All About Autism

[specialboymum]

nugget:

He was first diagnose at 3 plus but I was told to wait for at least 1.5 years for epic. I did ask if it can be faster, but they replied it could be done if I'm willing to travel to Choa Chu Kang ( I was staying in the east!). They put me at KKH rehab centre for SLT while waiting for epic but I felt it wasn't helpful. Anyway, I was already quite p***ed off by KKH's service so I decided to take full charge- to source for private therapists to do SLT, OT and also ABA (which he stopped last year).


Now I only go back to KKH for doctor's letters. Not sure if I'm just plain unlucky at KKH. I didn't get much help from them during the epic placement, they messed up my son's application to Pathlight and made mistake during the psychological assessment, which caused us to cry unnecessarily .

My experience with KKH is opposite from yours. Mine is also diagnosed at 3 yrs 8 months and was put on fast track to do psychological assessment and place on EIPIC etc. I was fortunate enough to find a EIPIC centre which have immediate vacancies.
Given a choice, do you want your kid to go into pathlight or remain in mainstream?

At that point of time, I would want to put him in pathlight prep track, at least give him a year of transition period before going to primary 1. Now that he is in mainstream, I will try as much as possible to keep him there lor. We do understand that we cannot expect much from him in term of academics. We will just have to remind ourselves not to compare with other kids, and keep encourage him and give him the additional support should as tuitions when required.

[nugget]

specialboymum:

At that point of time, I would want to put him in pathlight prep track, at least give him a year of transition period before going to primary 1. Now that he is in mainstream, I will try as much as possible to keep him there lor. We do understand that we cannot expect much from him in term of academics. We will just have to remind ourselves not to compare with other kids, and keep encourage him and give him the additional support should as tuitions when required.

I see. Yup I also dun expect my son to do well academically. I am already very happy that he is attempting to do all his K1 worksheets and all the things he done in school makes me feel so proud of him.

I have seen how he do work in EIPIC and he really try to put in his best effort. Only thing is he get distracted easily. If he can strive in mainstream with support from AED and friends and us, I am already very happy. I just hope he can keep grow up and get used to the NT environment.

[mashy]

My son was diagnosed quite late. Just a month before p1 started. So no eipic for us. kKH CDC has washed their hands off my son coz they think he’s too old for them to help. So we are still with rehab for ST and OT. OT has been slow moving. For ST, we kept moving targets over the past one year. It was at first on stuttering, later realize that he should work more on language, then later decided that he needs more social skills training. We have been changing ST therapist for the last half year. Finally now with one who specialises in social skills. She just gave him a vocab test and we will know the outcome next week.


We didn’t try any private therapies yet because we find that he is not so bad. We wanted to wait and see how it goes before we decide. After all it is quite demanding on the pocket.

Specialboymom
We videotaped my son when he was practicing and showed him after that. He kind of liked it and we used that to help him improve his presentation skill. For each picture on the chart, we associate one sentence to it, so it made it easier for him to remember. We also got him to present to his grandparents to try get that stage fright out of his system.

[ImMeeMee]

star89:

Myjoel, your post comes in time. I am about to ask EIPIC CCK feedback here. I went there for interview and they did not give me good impression. The social worker and psychologist are so young and in-experienced. The classroom for high functioning is so small, dirty and cold. They told me the ratio is 3 teachers to 9 kids. They told me that they have vacancy suitable for my son on 11am to 1pm slot. When I rejected them with the reason clash with his lunch/his pre-school ends at 11.30, they (especially the supervisor) look a bit disappointed. A month cost about $450. For that price, I might as well send to good and low teacher student ratio montessori school. I am looking for a good montessori school in CCK now. If anyone of you have recommendation, please pm me.

By knowing this, I will not mail out their family report case anymore and decide not to send my son there.

If i may offer an alternative view, my dd3 is at EIPIC CCK preparatory program.

The prep program is a 4-hour program per day, 3 to 5 days per week depending on parents' preference. I understand that children in this program are about 4-6 years old and they have been assessed to be suitable for P1 program so this program is to prepare them for that. I am not sure whether this is the same program as the one mentioned above as I understand that CCK EIPIC also offers 2-hour daily program.

So far our experience with the program and the school has been positive. While the teacher in charge is young, she is driven and committed to help the children. When my dd3 first started, she was slightly cranky but from my conversations with the teacher, I can tell that she is trained as she knows what to do and how to react - once she found that music helps calm dd3 down she made use of a lot of that. There is regular communication between the teacher and parents about the progress of the child, and she keeps me informed of her issues and how she is progressing. The program offers SLT and OT as part of the daily curriculum, and there are weekly lessons on PE, music, art and craft, and there are excursions to reinforce the themes that they are teaching. The children are taught teeth brushing and bathing as self-help skills. There are also mock recess on certain days though I must say the scale is not as big as the actual situation in P1.

My dd3 joined EIPIC CCK only in Apr and based on the few parents that I spoke to, they were equally happy about what the program and teachers are doing for their kids, as well as the progress that their children have made. My dd3 enjoys school and cant wait to go everyday.

[ImMeeMee]

nugget:

My son is in K1 now. He dislike his childcare since day 1 he entered. I think its more the routine thing. Like every morning he will say \"I dun want to go to school\".


Last time he used to be alone, roam around on his own, not sitting down in circle time, dun play with friends.I felt like he is really wasting his time there. But after EIPIC and all the therapy, he has shown great improvement. For the past 6 months, teachers comment he is starting to:
- sit down during circle time (teachers are kind enough to put him to sit right in front)
- started to do art and crafts with good control of scissors and colour pictures nicely
- still doesn't talk much though but started to play with 1-2 friends he is comfy with (last time he only stick to teachers when they go playground).
- Starting to learn to write with help of dotted line even though all his friends can copy words without assistance.
- has eye contact with teachers who are talking to him
- Able to follow instructions when teacher ask him to keep the toys, put back on the shelf and line up

I dun think he really hates his childcare. Its more of a habit or routine thing that he say he doesn't want to go. But he does prefer his EIPIC school than his childcare.

Yup I bought those K1 and K2 workbooks and got a shock of my life. Its so tough. But he is willing to attempt and do when we sit down with him in a 1-1 setting and explain to him. His cognitive skills are not too bad. So I feel he has the potential to go mainstream.

I must say this is good progress, nugget. Any rationale that the therapists are recommending that he be defered for 2 years for P1 entry?

Although the psychological assessment for school placement may not be totally foolproof, it may offer some insights as a form of benchmarking, as well as the options to consider.

Question for parents who may or may not have defered P1 entry - how would you know or assess that your child's self esteeem is affected one way or another whether you defer or not? For me, there is currently no clarity that my dd3's self esteem will be affected if I defer her, cos I dont think she is 'matured' enough to know this at this juncture. Maybe in the future when she is old and matured enough she may start to question (maybe pre-teens or teens) but now ... ? :?

[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.