All About Autism

[mayjoel]

Hi ImMeeMee

I think your preparatory prog is different from my EIPIC program. Think the prep prog is just for short term? The EIPIC is long term which comprises of ST, OT, work habits etc.
Is ur prog held at blk 606?

[nugget]

The SLT say my son weak in his language development. Most of the time he doesn’t know the meaning of the words. He has very advanced reading skills but he dunno the real meaning of the words. This year he is 5 but she evaluate his speech to be at 3.5 yrs old. Well but the teachers at eipic is saying different things all together. Say he can communicate and understand words exchange between his teachers and friends in class. I am really confuse as well. So SLT say best delay him 2 yrs so he will be fully ready and excel when he go P1.


As for the self esteem, well at P1 he might or might not be aware that he is being purposely delayed. But when come to say P4, if I really delay my son 2 yrs, he will be 12 yrs old where peers in his same age are taking PSLE. I dunno how he will feel. And when he go Sec 1 (assume if he can make it) people ask him how come u 14 yrs old then come sec 1? Does he need to explain cos his parents delay his P1 due to asd??

[mashy]

Nugget

When my son was 5, I think his speech was also 3.5. Although he couldn’t understand some words he read in the beginning, he started to build up his vocab and now able to tell me some complex scientific terminology. My son’s speech is probably about 5 now. Still not the age he should be. I don’t think that is reason enough for delaying school. Speech can be improved eventually. Perhaps he will have a harder time at show and tell and oral exams but so long as he could read and understand, he can move along. Talk to him, ask him about the things he read to see how much he understood. The speech therapist may not have the full pic since she may happen to ask him things that he didn’t understand at that moment. Knowledge are built up over time. Just because he wasn’t exposed to the topic before doesn’t mean he couldn’t understand eventually. When my son started reading about water molecules, it was just ‘balls’ to him. Now he understood it is hydrogen atoms and oxygen atoms bonding together. So I wouldn’t delay the education just because the SLT said so. When my son was 5, I was also deciding to delay or not. He couldn’t even write legibly.

I think when your son is 6 and nearing registration time then u decide. But in the meantime, let him go thru the kindy years like other children. Frankly, I don’t see how delaying ever helped a child. When they are more mature? I seriously don’t think two years will make much difference in terms of maturity. In fact, I think others will place even more burden on him to be more mature. After all, isn’t he two years older than his classmates? Right now, my boy is the baby in his class. They don’t expect him to be the leader nor be the ‘grown up’. When he is immature, they just take it that because he is the youngest in class and couldn’t understand as well.

[phtthp]

anyone has child with speech delay before, but now has gone onto Secondary Mainstream school / poly ?


can share last time how you helped your child cope with :-
- PSLE Oral exam,
- Upper primary English Comprehension & Compo ?
- Maths subject ?

TIA.

[nugget]

Mashy,


I am having the same line of thoughts as you. And totally agreed with you on the "2 years older so more matured part". My son is also a year end baby. So even till now, when compare to his peers he is still considered slower.

Talking to mummies here makes me feel so much more positive than talking to the therapist… esp when the SLT say my son shown good improvement and still need to delay 2 more years? Which makes me feel so puzzled.

[specialboymum]

nugget:

The SLT say my son weak in his language development. Most of the time he doesn't know the meaning of the words. He has very advanced reading skills but he dunno the real meaning of the words. This year he is 5 but she evaluate his speech to be at 3.5 yrs old. Well but the teachers at eipic is saying different things all together. Say he can communicate and understand words exchange between his teachers and friends in class. I am really confuse as well. So SLT say best delay him 2 yrs so he will be fully ready and excel when he go P1.


As for the self esteem, well at P1 he might or might not be aware that he is being purposely delayed. But when come to say P4, if I really delay my son 2 yrs, he will be 12 yrs old where peers in his same age are taking PSLE. I dunno how he will feel. And when he go Sec 1 (assume if he can make it) people ask him how come u 14 yrs old then come sec 1? Does he need to explain cos his parents delay his P1 due to asd??

Your boy sounds like mine. He was very early reader but he doesn't understand what he read. At 5 years plus, his speech was only about 3. We were being advised by various therapists and experts to delay his primary 1 by a year, but we decided not to listen to any of their advice. We felt that by delaying a year, we are only delaying our problem, which we need to face eventually.
It might still be too early to tell if our decision is right for him, but we haven't regret it yet. He made a lot of improvement within this half a year, which we aren't sure if he could if we made him stay back in K2.

[mayjoel]

I want to send my son to a group ST session. Any recommendations? I felt he learn better in a small group setting.

[nugget]

specialboymum:

Your boy sounds like mine. He was very early reader but he doesn't understand what he read. At 5 years plus, his speech was only about 3. We were being advised by various therapists and experts to delay his primary 1 by a year, but we decided not to listen to any of their advice. We felt that by delaying a year, we are only delaying our problem, which we need to face eventually.
It might still be too early to tell if our decision is right for him, but we haven't regret it yet. He made a lot of improvement within this half a year, which we aren't sure if he could if we made him stay back in K2.

Thanks specialboymum,

I discussed with hb yesterday and we both still want to send my boy in P1 in 2 years time and we will continue to prep him. He still have 1.5 years before he goes P1 and these 6 months he has already improved a lot. Let's us all keep faith and hope they improve over time!

[specialboymum]

mayjoel:

I want to send my son to a group ST session. Any recommendations? I felt he learn better in a small group setting.

I send my boy to Leo Megan. My boy was also on 1:1 (at a private ST clinic) for almost 3 yrs. He improved but reached a point when he couldn't progress, so we move him to group based therapy. The group setting does help since he needs to engage in 'conversation' with his classmates rather than just repeating what the therapist say.

[nugget]

Specialboymum,


Can I ask how much is your group therapy session? How many in the class and are they all in the same similar speech delay?