All About Autism

[keropi_81]

Courage mom - I guess that’s the reason too.


I’m still thinking of going to leapfrog/kids potc/Edunamics/ olive tree? Any review on them???

Thanks in advance

[Couragemom]

Hi keropi,


My son goes to kidzpotc and my friend’s son goes to hand-in-hand OTC so I only know these 2 centres. Please call up the centres to check the available times slots available as afternoon slots are very popular. My son has to go for OT in the morning but it is disruptive as he attends N1 class in a normal pre-school.

I think you also need to see if the therapist is a good fit for your son as I had to change OT twice before finding a suitable one for my son. Good luck!

[Liyuan]

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

The usual practice of KKH is to recommend suspected case of autism to OT and speech therapy. I strongly encourage you to read up more on other interventions that are known to create positive change to children with autism. Some examples are floortime, ABA (applied behavioral analysis), RDI, Teach method. in many other countries, ABA is the recommendation by paed once suspected of autism. ABA is also the most researched on intervention for people with autism. Depending on the level of functioning of the child, ABA may or may not be the best form of intervention for your child. Again, i strongly encourage you to read up on the different interventions.

Early intervention is very important. The reason is that the plasticity of the brain has a clear age dependent determinant. It is much easily to "re wire" the neurons pathways in the brain at a younger age. Also, it is always easier to tackle any behavioral issue when the habit has yet to develop. So do not wait as you do not want to lose this window. The DSM5 (diagnostic statistical manual) of autism has change so as to make diagnosis earlier as they too recognize the importance of early intervention. Do not adopt a sit and see how it goes mentality. Start therapy as early as you can for your child. It is a much better news that if the end of the day, you realized that your child is perfectly normal but have you have wasted money for therapy as compared to losing the most crucial window for therapy to take place and thus not being able to walk your child out of the spectrum.

[fluttershy]

hi mummies,


have any of you heard about EIC kindergarten? a friend suggested for me to check it out there. It's around balestier area. The teacher student ratio is 2:5. Any input or info is greatly appreciated! they have one-on-one session too for the older kids.

[Couragemom]

Hi fluttershy,


Yes, I have been to eic for a walk-through when I was thinking whether to let my son join an eipic. In the end I decided to continue my son in mainstream per-school while joining a social class taught by sped teacher and finding him a partner for OT session as well. On top of that, he has his ST session so both the psychologist and me felt is enough for him (and me!!!) already.

For eic, I am impressed with their teacher-student ratio as well as the strong emphasis on academic learning. But are you aware that it takes in only special needs children? It is not a mainstream kindergarten that accepts special needs students. If you are looking for such a kindergarten with sped Ed teachers, then you are looking for a private integrated kindergarten or childcare centre. Examples of such would be zee house, green room, St Gerard’s, ichiban nurtureland or one mommy mentioned Divinity in Bishan? These kindergartens have both a special needs division and a mainstream kindergarten operation where our special needs kids can join in when deem ready. Do search online for more information about them.

[Couragemom]

Hi fluttershy,


Actually a lot of Govt and private mainstream per-schools accept special needs students just that it is on a case-by-case basis. What I did for my son was to short list those per-schools with lower student:teacher ratio and not too far from my home. I personally visit all of them and speak to the Principal directly (but didn’t reveal my son’s condition) until his current per-school where I feel everything is right and I revealed my son’s condition and the Principal granted me an interview with my son together then accepted him on the same wavelength that I need to continue to support him with the necessary therapies.

[julybabe]

hi i am new to the forum and in need of help. any redhill mummy around? my 3.5yrs ASD gal is currently with a low ratio mainstream fulltime childcare for the past 6mths. we were lucky to find the childcare to accept my gal. now we hv to withdraw my gal by end of the yr as she is not suitable to move along with her classmates who progressing to K1 next yr.


i am in need of a fulltime childcare which opens to special needa children aound bukit merah. any recommendation? really in lost now.

thank you.

[julybabe]

hi i am new to the forum and in need of help. any redhill mummy around? my 3.5yrs ASD gal is currently with a low ratio mainstream fulltime childcare for the past 6mths. we were lucky to find the childcare to accept my gal. now we hv to withdraw my gal by end of the yr as she is not suitable to move along with her classmates who progressing to K1 next yr.


i am in need of a fulltime childcare which opens to special needa children aound bukit merah. any recommendation? really in lost now.

thank you.

[sharonkhoo]

julybabe:

hi i am new to the forum and in need of help. any redhill mummy around? my 3.5yrs ASD gal is currently with a low ratio mainstream fulltime childcare for the past 6mths. we were lucky to find the childcare to accept my gal. now we hv to withdraw my gal by end of the yr as she is not suitable to move along with her classmates who progressing to K1 next yr.


i am in need of a fulltime childcare which opens to special needa children aound bukit merah. any recommendation? really in lost now.

thank you.

Would the childcare be willing to have your child remain but repeat the year with the next group coming up? There's no need to put her in K1 if she's not ready, and one year difference between kids is not much.

[julybabe]

Hi, the Childcare also facing difficulties with handling my gal + manpower consideration. So i have no choice but to pull her out.