All About Autism

[phtthp]

Niu2009:

Hi,


The last week of term 1 already. Friday will be the first PTM. Overall, my boy adapt quite fast. He even got a gift from his teacher as he got most points in the past two month. Teacher use class dojo as rewards system. But there are some issues make me uncomfortable, want to ask some suggestions from expericed parents here. In my boy's team, got one boy, teacher said he not easy to get along. So his seats changed 3 or 4 times already. He sat beside my boy about 2 or 3 weeks, there are somethings happened. He barrowed pen from my one, my one don't want. Then he tried to grab, my one hold it, then the color pencil box broken. Another time is space issue, he said let my boy give some space to him, my one not move, then he pulled the chair. Then teacher swop the seat for my son and another girl. Now there are two girls between two of them. Last Thursday, they were doing some activities, draw your friend. My boy draw him, he walked to my boy's seat, said he don't like the way my boy draw then erase the picture. Most of the cases teachers saw it and stop him. I asked my boy, why you not tell teacher, he said teacher can saw and can't shout in classroom. I am wondering is that the boy target him as he is a quiet one? What I supposed to do? I know is not big issues, but happen quite often make me worried. Any experienced parent can advise?

teach your son to \"siam\" or avoid this boy, since this boy is \"difficult to get along with\".

Eg
when Tr ask students to \"draw my friend in class\", teach your son to draw some other classmate instead. Amongst all his 30 P1 classmates, of all people, why must your son choose to draw this \"problem kid\" ?
in so doing unknowingly, your son is \"inviting trouble\" to himself, from this boy.

Maybe this \"problem kid\" does not like to see himself drawn, so when he see your son draw him, he not happy, hence walked over to your son's seat in classroom, erased your son's picture of him ... then that's when trouble start to brew, like start to target your son, etc.

Ask your son's Form Tr to let him sit beside a girl class monitress, as class monitress are usually better behaved, or some P1 classmate who are mature for their age

besides just this boy, are there also other classmates that are \"difficult to get along with\", or tend to be naughty, like sometimes you know ... seated inside the classroom, like to balance their chair only on the 2 front legs, thus rocking the chair backward, forthward, up & down, which is very distracting during lessons, esp. to the immediate neighbor classmate sitting right beside him ?
seated on chair, balancing on just 2 front legs, rocking back & forth not only distracting, but also dangerous to the student himself and to the immediate neighbor, in case the kid fall down during chair unbalance, then hit his head on someone else table behind him ?

There are kids like this, also.
The way they sit in class, is a habit (mirror reflection) of how they sit at home.

if got such classmates, remind your son : don't sit beside them.

[Niu2009]

Hi all,


Thanks! I already told my boy don’t do anything related to him. Why I think he target my boy is last time he also walk over to see how many points my boy got in the learning sheet. I will try to talk to Fr teacher the coming Friday. Anyway, I am teaching him to avoid this boy. I spoken to his China tr twice about this boy, those problems all happened in Chinese session. She said she closely monitoring them. I didn’t declare my son so I am considering to tell her my boy’s conditions.

[pinkamoon]

bs1975:

Hi pinkamoon

How is your son ''s speech and communication ability now?
On par with peers?
Does he has friends in school?
Does he still have the asd traits?
Can share with us how did you help your son over the years ?

Hi bs1975,

My son talks a lot now. His ability to understand and communicate is pretty good but he has a tendency to talk more about the topics he likes. That is the main difference between him and other children. Otherwise, he can answer questions with not much issue. Nowadays, he tells me things like my friends' parents don't expect them to finish the water in the water bottle unlike me. He is able to negotiate with me which is great. So, I will explain the rationale to him and reduce my expectations to half a bottle instead of one whole bottle on non-PE days.

As for ASD traits, it depends on how u see it. Most of us have one or two traits like OCD, let alone our children. He had verbal stimming, echolalia, hand flapping, head banging etc which are more serious issues. He is still at the hyper side but no longer displays the more serious symptoms. At times, he will remember certain scenes or pictures and laugh. When I ask him to share, he will tell me what tickles him. To me, these are now small issues because everyone needs a way to let off some stress.

He does not have many friends in school. Sometimes, he will play hopscotch with friends but most of the time he goes to the library. I do hear one or two names mentioned but I do not think he has many friends. I believe he is more of a loner which I am perfectly fine. How many of us have primary school friends whom we keep in contact with at this point of time. Most often, we make friends and foster deeper friendship as we get older. He still has many years ahead and this is really not a big issue. He gets along with his sisters and play with them. Now he is starting to play with his cousins and I am happy that he is starting to do that.

As for what I did for my son, I think I did quite a fair bit. I did GAPS diet which involves the removal of grains and carb and inclusion of fats, oil n probiotics. Lots more of other things actually. It is a step more than GFCF. This diet helps my son sleep (he does nkt sleep much and stayed awake from 1am-6am) and become less hyper (we used to lose him in public places). For the first time, he did not run far from me and responded to my calls. He was able to shout for 'mummy' when he realised I was not beside him.

I also tried biomedical, many many supplements. He was popping many pills everyday. B12 jab was also given for more than 6 months. He also did cranial sacral therapy. A these did not 'wow' results for me to continue. I think I probably did it for 1 -1.5years.

I am a believer of son-rise programme. How can a programme that teaches you to play and love your children be bad? I did son rise on my own, like half a day with my son at home everyday without volunteers. With the help of neuro feedback, his speech surged and we came out of the play room half a year later. I deferred his entry to P1 for a year and really spent the year doing neuro feedback and son rise with him. Btw, I have been taking care of his diet since he was 3.5 years old and I think it has laid a good foundation to his recovery. Till today, I make sure he has lots of veg, good fats, meat and soup for his meals.

My story is no secret. I have shared with many mummies I met at the EIPIC centre too. Just last week, I met up with one mummy. We have always stayed in touch on the phone. She knew the state my son was in 3 years ago but seeing how much he has grown has encouraged her to start looking at dietary interventions.

As for epsom salt, put 1/3 into hot water to dissolve first, if not, it will hurt their bums when they sit inside the tub. After that, dilute with water to the right temperature. U can add some (about 1 -2teaspoon) baking soda. I used to soak my son inside after his soap bath. You do not want to wipe his body dry too. Just gently dab his body and leave some epsom salt water on his body.

I just want to say that the road to a child with less ASD traits is not easy. It is not something that we can achieve in months. I started dietary interventions when he was 3.5 y.o. My son is going to be 9 this year. So, it has been a long 5 years. Deep down in my heart, I always believe that my son can one day recover, so I continue to fight this battle. I tell myself that even if he does not 'become better', I do not want to have any regrets of not doing enough to help him.

So, fighting!

[lavendery]

Hi pinkamom,


May I know if you son is still on the special diet ? You have really did a lot in the past and that’s why your son is able to achieve to this stage. May I know how does the cranial sacral helps our ASD kids? Is he still on the neurofeedback thing? Is it time consuming?

[pinkamoon]

Hi lavendery,


I still include lots of vegetables, fats, meat and soup in our main meals. We mostly eat at home without MSG or soya sauce. We only have Celtic or Himalayan salt, pepper, coconut oil/ olive oil and sesame oil to season the food. He gets occasional McDonald’s treat now but I still control intake of certain food like sausages because he keeps shaking his head after eating sausages.

I did cranial sacral therapy with not much improvement. The therapists will massage the neck and the head to regulate the flow of cerebrospinal fluid. In order to keep my son in lying down position, I had to hold his ipad while the therapist worked on him. It is supposed to help ease tensions and for better brain function as the ‘flow’ is smoother within the body.

He is still doing neurofeedback. It exercises the neural pathways to enhance performance and brain functioning. The goal is to train the desired brainwaves. Many Autisitic/ADD/ADHD children have low levels of SMR waves, so neurofeedback will target their weakest brainwave and train the children to produce more of the waves. It is about 45 mins to an hour.

[bs1975]

Hi Pinkamoon

Thanks for your sharing.
Where do you do the neuro feedback and it is expensive?

[sharonkhoo]

Here's an encouraging article:

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/sin ... d#cxrecs_s

This chap is obviously very academically able in maths and sciences. That's a good fit for ASD people as those courses and jobs may not require such high levels of social skills and social interaction. I have a daughter (Asperger's) taking A levels this year, but she's more Arts inclined. However, she's being tripped up by her lack of inferential skills. Also, the courses she might eventually want to pursue in poly/university all seem to have a high component of group work, presentation skills, and of course, inference!

[pinkamoon]

Hi bs1975,

I have pmed u.

[pinkamoon]

slmkhoo, i must say that you and your daughter are also our inspiration!

[sharonkhoo]

pinkamoon:

slmkhoo, i must say that you and your daughter are also our inspiration!

Thanks! She's only mildly Aspie, which makes her less challenging than most, I think. So we have had an easier time, maybe? But now I find she's falling between 2 stools - not ASD enough to go for the various schemes being set up, but still needing a good deal of help especially when adjusting to new things and coping with social interactions. I'm not sure that there is much help for people like her.