All About Autism

[bb_ mom]

How about safra? Friends’ DD attends at safra toa payoh & I sat in to wait with her. Coach seems very friendly.

[johmom]

Hello again


Music therapy
Well, my son likes music and was learning the piano. But he's a bit of the perfectionist sort so... Long story short, two things happened and he stopped piano altogether.

Firstly, he was pushed to progress to quickly too soon. It didn't work well with his \"perfectionistic\" personality cos he would practice two hours a day and still struggle to get it right. And he was too young (my view).

Second, he made a three mistakes during a performance last yr and he's been scarred by it since. Hahaha. Sigh.

Anyway, music therapy is for him to explore music and musicing. The therapist uses music to explore social traits, let him blow off his \"creative steam\" within boundaries, coordination and sequencing... In the teacher's words

\"The main differences could be found in the goals and interventions we use. In Music therapy, we focus on other aspects of the child development though as opposed to working solely on acquisition of instrumental skills. For instance, connectedness, attention span, being communicative through music. It is a child-centered ( not child-led approach) where I try to structure each music session around who is he in the moment and the music/ideas that he brings in with him.\"

She's also part psychologist for my kid cos they have a connectedness now and every now and then he'll bring up something that's bothering him. And he looks forward to the spot of chess he gets to play at the end of lessons. Haha

TKD
He did it when he was 4.5yo. Then when he was 5 and realise his peers have gone on to the bigger kids class and he's still with the toddlers he wondered why. well, he couldn't bow to the flag cos it was wrong to him in principle. And he couldn't follow the steps or even kick higher than ankle height without falling over!

But he's interested to learn again and seeing how his coordination has improved slightly (probably at the 5yo level) we might let him try again second half of this yr.

[Couragemom]

Hi Johmom,


Woah! Music therapy sounds so good! It is like having music lessons without any pressure for grading exam, peer pressure etc.

Btw, all these extra classes like piano and tkd, how do you decide if our child is ready? Or your son pester you to let him attend? Like for my son’s case, he was sitting down well in his old playgroup circle time so I thought I let him try Berries Chinese class and he got ‘lost’ during class and I stopped.

[Couragemom]

Hi Nugget,


Any sports that needs our kids to do bi-lateral moves such as left leg/right hand out etc and balancing is good for their motor development. Swimming has an additional sensory input of water against skin.

[Couragemom]

Hi Niu2009,


Woah, your son’s kindy teacher is very nice. I tio complaints from my son’s old playgroup principal almost daily recently even though she knows about my son’s condition. Anyway the new pre-school teacher is very nice, she tells me to give my son time to settle down and tries her best to involve him in class activities.

Regarding your questions about OT/ST frequencies, it really depends on how ‘severe’ is his condition. Perhaps you can check with a developmental PD or an educational
Psychologist to see his gap with his peers? Then they can advise if you need eipic or sped or social class lessons etc.

Do you intend to declare your son’s condition to the primary school when you apply next June? If yes, then you need a full autism assessment report done before that.

[Double E]

Niu2009:

Double E:

Johmom,

Good to hear that your boy is doing good in P1. Same as couragemum, it does help to boost my confidence in my boy too.

Anyway, on my boy, his OT recently commented that he is still not up to par on his planning skills, not much significant improvement, so told me he has to continue his OT. Well, I don't intend to stop anyway, so I m not very much affected. And I am starting him on Taekwando, hope it will help to instill more discipline in him and learn some moves to defend himself, haha.

Hi Double E,

May i khow where you send you DS on Taekwando? Btw, how old is he now?

The TKD school is in Tanglin Shopping Centre, just beside Kidz OT. My boy is going to be in the same class as his younger sister. I signed both my kids up.

[Double E]

Couragemom:

Hi Double E,


May I ask at what age does your son start his neurofeedback sessions?

He started when he was around 4 years old. Yes , he is with Gavin Ong.

[Double E]

Niu2009:

Double E:

Johmom,

Good to hear that your boy is doing good in P1. Same as couragemum, it does help to boost my confidence in my boy too.

Anyway, on my boy, his OT recently commented that he is still not up to par on his planning skills, not much significant improvement, so told me he has to continue his OT. Well, I don't intend to stop anyway, so I m not very much affected. And I am starting him on Taekwando, hope it will help to instill more discipline in him and learn some moves to defend himself, haha.

Hi Double E,

May i khow where you send you DS on Taekwando? Btw, how old is he now?

Niu2009, my son is 5 this year.

[belachanbabe]

Hi Johmom


Glad to hear about your son’s successful adjustment into Pri 1. C1’s situation is not as smooth as yours though. He is very weak in mandarin, hasn’t been able to pass his 听写 since it started *haiz. Still am making him try till Pri 2 before applying for exemption. We also started Chinese tuition but so far no results yet; teacher’s just wrestling to keep his attention. His maths prowess has also been slipping also due to the English comprehension required, the ‘more’ and ‘less’ than part always trips him up. So he is a bit down because of that as he has been quite advanced in his Kumon maths worksheets.

The school bus bullies are another story, last week he came back with scratches and bruises on his arms and his uniform dirtied like he rolled on the floor. He was very tearful and said that he had no friends. Wah, I exploded at his form teacher, AED officer and school bus operator and threatened to make a police report the next day. Luckily the matter was swiftly investigated and solved within the day. His classmate called him names and instigated 2 others to shove him. Teacher called his mother and made him do some reflection and write an apology letter to my boy with some drawings of his favorite dinosaurs. Overall the school has been quite supportive and efficient and they were able to manage this deranged mother and make the bus operator wake up his idea. Not sure how long it will last though. :xedfingers:

C2’s path at Pathlight has thankfully been less dramatic and he started tkd about 2.5 mths back to improve his balance and discipline. Again, we are thankful that the school is able to let him have one to one with a dedicated instructor but within a big class so that he is able to observe and emulate others (of course you have to pay for it, no free lunch as they say). What I liked was that the school has a code of ethics or whatever is the proper term, as we personally saw other kids volunteering to help whenever he stumbles and falls or patiently show him proper stances. No expectations on belt grading at the moment so long as he enjoys the lessons. Already quite impressed that he is able to do the forward roll independently and kick waist high. Unfortunately C1’s school demands are too demanding so he is unable to join his bro. Highly recommend anyone to send their kid to tkd if they have the time.

[Double E]

belachanbabe


The mum of the kid who bullied your boy, was she defensive? I am so sorry to hear that your boy was bullied and has no friends, must be heartbreaking for you. Oh man! I don’t know if I can deal with such situation when is my boy’s turn. As of now, when I see my friends’ kids ignoring my boy, I already feel very sad and I teared whenever I talked about that.