All About Autism

[Niu2009]

Hi Simkhoo,


Thanks a lot! My son is in a mainstream childcare from N2.
He didn’t got behavior issues. Teacher feedback he lost in a bigger group and no interaction with peers during N2. Second half K1, he started to play with peers, but I do believe is not so many intetactions. My concern is his attention is a bigger group and follow multi steps instructions.

[Gifts from Heaven]

Niu2009:

Hi Simkhoo,


Thanks a lot! My son is in a mainstream childcare from N2.
He didn't got behavior issues. Teacher feedback he lost in a bigger group and no interaction with peers during N2. Second half K1, he started to play with peers, but I do believe is not so many intetactions. My concern is his attention is a bigger group and follow multi steps instructions.

Hi,

Did your son hv an official diagnosis?
If he has, then you can declare his condition to his form teacher/school and hopefully his teacher will look out for him and that will help to lessen your preparation to pre-empt him of a lot of situations.
For my boy, my concern when I prep him for mainstream primary is during the times when there is no teacher with him, like during recess and just before school starts when he has to wait in the hall. So for recess, after observing his 1st recess in school, I wrote down step by step what he needs to do during recess from the point he hears the bell ring for recess to the point he hears the bell ring for recess is over. Then every day before he goes off to school, I will run through the steps with him and every evening when he comes home, I will ask him if he did all the steps I wrote down. After a week or so, when he got the hang of it, I fade it out. For the wait in the hall, the kids are supposed to do silent reading. So I prep him by getting him to read every nite for 15-20 mins cos that's the amt of time the kids need to read while waiting in the hall. For interacting with other kids aka making friends, we got his therapist and his psychologist to run through various social skills techniques while he was in K2 and more intensively in the Dec month before school reopens. Handouts were given to him and I will go through with him just before he goes off to school and slowly fade it out.
But I think the greatest help came from his form teacher who upon knowing his condition, did not cast him aside but try to engage him by giving him chances to work with different kids in his class. As she praised him for his work well done, the other kids looked up to him and were naturally attracted to him and from there he made friends! Don't need for him to do the initiation which will be his stumbling block if he has to do it to make friends . Must say I'm thankful for this teacher.

[sharonkhoo]

Niu2009:

Hi Simkhoo,


Thanks a lot! My son is in a mainstream childcare from N2.
He didn't got behavior issues. Teacher feedback he lost in a bigger group and no interaction with peers during N2. Second half K1, he started to play with peers, but I do believe is not so many intetactions. My concern is his attention is a bigger group and follow multi steps instructions.

If he has managed in mainstream up till now, he will probably be OK. You may need to do some prep as Gifts from Heaven described. Actually, a lot of NT kids will find multi-step instructions difficult too. My daughter didn't have an official diagnosis at P1, so I simply described her to the form teacher as introverted and needing some help in joining groups activities, and distractable, therefore needing help in focusing on multi-step instructions. It wasn't all smooth sailing, but she coped OK overall. We don't expect her to manage very well even now, and we accept that she won't always know what's going on, often gets left out of activities, or may get taken advantage of by classmates, but it's not too bad.

[Niu2009]

Hi Gift from heaven and Simkhoo,

Thanks a lot! Your sharing helps a lot. My son did go ST/OT now, will start send him to social group now. He didn’t diagnosis we yet, will do second half 2015. I will start to prepare him now.

[scang]

For a good Integrated Child Care Programme (ICCP), can look at Touch Child Care, as they are able to handle and manage autistic, down syndrome and other special needs kids. I’ve seen them managing those special needs toddlers and kids, even 3 in a toddler class.

[sharonkhoo]

Niu2009:

Hi Gift from heaven and Simkhoo,

Thanks a lot! Your sharing helps a lot. My son did go ST/OT now, will start send him to social group now. He didn't diagnosis we yet, will do second half 2015. I will start to prepare him now.

If he's managing in mainstream kindy, there may not be a need for him to attend a social group? I would expect that he gets the exposure he needs from kindy, and you just need to give extra explanation or practice as home.

[Double E]

Gifts from Heaven:

Niu2009:

Hi Simkhoo,


Thanks a lot! My son is in a mainstream childcare from N2.
He didn't got behavior issues. Teacher feedback he lost in a bigger group and no interaction with peers during N2. Second half K1, he started to play with peers, but I do believe is not so many intetactions. My concern is his attention is a bigger group and follow multi steps instructions.

Hi,

Did your son hv an official diagnosis?
If he has, then you can declare his condition to his form teacher/school and hopefully his teacher will look out for him and that will help to lessen your preparation to pre-empt him of a lot of situations.
For my boy, my concern when I prep him for mainstream primary is during the times when there is no teacher with him, like during recess and just before school starts when he has to wait in the hall. So for recess, after observing his 1st recess in school, I wrote down step by step what he needs to do during recess from the point he hears the bell ring for recess to the point he hears the bell ring for recess is over. Then every day before he goes off to school, I will run through the steps with him and every evening when he comes home, I will ask him if he did all the steps I wrote down. After a week or so, when he got the hang of it, I fade it out. For the wait in the hall, the kids are supposed to do silent reading. So I prep him by getting him to read every nite for 15-20 mins cos that's the amt of time the kids need to read while waiting in the hall. For interacting with other kids aka making friends, we got his therapist and his psychologist to run through various social skills techniques while he was in K2 and more intensively in the Dec month before school reopens. Handouts were given to him and I will go through with him just before he goes off to school and slowly fade it out.
But I think the greatest help came from his form teacher who upon knowing his condition, did not cast him aside but try to engage him by giving him chances to work with different kids in his class. As she praised him for his work well done, the other kids looked up to him and were naturally attracted to him and from there he made friends! Don't need for him to do the initiation which will be his stumbling block if he has to do it to make friends . Must say I'm thankful for this teacher.

Gifts from Heaven, thanks for sharing. Good tips for me too as my son is the same age as Niu2009, also going P1 next year. I pray that my son will meet helpful teachers like your son too, which to me, is the most important. No matter how much we prep them, if they have an impatient or not-helpful teacher, life will be difficult.

[Couragemom]

Hi mommies,


I third the opinion of a kind and understanding teacher! My son’s N1 English teacher is patient and non-judgmental towards my son and we are very lucky that she is his English teacher in N2 this year too. My son is distracted and lost yesterday and I asked her today if she needs me to talk to the Chinese teacher whom is unaware of my son’s special needs and she says no need as it is unfair to my son. She said give him time to settle down and she will observe how to help him too.

[Gifts from Heaven]

And one more thing that is v v impt to do when your child starts P1…plse get contacts of the parents of some of your child’s classmates. Can start a watsapp group. Useful to ask abt homework or things to bring to class. Some teachers dont make the kids write down in their notebooks. They want to train the kids to listen and remember. But somehow, my boy will only get half the message or jumble up the message. So the contacts are really useful for me to verify and confirm what needs to be done or brought to class. This will reduce your child’s anxiety in school and smoothen his transition.


To get the contacts of parents, you will need to join the talks that the school organise for P1 parents and then mingle around. I was lucky to have attended a talk where the speaker included an item in his presentation to group the P1 parents by class and get us to get each other’s contact number for this purpose.

[Double E]

Gifts from Heaven:

And one more thing that is v v impt to do when your child starts P1...plse get contacts of the parents of some of your child's classmates. Can start a watsapp group. Useful to ask abt homework or things to bring to class. Some teachers dont make the kids write down in their notebooks. They want to train the kids to listen and remember. But somehow, my boy will only get half the message or jumble up the message. So the contacts are really useful for me to verify and confirm what needs to be done or brought to class. This will reduce your child's anxiety in school and smoothen his transition.


To get the contacts of parents, you will need to join the talks that the school organise for P1 parents and then mingle around. I was lucky to have attended a talk where the speaker included an item in his presentation to group the P1 parents by class and get us to get each other's contact number for this purpose.

I heard that most schools now will facilitate such parent support group. But I agree is very impt. I started such a chat group at my kid's kindy and is so helpful to check in with each other, though the kids are from different class and level.

Anyway, my son survived his day 3 in a new kindergarten as a K2 student. I saw that although he wasn't always pay attention to what the teachers say, he will at least follow the crowd (i.e monkey see monkey do). He will observe what his classmates are doing and follow. Also spoke to the teacher and she said he is fine so far.