses rather than pressure them too hard and too fast. Learning at a 'normal' pace doesn't mean they will learn better, and may even make things worse in the long run. And learning things at a slower pace may enable to grasp things better, and will certainly cause less stress and make them more willing to learn. When dealing with my daughter, I always remind myself that it's better that she masters something 3 yrs late (for eg) than be pressured and stressed and never master it at all. There was a time in upp-Pr when she told me that she was stupid because she was unable to master certain things, and I realised it was my fault for pushing the pace. I had to do damage repair after that, and now we all accept that we have to do things at her pace, and she is also happier. It doesn't mean we don't teach and coach and push, but we go by what she can manage, not by what is 'normal'. Just my thoughts.