All About Autism

[helplessmum3]

Hi mummies. Who child are in primary school. May I know at what age they start to talk or communicate w you like how is school

N what happen in school. What they enjoy.

Or when ask them they know What u are asking

[helplessmum3]

nugget:

I read that for ASD kids, some will get better as they grow older (esp if you have intro early intervention before). As these kids grow bigger, they become more aware of their differences amongst the typical kids. And they would need to put in effort to integrate. Happy for you guys that your kids are doing well

Hi Nugget,

what kind of differences? in early intervention they dun close the gap?

[helplessmum3]

happystar:

Dear Parents,


It's really great to hear your children are settling well in mainstream primary schools. Does anyone know which schools in the Central area are supportive of high functioning ASD children? My child is registering for P1 this year.

Hi HappyStar,

how/what they found out that and classified as High Functioning ASD Children in Singapore?

High IQ. act normal but still have ASD traits? and why they still classify as ASD?

[helplessmum3]

blesseddad:

I still have some DVDs to give away, please let me know how you would like to receive them.


See my earlier posts http://www.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/forum/viewtopic.php?p=722344#p722344

HI Blessed Dad, do you have youtube to show a short preview?

[helplessmum3]

mashy:

Chibi


my boy also got the same 'cheeky' feedback from his teacher. He has also become more outspoken than before in kindy.

Hi Mashy,

After been to LEo Magan for awhile, i duno why i find older ASD boys are very charming...& attractive.. must be they have \"character\" :rahrah:


dispite they have the chances of getting bully but bad kids;

[helplessmum3]

specialboymum:

nugget:

Hi Mashy,


Thanks for your assurance. So you only declare to the school after your son have already been admitted? Cos I am visiting the schools right now and seriously dunno which one to choose. I am so worry my son will be outcast and left alone.

I did read up a bit and have shortlisted some schools that currently have ASD kids. So at least the school and teachers have the awareness and know how to handle these children.

One step at a time I guess. My kid has short attention span, how you manage to get him to complete his homework? He also likes to walk around in his class now in kindergarden when the teachers is conducting lessons.

Hi Nugget,

My kid is also in primary 1. For me I informed the school about his condition before I register him - this is so that I can find out the experience and support the schools have.

The first couple of weeks are tough so much so that I almost want to give up, but glad that I have support from the school principal and encouragements from folks in this forum to hang on.

The school assign an AED to guide him during the core subjects classes so as to keep up with the school work, but will slowly wean him off. I also gave the 'greenlight' to his teachers to be open about his condition to the rest of his classmates. I'm not sure how much the kids understand but they are willing to accept him and always ready to help and cheers for him. I'm really thankful to these little kids as their acceptance is important factor to help him to integrate into the mainstream - this is something we can't get from all the therapy we send him to.

It is also important to keep in constant contact with the school to find out how he is doing and the weakness which we need to pay attention to. Sometimes, I also share his behavior with his therapists so that they can suggest what the school could do to handle him better.

Now he settled in well, though he still have problem in focussing, especially if too much verbal instruction is given. His academic isn't that great too but at least he still do his work in school and will take the initiative to inform us on the homework he needs to complete and show us his work which required our signature. Also the good thing is unlike other NT kids, he isn't stressed out when he failed his test- He will still announce loudly that he got 7 out of 10 wrong for his chinese spelling.

For short attention issue, I guess the only way is to slowly build up. First, we need to apply sensory diet to 'start his engine and calm him down' before engaging in any work. Also use reward system to encourage him to sit and complete a task- start with 5-10 minutes and slowly increase the duration

hi specialboymum, what is AED stand for?

[helplessmum3]

mashy:

ImMeeMee:

dear mashy, specialboymum and chibi


your posts on your ups and downs for your children at P1 are really inspiring. I too am worried about dd3 when its time for her to go P1 in two years time, and this is one of the major things that keeps me restless. good to see that you have crossed the bridge and are coping.

in the meantime, could you kindly share what were your experiences in K1 and K2 before going to P school. did you send your children to special ed pre-school, or to mainstream pre-school/childcare, or both.

the reason I am asking is that dd3 is at K1 age this year, and is currently in a special ed pre-school under EIPIC. for some reason, we have yet to send her to a mainstream childcare centre, and I have been wondering whether this is a gap.

I have been told that a child needs mainstream environment for social interaction with neurotypical peers. I do observe that the environment under special ed pre-school is definitely more controlled and thus may have certain constraints. dd3 plays with her sisters at home, sometimes appropriately and sometimes inappropriately. she is beginning to show interest in her younger cousins when they visit on weekends.

Should we add on mainstream childcare environment at this juncture, we would also need to consider other issues like whether we are overloading her, and logistics as well. so there are pros and cons both ways.

Appreciate if you could share with me your own experience for my learning. TIA.

I sent my boy to mainstream childcare. He has some nurturing classmates who will help him along. Like when a boy snatched his toy, another gal will come over, take it back to give to my boy, then send him off to play elsewhere. He was still 'blur blur' and wasn't really aware of what's going on. I'm really thankful that he had nurturing classmates to help him.

I changed sch before coz the teachers and principal from the prev kindy wasn't supportive. So u may need to change schs if u can't find the right fit. Also, our kids need extra patience from the teacher, so it's important we get support from the teacher and principal. I only got him diagnosed towards the end of k2 so in a way it's good. Some schs will reject once they know it's special needs. I'm thankful that his teachers just thought of his high inertia as laziness. They only highlighted that he couldn't write well so we did OT on that. I'm surprised they could even understand him at nursery level when I myself couldn't understand his poor articulation. Lol.

We have not gone thru eipic, so dunno how they work. I think u can try out mainstream and see how he fits in. If cannot then change or withdraw.

i went to kWh EIPIC talk recently, they encourage ASD child to go to mainstream & combine with EIPIC few hrs session. that will work even better.

cuz what they have learnt from EIPIC they can some how able to \"ShowOff:\" to mainstream child care..

[nugget]

hi helplessmum3,


ASD kids when they grow older, they will be more aware that they are different from other children. They would need to learn how to cope with their differences and try to blend in with the typical children cos those social skills doesn’t come naturally to them.

If they have been through EIPIC, they have programs which teaches them how to manage such "differences" and "situation" like taking turns to play, social ques etc.

Remember Autism cannot be cured but there are many ways we can help to "program" our children so they can integrate with the society.

[ImMeeMee]

dear mashy and chibi


thanks for your sharing. looks like some form of mainstream pre-school environment could be good for them.

[specialboymum]

Hi ImMeeMee,


My boy also attended mainstream kindy in a full day childcare centre, but we will take him out to special classes (speech therapy etc) in the afternoon almost 3 times a week. We are lucky that he has a group of 3-4 kids who took him in their group, play with him and 'protect' him. I think as long as the school is aware of your kid's condition and they are well prepared ( in term of make sure additional supports such as assistant teachers is available), she will be fine in mainstream.

Actually, I'm glad that we make the decision to let him go mainstream though it wasn't easy for him and people around him. At the end of the day, we only hope for him to grow up as an independent individual and integrate into the society. Of course, special schools or other specialized classes can teach him the social skill. I also know that many mainstream schools also have special program to allow their students to 'visit' and spend some time the kids in special schools so that they will learn to empathize and accept the special kids. However, I think these orchestrated program will never beat having the NT and special kids in the same learning environment.

After these years, I learn to think of autism, not as a disease or disorder but just a variation of human being, not \"disabled\" but \"differently abled\" so no point trying to find the \"cure\" when it doesn't exist. Though, reports show that 1 in every 100 kids are autistic, we are still minority, so have to find way to cope and lived with the majority of neuro typical lor

Hi helplessmum3,

AED stands for allied educator. Every mainstream stream schools will have a special department on allied teaching to support special needs kids - not restricted to ASD, but also other issues such as dyslexic.

Hi happystar,

Just check the schools websites. They usually give information on the number of staffs and the responsibility of the allied teaching support. You can also email the head of department to find out (email is better than call)

Hi Mashy,

therapeutic listening is one of the OT plan for sensory processing disorder, quite similar to the concept of 'brushing technique' but they uses music at certain frequency. The therapy require special expensive headphones and CDs. My kid's OT give him 15 minutes of therapeutic listening every class, but she suggest I could let him do it at home. It helps for kids like him who have problem in self regulation.
However, not all kids are able to take this form of therapy, even for myself, I don't feel well after tried test listening to it.