All About Autism

[sharonkhoo]

julybabe:

hi i am new to the forum and in need of help. any redhill mummy around? my 3.5yrs ASD gal is currently with a low ratio mainstream fulltime childcare for the past 6mths. we were lucky to find the childcare to accept my gal. now we hv to withdraw my gal by end of the yr as she is not suitable to move along with her classmates who progressing to K1 next yr.


i am in need of a fulltime childcare which opens to special needa children aound bukit merah. any recommendation? really in lost now.

thank you.

Would the childcare be willing to have your child remain but repeat the year with the next group coming up? There's no need to put her in K1 if she's not ready, and one year difference between kids is not much.

[julybabe]

Hi, the Childcare also facing difficulties with handling my gal + manpower consideration. So i have no choice but to pull her out.

[Couragemom]

Hi julybabe,


I search online for you and came across a mommy who said the childcare centres run by this organization do accept special needs children on a case-by-case basis - pcs.org.sg. You can also visit Sgenable website to see if there are any integrated childcare services suitable for your child. Good luck!

[Double E]

julybabe:

Hi, the Childcare also facing difficulties with handling my gal + manpower consideration. So i have no choice but to pull her out.

Julybabe
Did the school insist that u pull your girl out? if no, why not u suggest to them to let her repeat another year and see what they say?
And what difficulties are they facing? is it something that you can bring to your gal's therapists and seek advice and suggestions? You can then share with the childcare teacher and see if she willing to try out with your girl.

In redhill, I think the childcare centres available are:
- MMI (at one of the ex-HDB towers in bukit merah central). My boy attended this childcare until I transferred him to a kindergarten last year. I must say the teachers are quite accomodating to my son, but also because my son can generally follow instructions

- Eager Beaver, beside the bukit merah central bus terminal. The fees are cheap but there are alot of students in this childcare. So I actually wouldn't suggest this but if you want to find out more, you can try. My son also attended this childcare before he went MMI. I pulled him out because he kept falling sick there and had two episodes of HFMD.

- There is another childcare within the same building as MMI, quite a new one which only open about 2 years ago. Can't remember the name though. You have to try find out yourself

- My first skool in Bukit Ho swee area and Chin swee road. The one in Chin Swee Road (is on the ground floor of the Red Star restaurant building) is brand new. I think it only started this year. You can try to find out too.

- Learning Vision, also in one of the ex-HDB building in Bukit Merah. But Learning Vision is quite exp now.

- There's a childcare centre within the Bukit Merah Community Centre, not sure what's the name. you can find out online.

That's all I know for the Child care centres in the bukit merah area. There may be more that I am not aware of. Hope you can find a solution soon. More imptly though, is to find out what issue your gal has in her current childcare and see if you can get your girl's therapist to suggest ways that you can help her to overcome.

[julybabe]

thank u couragemom and double E for yr reply. the current childcare is unable to affort extra attention on my gal. tho she is coorperative in school but when the time she meltdown, it is very disruptive to the class and teachers. it is quite firm and i fully understd where they r coming fm. i am quite thankful tat the current childcare is willing to hv her for 9mths .


my searching still ongoing..... :imdrowning:

[pinkamoon]

Hi julybabe, I had exactly same problem. It was very difficult to find another school as my sonhad been kicked out once. Thus, when the second preschool wanted to kick him out, I spoke to the principal and arranged for my helper and myself to shadow him as I was on no pay leave. Do you think you can get someone to help you?

[tyeogh]

Hi everyone,

I was just talking to a colleague who told me his P5 son in ACS skips chinese meaning he somehow found a way to get a specialist to certify his son is dyspraxic. Dont think he is actually dyspraxic. ACS and chinese is like chalk and cheese so it is "keng".

He told me 1/3 of his son’s classmates are similiarly excused. So what happens is these boys will not offer chinese as a PSLE or O level subject. They will still attend chinese class because the boys have nothing else to do during those lessons. They just do not sit for any chinese exams. It is like a secret loophole in our system to escape having a 2nd language.

He reasoned our chinese standard is a waste of time. Our intonations and words are different from China’s chinese. In any case, too much time and effort are spent learning a language the child may never use when he is older.

So that got me discussing with my wife and we agree that for our sped son, since he is already struggling with basic English, we will similarly "keng" out of chinese. Not sure if it is the right thing to do.

What are your thoughts? Will you want your sped child excused from offering a 2nd language? (I say offer because he still learns but he will not offer it as an exam subject)

Btw my 3 other NT kids are taking chinese in primary school. One word - Fainted!

[tyeogh]

keropi_81:

Courage mom - I guess that's the reason too.


I'm still thinking of going to leapfrog/kids potc/Edunamics/ olive tree? Any review on them???

Thanks in advance

You can strike Olive Tree off your list. I wrote a review here
http://www.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/forum ... &start=200

[sharonkhoo]

tyeogh:

So that got me discussing with my wife and we agree that for our sped son, since he is already struggling with basic English, we will similarly \"keng\" out of chinese. Not sure if it is the right thing to do.


What are your thoughts? Will you want your sped child excused from offering a 2nd language? (I say offer because he still learns but he will not offer it as an exam subject)

Btw my 3 other NT kids are taking chinese in primary school. One word - Fainted!

My ASD girl has been exempted from MT based on her diagnosis. MOE grants these exemptions based on the recognition that learning disabled kids already have a tough time with 1 language and the other subjects, and MT is something that can be left out without affecting the other subjects. It would be difficult to exempt from English or Maths, for eg, without affecting overall learning. I don't really see that getting such an exemption is a somewhat underhand way of escaping the MT requirement, which you imply by using the word 'keng'. I see it as an admission that the child has learning disabilities and needs some lightening of the school workload to help her cope overall. For my daughter at least, we have constantly had to make choices about what is really crucial for her to learn and what are nice-to-haves which can be dropped or postponed. For her, we decided that MT is a nice-to-have. Maths, which takes up a lot of her time, is more crucial.

[tyeogh]

As always, slmkhoo, quick on replies and practical in approach Thank you for sharing. Reinforces my resolve to get my son exempted.