All About Autism

[sharonkhoo]

MummyOats:

Snow24:

Hi


How to train or improve the child fine motor skill?

Hi Snow

I am not sure how old is your child. When my child was about 3 yrs, the OT taught us some self-made OT kits. This is what I can rem', hope it helps you.

(1) Take some drinking straws (normal ones), cut them into small pcs (about 1.5cm). Take a shoe lace or string. Let child practise stringing the straw through the shoe lace.

(2) Get some small clothes peg (5cm type). Get an uncovered box and let child practise clipping the clothes peg onto the box.

(3) Get some 50cts & 20cts coins (start with 50cts as they are easier to work with). Put coins on 3rd finger tip of child. Ask child to try to get the coin onto his palm by \"closing\" up his finger. He can use his other fingers to assist but not the other hand. Once the coin is in palm, child can put the coin into a coin bank.

If your child is into sorting (mine was), get lots of assorted small objects like buttons or small toys and get him to pick them up one by one and sort them into colours or other groupings. Make shakers by getting him to place small objects (lego pieces, buttons) into a jar one by one. Jigsaws, Lego, construction toys, paper tearing (can use them to make collage), pasting, playdough, basically anything that uses fine motor skills. Make them easy to begin with, then increase the difficulty as he progresses. Having variety and making it more fun will encourage him to practise more often.

[Double E]

MummyOats:

Double E:

Mommy Oats

Thanks for sharing! very helpful indeed.

On the daily exposure wise, I also it will be tough if the kid had not been exposed to the thing before. As for patterning, if is simple like circle, triangle, circle and whats next, then should not be a problem for my son. I am more worried about the verbal performance like describing things. Ok, I think I have 3 mths to expose him to as many things as possible.

Hi Double E

You are welcome. All the best ! :rahrah:

PS : Another thing to \"train\" is on-seat behaviour. The actual test last about an hr and the psychologist actually commented in the report whether the child can maintain on-seat behaviour or not.

As in whether the kid can sit down and pay attention instead of getting up and run around? That part, so far ok for my boy. He can sit for an hour to finish his homework. Hope he maintains it that way during the test.

[pinkamoon]

Hi mummies,

I agree with slmkhoo that sometimes we try not to push the children too hard as each child’s developmental milestone is different.

My son did not know how to button his shirt until age 6. I have been buttoning for him until one day he asked me not to help him and that he wanted to do it on his own. Only this year at 7 years old, just last month, he wanted to take his own bath. So now, he takes his own bath with me making sure that there is no more soap on his body for the last rinse.

I advocate playing at playground, beach for training of their muscles and make my son carry grocery bags, helping to pack the house etc as everyday training is more effective than OT (only once a week). My son could not cycle, catch and throw a ball but when I stopped all the OT and really play with him at the playground and at home (playing blocks, balloons, throwing pillows, pegs, blowing bubbles etc), all these skills started to emerge.

No doubt swimming is a good exercise but there is chlorine in the water. It will be good to soak them in Epsom salt (magnesium) after swimming for detox purposes.

As for the psychological test, I did not train my son as the report only serves its purpose for the doctor and school. It does not serve any purpose for me as I know what he can do and cannot do. In the end, there was no IQ score for him as he scored high for some and low for others. It did not matter to me what the outcome of his report was, but it matters how much improvements I see as he progresses.

[Couragemom]

Hi Pinkamoon,


I totally agree with you about playground time helping with the child’s sensory and vestibular system. I get my son to run barefooted on grass, play catching on uneven sand area, sit on swing and sing etc. Every evening we bring the kids to playground to play as long as weather permits. It helps with family bonding and my son now can ride a tricycle and scooter.

[pinkamoon]

Couragemom:

Hi Pinkamoon,


I totally agree with you about playground time helping with the child's sensory and vestibular system. I get my son to run barefooted on grass, play catching on uneven sand area, sit on swing and sing etc. Every evening we bring the kids to playground to play as long as weather permits. It helps with family bonding and my son now can ride a tricycle and scooter.

Couragemum,

Nice job! Running around barefooted on grass is so good!

Earthing is excellent and helps the body minimize the consequences of exposure to potentially disruptive fields like \"electromagnetic pollution\".

The micro-organisms in the soil are important for good health too. Just make sure that there is no cut on the soles when they take off shoes.

[sharonkhoo]

pinkamoon:

As for the psychological test, I did not train my son as the report only serves its purpose for the doctor and school. It does not serve any purpose for me as I know what he can do and cannot do. In the end, there was no IQ score for him as he scored high for some and low for others. It did not matter to me what the outcome of his report was, but it matters how much improvements I see as he progresses.

Same for my daughter - high for some, low for some, and the difference was too great for an IQ score to be computed. Oh well, what to do? I also did not ask her to practise as I wanted an accurate assessment based on her 'normal' and since we were asking for exemptions, it was probably in her interest not to score high. But I suppose it really depends on the purpose for the IQ score.

[MummyOats]

Double E:

As in whether the kid can sit down and pay attention instead of getting up and run around? That part, so far ok for my boy. He can sit for an hour to finish his homework. Hope he maintains it that way during the test.

Yes, that is what I mean

[pinkamoon]

MummyOats:

Double E:

As in whether the kid can sit down and pay attention instead of getting up and run around? That part, so far ok for my boy. He can sit for an hour to finish his homework. Hope he maintains it that way during the test.

Yes, that is what I mean

Hi MummyOats, I thought my son would fit in preschool environment as he could do his so called homework I gave him. However, I was utterly wrong. He became a nuisance in preschool, busy with his new found interest - sliding doors and basins with press release taps. These are the things not found at home. Don't worry too much. You never know what toys they have during assessment that would make him stim. My son played with one particular toy over and over again and was not interested in pretend play. Haiz... what to do? Just sit back and observe your child and let him be himself.
I just have to accept him as he is.

[keropi_81]

Hi all,


My son is 26mths now and is not speaking any word yet. We just seen the doc at kkh yesterday and the doc said he had symptoms of autism but can’t diagnose yet due to his age. The doc recommend him to go for OT 1st while waiting to enter eipic and to go to normal Childcare.

I’m wondering just by going to OT at kkh will it hinder the early intervention since the waiting time for eipic is very long and the therapy session at kkh is far apart.

Any good OT to recommend? Hope to get some advice from here.

Thanks,
Keropi

[Double E]

keropi_81:

Hi all,


My son is 26mths now and is not speaking any word yet. We just seen the doc at kkh yesterday and the doc said he had symptoms of autism but can't diagnose yet due to his age. The doc recommend him to go for OT 1st while waiting to enter eipic and to go to normal Childcare.

I'm wondering just by going to OT at kkh will it hinder the early intervention since the waiting time for eipic is very long and the therapy session at kkh is far apart.

Any good OT to recommend? Hope to get some advice from here.

Thanks,
Keropi

Hi Keropi
I would suggest that you send your son to both OT and ST (for speech) while waiting to enter eipic and childcare. If you are concern about the lack of frequency in KKH, you can seek out private OT and ST. There are plenty out there like Kids OT at Tangling Shopping Centre, Leapfrog at Bukit Timah and many others. However, do note the fees from private ST and OT are high, on average $130 per session of 1hr. What I did for my son when he was suspected of Autism was that I sent him to both OT and ST, each therapy once a week. I also attended course from KKH's ENT session so that I can do some of the ST for him myself.