All About Autism

[chenlaoshi]

Can't believe how this is a qualified ABA therapist. :mad:


https://www.facebook.com/safirah.oshin/posts/3321603464536911

[quickpic]

it is my 1st post in so many years. I should have known better to take anything i read online with a pinch of salt. all the good reviews about a certain company are highly suspicious.

I just want to pray that parents with ASD child will not ever meet these unscrupulous individuals.
If you are the individual, please do not post anymore.
Please let us focus our time on our precious child instead.

[Estéema]

quickpic\" post_id=\"1983213\" time=\"1593622939\" user_id=\"89836:

it is my 1st post in so many years. I should have known better to take anything i read online with a pinch of salt. all the good reviews about a certain company are highly suspicious.
I just want to pray that parents with ASD child will not ever meet these unscrupulous individuals.
If you are the individual, please do not post anymore.
Please let us focus our time on our precious child instead.

Can u either share here the unscrupulous poster or report to admin? Can msg those with their names in RED and give yr supportive evidence, if any. They’re very prompt.

Thank you for alerting this community.

[chenlaoshi]

Heart warming story

https://www.facebook.com/friendsofasdfamilies/posts/3390814597809490
https://i.imgur.com/j8BVDMc.jpg\">

[meltembaga]

Hi all, my son was diagnosed with ASD when he was in his P6 just before his PSLE. He did managed to do well enough to go to a good neighborhood school for Sec 1 NA. Now it is coming to the end of his Sec 1 and I fear he may not be able to promote to Sec 2. I thought since he is in Sec 1 now, I would not check his work (he also voice out he wants to handle by himself). But when he was about to sit for his end of year exams, I went through his worksheets and realised many were undone. I then found out that he could not catch up with his class lessons. Furthermore, his class is very noisy and my son does not like noise so he ended up going to toilet often to get away from it (but we have now talked to him and he says he understands class noise is inevitable and is okay with it). Besides that, socially he is quiet and have only a few friends in class.


All through his years in mainstream, he is a quiet boy and does not disrupt the class. Therefore, the teachers always tell us he is a good boy. Academically, he was weak but could still pass all except for his Chinese. Not till end of P5, his form teacher called us up and share with us his concern that he is always spacing out and in a world of his own. That was when the school had their AED look into it and started the assessment.

We are now considering whether to try for Pathlight. I don’t know if PL will be better for him or should I leave him in mainstream school. Actually at the start of his Sec 1, his school AED contacted us and informed us that there will be 10 sessions with him. My son did tell me every week, he either meets 1-1 with the AED or have a small group session with others and they play games etc. However, these have stopped since Covid.

If anyone has a child in PL in Secondary school, mind sharing with me how its like in PL? We also have to take into consideration the distance from our place in the East to PL. Do they have school bus for so far?

By the way, all this while, we have not told him about his condition. He has low confidence and we are afraid he may not be able to take it well. Any suggestion on how we can let him know?

[phtthp]

perhaps find out inside Pathlight Sec 2, per class, how many students are there ? The lesser number the better, so that Tr can focus, can pay more attention, help the students


In N(A) class, how many students per class, inside your current class ? Around 38 to 40 pupils ?

[sharonkhoo]

meltembaga\" post_id=\"1998482\" time=\"1602466038\" user_id=\"188868:

Hi all, my son was diagnosed with ASD when he was in his P6 just before his PSLE. He did managed to do well enough to go to a good neighborhood school for Sec 1 NA. Now it is coming to the end of his Sec 1 and I fear he may not be able to promote to Sec 2. I thought since he is in Sec 1 now, I would not check his work (he also voice out he wants to handle by himself). But when he was about to sit for his end of year exams, I went through his worksheets and realised many were undone. I then found out that he could not catch up with his class lessons. Furthermore, his class is very noisy and my son does not like noise so he ended up going to toilet often to get away from it (but we have now talked to him and he says he understands class noise is inevitable and is okay with it). Besides that, socially he is quiet and have only a few friends in class.

You sound as if you have decided on Pathlight? If you haven't, and want to give mainstream another try, you could do so as it seems your son could probably manage, if given enough guidance and supervision. There are 2 schools of thought about whether to stick to mainstream or to go for more support.

My older girl was diagnosed as Asperger's but has been in mainstream all the way (now in university). There was no Pathlight option for her as we were overseas till she was 16.

My daughter had to supervised all the way, but with decreasing intensity. I think just stopping when your son went to Sec 1 (whatever he wanted) was probably not helpful to him. If you are willing to supervise more, he may be able to manage. And if you set up routines and good habits he can take charge of himself, you can gradually relax - but it has to be gradual!

Noise - my daughter learned to tune out noise. Maybe your son can too? Or use ear plugs sometimes? It does mean that they miss out on info, so my daughter always has to check with classmates, or rely on written info, chats etc. Even in university she misses out on things. But she has managed without any major issues.

Social - they are what they are. My daughter has hardly any friends either.

I'm not saying Pathlight is not a good choice. Just saying that mainstream may still be possible.

[meltembaga]

We called Pathlight and they said to submit the documents etc but doesn’t mean can get in. Currently his class size is 40. Good thing is he has stopped going to toilet to get away from the noise in class after we explained to him to ignore the noise.


Today he got back his results and surprisingly managed to pass all his subjects including Maths express. I agree probably I should not have let go just like that in Sec 1 and thought he can manage already. Ended up he "hide" his work from me till the last minute when I found out. So we spoke to him today about the consequences of doing last minute studying (he only sat down to study on the last few days before his exam). We told him that he is very lucky to have passed. Since he has been given a 2nd chance, he must learn to treasure this and don’t repeat the same mistake again. He understands now. Going forward Sec 2, I will supervise him and slowly ease out gradually if he can manage later.

In class, he only has a few friends. On some occasions, when he does not know what homework, he will whatsapp call/message them to check himself.

After discussing with my hubby just now, we have decided to let him continue in his current school for Sec 2 but I will supervise and guide him. It will be more work but hopefully he will be able to be independent in the near future. One other reason against going to PL is the distance from our place. It will take 1 hour one way so 2 hours a day of travelling may be too taxing on him. Already at his current school, he does not want me to fetch him to school so he insisted on taking the bus himself as he says he is big already. Once I still remember he walked back home himself because his card had no more money. Luckily it is only 3 bus stops away.

May I know how did you let your child know she is on the spectrum? We have not spoken to him yet as we are unsure when is the right time to let him know. And any therapy/counselling that you give to your child when she was a teenager? Sorry I have not tried any and don’t know where to go. So far he has only been relying on the AEDs in his schools. I am also concern how to help him to be able to socialise with others. Any suggestions or is there any groups that can help him improve his socialising?

[sharonkhoo]

meltembaga\" post_id=\"1998553\" time=\"1602507448\" user_id=\"188868:

May I know how did you let your child know she is on the spectrum? We have not spoken to him yet as we are unsure when is the right time to let him know. And any therapy/counselling that you give to your child when she was a teenager? Sorry I have not tried any and don't know where to go. So far he has only been relying on the AEDs in his schools. I am also concern how to help him to be able to socialise with others. Any suggestions or is there any groups that can help him improve his socialising?

Your son sounds more \"neurologically typical\" (i.e. \"normal\") than my daughter! She's in her 20s, and manages most things herself, but anything that is new or different will make her anxious, and she often doesn't cope so well in handling such issues, then she will just not do anything. So we have to be watchful and ask frequently - she will then tell us if anything confuses her or she is \"stuck\". Otherwise, she rarely does, then gets into trouble.

We started telling her when she was about 10, just in general terms that her approach to many things was different from a lot of other people. At that time, we just wanted her to understand that we were teaching coping strategies that other kids (like her sister) didn't need. We didn't give her the details of her diagnosis till she was 14 (which was when we had her formally diagnosed). Until then, we knew, but didn't go for formal testing. She has not had any formal counselling or therapy - we have handled everything ourselves. We realised that she was \"different\" from the time she started school, and I've done a great deal of reading up, and learning about helping strategies which we implemented at home. We were overseas and had little access to help, anyway. I was a SAHM until she was 17, which meant I was at home with her most of the time. I doubt AEDs in school can do very much as they don't spend that much time with the child - whatever they teach/advise needs to be continued at home.

The lack of social skills is something we have come to terms with. The basic disinterest is something that is innate, but we specifically teach social skills for school, work and other settings, enough so she copes OK and doesn't seem too \"odd\". But young people are unkind - there will always be those who make fun, exclude etc. My daughter doesn't care much unless it affects her ability to do her work (e.g. project work), so we teach her how to manage such groups and interactions. We generally teach her when something crops up, rather than have a \"syllabus\". There was a set of videos which we got her to watch. Let me see if I can remember what it was called.

The main thing is to encourage 1-to-1 or small group social contact (they don't usually like big groups) with people who are kind and more accepting. They need to be explicitly taught what is appropriate and not, how to start or continue conversations, and told that they must show interest in other people and their interests, not just their own. We encourage our daughter to have 1 stable group, in church, where the people know her and are accepting of her quirks. And she has a sister who looks out for her (except she is now overseas).

Added: I can't remember the videos we showed my daughter, and it was years ago, so probably discontinued. But I came across the website below. I haven't watched any of the videos, but they might be useful to you. And you can google on \"ASD teens\" and see what you find. Some will be directed at parents, and some at the kids themselves.
https://raisingchildren.net.au/autism/communicating-relationships/connecting/social-skills-for-teens-with-asd

[meltembaga]

Thanks for your reply. I will read up more on this and see how we can incorporate them at home to help him. Our first hurdle is to break the news to him gently.