All About Autism

[ImMeeMee]

Double E:

Thanks for the encouragement ImMeeMee
BTW, want to check with you, how is your girl coping in Pathlight? Has she start making friends and any issue of school bullies?

My daughter has settled down in PL. Ups and downs. In the beginning she had issues coping, but things have improved and now her teachers inform that she is independent in doing her class work. There are still 'down' days, but its part and parcel I guess.

In PL they use visuals and rewards system to manage the children's behaviours, so I work closely with the teachers and reinforce with social stories at home whenever we encounter any behavioural issues. I am grateful that my doter could still be redirected quite easily.

Her friends are mainly her classmates, she is not at the stage where she can make friends outside her class. We have a parents support group for the class and we had a play date during the hols to get together for both parents and kids.

The environment is supportive, but of course there is still academic stress. Pace is fast from my perspective vis a vis my daughter's pace, although I feel that it is already moderated as compared to my elder gals' school. I cannot imagine how to cope into upper primary in time to come ...

I have not heard of bullying, but have come across children hitting other children mainly because of sensory or behavioural issues. Somehow we tend to be more understanding in the setting, cos I think we all went in with eyes open, and are aware of the kids' issues.

School offers enrichment programs after school and during hols, and that's where I spend most resources now for her 'therapy'. Its a small community by itself, and honestly I am beginning to prefer this community as compared to mainstream (haha, I am getting autistic myself). Of course, integration is always a nagging issue for me and I am constantly thinking about how to develop a support network for my doter when she grows into adulthood.

[Couragemom]

slmkhoo:

Couragemom:

Actually my son has improved a lot under his current OT but just that I itchy backside and hope to speed up his body posture as he is entering N2 next year and there are even more challenges for him to face like HANDWRITING (I scared leh!!!!)


Thanks for your advice for swimming. I will let him join swimming lesson once he turns 5.

I do understand your desire to get as many things 'fixed' as possible as quickly as possible, but there are quite a lot of developmental things that just take time and maturity (physical as well as mental). Doing more therapies may not accelerate his development. Conversely, doing too much can make the child tired and stressed, which could slow down his learning and development. We found that sometimes, if my daughter found something really tough, just waiting another year or so would make the process a lot easier the next time round. And in the meantime, we could focus on fewer things, and let her have more free time to play and have fun. Emotionally, it also made her happier as we weren't spending so much time on the things she found hard, and it was less demoralising for her when her days weren't filled with us telling her how to do things and correcting her. Just some thoughts.

Hi slmkhoo,

Keep those thoughts coming! I get your point about not pushing my son so hard about his physical development because sometimes the child takes time to achieve the milestone. For example, the head-nodding took almost 11 months for him to achieve! Haizzz... The physiotherapy session is only once a month and my son loves his OT sessions thus I am keen to try it out. I want to learn the right exercises to help him with his balance and posture.

[Couragemom]

little doggie:

Hi Couragemom,


Saw your msg regarding oral motor exercises, can you share with me on this. I m doing oral motor exercises for past 9 months and seeing a speech therapist. Initially the progress is great but for the past 2 months + there has not been much progress.

Thanks in advance.

Hi Little Doggie,

Hmmm... The oral motor exercises I did with my son are as follow:
1. Some mouth/ jaw massage to stimulate blood circulation
2. Horns (or whistles) with increasing level of difficulty (your ST will advise which horns to use at which level)
3. Chewy tubes with increasing level of difficulty (my son uses the yellow, red and maroon tubes)
4. Straws with increasing level of difficulty.

Sometimes I will also ask my son to make articulation sound like ahhh, ooo etc to get his mouth to form certain shapes.

Hope the information helps and you understand what I am saying!

[Snow24]

Hi


How to train or improve the child fine motor skill?

[little doggie]

Couragemom:

little doggie:

Hi Couragemom,


Saw your msg regarding oral motor exercises, can you share with me on this. I m doing oral motor exercises for past 9 months and seeing a speech therapist. Initially the progress is great but for the past 2 months + there has not been much progress.

Thanks in advance.

Hi Little Doggie,

Hmmm... The oral motor exercises I did with my son are as follow:
1. Some mouth/ jaw massage to stimulate blood circulation
2. Horns (or whistles) with increasing level of difficulty (your ST will advise which horns to use at which level)
3. Chewy tubes with increasing level of difficulty (my son uses the yellow, red and maroon tubes)
4. Straws with increasing level of difficulty.

Sometimes I will also ask my son to make articulation sound like ahhh, ooo etc to get his mouth to form certain shapes.

Hope the information helps and you understand what I am saying!

Hi Couragemum,

I'm using the doing the same things are now.
1. Some mouth/ jaw massage
2. Horns (or whistles) - now at horns #3
3. Chewy tubes - now using the yellow and red tubes
4. Straws - now at straws #4

We are doing this since Dec 2013 but past 2 months, he is not making much progress. But now at least he is able to produce some vowels sound like aaaa, mmmm, mama, papa, ber, per and ouch.
Sometimes we need to PROMPT him to get the sound. I feel we are \"stuck\" not much progress.

Is your son having speech therapy session? Can share with me your contact?

[MummyOats]

Snow24:

Hi


How to train or improve the child fine motor skill?

Hi Snow

I am not sure how old is your child. When my child was about 3 yrs, the OT taught us some self-made OT kits. This is what I can rem', hope it helps you.

(1) Take some drinking straws (normal ones), cut them into small pcs (about 1.5cm). Take a shoe lace or string. Let child practise stringing the straw through the shoe lace.

(2) Get some small clothes peg (5cm type). Get an uncovered box and let child practise clipping the clothes peg onto the box.

(3) Get some 50cts & 20cts coins (start with 50cts as they are easier to work with). Put coins on 3rd finger tip of child. Ask child to try to get the coin onto his palm by \"closing\" up his finger. He can use his other fingers to assist but not the other hand. Once the coin is in palm, child can put the coin into a coin bank.

[MummyOats]

Double E:

Mommy Oats

Thanks for sharing! very helpful indeed.

On the daily exposure wise, I also it will be tough if the kid had not been exposed to the thing before. As for patterning, if is simple like circle, triangle, circle and whats next, then should not be a problem for my son. I am more worried about the verbal performance like describing things. Ok, I think I have 3 mths to expose him to as many things as possible.

Hi Double E

You are welcome. All the best ! :rahrah:

PS : Another thing to \"train\" is on-seat behaviour. The actual test last about an hr and the psychologist actually commented in the report whether the child can maintain on-seat behaviour or not.

[sharonkhoo]

MummyOats:

Snow24:

Hi


How to train or improve the child fine motor skill?

Hi Snow

I am not sure how old is your child. When my child was about 3 yrs, the OT taught us some self-made OT kits. This is what I can rem', hope it helps you.

(1) Take some drinking straws (normal ones), cut them into small pcs (about 1.5cm). Take a shoe lace or string. Let child practise stringing the straw through the shoe lace.

(2) Get some small clothes peg (5cm type). Get an uncovered box and let child practise clipping the clothes peg onto the box.

(3) Get some 50cts & 20cts coins (start with 50cts as they are easier to work with). Put coins on 3rd finger tip of child. Ask child to try to get the coin onto his palm by \"closing\" up his finger. He can use his other fingers to assist but not the other hand. Once the coin is in palm, child can put the coin into a coin bank.

If your child is into sorting (mine was), get lots of assorted small objects like buttons or small toys and get him to pick them up one by one and sort them into colours or other groupings. Make shakers by getting him to place small objects (lego pieces, buttons) into a jar one by one. Jigsaws, Lego, construction toys, paper tearing (can use them to make collage), pasting, playdough, basically anything that uses fine motor skills. Make them easy to begin with, then increase the difficulty as he progresses. Having variety and making it more fun will encourage him to practise more often.

[Double E]

MummyOats:

Double E:

Mommy Oats

Thanks for sharing! very helpful indeed.

On the daily exposure wise, I also it will be tough if the kid had not been exposed to the thing before. As for patterning, if is simple like circle, triangle, circle and whats next, then should not be a problem for my son. I am more worried about the verbal performance like describing things. Ok, I think I have 3 mths to expose him to as many things as possible.

Hi Double E

You are welcome. All the best ! :rahrah:

PS : Another thing to \"train\" is on-seat behaviour. The actual test last about an hr and the psychologist actually commented in the report whether the child can maintain on-seat behaviour or not.

As in whether the kid can sit down and pay attention instead of getting up and run around? That part, so far ok for my boy. He can sit for an hour to finish his homework. Hope he maintains it that way during the test.

[pinkamoon]

Hi mummies,

I agree with slmkhoo that sometimes we try not to push the children too hard as each child’s developmental milestone is different.

My son did not know how to button his shirt until age 6. I have been buttoning for him until one day he asked me not to help him and that he wanted to do it on his own. Only this year at 7 years old, just last month, he wanted to take his own bath. So now, he takes his own bath with me making sure that there is no more soap on his body for the last rinse.

I advocate playing at playground, beach for training of their muscles and make my son carry grocery bags, helping to pack the house etc as everyday training is more effective than OT (only once a week). My son could not cycle, catch and throw a ball but when I stopped all the OT and really play with him at the playground and at home (playing blocks, balloons, throwing pillows, pegs, blowing bubbles etc), all these skills started to emerge.

No doubt swimming is a good exercise but there is chlorine in the water. It will be good to soak them in Epsom salt (magnesium) after swimming for detox purposes.

As for the psychological test, I did not train my son as the report only serves its purpose for the doctor and school. It does not serve any purpose for me as I know what he can do and cannot do. In the end, there was no IQ score for him as he scored high for some and low for others. It did not matter to me what the outcome of his report was, but it matters how much improvements I see as he progresses.