All About Autism

[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…

[Double E]

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...

Helplessmum
My son is born in the first quarter of the year. Yes, I have called Rainbow for a tour next mth but would like to hear from experience mums' feedback if any. I will go google STEPs. thanks

Umm, when u see the doc, they didn't explain what is ST and OT to you? They should. Basically, if your child is non-verbal, ST will teach the child how to make sounds to indicate his wants or to get a response from him. Once that is overcome, it will move on to getting the child to say a word.
After that is accomplished, move on to combine words. Once the child is verbal, able to make request, the next next step is to move him to conversational speech eg. ask questions, able to comment on something or an incident.

For OT, it really works on alot of other stuff. Such as gross motor, fine motor, regulating the kids' stimming and making him more aware of his environment, sensory stimulation etc. Basically at OT, the kid will do lot of exercise to achieve the goals related to those that I mentioned above. For example, my boy has visual stim so the OT will teach us to spin him twice a day and after spinning, let him jump. The purpose is to use this to regulate himself so that he will reduce his visual stim which is not an acceptable social behaviour. OT will also teach the kids to regulate their strength where appropriate, this will help in the kids in their writing skills in future. OT will also expose the kids to messy play so that they can tolerate the sensory inputs which is impt in a social setting. For normal kids, doing art and craft with glue and paint is nothing to them but for some ASD kids, they can't stand touching glue or paint. So if we don't help them on this, they will have issue when they go to school next time or when playing with other kids. I think OT is very important for training the kids to acquire life skills.

What SPD's EIPIC do so far is a combination of both the above and on top of that, teach the kids compliant, appropriate social behaviour and listening to instructions.

Maybe u bring your son to ST and OT for an assessment first, to at least find out what is his issue and attend a few sessions to learn from the therapists. Are u with KKH? if so, they should have ST and OT appointments for you and is heavily subsidized.

[helplessmum3]

Double E,

Yes im with KKH, went to OT at HPB 3x and i have stopped already, seems no helping at all, ST haven not start cuz KKH long queue..

thank for your explaination now.. now i understand more. and now i understand my son need to move on to conversation speech..

strange my son OT never work on his sensory.. i guess i got the wron OT :(. or KKH OT are like tat. cant expect much.

[mashy]

Helplessmum

3 sessions only and u give up already? Even for normal tuition class, u don’t expect miracles or any changes in 3 sessions.

There is only 1 hr OT each time and can only focus on a major area each time. If u have sensory concerns, u should ask the OT to focus on that instead. U can’t expect to accomplish 5 different goals in 1 session. Will usually focus on 1 major goal and after accomplish will move on to the next.

[eq.038997stars]

Many parents find it difficult to understand why OT is important initally which is normal as the child’s `problem’ may not appear that early at their young age.

To me I strongly agreed that OT is very important for ASD children. I attended OT session in Rainbow Yishun before and the therapist has helped me to see OT from another angle. Same as ST. I had a very good experience with both OT and ST at Rainbow but both therapists no longer there.

[schweppes]

helplessmum3:

Double E,

Yes im with KKH, went to OT at HPB 3x and i have stopped already, seems no helping at all, ST haven not start cuz KKH long queue..

thank for your explaination now.. now i understand more. and now i understand my son need to move on to conversation speech..

strange my son OT never work on his sensory.. i guess i got the wron OT :(. or KKH OT are like tat. cant expect much.

helplessmum3
u need to give the therapists and your son time. It is already so hard to get appointments at these therapy sessions. You should consider your son lucky that he was getting the necessary help given.

You cannot expect the therapists to perform miracles. Improvements do not happen overnight. u will do more harm than good with these half-baked attempts at early intervention.

[Double E]

Helplessmum


OT and ST, whatever therapy it is, cannot give up half way so easily. Must carry on and tell the therapists the issues u face with your kid.

My boy is not what he is with just a few sessions. He has been on therapy for more than a year and EIPIC for 8 mths before we some results.

Like u mentioned, if you can’t afford private OT or ST, then government subsidized OT and ST is the way to go. U can teach your boy yourself, true, but u need the therapists to help u see what’s wrong with your kid and teach you the correct method to do so. And many times, the therapists also trial and error because no one method is suitable for all kids and they need to get to know your kid more to be able to find out what is his real issues before they can derive an individual plan for him. I really think u should resume your boy’s sessions with HPB.

And your boy is verbal right? U should consider yourself blessed because he is verbal, wait till you see kids who are non-verbal even at 4 years old and the behaviour they display to get attention. Furthermore, your boy is still young, not even 3 yet, so make full use of this window to teach him and expose him. By sending him to therapist, you are also giving a chance for him to expose to other adults and train his compliance and instruction listening skills.

Don’t mind if I ask, so far, how is your boy performing at his CC?

[helplessmum3]

Double E:

Helplessmum


OT and ST, whatever therapy it is, cannot give up half way so easily. Must carry on and tell the therapists the issues u face with your kid.

My boy is not what he is with just a few sessions. He has been on therapy for more than a year and EIPIC for 8 mths before we some results.

Like u mentioned, if you can't afford private OT or ST, then government subsidized OT and ST is the way to go. U can teach your boy yourself, true, but u need the therapists to help u see what's wrong with your kid and teach you the correct method to do so. And many times, the therapists also trial and error because no one method is suitable for all kids and they need to get to know your kid more to be able to find out what is his real issues before they can derive an individual plan for him. I really think u should resume your boy's sessions with HPB.

And your boy is verbal right? U should consider yourself blessed because he is verbal, wait till you see kids who are non-verbal even at 4 years old and the behaviour they display to get attention. Furthermore, your boy is still young, not even 3 yet, so make full use of this window to teach him and expose him. By sending him to therapist, you are also giving a chance for him to expose to other adults and train his compliance and instruction listening skills.

Don't mind if I ask, so far, how is your boy performing at his CC?

hiaz, the OT at hbp is only barely 1hr. half hr already gone for warm up another half way OT figuring, by then justting started , session already gone :(.alsonot so cheap, i think 30+/hr

yes my boy is verbal, what you mean by coping? sorry Double E dun get me wrong, my english is limited and i understanding is very slow..

he do nap, he definitely look different then the rest..
he now can sit down & listen to story book maybe 15mins. but when kids have dancing, at time he din join, but go home he will sing tat song.
he like to go to child care. he can eat himself, but something he will get lazy and dun wan eat but his teacher will feed him. he is still on diapers.
what are the things should i look for for \"coping\" issue?

teacher say he will ask for milk if he wan milk. he will as for somemore if he wan somemore food. when fall down he will know how to say pain & yell out loud and look for attention. when he wan again he will say \"again\" tat are all very simple.

but still all child will wait patiently at bench to get check by teacher b4 go into class, my son will look around rather then wait & look at teacher :(..

But my son duno how to answer , if i ask him where did you go yesterday? what u do in school? but he know, when i ask \"who is this\"\"what is this\"

the \"where,How\" when\" he still duno..

he noe when i say pick up & give me, he will pick up & give me..
i say lie down he will lie down. i say. come up to bed, he will go up to bed.

butnot all the comprehensive like, \"where , how\" when & etc:(.

[Double E]

Helplessmum

From what u describe, your boy is already very good. My boy also can’t answer the how and why questions, these two questions are very advance for them. And u ask your boy where he went yesterday? that’s too difficult for him seriously. Remember, he is not yet 3 years old.

I think u need to lower your expectations, sometimes u will get pleasant surprises.

All OT or ST sessions be it private or government subsidized are about an hour at most, so what HPB is giving u is what u get at private too, the only difference is U can have at least 1x a week at private or even more if you can afford, whereas for HPB, you need to wait longer. But duration at each session is the same.