All About Autism
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ImMeeMee:
Am wondering, what are the differences in the services and support programs between KKH Rehab and IMH CGU for kids beyond 7 yo.
I've no idea what IMH CGU provides. For rehab, they have speech therapy, occupational therapy. Speech therapy will also touch on social skills. We had a combined OT and ST for social skills. Last year, they had a social skills group during the hols (unfortunately, we couldn't attend). For OT, we did handwriting and focusing in class but think it will differ from kid to kid? What's the difference between the programs for preschoolers and those above 7?
Each therapist have their specialty, so will be moved around whenever needs changes. Only stayed with the same OT so far (just 1 change). -
Oh, looks like IMH can provide meds. Guess that is more for ADHD kids? kKH rehab are just therapists, so they don’t give meds.
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mashy:
mashy,ImMeeMee:
Am wondering, what are the differences in the services and support programs between KKH Rehab and IMH CGU for kids beyond 7 yo.
I've no idea what IMH CGU provides. For rehab, they have speech therapy, occupational therapy. Speech therapy will also touch on social skills. We had a combined OT and ST for social skills. Last year, they had a social skills group during the hols (unfortunately, we couldn't attend). For OT, we did handwriting and focusing in class but think it will differ from kid to kid? What's the difference between the programs for preschoolers and those above 7?
Each therapist have their specialty, so will be moved around whenever needs changes. Only stayed with the same OT so far (just 1 change).
can share what OT do to improve handwriting and focusing?
it's strange why some kids discharge and go imh cgu and some remain at kkh. -
Rainbow teacher say , I did not see ur son stimming or flapping hands…
Ahhhh… Feel so strange to hear such question …
I say my son don’t do these … -
nugget:
mashy,mashy:
[quote=\"ImMeeMee\"]Am wondering, what are the differences in the services and support programs between KKH Rehab and IMH CGU for kids beyond 7 yo.
I've no idea what IMH CGU provides. For rehab, they have speech therapy, occupational therapy. Speech therapy will also touch on social skills. We had a combined OT and ST for social skills. Last year, they had a social skills group during the hols (unfortunately, we couldn't attend). For OT, we did handwriting and focusing in class but think it will differ from kid to kid? What's the difference between the programs for preschoolers and those above 7?
Each therapist have their specialty, so will be moved around whenever needs changes. Only stayed with the same OT so far (just 1 change).
can share what OT do to improve handwriting and focusing?
it's strange why some kids discharge and go imh cgu and some remain at kkh.[/quote]He did a lot of theraputty, tracing, threading etc in the beginning. Then OT did the sky and ground lines to write within the lines. Then there's finger spacing etc. coz mine is low energy and need stimulation type, he did swinging exercises before he start his work. Also taught him to wriggle his toes when he can't focus etc. also she did a social story book with him coz he is a visual learner. Too much to say already coz we started when he was 4 yrs old and as he progressed, different things are added on. Now already about 3 yrs of OT. He also took part in a handwriting class. U can ask the OT about it when u get to see her. It's usually done during the school holidays. Also ask for the school readiness Prog. I think that is useful before starting primary school. -
cnimed:
***************[Editor's note: Topic selected & edited for http://www.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/content/my-experience-gfcf-gluten-free-casein-free-diet.]
Hi Wawa,WaWa:
yes i have since put my son on GFCF.. but, not 100% lah... maybe only 70% ... the major milestone i did to his diet was being able to switch his cow's milk to rice milk completely ... that's 50% liao
I have also removed fish from his diet... these days he eats rice / bee hoon / kway teow with broccoli /french beans or spinach as veg... meat is pork ... and only pork ... i seldom give him chicken (i do but seldom).
Very occasionally , i still give him some bread(i know this is no no but no choice la.. anyway it is occasional.. ) And occasionally some birthday cakes too (just a small slice) ..
I'm no expert in autism, but I wld like to share with you my experience with GFCF. My son has very bad eczema - the last for months, scream/cry all night, cannot shower, infected wounds type. We saw many doctors but it keeps coming back, and each round was worse than before. In the end, I did a GFCF (plus many other food-F) diet for him.
I now spend a lot of time reading up on allergies and on allergy forums, and there are mothers who are doing GFCF diet for their austistic/hyperactive etc children. The thing I've found out - cannot do half-way, you must go all the way to see results. If the child reacts to it, it's basically a nervous system reaction, so every bit counts. (for my son it's an immune system reaction).
My other son had also been to a psychologist for other stuff, and she mentioned that some of the parents of her autistic patients do see a difference with diet.
I made a lot of mistakes in the beginning, and I gave up many times, as well as cheated many times. :oops: It's really SO SO hard to do the diet 100%. But his skin was really looking bad, so bad as if the wounds are rotting. I told myself I MUST give it a 110% go and set myself a 1-month target. The things I found out:
1. No gluten doesn't just mean no bread/pasta/noodle. Gluten is also found in rye, barley, and possibly oats (due to contamination). (So cannot boil barley water to drink, no holicks, no oatmeal).
2. You MUST read all labels. When you do, you realise it also mean no SOYA SAUCE, no Oyster sauce, no Pasta sauce, no instant mashed potatos, no fried chicken with batter, even some potato crisps/sunflowers etc may have wheat flour as part of the seasoning. It's also used in some sweets and gums.
3. ...Which means no hawker food unless you are very sure they don't use the sauces (which will usually have preservatives and colorings that can also affect the neurosystem).
4. You must check and double check. Some traditional rice-based products have wheat flour added in to improve the texture and consistency of the products. E.g. some brands of rice noodles, dumpling skins etc.
5. For casein, it's found in a lot of products, not just milk. Again check labels, even if you don't think it's possible. Sweets and lollipops sometimes have milk. Cakes and breads definitely have milk. Many biscuits have milk. Western sauces as well. Ice cream definitely no-no.
6. EVERYONE in the family must cooperate!! We don't put temptations in front of my son, I do the diet with him. My elder son knows what the food didi cannot take and will be vigilant. Even the small kid knows and will tell others that he cannot take certain food.
In my son's case, staying off all the top allergens finally produced results within the month. It is a lot of work, but I'm just so relieved that his skin is finally healing. Whenever we eat out, I can see the consequences on his skin and sleep. Now, I cook everything and take it out for him if we have to be out of the house for a few hours, or go visiting. My elder one recently had to go for a few assessments, each lasting a few hours, I woke up early to cook, and bring all the food and snacks along for the younger one. Die die must do leh!
Now that he's so much better, I started doing GFCF/soya/egg-free baking for him. We also give him sorbet treats. I often get people saying \"poor thing, so many things cannot eat\", but all I have to do is to look at the photo of his old wounds (I kept it in my hp as a stick for myself) and I definitely do NOT feel sorry for him.
Hi all, I will like to share my son's story, probably it can be of help to some of you here.
Since birth, I noticed that something was not quite right with my boy. He don't look at me in my eyes, instead, he will look at the lights and anything that is bright.
By age 3, he is still speaking monosyllabic, so I brought him to KKH's CDC and told them about my worries but the dr assured me that he don't seem to be autistic, and he was only slightly behind in language, then I was given a date to review 6 months later.
Over the next 6 months, he was threwing more and more tantrums in school, drewing pictures like flushing his classmates into the toilet bowl. The teachers were very disturbed so I brought him back to KKH. KKH decided to counsel me, yes, me...
During the 45 mins session, the counsellor talked to me for 35 mins and only played with him for 10 mins. What she was trying to teach me are things like taking turns, finding point of entry ,etc. I wouldnt say they are useless but I knew his issues are definitely deeper than that. After 3 sessions, KKH gave me another date to review in 6 months.
I was quite disappointed by then and gave up seeking professional help for a while.
Then he was lucky enough to have a few good preschool teachers , so he started talking and progressed...somehow his development was very uneven and extreme.
He was very good in numbers and spelling, he can grasp very difficult maths and science concept but he could almost never able to find his things, had very poor handwriting, was clumsy, emotional (can laugh one minute and in tears the next minute), difficult to reason with, poor social skills, etc.
At K2 (age 6), his teachers insisted I seek professional help again, if not he may not be able to cope with Primary school.
He was always playing alone. No one wants to play with him because he insisted others to play according to his rules (which didnt make sense).
He even told me there were 3 groups in his class- all the girls were in 1 group, he was in 1 group and rest of the boys were in another group. It ached me so much to hear that. So I started another round of testing, counselling and therapies.
I tried Art therapies, cognitive and behavioural counselling, occupational therapies, etc.
I have a report that said he is a \"twice exceptional kids (gifted with learning disabilities - his IQ is 137)\".
Another said he fell within Autism Spectrum Disorder and showed traits of ADHD.
The occcupational therapist's reports said he has Sensory Integration Disorder (difficulties in modulating his sensory and motor planning).
During the test with the occupational therapist, I noticed something: the therapist told him to look at the tip of a pencil and follow the movement of the pencil from left to right, up to down, he couldnt do that.
He was diagnosed with a lazy eye by age 5. He was reviewed by a reknowned eye dr every 3 months and had been patching the lazy eye for more than a year (3 hours a day). We were told he was progressing well. The doctor even told us his lazy eye were \"opened\" and he may not need patching in a month's time.
So I was so shocked to learn that his eye was not ok at all. I frantically searched through all the information and found something called vision therapy. (Some of you may have saw the earlier thread I posted sometime ago)
Basically, a lazy eye is like a broken leg. You can stand on one leg but you cannot run and jump because running and jumping involves coordination of two legs.
My son can see the word charts 3 feet away perfectly well, but he cannot see a flying ball coming towards him because it involves the coordination of two eyes shifting its focus swiftly to judge the distance, he cannot copy from blackboard because it also involves coordination of two eyes shifting focus from far to near, near to far, far to near, etc repetitively.
According to some vision therapists or development optometrists, vision insufficiencies can result in behaviours similar to ADHD, Autism, Dyslexic, Learning Disabilities, Sensory Integration Disorder, etc.
He started the vision therapy in Feb 2011 (Primary 1). By end 2011, he showed vast improvement in his handwriting, body coordination, social skills, etc. He is able to cope his school work. But more importantly, he made friends and can play catching and simple ball games. Last June, at age 8, he even successfully learnt to ride a two wheel bicycle. (This is the boy that couldn't catch a ball at age 6).
My quest for seeking help didn't stop at Vision therapy.
That is why the title of this thread is IGG test, Gluten Free Cassein Free (GFCF) diet and Autism/ ADHD/ Learning Disabilities.
I didnt know the relationships between IGG test, GFCF diet and Autism/ ADHD/ Learning Disabilities when I decided to take IGG test and tried GFCF diet.
In Dec 2011, I decided to see a naturopath for my medical conditions, one of which is severe allergies, I couldnt stop taking Zyrtec ( an anti-histamine) for my skin rashes for a day.
She recommended me to take an IGG test.
The common allergic test that we do in Singapore are usually the skin prick test and blood test (IGE test). I done both before but they all only showed I am allergic to 2 types of dustmites. I didnt believe the result at all because I always develop rashes for eating shellfish, but none of the IGE or skin prick tests showed that.
As I found out, IGE test are usually immediate allergic responses, such as hives, swelling, congestion, etc. They are usually more severe and can be life threatening.
IGG tests are more delayed allergy reactions, and can occur more than 2 hours after eating a food. They may cause sinus, ear infection, crankiness, tiredness, skin rashes, diarhhea, bloatedness, etc and usually not life threatening.
Again, IGG tests are controversial.
Many doctors dont believe in it. But there are also a lot of reports that showed close relationship between IGG tests and Autism/ ADHD/ Learning Disabilities.
Eg. http://www.autismtoday.com/articles/Medical_Testing-for-Autism.htm
Basically, these reports claimed the incidence of high IgG antibodies to wheat and milk is approximately 90% in people on the autistic spectrum.
It was the first time I learnt about IGG tests, so I brought my son to take the test too. It is not cheap, I had it done at a clinic in Paragon, cost me close to $400 each.
Turn out my son had a long list of allergens:
1. Dairy/ Cassein (More severe)
2. Gluten/ Wheat (More severe)
3. Soy
4. Oyster
5. Eggs
On the recommendation of the naturopath, both of us started a very rigid diet.
First, it was 2 weeks of totally non-allergens diet. (no gluten, no dairy or cassein, no soy, no nightshades, no pork, no citrus, no alcohol, no yeast, etc).
On the 3rd week, nightshades and citrus were added back to the diet.
On the 4th week, yeast and pork were added back to the diet.
On the 5th week, when soy and eggs were added back to the diet for 2 days, my son started to have blocked nose and sneezed non-stop on that 2 days.
On the 6th week, when milk and wheat were added back for 2 days, not only he had blocked nose but he seem more irritable and tired.
It was extremely difficult to cook such meal.
So the naturopath got a personal chef to teach me how to cook.
(He can cook for you in a week's portion, stored in boxes that you can keep in freezer too, but be prepared to pay about $350-$400 p/pax a week).
After we completed the tests by around 8th or 9th week and quite convinced with the IGG results, my son had to keep a no dairy/ cassein, no gluten, no soy, no oyster and no eggs diet for 6 months. Then he can take these items in small amount for not more than once a week.
Also, he took Vitamin B12 and magnesium, phosperous, enzymes, etc on recommendation of the naturopath.
Last Christmas, many relatives who had not seen him for long time, commented \"he has grown up\".
Then I came to realise the behavioural changes in him.
The changes are very slow and subtle. But emotionally he is definitely more and more stable. He dont get the emotionally highs and lows that often nowadays. He dont get frustrated and give up so easily. His attention/ focus improved. He is more aware and in control of his body now.
These are the gaps that vision therapy didnt help but a GF,CF,SF,EF diet did. He is definitely gone a long long way since where we started 2 years ago.
For those of you whose kid is always suffering sinus, skin rashes, etc and couldnt pinpoint the allergens through IGE tests, u may want to try the IGG tests. It may not be 100% accurate but may provide some directions to start.
It may be worthwhile to start a GF, CF diet - even though it is difficult, and even if you dont believe in the relationship between it and autism/ adhd/ learning disabilities. Just by controlling the allergies can only be beneficial to his/ her health. -
mashy:
Thanks Mashy, my son also low energy type. Thanks for the pointers. At least now I can get him started while waiting for rehab to get back to me on his OT classes.
He did a lot of theraputty, tracing, threading etc in the beginning. Then OT did the sky and ground lines to write within the lines. Then there's finger spacing etc. coz mine is low energy and need stimulation type, he did swinging exercises before he start his work. Also taught him to wriggle his toes when he can't focus etc. also she did a social story book with him coz he is a visual learner. Too much to say already coz we started when he was 4 yrs old and as he progressed, different things are added on. Now already about 3 yrs of OT. He also took part in a handwriting class. U can ask the OT about it when u get to see her. It's usually done during the school holidays. Also ask for the school readiness Prog. I think that is useful before starting primary school.
Last year I thought KKH wanted my son to join their social classes during Dec, but in the end they never called me. Probably they gave the class slots to those going P1s. -
mashy:
Did you mention before that your boy is year end child? If he was still 6 during the last appointment with them, they probably won't discharge you yet.specialboymum:
Hello mummies,
It has been a while since I last posted.
I would like to wish everybody a happy new year, hope we keep this online support group going and may our special kids be better than yesterday.
For mummies at the cross road..don't worry about if the decision you make is right or not. Whether to defer, to go on to P1, be it mainstream or special..just tell yourselves, whatever decision you make is the best decision at the point of time.
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Not sure if you recall our earlier discussion on discharge from KKH CDU. I have managed to get CDU to refer my boy to IMH CGC. After talking to few people, we think it may be good to continue follow up by CGC, even we don't need any of their service now. As our kids grow up, we will be facing with different set of problems, particularly socially... at least there is somewhere to go to get help or at least they can provide recommendation
My boy still not discharged from CDU leh. So funny hor. We are meeting the dr in Nov again end of this year. We will just do an annual review every year.
CGC will see our child from 7 all the way to 18 or 21 (I can't remember). I was told that we should anticipate new set of problems especially when they reach adolescent, when there is more demand on social skil.. It may be more complex than what we faced now.. CGC could arrange for counseling by psychologist etc. -
specialboymum:
Did you mention before that your boy is year end child? If he was still 6 during the last appointment with them, they probably won't discharge you yet.mashy:
[quote=\"specialboymum\"]Hello mummies,
It has been a while since I last posted.
I would like to wish everybody a happy new year, hope we keep this online support group going and may our special kids be better than yesterday.
For mummies at the cross road..don't worry about if the decision you make is right or not. Whether to defer, to go on to P1, be it mainstream or special..just tell yourselves, whatever decision you make is the best decision at the point of time.
----
Not sure if you recall our earlier discussion on discharge from KKH CDU. I have managed to get CDU to refer my boy to IMH CGC. After talking to few people, we think it may be good to continue follow up by CGC, even we don't need any of their service now. As our kids grow up, we will be facing with different set of problems, particularly socially... at least there is somewhere to go to get help or at least they can provide recommendation
My boy still not discharged from CDU leh. So funny hor. We are meeting the dr in Nov again end of this year. We will just do an annual review every year.
CGC will see our child from 7 all the way to 18 or 21 (I can't remember). I was told that we should anticipate new set of problems especially when they reach adolescent, when there is more demand on social skil.. It may be more complex than what we faced now.. CGC could arrange for counseling by psychologist etc.[/quote]Ya, he was still 6 yrs old during the last appointment. So will be 7 at the next one. -
sorry, a bit confused now.
does KKH rehab see patients that are beyond 7 yo?
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