All About Autism

[Cool Cool]

Gekko:

Hi all parents

I have been reading this forum and finds it very encouraging and supportive. Also a lot of knowledge is learnt. I would appreciate if anyone could advise me. I have a five years and ten months old son and now in his K2 class at MS preschool since he was in PG. The findings with my son are below:
- need to give 1-1 instructions to get tasks done at school. not following group instructions
- poor social skills ( he wants friends but he keeps quiet at school despite very talkative at home)
- he keeps conversation on-going with parents, FDW, and some relative but not at school.
when I showed a video clip of his conversation with me and my hubby to his teachers, they commented that they are seeing two different person.
- he loves to go out, enjoy at playground but not communicate with other kids unless they initiated.

His K2 teachers advised me to go check up his development at KK. Then KK may advise for speech therapy and/or other necessary therapy for social skill. Else my son will have difficulty in P1 next year. I will surely go to polyclinic and get referral letter for KK appointment. I would like to know if I should start therapy while waiting for KK appointment. Which therapy or early intervention centre will be recommended? The issues my sons have means ASD? I took some online tools to check ASD, Aspergers and PDD-NOS and showing no/a little symptoms. I have no idea how this tools are reliable.
Thank you so much.

Hi Gekko,

How about social skill classes? I have heard about them. But I don't have any personal experience.

[Snow24]

Hi

What are the ways to help our children to improve social communication skill?

[sharonkhoo]

Snow24:

Hi

What are the ways to help our children to improve social communication skill?

You've asked questions like this several times over the years and received replies from several people. Have any of the things suggested been of any help?

As I've said before, the main thing that helps is constant exposure, repetition, practice, explanation. Role playing and social stories are better than just giving instructions in the early years. How exactly you do it depends on your child's communication level at the time. I'm still working on my 21-yr-old daughter who has Asperger's. Although still awkward and not very natural, she has made it through 1 year of university and is on Day 3 of a temp job (we had to arrange it through a friend as she didn't make it past interviews). It can seem extremely slow and fruitless, but it pays off over time.

[sharonkhoo]

Gekko:

Hi all parents

I have been reading this forum and finds it very encouraging and supportive. Also a lot of knowledge is learnt. I would appreciate if anyone could advise me. I have a five years and ten months old son and now in his K2 class at MS preschool since he was in PG. The findings with my son are below:
- need to give 1-1 instructions to get tasks done at school. not following group instructions
- poor social skills ( he wants friends but he keeps quiet at school despite very talkative at home)
- he keeps conversation on-going with parents, FDW, and some relative but not at school.
when I showed a video clip of his conversation with me and my hubby to his teachers, they commented that they are seeing two different person.
- he loves to go out, enjoy at playground but not communicate with other kids unless they initiated.

His K2 teachers advised me to go check up his development at KK. Then KK may advise for speech therapy and/or other necessary therapy for social skill. Else my son will have difficulty in P1 next year. I will surely go to polyclinic and get referral letter for KK appointment. I would like to know if I should start therapy while waiting for KK appointment. Which therapy or early intervention centre will be recommended? The issues my sons have means ASD? I took some online tools to check ASD, Aspergers and PDD-NOS and showing no/a little symptoms. I have no idea how this tools are reliable.
Thank you so much.

I've been busy, and just saw your post. I would say that if your son is fine at home but doesn't talk in school, it may not be ASD. It could be that he's shy, or finds kids his own age intimidating. It seems that he doesn't have issues communicating with adults. But adults are usually very nice to kids - they let them direct the conversation, they listen, they don't interrupt, they are rarely rude or impatient. Your son, if he has no siblings, may not know how to adapt to other kids' conversation topics, cope with interruptions, other people's disinterest etc. In this case, you may want to be less \"nice\" to him at home, and ask the grandparents etc to be less \"nice\" too. You can try role-playing, and teach him how to initiate conversations, or how to respond and continue a conversation with another kid.

As for taking group instructions, again, if he is used to 1-to-1 interactions at home and being the centre of attention, he may not be used to being part of a group. More exposure and reminders (and maybe some punishments) may be all that is necessary.

[zac's mum]

Snow24:

Hi

What are the ways to help our children to improve social communication skill?

It depends on which stage your child is at?

Got eye contact with caregiver? If don’t have, need to start from there first.

Speaking yet? If not, gotta use communication cards first.

Can talk but only monologue instead of 2-way conversation? Gotta use toys to role play.

Primary/secondary school onwards: Can have conversation but cannot detect visual feedback (body language cues) from the other party? Or says frank but socially inappropriate comments? These 2 issues also can train to rectify.

Some articles which are useful:

https://www.iidc.indiana.edu/pages/Helping-Your-Child-Develop-Communication-Skills

https://www.parentingscience.com/social-skills-activities.html

https://www.autismspeaks.org/sites/default/files/documents/family-services/improve_social.pdf

https://childdevelopment.com.au/areas-of-concern/play-and-social-skills/social-skills/

[ammonite]

Gekko,

Excellent input from Slmkhoo, do consider shyness and lack of social skills as well.
Some kids just need more social coaching, some kids need more confidence building, and some kids need some expert input.
Do consider the following:
1) if he shows an interest in other children eg at the playground, he hovers near them and watch them; or does he avoid them?
2) if he is interested, does he miss social cues when he can join in, or is he just too shy?
3) if he is not interested, is it because he finds other children irritating, noisy, annoying or just of no interest?
4) for group instructions, is he unable to understand the instructions, or is he unable to filter out other sensory input in the room to focus on the instructions? Or does he have no interest in the teacher and her instructions?

This is just some questions off the top of my head, of things I would look out for before deciding where the issue lies.

Within the home environment, everything is structured and familiar and the social setting is less complex (complexity increases with number of people). This makes it much easier for children to navigate, be it shy children, children with sensory issues, or children with social language difficulties. Rest assured that they can all function and develope well with appropriate coaching and encouragement.

[ammonite]

Gekko,

How is his general knowledge and early academics?

[ImMeeMee]

I finally found some ME time when school reopens today. The last few weeks have been shack.


To the mummies here who posted various questions, I am certain the parent forummers active in this area have given you sound advice. Back then when I was dealing with DD3’s issues, I recall I relied a lot on my gut feel. Cos there’s not a lot of black and white or right and wrong in such things. Its what’s best for the child given our knowledge and our resources. Sounds cliche but its the universal truth.

Forward to present, DD3 is in p5 this year. Acad is a big struggle for us (read PSLE) and I just made a ‘struggled’ decision to change her from merged track to foundation track starting this term. On one hand I know this milestone will likely affect her education pathway moving forward given our local context. On the other hand Foundation is what she wants. So considering the bigger scheme of things where she is concerned, we have decided to let her have her say.

Afterall, our hope for her future is not acad achievements, but an independent livelihood. So here’s hoping for the best and staying positive.

Jiayou everyone.

[zac's mum]

:rahrah: and :grphug:

[avimomsg]

Hi i am new do this board. I have a 2.5 years old boy, he is behind in social communication and i visited development pediatrician in NUH and she thinks he might have high functioning autism.

She suggested that i can wait for formal assessment as he is very young but can start the therapy for him.
We are foreigner here so not eligible for EIPIC program which she recommended, but we can get therapies in private centers.
Can anybody here please suggest me if there is any good private therapy center in and around yishun area.
I googled about it but most of the centers are in orchard or in the east side.
It would be great help if anyone can suggest… thank you in advance.