All About Autism

[Snow24]

Hi Niu2009


What is SD?

He is attending childcare 1 teacher to 16 children.

What is the teacher to student ratio for the small group class your son is attending? So far had tried 1 teacher to 11 children group class not successful.

[Niu2009]

Hi,

SD means speech and drama. Most of the class is about 10 to 12 kids. Some class is about 6 to 8. Maybe you can try the group around 6. For me, that’s considered small group.

[pinkamoon]

Snow24:

Hi simkhoo and gifts from heaven


Thanks for sharing.

I will work on the social story and narrate to him.

Feedback by the teacher was, he is screaming and walking out of the group class and disrupting the class. I think there is no way he can go to a normal group class.

Has anyone manage to let your child attend a normal group class successfully?

The enrichment centre kicked him out because he was disturbing the classmate even though he kept his promise to stay in the classroom.

Hi Snow24,
I know exactly how you feel because I faced the same issues. When my son was 3.5 years old, I received a call from school after 3 days because they could not handle him. After that, at 4.5, I put him in a childcare with Integrated Child Care Programme (ICCP). After a while, the principal requested that I must prove that my son has mild autism because the school would not accept moderate to severe autistic children. I think she was hinting me that my son was not mildly autistic (I kept delaying the diagnosis) She complained several times about my son's behaviour - not compliant, melt downs, playing with sink, toilet bowls and doors as well as lying on the floor. At that time, I reached a compromise with the principal in order for him to continue studying in the school, i.e. to have my maid shadow him from 9am to 12pm (changed from full day o half day). Basically, he did not participate in class activities, just sitting down to do homework as he missed classes on 2 days (EIPIC Centre). Nearing end of the term in K2, I shadowed him and felt very sad when I saw him doing work at the table while the other children were engaged in other activities.

Anyway, fast forward to 2015. He is in Primary 1 this year! I am so excited, he too is excited. I chose to delay his entry to P1 for a year and has been making sure he does Neurofeedback therapy 5 times a week. When I observed him on the first day of school, I was so happy to see him sitting on the canteen bench with his friends, waiting quietly as the teacher line them in a queue, following behind teachers and standing at the assembly area while the school gathered all the P1 children. I mean, I never dream that he is capable of that till last year when his condition improves.

When I asked him what he did in school, he told me that the teacher bought him to the library to read books, briefed him about the rules to observe in the library and taking care of the books. I was impressed! He was listening!

Since it is only the first day of school, I shall wait for the teachers' feedback. :xedfingers:

[phtthp]

Snow24:

Hi Niu2009


What is SD?

He is attending childcare 1 teacher to 16 children.

What is the teacher to student ratio for the small group class your son is attending? So far had tried 1 teacher to 11 children group class not successful.

Childcare centre normally have a lot of kids.
Anything exceed 5 kids : not conducive for your son, at this moment, at this point in time.
The smaller number of kids in class, the better.
Unless you can find one newly established childcare centre with very few kids, below 5 kids type

maybe consider send him to a kindergarten, with very few kids, or ask your maid to \"shadow\" him.
Normally Montessori kindergarten have fewer children, compared to church kindergarten, or PCF.

now, what your son need is a very small group setting, to help him sit down, listen to Teacher, first.

after your son's condition has shown improvement in a small group setting, after he get used to it, slowly, gradually later one day you may change him back, to a bigger group setting.


SD : speech & drama

================================================

fyi (for those considering Pathlight)

in Pathlight primary school -
if a child show disruption to other pupils in the same class, and class lessons cannot move on, Pathlight won't accept the child.

or if a child show strong dislike to attend Pathlight school, Principal see the child behave this way, Principal also won't accept the child.

[Niu2009]

Hi,


My son is K2 now. Any Dad and mummy can share some experience how to prepare him for mainstream school? I am quite nervous now. Thanks in advance.

[sharonkhoo]

Niu2009:

Hi,


My son is K2 now. Any Dad and mummy can share some experience how to prepare him for mainstream school? I am quite nervous now. Thanks in advance.

How 'different' is he from NT kids? What sort of things does he have difficulty with, or tend to cause meltdowns? In general, when I prepare my daughter (now 17) for any transition, I try to think through each day and figure out what might pose a problem for her. Also think through common issues that may arise outside the classroom. It's not just sitting in class and academic stuff; moving around, coping with toileting, food, social behaviour etc than can pose as many or more problems. One of the most important things for ASD kids, in my opinion, is to teach them how to cope with unexpected changes in schedule, teachers, seating arrangements etc as they tend to be upset by changes. Also teach him how to ask for clarifications or learn to follow others when things change and he is unsure what is happening or what they are expected to do. Since every kid, school and teacher is different, you will have to continue to fine-tune your teaching and advice as you go along. Hope this helps.

[Niu2009]

Hi Simkhoo,


Thanks a lot! My son is in a mainstream childcare from N2.
He didn’t got behavior issues. Teacher feedback he lost in a bigger group and no interaction with peers during N2. Second half K1, he started to play with peers, but I do believe is not so many intetactions. My concern is his attention is a bigger group and follow multi steps instructions.

[Gifts from Heaven]

Niu2009:

Hi Simkhoo,


Thanks a lot! My son is in a mainstream childcare from N2.
He didn't got behavior issues. Teacher feedback he lost in a bigger group and no interaction with peers during N2. Second half K1, he started to play with peers, but I do believe is not so many intetactions. My concern is his attention is a bigger group and follow multi steps instructions.

Hi,

Did your son hv an official diagnosis?
If he has, then you can declare his condition to his form teacher/school and hopefully his teacher will look out for him and that will help to lessen your preparation to pre-empt him of a lot of situations.
For my boy, my concern when I prep him for mainstream primary is during the times when there is no teacher with him, like during recess and just before school starts when he has to wait in the hall. So for recess, after observing his 1st recess in school, I wrote down step by step what he needs to do during recess from the point he hears the bell ring for recess to the point he hears the bell ring for recess is over. Then every day before he goes off to school, I will run through the steps with him and every evening when he comes home, I will ask him if he did all the steps I wrote down. After a week or so, when he got the hang of it, I fade it out. For the wait in the hall, the kids are supposed to do silent reading. So I prep him by getting him to read every nite for 15-20 mins cos that's the amt of time the kids need to read while waiting in the hall. For interacting with other kids aka making friends, we got his therapist and his psychologist to run through various social skills techniques while he was in K2 and more intensively in the Dec month before school reopens. Handouts were given to him and I will go through with him just before he goes off to school and slowly fade it out.
But I think the greatest help came from his form teacher who upon knowing his condition, did not cast him aside but try to engage him by giving him chances to work with different kids in his class. As she praised him for his work well done, the other kids looked up to him and were naturally attracted to him and from there he made friends! Don't need for him to do the initiation which will be his stumbling block if he has to do it to make friends . Must say I'm thankful for this teacher.

[sharonkhoo]

Niu2009:

Hi Simkhoo,


Thanks a lot! My son is in a mainstream childcare from N2.
He didn't got behavior issues. Teacher feedback he lost in a bigger group and no interaction with peers during N2. Second half K1, he started to play with peers, but I do believe is not so many intetactions. My concern is his attention is a bigger group and follow multi steps instructions.

If he has managed in mainstream up till now, he will probably be OK. You may need to do some prep as Gifts from Heaven described. Actually, a lot of NT kids will find multi-step instructions difficult too. My daughter didn't have an official diagnosis at P1, so I simply described her to the form teacher as introverted and needing some help in joining groups activities, and distractable, therefore needing help in focusing on multi-step instructions. It wasn't all smooth sailing, but she coped OK overall. We don't expect her to manage very well even now, and we accept that she won't always know what's going on, often gets left out of activities, or may get taken advantage of by classmates, but it's not too bad.

[Niu2009]

Hi Gift from heaven and Simkhoo,

Thanks a lot! Your sharing helps a lot. My son did go ST/OT now, will start send him to social group now. He didn’t diagnosis we yet, will do second half 2015. I will start to prepare him now.