All About Autism

[tyeogh]

DesertWind:

The hand-in-pants thing is probably a growing up phase. My boy recently took to grabbing his crouch and grinning at us then having giggling fits. I read a chapter from James Dobson's \"Bringing up Boys\" and he said this is a normal phase for them and shows that they are being \"wired up\" properly! Maid told us to ignore him when he did that. For me, I sure scold and told him the police will catch. His daddy told him not to do a \"Michael Jackson\" :faint: . I also dunnoo how exactly to handle, hope he will grow out of it soon?

What a coindence! My 6 yr old NT boy does it too. Tried correcting him to no avail. He keeps grabbing his private in public. He then upgraded to grabbing his private on stage during his school concert. I had to look around to pretend I wasn't his father!!

[tyeogh]

Double E:

My husband and I have enough me time. We just came back from our holidays in New York and Bangkok in Sept and Oct, without the kids. And every Friday, we have our couple time.

I like the couple time thingy. Important to take time outs to keep the sanity intact .......and the romance alive. To me, this is the best gift we can give our children - a pair of parents. Too many divorces out there. Especially trying for us parents of special kids. It is so easy to get lost over the challenges ....

One Like for you lah!!

[windie]

Best Xmas present for you and your family!


:congrats:

[Double E]

belachanbabe:

OMG, just when I was steeling myself for the long and arduous process of re-applying my boy into PL next year, I got a call today from the school that MY SON GOT ACCEPTED INTO PATHLIGHT!!! :rahrah: :boogie:


I have no words to express my joy right now.

It’s for the foundation course but that was what we were aiming for anyway since he was a borderline case with moderately severe autism. Also pantang so didn’t mention here but will share a longer post later detailing the process which involved 2 assessments, 1 school observation and lots of tears.

Special thanks to ImMeeMee for giving me hope. :celebrate:

Congratulations! And what a relief right? to know your boy has a chance to learn and Pathlight, to me, is a prestige school because is really not so easy to get in. :congrats:

[botakgundul]

belachanbabe:

MY SON GOT ACCEPTED INTO PATHLIGHT!!! :rahrah: :boogie:

Happy for you.... See you on 27 Dec for school orientation.

[DesertWind]

Hi daddy tyeogh,


The priority to Pathlight for clients of ARC is still there. It is stated under the FAQ - Admission.

[tyeogh]

DesertWind:

Hi daddy tyeogh,


The priority to Pathlight for clients of ARC is still there. It is stated under the FAQ - Admission.

Oh. I see it. Thanks. Too much information till lost. LoL. The queue into ARC itself is 1 year plus!!

[tyeogh]

Wait. ARC is separate from We Can EIP. Website says clients of ARC or WeCan EIP gets priority to Pathlight. How can one be a client of ARC?

[wamin]

http://bit.ly/1fHHjuL

[belachanbabe]

Thanks everyone! There will be many battles won and lost but am glad we emerged victorious in this one.


(Warning, long rambling post)

It really felt like a yearlong military operation. Prep started end of last year with the collation of reports required. In brief, we had to fork out $$ for a private psychologist test because KKH had a long wait list else we wouldn’t have made the deadline of submission. If you want to go entirely by the KKH route, start at least 1 year in advance before deadline. When the report came out, it unfortunately fell just below the school IQ70 cut-off of which then we had to then buffer our application with additional assessments. Though it was effortful, mood was more positive anticipation and hopeful. (A bit indignant at the low score but I put that down to the psychologist conservatively going by the book)

At the 1st assessment in June, C2 managed to go through the review process but DH had to bring him to the class and bolt when his back was turned. Although we weren’t called to fetch him halfway, a teacher had to separately bring him down after the assessment. Still we were optimistic that he would have made it as he wasn’t behaving much different to the rest.

In the waiting time for the results, I was deployed to fight another battle with the mainstream pri 1 registration for C1. Yes I was one of the parents checking back at kiasuparents forum every hour for the number of places left after each stage. Thankfully that was a swift victory.

Then we found out the results were out for the 1st assessments and some parents here got in already. Course then started to become anxious and called the school every other week for info. Response was that C2 was on waitlist and his was a “grey area” case and please be patient while they check to see how many spaces left after confirmations from the first lot. That was also the first time my heart dropped and started to feel miserable but still optimistic as there was still time left in the year.

Then days and months rolled by, I developed into this kan cheong spider and started to check in with PL every other week. ImMeeMee suggested the possibility of school observation, however when I broached this option to them, they said it was only for special cases and wasn’t available to me at that time due to logistical issues.

Then we were notified of a 2nd assessment in Oct. This time it was a complete disaster; while he managed to attend the class with much prodding; he couldn’t sit still and was totally distracted. In fact it took 4 teachers to corral him when he took off running. The teachers also had this ‘no hope liao’ expression on their faces. By then I really felt quite defeated, it hit rock bottom emotionally for me. Family kept saying it wasn’t his time yet and it was for the best. But was still depressed, falling ill easily and zombie at work. Small comfort was my other boy’s orientation which kept me busy logistically and of course the encouragement I got from this thread.

By Nov, we were already arranging appointments on the re-application when we received an email from PL to arrange for a school observation during the PSLE marking week. Wah! Flicker of hope! This time we took no chances and approached this with total military precision. As it was also the first time for the school, the principal was kind enough to hold trial practices before the actual observation. It also helped tremendously that my boy was the teacher’s pet so he was most as ease with her.

Feedback from the principal later was that he was a total angel in front of the assessors, demonstrated independence and able to answer them appropriately. The assessors were also present in his earlier ones so they could see the 180 degree contrast. But of course they couldn’t confirm his place without going through the whole committee approval process. Luckily I already made friends with student admissions. While they couldn’t give me a direct answer, they were quite positive on his chances. And of course the rest was history.

I will stop rambling now but it really was a journey and we know there will be an even longer journey ahead. Still as mentioned before, we need to celebrate these little victories to keep us sane.