Asperger? Hyperactive?
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Thanks schweppes for your kind words. I am not resentful nor angry. Just a bit sad everytime I heard his non-stop chatter on things that he finds interesting or when he suddenly gets upset over trivial things or jokes that he thinks are inappropriate. I am sure he will grow up fine. I think I am upset because I was shock of the result. But at least the labelling helps us to understand him better.
The CGC doesn't provide much help since ds is not disruptive or having big social issues in school or outside. So, we as a family need to contain and correct the issues at home. Yeap, love him very much still and I think it is great that he is into non-fictional stuff, mature and a very neat kid.
:celebrate: -
snowyqueen:
hiI only has one puzzle which I cannot solve. How come her superb visual memory power deteriorates when her behaviour changes for the good as she gets older.
One example, my mother is teaching my sister's child Han Yu Pin Yin today and we just wondered how my girl learnt Han Yu Pin Yin when she was P1. We never really taught her but she was really good and eventhough her chinese teacher always complained about her walking around in class and not paying attention. Her \"giftness\" in learning Chinese has faded with time though she is still able to do well for Chinese but no special \"suprise\". It even took her quite some time to remember her script for show and tell. But I have no complaint. I am less stressful as compared to the past
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I'm a therapist. I also work with some children with autism.
I have also noticed this deterioration in visual skills, esp decoding & spelling. in some children who have \"normalised\".
At first, I wasn't sure if that was a side-effect of normalisation as the bulk of them were in K1-P1 (early literacy phase). All had superior decoding reading and/or spelling skills at start of intervention. However as they were all aged 5 or so, reading materials typically consisted of shorter words.
Some of them had dyslexic spelling mistakes and broken grammar after social skills improved. Some made copying mistakes.
Later I had a P2 child with Asperger. He had established very good literacy skills from reading books solely. As he interacted more with peers, his grammar and spelling deteriorated steadily. By P4, he was able to speak some Singlish and it showed in his written work. He too made unusual spelling mistakes. He used to be able to spell some of those words.
This grp of children were of abt average intelligence & had milder sensory issues. As they became more sociable and like typically developing peers, certain literacy skills showed a marked/significant deterioration. A few were non-verbal initially but were able to decode words.
It appears that as the brain is \"re-wired\" to perceive social and pragmatic cues, the child loses his near-perfect & automatic (effortless) visual perception skills. Decoding, esp multi-syllabic words, are now effortful. The prevalence of Singlish also affected the child's grammatical processor as he is now attuned to multiple sources of language input.
Most retain at least 1 asd trait but lay persons tend to perceive those behv as quirks, or being quick-tempered or awkward.
not too sure if the \"normalisation\" is stable or long-term. some say very stressful events/high anxiety may cause regression in adulthood.
I haven't had the time to read thro the research papers since kids' discharge.
Hope it helps. -
pingsped:
You know what? Was reading about brain experiments which studied savants and autistic people with \"supernormal\" powers like drawing in great detail after looking at a photograph for 10mins, or even reading two books at the same time with perfect recall. The researchers tried to alter the minds of normal people with mind altering drugs to produce the same brain activity as savants (MRI scans allow for accurate measurement). These normal people started to have savant-like qualities, ie photographic memory. But the powers faded as the effect of the drugs wore off.
hisnowyqueen:
I only has one puzzle which I cannot solve. How come her superb visual memory power deteriorates when her behaviour changes for the good as she gets older.
One example, my mother is teaching my sister's child Han Yu Pin Yin today and we just wondered how my girl learnt Han Yu Pin Yin when she was P1. We never really taught her but she was really good and eventhough her chinese teacher always complained about her walking around in class and not paying attention. Her \"giftness\" in learning Chinese has faded with time though she is still able to do well for Chinese but no special \"suprise\". It even took her quite some time to remember her script for show and tell. But I have no complaint. I am less stressful as compared to the past .
I'm a therapist. I also work with some children with autism.
I have also noticed this deterioration in visual skills, esp decoding & spelling. in some children who have \"normalised\".
At first, I wasn't sure if that was a side-effect of normalisation as the bulk of them were in K1-P1 (early literacy phase). All had superior decoding reading and/or spelling skills at start of intervention. However as they were all aged 5 or so, reading materials typically consisted of shorter words.
Some of them had dyslexic spelling mistakes and broken grammar after social skills improved. Some made copying mistakes.
Later I had a P2 child with Asperger. He had established very good literacy skills from reading books solely. As he interacted more with peers, his grammar and spelling deteriorated steadily. By P4, he was able to speak some Singlish and it showed in his written work. He too made unusual spelling mistakes. He used to be able to spell some of those words.
This grp of children were of abt average intelligence & had milder sensory issues. As they became more sociable and like typically developing peers, certain literacy skills showed a marked/significant deterioration. A few were non-verbal initially but were able to decode words.
It appears that as the brain is \"re-wired\" to perceive social and pragmatic cues, the child loses his near-perfect & automatic (effortless) visual perception skills. Decoding, esp multi-syllabic words, are now effortful. The prevalence of Singlish also affected the child's grammatical processor as he is now attuned to multiple sources of language input.
Most retain at least 1 asd trait but lay persons tend to perceive those behv as quirks, or being quick-tempered or awkward.
not too sure if the \"normalisation\" is stable or long-term. some say very stressful events/high anxiety may cause regression in adulthood.
I haven't had the time to read thro the research papers since kids' discharge.
Hope it helps.
The conclusion is that the brains of savants and autistic persons trade off perfect memory with understanding. So when there is less understanding, the memory recall is superior. But once understanding starts to creep in (perhaps the brain is now busier with making connections), it has less capacity for memory.
This is really interesting stuff! -
EN:
[quote]They also watched her during \"play\". to look out for prominent behaviour. One of the traits as I had shared before for AS child is repetitive movement/action. Also, my girl liked to line up her toys and flash cards in a straight line when she was two years old and this was one of the symptoms as well.
Often I have seen he line up his cars, lego too. The psychologist repeatedly ask me if my child does play pretend. [/quote]OMG! My DS loves to line up his things or toy cars in a straight line since very young (2?) too! Does that mean something? He does pretend play a lot, but I am not sure when he lines up his toys, is that part of his pretend play or just that he likes to do so without a reason.
He is generally well-behaved, especially in school or in a class, but he can be a terror at home or with his sister. He can also be very stubborn and obsessed about certain things. I call him a \"man\" (boy) of habits - when he was younger, it used to be so difficult to get him to wear new clothes/shoes (nothing to do with discomfort as I had made sure it wasn't due to that), among other things. On the other hand, I haven't seen that he has any socialising issue with other children. He's 3.5 years old. Need I be concerned?? -
[quote]This grp of children were of abt average intelligence & had milder sensory issues. As they became more sociable and like typically developing peers, certain literacy skills showed a marked/significant deterioration. A few were non-verbal initially but were able to decode words. [/quote]
Hmm... I notice that trend too. Or was it because I no longer spend quality time with my child doing what we love to do? I'll feedback again once I'm back on my track. Have been side track working & near zero bonding time. -
[quote]OMG! My DS loves to line up his things or toy cars in a straight line since very young (2?) too! Does that mean something? He does pretend play a lot, but I am not sure when he lines up his toys, is that part of his pretend play or just that he likes to do so without a reason.
He is generally well-behaved, especially in school or in a class, but he can be a terror at home or with his sister. He can also be very stubborn and obsessed about certain things. I call him a \"man\" (boy) of habits - when he was younger, it used to be so difficult to get him to wear new clothes/shoes (nothing to do with discomfort as I had made sure it wasn't due to that), among other things. On the other hand, I haven't seen that he has any socialising issue with other children. He's 3.5 years old. Need I be concerned??[/quote]I told the doctor that although my son lines up his toys, he is actually doing play pretend because I heard him talking to himself. The doctor retort back to observe how ds play with his friends or how ds interact among the families. Is there a give and take in a conversation and in playing? For mine the answer is no. If we as a family were talking about topic A, ds will cut in to talk about topic B. We taught him the importance of taking turn to talk which now he adopts. But, he is still not participating into our conversation but instead insisted us to change our conversation to topic B. Now teaching him to have a two way communication on the topic of my liking (not his).
Will you need to be concerned? It all depends on the child characteristic. As parents, if we see things that our child need helps, we do it immediately. Knowing that he has Asperger, just explain the kind of person he is.
You might want to read more on Asperger and see if there is any behavioural issues that you would like to address before pressing the panic button. -
Thanks, EN.
Participating in our conversation... erm... guess I need to observe more then. Think he does, he also follows what we are saying quite well... can even repeat what we said or apply to another situation. The only thing is, sometimes, he likes to repeat the same statement/question again and again, despite having gotten a reply or answer (but all kids are like that, right?)... or tell me about the same incident again after half an hour
Yes, would go read up more on Asperger.
Do you mind me asking why had you thought of sending your children for the diagnostic tests? -
Sorry Busymom for late reply. Been very busy with work.
[quote]The only thing is, sometimes, he likes to repeat the same statement/question again and again, despite having gotten a reply or answer (but all kids are like that, right?)... [/quote]Mine don't ask the same question/statement again & again. Mine just diarrhea out whatever facts that he reads or watch. He's like a walking encyclopedia when he is into something. Detailing every aspect of what he has absorb & yes, he will repeat his facts telling.
Why I send? He's 9. Still extremely sensitive. Cries a lot or can get extremely angry. There is a period of time he hits himself when he can't get the piano playing right. He can't take jokes (zilch) or teasing. Very sensitive hearing like hearing vibration of metal or snake hissing. I'm worried how is he going to survive NS if I don't take steps in helping him out now. -
Hi all parents here!
Just wanted to share about my DS who is 2.8 yo now. At 2 yo we placed him into a CCC and 3 mths later, the teachers said he still could not sit still and listen. He would walk around the class and refused to sit down. So the assistant teacher will force him to sit down but he was not listening to the teachers. Also when the teachers called him (from a distance usually!), he wouldn't look at them but look at whatever that interests him. We thought he was just young so thought he will outgrow it so left him there for another 3 months. After 6 months the teachers told us they are worried for him and recommend we took him to do development assessment. Anything wrong go for early intervention!
We sort of freaked out at this point and took him out of childcare immediately!
My DS also kicked up a big fuss at the doctors' office hence more than 1 doctor told us to look out for signs of autism. But I always felt so disgusted with this suggestion because he was perfectly fine elsewhere though I know he is very stubborn and wants to get his own ways!
My MIL also raised her concerned that my DS likes to turn round and round, very active and stubborn. She read up about autism and asked her sisters who are nurses (all overseas) and she got so alarmed and was very sure there was something very seriously wrong with my DS!
She kept pestering my hubby to bring him for check-up and got my hubby very alarmed as well. I quarreled with her and thought she was too much! I believe there is nothing wrong with my DS except he has a very strong character. I asked her would she like to go to woodbridge and ask a pychologist to certify that she is sane? :slapshead:
Anyway long & short of it even though both my maid and myself thought my son is normal, we went to an early intervention centre and put him there on trial for 2 weeks. Surprising he enjoyed himself so much hence we decided to put him there for the rest of this year until he goes to Nursery next year!
But it sounds very bad to tell other people that your child is in an early intervention centre! :!: Must be something wrong with him right?
I agree that when child is young, the smaller the group with individual attention the better! However, correct me if I am wrong, you won't be able to get small ratio of 1:4 or 1:5 except in an early intervention centre! Usual pre-school ratio is much higher than that!
I also agree that we should trust our motherly instinct which will tell us whether our child is normal or not. My instinct told me my child is normal. But it drives me nuts when my mother-in-law told me it is OK (meaning I am in self-denial! ) :stupid:
Just went for 1st visit to KKH Child Devt. dept to see the doctor. She said my DS does not need to go for further assessments but must go for speech therapy since his speech is delayed ie. at 2.8 yo he is still mono-syllabic. She also recommends we queue up for those \"Rainbow Centres\" in case we need it 6-9 months down the road.
I feel a bit freaked out by all this. Are we going down the wrong path and making a mistake by putting our DS into an early intervention centre just at the comments of a few people?
Are society so unforgiving nowadays in that when kids kicked up a fuss at the doctors' office or outside (I thought it is normal child behaviour), people will straightaway think child could be autistic?
Or when child is very active and wants to run around, teachers or others will think that kid got ADHD? If kid not paying attention it is attention deficiency syndrome (BAAA....I just think the teacher and school is boring!). If kid very active it is Hyperactive Disorder!
BTW, my DS has fabulous eye-contact at home and at the early intervention centre. He loved to play with toy cars and look at their wheels when younger but now loose interest in them already. He does not line up his toys in a straight line, he does not flap his hands, he is not a stickler for routines, he has a temper but not uncontrollable. He loves to hug and kiss us and smiles often.
Next year by hook or by crook my DS will go to a main-stream Nursery! Praying to God we won't get sucked down the other path and ended up putting him in a special needs school when there is nothing much wrong with my boy!
Do you think I am in self-denial?
:celebrate: -
Self denial or not - I think this is a mother’s love after all.
Suggest you continue to monitor and observe him - objectively. Autism Spectrum Disoder is a spectrum, meaning each child will have slightly different characteristic.
On the other hand, if (and that is an IF) later down the road, you really discover that your son really needs intevention, would you then regret that you could have given him help much earlier (i.e. now) ?
All of us whose children are diagnosed - also walk the same long path of agony to accept the fact…
And why should one finds it difficult to tell another person that his/her child is undergoing early intevention ? That is nothing wrong. Even if the child is having autism, it is nobody’s fault. We have to educate ourselves and educate the public.
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