All About Autism
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Hi dreamy79,
Hmm… Perhaps you want to at least let us know which area of Singapore you stay in? My personal experience for childcare centre is Pat’s Schoolhouse class size is quite small (maybe 12-16 w 2 teachers) and their philosophy is learning thru’ play so not so much academic work in class but fee is v high (the last time I enquired in June 2014 was $1600 for full day before subsidy). You can also explore cc that just opened or are in mature estates where demand is not so high I.e. Smaller class ratio and this may be a cheaper option assuming daily transportation is not an issue.
You may want to visit an OT (occupational therapist) to work thru your son’s issues but if like you say, he can work well in a small group then perhaps finding a smaller class cc is a direct solution to his issues. -
Sunflow08:
Hi Sunflow08,Hi,
How do u all train ur kids to buy food by himself and follow the teachers in class and not wander around? Im sending my child to mainstream next year, quite worried he can sit still bcos he is hyperactive. And also worry he cant buy his food without someone supervising him. And also scare of bullies. He gets bullied by kids younger than him. Really worry he cant adapt mainstream although he belongs to mild ASD.
Aprreciate ur advices!
Do you intend to declare his condition? If yes, then you can explain your son's hyperactivity to the AED and his form teacher. As for buying food during reccess, perhaps now when you bring him out to trips to supermarket or foodcourt, you can let him handle the money to give him the concept of choosing food then handing money over to the cashier? I am training my NT K2 daughter this way. But I think we shouldn't force the issue if he cannot cope initially and pack food at the initial stage at least? Then your son has a chance to observe what his friends do during recess and gain the confidence to follow? This is the game plan for my special needs K1 son. -
Hi CourageMum,
thanks for the info but i’m afraid Pat Schoolhouse is above our affordability. We stay in the west side of Singapore. Any other recommendation for other CC?
Any recommendation for good OT therapist? All help is appreciated! -
Hi Gisten,
Thank you for sharing your son’s journey at Pathlight with us, salute to you for the years of hard work behind the scene and I really like your sense of humor in your son’s ‘notti’ episodes. I guess being able to laugh at ourselves sometimes do keep us sane (at least it works for me!) hahaha…
Do drop by the thread when you are free. We celebrate all our special needs darlings achievements for everyone without a tinge of jealousy, I guarantee! -
belachanbabe:
Do you know if the vocational track option also offered at the same time as the standard and foundation track if the child CMI academically? Or is that offered as and when identified during IEP?
Sorry I am not that familiar with the V Track, however these few days I did ask a few parents whose children are in the V Track for more details. They all told me that it was school management who recommended their children to transfer over to V Track. One boy who used to be my boy's classmate in the lower primary was offered V Track when he was P2, meaning he joined V Track right after P2. This boy is definitely not academically inclined, not quite verbal and awareness level is very low too. He is 2 years older than my boy, meaning at P2 he was already 11 years old then. I learnt from the parents that there is a minimum age of 12 years old to join the V Track. Thus the boy's age was just right when he joined the V Track in the following year. Nevertheless, this boy is now very happy in V Track, and so is the mummy. A handful of parents requested for their children to transfer to V Track during P4 subject banding IEP, but were all convinced by the VP to continue the academic path. One of the boys who was my boy's ex classmate had great exam anxiety. One week before exam his anxiety and emotion started to boil, which often led to high fever (not too sure if having exam fever is appropriate to use in this case). During the exam, the boy would remove his shoes and socks, make lots of noises (he was already taking the exam alone in a separate room), scribble forcefully on the exam papers or even crush the papers into a ball and throw it out of the window. Of course his results were disastrous. The mother felt that it was too painful for her boy to go through the agony 4 times a year and thus wanted to end his agony and relieve him from the PSLE stress by requesting for V Track. However her request was rejected by the VP. The VP felt that the boy was actually academically able, and it would do him good psychologically in terms of having a proper closure of his primary school education by sitting for the PSLE instead of transferring to V Track hastily. The boy had very good and patient teachers for P5 and P6, they videoed and took photos of his behaviour and task taking in class and gave a lot of feedback to the mother. With all the hard work from the teachers, caregivers and the boy himself, the boy actually sat and passed PSLE. He is now a happy Sec 1 boy. However there was a girl who didn't make it to PSLE. She transferred to V Track after P5. Her mother also made the request during P4 subject banding. Usually the school management would want parents who are keen to transfer their children to V Track to wait till after PSLE. If the child failed PSLE, the parent could then decide whether to repeat P6 or to transfer to V Tack. I think for my boy's cohort, there are 2-3 transfer to V Track after the release of PSLE result.ImMeeMee:
First, you must know about the grades for standard and foundation are totally different. For standard the grades are A* (91% and above), A (75%-90%), B (60%-74%), C (50%-59%), D (35%-49%), E (20%-34%) and U (Ungraded). For foundation it's Grade 1 (85% and above), Grade 2 (70%-84%), Grade 3 (50%-69%), Grade 4 (30%-49%), U (Ungraded). For foundation, the passing grade is Grade 4, meaning so long you achieve a 30% it's considered a pass. So during the subject banding IEP, I was briefed that:I am wondering about the secondary pathways for full standard, merged and full foundation. Do you happen to have any idea? eg. As I know, full standard can lead to Express or N(A) depending on T-score, how about merged or full foundation? Can full foundation go to N(A) or will it only be N(T)?
And in the merged stream, does it make a difference whether the child offers two standard subjects and one foundation, vs one standard and two foundation ?
1. For full standard, the pathway is to Express or NA, depending on the T-score.
2. For merged with 2 standard subjects and 1 foundation subject, it can also lead to Express or NA, depending on T-score. However from what I see from my boy's cohort all of them are in NA except for 1 who managed to go Express and had thus withdrawn from Pathlight to join the mainstream.
3. For merged with standard English and foundation Math and Science, I was briefed that it only leads to NT. At that point of time, I was thinking then what's the use of taking standard English only if ultimately it only leads to NT, might as well take all subject at foundation, life is so much easier and lesser stress too. Well, I have no statistic on this combination to verify if it is true that it can only lead to NT because those who took this combination in P5 all dropped to full foundation in P6.
4. For full foundation, normally it can only lead to NT with very few exceptions who do explicitly well will qualify for NA (it's Grade 1 for all subjects they are talking about).
We have had no expectation on our boy in his PSLE result. So long can pass and promote to Sec 1, and just don't give us this dilemma of whether to repeat P6 or transfer to V Track, this is all we ask for. We couldn't believe our eyes when we saw his score on the result slip! He was actually eligible to choose between NA and NT! No, he didn't score Grade 1 for all his subjects, only for Math. There were also a few others who were eligible too. We chose NT for our boy as we know his language is his biggest weakness and no way he can cope with the humanities subjects offered in NA. Some of them chose NA to try out, after all if cannot make it still can drop to NT in Sec 2. But I don't want my boy and MYSELF to go through that kind of stress (I had just \"taken\" PSLE and O level last year, no way I'm going through another set of coping-with-humanities-subjects-agony this year, I need a break). Anyway the school also recommended NT for my boy and I trust their professional recommendation. My boy enjoys Computer Application (CPA) lesson very much, but he is not happy that now all subjects in secondary school are exam subjects including Arts. Too bad too sad. -
Hi dreamy79,
My boy used to attend YWCA childcare centre at West Coast about 10 years ago. They have integrated child care programme provided by their Educational Support Unit. Twice a week, there is a learning support educator to work with the child. Every quarterly there'll be IEP to review the progress. The centre principal, class teachers, learning support educator and the psychologist are present for the IEP. You may want to take a look http://ywca.org.sg/childcare/educational-support-unit -
My 2.5 yr old son has started eipic since last week.
I notice his behavior has changed since. His hyper is back (ie running to and fro). He is more bad tempered .
And in the last 2 days I noticed his eye contact worsen.
His eye contact was not too bad previously.
Can experienced mummy here share with me why there is a change in behavior?
Last week my new helper came. Too much "new" stuff and so he is stressed? So sad that he regressed. I have made a lot of effort to help him and he has improved a lot in last 3 months.
He attends cc in the morning and goes to eipic at 2pm. He has not been taking his nap on days he has to go to epic.
Is my arrangement too tiring for him? -
Can an autism doctor diagnose a child without sending him for psychology assessment?
I brought my child to see a autism doctor at kk at 2 year 1 month and the doctor confirmed he has asd. I find the doctor jumped into conclusion too fast. My child is not the severe type and she also agreed. Today I found out this doctor is only a Registrar, she is not even a consultant. Hence I am not too comfortable with her diagnosis.
I agree my child has some asd traits. I just feel that she labeled my child too fast and too early. He was only 2yr1month old. -
dreamy79:
Hi dreamy79,Hi CourageMum,
thanks for the info but i'm afraid Pat Schoolhouse is above our affordability. We stay in the west side of Singapore. Any other recommendation for other CC?
Any recommendation for good OT therapist? All help is appreciated!
Hmm... Sad to say in my cc research 2 years back, I come to the general conclusion that the more expensive the school fee, the class ratio is smaller. But nevertheless, I come across these 2 cc that just recently open and quite near MRT stations some more. I have NEVER contacted them before so I don't know how much is the school fee but I think since they are new, the intake is not so high? 1 is posso preschool at Big Box, the other is Maple Bear preschool at the condo opposite BMW showroom at Queenstown?
For those cc that i liked in my research 2 years back, 1 cc I visited b4 was Experiental Learning at Grandstand. Ratio is good but the classes were divided by cupboards in a huge area and I rejected it because I felt it is too noisy for my special needs son. There are 2-3 other cc in Grandstand so you may want to check it out? The other cc I visited was Learning Ladder at Toh Yi, quite ok but class ends at 2pm (for half-day ) and I deemed it too long.
Another option you can explore is to try out those independent cc in private estates? Usually the pricing is more competitive as they are not so branded and location not so accessible. You can find a list of cc in Singapore in the mcys (can anyone help? What is the replacement name for mcys?).
Good luck!
Oh, forgot to answer your the other question: the three OT centers I had researched on we're KidzPOTC, Hand-in-hand and Dynamics. -
bs1975:
Hi bs1975,Can an autism doctor diagnose a child without sending him for psychology assessment?
I brought my child to see a autism doctor at kk at 2 year 1 month and the doctor confirmed he has asd. I find the doctor jumped into conclusion too fast. My child is not the severe type and she also agreed. Today I found out this doctor is only a Registrar, she is not even a consultant. Hence I am not too comfortable with her diagnosis.
I agree my child has some asd traits. I just feel that she labeled my child too fast and too early. He was only 2yr1month old.
Hmm... I went to a private developmental PD before and she told me yes, she can diagnosed a child with autism without further formal psychological assessment. But that being said, she has more than 20 years of experience working in the child development unit of a govt hospital before she turns to private practice. Yes, just turning 2 and being labeled is really young but at least you get to kick-start the intervention for him. Hmm... If your son is now in rainbow eipic, isn't it the norm to submit a formal psychological report to them within 6 months (that was the SOP when I asked 2 years back). If yes, then you may want to wait for the kkh psychologist to assess him? Or you prefer to see private Developmental PD or psychologist? If yes, I can give you some names but the fees are high.
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