All About Autism
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Dear parents
My girl, aged 3, finally attended eipic for the first time last week. I was looking forward to it. However, after accompaniying her for the session, I didn’t feel it was helpful. I’m unsure if it’s coz she’s not in the right class. Their classes for children with ASD have been filled up so they offered me a class for children with GDD and being desperate, I took up the offer.
Why did I feel it wasn’t helpful? Well, the activities were similar to what she went through at daycare. It was her first day there and she was the best behaved child. I feel she wasn’t challenged or stretched in any way. I’m not saying that she should be throwing tantrums but my rationale is if the activities are similar, she’s better off in daycare. Besides, daycare is much more affordable. I have actually withdrawn her from daycare so that she can attend eipic as the timings clash. After attending eipic, I felt I had made the wrong choice.
I guess the eipic centre felt the class suits her because most of the kids were non-verbal just like my gal. I shall not blame the eipic centre cos each child is unique n it’s not possible for the kids in the same class to be entirely homogeneous. Yet I do feel strongly that this class does not suit my gal.
What are your experiences with eipic? I really hope I’ll not experience similar sentiments when she’s in the "right" class for children with ASD next time. I’m unsure about how I’m feeling… Am I setting the benchmarks too high or what?
Meanwhile, I think I’ll withdraw her from this class and get her back into daycare. Do u think this is the right thing to do? Any advice what else I should do while waiting for the right eipic class? My gal has been attending private speech therapy for a few months. Will she ever talk? If u know of any good speech therapist, pls recommend him/her to me. I’ll be eternally grateful. Thank you. -
Hi Seoulover,
Eipic for aspies is an all rounded program that teaches your child to follow classroom routines at a pace they can adapt to.
If your child is well behaved enough to follow all social cues, eipic could be an over-kill. However, in the absence of speech, it is likely that she is not getting all instructions 100% right. Hence, I think eipic is useful. The smaller teacher to child ratio as compared to a daycare centre is critical.
Your concern seems to be speech and really, the challenge is to get your child to talk. If your eipic comes with ST, I suggest keeping it. Any extra time spent coaxing her to talk is beneficial. It may seem meaningless to you at first as it was to me but there is a strategy to it. The teachers will teach your child how to sit still first. When she can do that, then they will draw her attention to a toy she likes. When they manage to get her attention, they will purposely not give her the toy in order to force her to point to it. When she can point to it, they will coax her to express it in words, else no toy. The key is to get her to imitate. When she can finally imitate, speech happens.
Now, this process is a long one. Each segment can take weeks or months. For example, it took my son a month to sit still, a month a find a toy he likes, 2 months to point to it, 2 months for a desire to imitate, 2 months to mouth the word that gets him the toy, 2 months to shape the tone of that word, 2 months for more words. Fyi, my son joined eipic at 2.5 yo and had private ST too. He spoke only at 3.5 yo. By 4, he formed 3 words in a sentence.
You have to be patient. There is no special formula in eipic or ST to bring about speech. Rather, it is about breaking down each process into a smaller bite size for your child. Eipic and ST complements each other . For example, if your child is not trained to sit, cooperate and imitate, ST alone cannot bring speech out.
I am not sure how different GDD eipic is from Autism eipic but it follows the above principles, it is worthwhile keeping till the Autism eipic comes along. My doctor did advise me, if not money is not a concern, go for everything first.
Lastly, my experience in this forum is no 2 child is alike. Autism is a spectrum. What works for me may not work for you. I am just sharing my experience. You have to make that tough final call for your child. -
Hi all,
How is everyone doing? Hows your child coping? Haven’t been here for a while. All alive?
My latest: quarrelled with my K2 boy’s mainstream teacher. LoL. She is new and last week, she gave these spelling words: beneath, promise, friend, tricks, dream, place, sleep, grow.
My boy took 4 nights to learn the last 6 and when I added beneath and promise, it confused him so bad that he scored 0/8. He was dejected. I was like wtf. Being a bona fide aspie parent, I stomped into the principal’s office. The principal is new too so she got me to talk to the form teacher directly.
The form teacher harped on my son being slow. Socially fine. Just slow in reading and spelling. Yea, right. She knows my son is autistic and chose the easy argument. I insisted her words were too difficult and showed her my NT son’s P1 spelling words which were much easier than her K2 words. She refused to change her list. I challenged her to allow me to post on to social media for people to form their own conclusions. She eventually backed down by suggesting I create my own spelling list for him which she will test my son on. LoL.
What do you folks think? Are those words pitched correctly? -
tyeogh:
normally, P1 Term 1 :
she gave these spelling words: beneath, promise, friend, tricks, dream, place, sleep, grow.
spelling list start off with simple ones, usually with a single sound syllabus, first.
\"friend, tricks, dream, place, sleep, grow\" - these are single sound.
however, after more than half a year have passed, in P1 Term 3 or Term 4 spelling, the pace of academic start to quicken.
Teacher may slowly start to introduce words with 2 sound or 3 sound syllabus for spelling, preparing for P2 stage.
beneath is a preposition (grammar), eg: an item lying beneath a table
P1 : pupils are taught preposition, under grammar
if a child have been taught phonics in kindergarten, know how to decode (breakdown sound into smaller parts) sound for a 2 syllabus sound word, pupil can know spell the word, \"beneath\"
But K2 is still quite sometime, from P1.
If child don't know how to spell \"beneath, promise\", never mind, is all right.
There is still time (from K2 to P1) for child, learn how to blend 2 syllabus sound.
But basic words like \"friend, place, sleep\" are ok, for K2 level.
fyi
in Popular bookshop, there are some K2 English practice books where inside contain a list of commonly encountered words, preparing K2 children for P1 entry.
may refer to what are these commonly encountered, high frequency words : a K2 child ought to know how to spell.
btw, have you sent your son for Phonics class, learn to blend sound ?
if not yet, pls do consider, as Phonics help a child a lot in spelling, in the long run. Phonics help in both spelling, and reading.
because P2 onwards, 2 sound syllabus, 3 sound syllabus words, become more frequently encountered.
example (P2 spelling)
2 sound syllabus (in P2 spelling) :
bubble, chicken, monkey, foxes, parrot, children, asleep, prepared, tasty, curry, munching, crunching, burgers, hundred, thousand, scrambled, screeching, scrumptious, floating, feather, shouted, birthday, party, frightened, describe, surprised, special, crowded, protect, nodded, rummaged, annoyed, huddled, scary, curious, grumpy, happened, audience, forest, desert, summer, autumn, winter, seasons, weather, frantic, wriggle, scurry, flurry, bucket, crickets, spiders, cheerful, giggled, nephew, quivered, shivered, stammered, stuttered, mumbled, muttered, whispered, branches, teacher, barber, cobbler, florist, pilot, waiter, plumber, pupils, students, ideas, etc
3 sound syllabus (in P2 spelling) :
principal, firemen, optician, tomorrow, medicine, terrible, terrified, important, admitted, continued, finally, horrible, crocodile, unusual, dangerous, reluctant, customers, ferocious, exciting, performance, rehearsal, underground, mosquito, musical, everyone, mischievous, determined, suspicious, character, acrobats, amazing, enormous, wondering, etc
4 sound syllabus (in P2 spelling) :
beautifully, enjoyable, invitation, disappointed, comfortable, difficulty, etc
based on K2 kindergarten Teacher given spelling list :-
\"beneath, promise, friend, tricks, dream, place, sleep, grow\", perhaps you may break down into small, sub tasks
eg
a) day 1 :
breakdown the first spelling session, by single sound syllabus
test your son these 6 : \"friend, tricks, dream, place, sleep, grow\"
no matter how many he get correct out of these 6, give him an encouragement sticker, and hug him.
eg: if can get 3 correct: give him a sticker in his spelling book, that say \"Good Try\" or \"Good Attempt\"
ask him to re-learn spelling, re-test him at another session, can be next day.
if he can get 4 or 5 correct : give him another sticker that say \"Great Improvement\" (hug him).
re-test, until he can get 6 upon 6 : give him another sticker that say \"Marvellous\" or \"Fantastic\" or \"Perfect\" or \"Wow\" (hug him)
b) day x :
breakdown this spelling session, by 2 sound syllabus
only test him 2 words : \"beneath, promise\"
if he get zero : give him a sticker, \"Good Try\"
if get 1 correct : give him sticker, \"Good Improvement\"
if get both correct : give him sticker, \"Fantastic\"
if he can't spell, teach him how to decode the sound.
because if son can get 6 all correct for the single sound, but fail in this section for 2 sound : imply that perhaps he is facing some issue trying to blend sound, together.
in that case, can you test him how to spell \"sleeping, growing\", instead ?
because \"sleep and grow\" are single sound (and he is able to spell correctly), just add \"ing\" to it.
\"sleeping and growing\" are two-sound syllabus words, after all.
if son can spell \"sleeping and growing\", but cannot spell \"beneath, promise\", perhaps this is the area of focus to look into, why ?
c) day y :
based on original, entire list given by Tr : re-test everything -
seoulover:
SeouloverDear parents
My girl, aged 3, finally attended eipic for the first time last week. I was looking forward to it. However, after accompaniying her for the session, I didn't feel it was helpful. I'm unsure if it's coz she's not in the right class. Their classes for children with ASD have been filled up so they offered me a class for children with GDD and being desperate, I took up the offer.
Why did I feel it wasn't helpful? Well, the activities were similar to what she went through at daycare. It was her first day there and she was the best behaved child. I feel she wasn't challenged or stretched in any way. I'm not saying that she should be throwing tantrums but my rationale is if the activities are similar, she's better off in daycare. Besides, daycare is much more affordable. I have actually withdrawn her from daycare so that she can attend eipic as the timings clash. After attending eipic, I felt I had made the wrong choice.
I guess the eipic centre felt the class suits her because most of the kids were non-verbal just like my gal. I shall not blame the eipic centre cos each child is unique n it's not possible for the kids in the same class to be entirely homogeneous. Yet I do feel strongly that this class does not suit my gal.
What are your experiences with eipic? I really hope I'll not experience similar sentiments when she's in the \"right\" class for children with ASD next time. I'm unsure about how I'm feeling.. Am I setting the benchmarks too high or what?
Meanwhile, I think I'll withdraw her from this class and get her back into daycare. Do u think this is the right thing to do? Any advice what else I should do while waiting for the right eipic class? My gal has been attending private speech therapy for a few months. Will she ever talk? If u know of any good speech therapist, pls recommend him/her to me. I'll be eternally grateful. Thank you.
Never underestimate the gut feel of a parent. Having been on this journey for the last 5 years or so, I find that gut feel has helped me in so many occasions when there was no other thing to fall back on.
However, having said that, you may want to keep an open mind at this stage since your child has just stared EIPIC. Talk to the teachers, share your expectations and raise your concerns. The teachers and therapists are trained in special needs, and while we do not have to follow their words blindly, we can distill their strengths. It also helps that they can offer another perspective which we as parents may have missed. Every child at EIPIC center has a IEP, and this is a tool to help parents and the EIPIC team set goals for the child.
So keep the gut feel with you, but put in actions in your current situation to see how to make things work. If after trying things still dont look up, then it may be time to change. But at least when you make the change you know that you have tried.
JMHO. Hope this helps. -
tyeogh:
tyeoghHi all,
How is everyone doing? Hows your child coping? Haven't been here for a while. All alive?
My latest: quarrelled with my K2 boy's mainstream teacher. LoL. She is new and last week, she gave these spelling words: beneath, promise, friend, tricks, dream, place, sleep, grow.
My boy took 4 nights to learn the last 6 and when I added beneath and promise, it confused him so bad that he scored 0/8. He was dejected. I was like wtf. Being a bona fide aspie parent, I stomped into the principal's office. The principal is new too so she got me to talk to the form teacher directly.
The form teacher harped on my son being slow. Socially fine. Just slow in reading and spelling. Yea, right. She knows my son is autistic and chose the easy argument. I insisted her words were too difficult and showed her my NT son's P1 spelling words which were much easier than her K2 words. She refused to change her list. I challenged her to allow me to post on to social media for people to form their own conclusions. She eventually backed down by suggesting I create my own spelling list for him which she will test my son on. LoL.
What do you folks think? Are those words pitched correctly?
With my two elders girls in mainstream school, I can only tell you that the academic work is advancing like crazy.
I wont be able to tell you whether the words are pitched correctly. But what I can share is that I take a 80:20 approach in my dd3's academic work. Meaning, I drill on the 80 and let go of the more difficult 20. So for example a English paper, compre OE is always a killer. I set myself an expectation that this last bit is a goner for her, and I drill on the rest of the paper. Of course, I will still practise with her on compre OE, but any marks she gets for this section, I take it as a bonus. In doing that, my expectation for my dd3 is to pass her papers, and not score.
Today you fight the system once, you would have to continue fighting the system. I am not saying the system is good, but if the decision is to be in the system, then we have to find ways to manage it. If you give your child a spelling list that is specific to him, it may cause him to be singled out. Our objective is always to blend our children into the system.
My two cents' worth. No offence in any way.
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I agree with ImMeeMee. As parents, we can voice our concerns and have our opinions, but unless we choose to remove our kids from "the system", we have to adjust to it and not expect it to adjust to us. If it is really too tough for our kids, we can ask for exemptions or adjustments specific to the child, but we can’t ask for the whole class to follow. That’s just the way it is. I also have accepted that it is not possible for my child to get everything right, or master as much as other kids. Now that my child is older, it’s not 80/20, it’s more like 60/40 or 50/50! We realise that some things are just too hard for her, and accept those marks as "gone". Not all NT kids get 80% or above for everything anyway.
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Me too, agree with ImMeeMee and slmkhoo. I feel that the mainstream system is already set as such, it is our choice to let our child try out the system and we know that the system will not change for an individual as it is catered for the masses.
Tyeogh
The words that your son’s kindy gave is no doubt, not easy for a K2. But it is not unique. I have seen other K2 spelling list being just as difficult if not more. My son’s kindy’s English spelling list is quite simple but the Chinese ting xie is tough. At k2, they are already asked to spell a sentence. And is Chinese, cannot use phonics to blend, unlike English. But for me, instead of choosing the 80:20 approach like ImMeeMee, I choose to drill, because, I aim for 100%. -
Me too. My son’s spelling got 10 words and 3 sentence. Some words is past tense. But I won’t lower down the expectation as long as he can make it. For our kids, spelling is not the most tough one. I more focus on comprehension and compo. But for K2 kids, no compo.
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Niu2009, you are right. Compo and comprehension are the ones that will break them.
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