All About Autism

[crabbygal]

ImMeeMee:

I can imagine the anguish and anxiety during this period. its like everything is hanging on the balance. My best wishes. When he gets in, will it be for intake in Jan 2013?

Thanks! It will be for 2013 intake. He's in St Gerard's now.. and has been there since he was 2.5 years old. He needs to move on and be challenged in terms of academic aspect since the past few years, I have been building foundation in terms of self-help skills, behaviour and regulation. Now that he is more stable and his cognitive skills suddenly pick up for a year now.. really hope he could get in to PL. There were so many kids during the assessments... not sure whether got enough placement... can only just hope for the best!!!

[schweppes]

mashy:

How does the music therapy work? Sounds interesting. Think my boy will need something to help him concentrate while he's doing his hw.

For Samonas and Tomatis, there is a series of CDs that comprises music pieces, usually classical pieces. This is not the Mozart Effect type of music.

Under Samonas, Tomatis and AIT, the music is filtered at various frequencies. So, there is a progression of low frequencies to high ones. A music/sound therapist or OT who is trained in the respective prog will decide which CD is bested suited to the child at that point in time of therapy.

The child listens to the music via premium quality headsets. The recommended brand is usually Seinnheiser. Must get those that cover the ears - not the ear buds type. Rationale is that it must filter out unnecessary environmental sounds so that the child only listens to the therapy music.

The music is hardly melodious. Actually I won't even call it music. More like sounds. Different ppl react differently. Like what some of the moms mentioned, after listening to the music for 15 mins, they get a headache after a while. On the other hand, for the child who needs it, is rehabilitative to him/her. Really music to the ears for them.

In terms of duration, again it depends on what the therapist recommends. Can be as short as 15 mins for a start to the whole CD, maybe about 45mins?

If your son is going thru OT now, can check with the therapist on this. Treat music therapy as part of the overall OT prog.

But, for parents whose kids are not on OT, don't panic or feel compelled that you must put your child on music therapy. It's not a must do. There's a time and place for everything.

In my dd's case, she went through Tomatis when she was about 3-ish. (Therapist has migrated overseas, otherwise she's well trained in the Tomatis protocol). That was the first therapy she went through before anything else. Really helped a lot.

The 2nd time was when she was about 6yo - under an OT who was totally rubbish. Didn't know what she was doing. After 3-4 months, dh and myself pulled her out. Horrible horrible OT. Would never recommend her to anyone!!

The 3rd time was Samonas (under Hand-in-Hand) when dd was sitting for psle. Think she was on it for 4 weeks only. By that time, it was more to reinforce her integration and keep her calm since it was psle year :nailbite:

HTH :grphug:

[schweppes]

helplessmum3:

will babyplus , works the same way as music therapy?

don't think they work the same way.

music therapy is dedicated for rehabilitative purpose.

[Double E]

Hi mummies

I am new to this forum but not new to ASD. My boy is 3 this year and clinically diagnosed with mild ASD, have yet to go for full assessment as KKH doc said wait till he is 5 then do together with IQ test. I had started him with therapies before he turned two because he was non-verbal at 22mths then when all kids his age already has single words.

Well, more than a year now. He is now verbal, can speak in sentences, sometimes will ask questions like "what is that", "what are they doing", doing generally ok in mainstream CC (modern montessori), loves alphabets and numbers, can count, can read, can spell. Well, guess these are the strengths of ASD.

Of course, he also has alot of other issues to work with like social skills, fine motor skills and concentration. Actually my main issue with him is social skills, just very puzzled why he can initiate conversations with adults but just not his peers. And I have to teach him how to play with his peers. I find social skills the most difficult to teach because it is something that should come naturally but its just so difficult for these kids.

About the music therapy, my boy’s OT also started it with him two weeks ago, generally ok, he is not rejecting the therapy and didn’t try to yank it off.

BTW, anyone of your boys attend EIPIC at Rainbow margaret drive? can I get some feedback? I feel that my boy’s current EIPIC is not making much progress, a bit stagnant and worse thing is a very good teacher from his class has been transferred to another branch. One one hand, I feel I should just let him stay and he has to learn how to adapt to new teacher, but on the other hand, if I don’t find a better learning environment for him, I am afraid it will hinder his progress.

Thanks in advance

[helplessmum3]

double E,

which month & year ur son born? wow so nice! i wish my son will ask me what tis wat tat. can help me what u do to your son. tat u make him progress so fast.

[pingsped]

I attended a meeting in May.


The principal who was very helpful, also attended.

According to her, parents have to submit accommodations in 1st quarter of P5 year. A psychological assessment & letter is required.

Accommodations
a) extra time / taking exam in separate room
b) prompter
c) reader
d) exam paper in large print/A3 sized paper

MOE will then liase with the school regarding the type of support given to the child for past years & decide.

This means a sudden request for exam accommodation, may not be considered, esp the one about having a teacher read out parts of the exam paper.

[Double E]

helplessmum3:

double E,

which month & year ur son born? wow so nice! i wish my son will ask me what tis wat tat. can help me what u do to your son. tat u make him progress so fast.

The usual stuff, ST, OT, social therapy with Wee Care and EIPIC. He now also attends Chinese lessons at Berries once a week and private tuition 2x a mth. And we keep asking him questions to keep the conversations going, sometimes he can't answer, we will help him to answer ask him to repeat after us.

The next step for him now is to take 2 step instructions and relate an incident to us which looks like an uphill task right now.

[helplessmum3]

Double E, wow!!


Which eipic , ST N OT u go? How many time a week for all these . How much it’s cost
What is wee care ?

Yr son sound real fantasic to me . As he is only 3yrs old.

Berries awww… Can he sit still n lean? 30mins?

[Double E]

helplessmum3:

Double E, wow!!


Which eipic , ST N OT u go? How many time a week for all these . How much it's cost
What is wee care ?

Yr son sound real fantasic to me . As he is only 3yrs old.

Berries awww.. Can he sit still n lean? 30mins?

He's not fantastic but am still happy that he can progress so much despite being autistic. He still has many issues to deal with especially socialising and his visual stimming.

He went to SPD for EIPIC 2x a week, a private ST who do freelance bimonthly, Kidz OT weekly and Social therapy at Weecare weekly. Weecare provides social therapy to help ASD kids interact with peers and understand social norms. They have different theme every week to teach the kids.

As for berries, the lesson is 1 hr 30mins. So far ok bah, he now can recognise and read quite a number of chinese characters and understand its meaning too. And he started to speak to us in Chinese now. The challenge now is to get him to tell us what he has learned. One day, I hope he will tell me \"mommy, today at school, the teacher taught me this and that\". I look forward to this day.

All in all how much?? We spend about $2k on him a mth on his education and therapies. Every mth, I hope I can strike toto haha.

Is really a tough journey when we first found out that something's not right about him. We were devastated and I kept asking why, what did I do or ate wrong when I was preggy with him? Why god choose me to have an ASD kid? What will happen to his future, will he be able to go to mainstream school, find a job and have a family of his own? What if he has no friends, will he be lonely? It took me a while to accept him but while I was asking all the why questions, I went on to get help for him as I don't want to delay.

And now, I have more or less accepted his condition and everyday, I think of how to help him and I hardly ask the why questions anymore although I still wonder sometimes when I see other kids. I am now more open with his condition too, I tell most of my friends, my in laws, my parents, my colleagues and my boss. And all have been encouraging. And is through opening up, I found out some of my friends' kids have similar problems and we share the contacts of therapists, strategies on how to deal with our kids' issues. That is when I know, I am not alone. And my friends' kids who have similar issues are all now in mainstream, coping well.

Helpless mum
give your boy some time, don't give up. This is what I always tell myself although I know is easy to say but hard to do. But what else can we do except to look forward and press on right? Life goes on, the world will not stop moving for our kids. As he gets older, I also have more worries, worried that his window of catching up with his peers is getting shorter and I still have so much to do for him. And being a FTWM, time is always not on our side. Want to be SAHM also cannot afford to do so and I have no helper. Just TONG lor.

Anyway, any mommies here have kids taking EIPIC at Rainbow centre? any feedback?

[helplessmum3]

Dounble E,


I wen to Rainbow tour in April, their system is diff from SPD, their more structure, its call STEP, i met a parent who child is in SPD, but she told me tat, Rainbow more suitable for STEPS system. why dun you cal up and arrange for a parent tour?

My son is at normal Child care centre.full day. After work i & my hubby work with him only… no other therapiest as we are waiting for Rainbow enrolment. no choice. private cant really afford.

im so glad you come here. as your son is around my son age, is your son early month baby or later month of the year baby?

pls help me to understand, what does EIPIC help, What ST help & what OT help…im still very very confuse. im very slow in understanding… only recently then i understand what is asd mean. Pls advise me what should i do now?

Wow now someting new, social therapy. i call weecare ytd, their cost is est 80/hr… arghh…