Hi mummies, it's been a while! i'm quite concerned with DS slow progress right now.. he's 3,5 yrs now.. his speech is still very limited despite the 25-hour a week of ABA.. he can only make one word when he requested for something like going to toilet, requesting for drink, ipad/iphone..i'm very sad whenever i think whether he will be able to speak in sentences in the future


the positive thing is that his labelling is very good.. he can identifies types of animals, transportations, fruits, etc..and he's pretty consistent with recognizing faces..for example, when i ask who am i.. he can reply \"mama\".. and when i pointed to daddy & asked him.. he replied \"papa\" overall, he can differentiate between my helper, his siblings & his grandparents as well.

the elders keep telling me that he'll be okay & remarked to me that he made a lot of progress.. maybe i'm around him every day, i feel his progress has been really slow..he's starting N2 in January with a shadow therapist.. i'm so worried he might not be able cope with his NT peers.. looking at where he is now, i don't think he can cope with mainstream school :sad:

have anyone heard of dover court preparatory school? any input about the school? :scratchhead:

sorry to sound negative today.. maybe just not a good day for me :imsorry:

Hi mommies, I just wanna share that my son is 3 years 2 months now and after 1 week of intensive potty training, he finally potty trained during the day (yeay, no more diapers!) :rahrah: I'm so happy that he can reach out to any adults near him and said \"pee pee\" & hold it very well until reaching the toilet. Looks like we're going to bring him to the mall/public places & teach him to generalize it everywhere. From where he is now, his behaviour consultant is positive that he will be able to do it soon :love:

I'm one of those mummies who doesn't agree with caning simply because I couldn't bring myself to


when my son was diagnosed with 'suspected asd' for the first time by the psychologist, i asked her whether i should cane/beat to make him comply because anything i said, he seemed 'deaf' & simply ZERO compliance (I was lost as what to do with him, nobody in my family or extended family has a special need kid). the psychologist told me that she doesn't condone beating/caning simply because \"you can't hit a person for wearing spectacles because he/she is near/far sighted.\"

the last sentence she said is the reason i refrain myself even until this day not to hit/beat him when he's having tantrum. thank God, now after 10 months (and almost $80k poorer :censored: ) of intensive ABA 25 hours a week, his compliance is there. He's responding to his name, understood simple instructions & whenever he doesn't comply I will voice out a stern negative tone voice and it gets to him. He understood I wasn't happy with whatever he's doing.

It's been 13 months & still long long long way journey ahead of us, but the 3 things I need to learn coping with kid with asd is patience, patience & patience. Easier said than done though :oops:

hi tyeogh,


when you mentioned about the private eipic at joo chiat, was that ARN? i went there to take a look before enrolling my son at private centre. Didn't feel quite right the moment we stepped in there, so I put my son somewhere else which me & my husband feels much more comfortable even to this day. Just wondering :scared:

updates on my son (turning 3 soon), he can start saying more words now & more clearly. The therapists are working hard on his articulation, he can say more words & read them simultenously as they're using alphabets to practice with his articulation. The behaviour consultant is telling me that he's progressing, but she really wants him to progress faster. So the team of therapists & herself is working hard on it right now. :xedfingers:

He loves his puzzles & can fixed 24-piece puzzles, set up & fix a any train tracks, putting mr potato head's body parts correctly, basically playing more properly. They're also teaching him to be more social (e.g. We did the trial today by putting a toy gun that he likes on the floor & wait for his respond, he actually picked it up, try to pull the trigger & came up to me and said \"help\" requesting me to pull the trigger, which is great to see :rahrah:)

And whenever someone approach him & said hi to him, with prompting he's willing to say hi back & wave to the person with a quick glance :oops: when he's going for his therapy, i will say bye bye to him & he said it back. I would give him a kiss bye and he kiss bye back as well without prompting (i guess he's copying what i'm doing). I know it sounds simple, but it means the world to me. Just like tyeogh said, after being SO MUCH poorer, but it's so worth to see all that happening to him. I think those things won't happen without the help of ABA therapy :hugs:

tyeogh,


so happy to hear such an encouraging news!! :boogie: :rahrah:

dreamy79,


http://www.spectrumofhope.org/aba.html

ABA (Applied Behavior Analysis) is the only peer-reviewed methodology proven to help improve the lives of children with Autism. The Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis was founded in 1958; ABA as a treatment for Autism began in the 1960s. There is over 50 years of scientific research supporting ABA. ABA programs are based upon scientifically proven methods, peer-reviewed research, and well-established principles of learning.

Cost wise it really depends on how many hours a week your son is going to commit. The more hours obviously the more costly it will be. Also it depends on how qualified and how professional the team of therapists & case manager/behaviour consultant is.

In the beginning i engaged a home-based ABA therapist for my son for about 3 months that i found in a public forum based on the reviews of some parents because it was so much cheaper. However it turned out my son didn't enjoy his ABA therapy time nor did he make any progress (or maybe very slow) within that 3 months. I decided to stop & went to the centre with professionals & qualified ABA certified therapist.

It's very very expensive (for me! :moneyflies: :moneyflies: :moneyflies: ), but I see a lot of promising results out of him, his compliance is high now, he understood simple instructions which made him throw less or no tantrum at all because he's able to understand my instructions. He also learn to accept denial (eg. he's not frustrated when i said \"no\"). They taught him how to play with several different toys properly as well, so that he can use his spare time engaging in play instead of stimmings (meaningless behaviours such as: gazing around, doing things repeatedly & withdrawn in his own world).

Both me & my husband thinks that although the cost is very high, but it's a money well spent. We look at it as a long term investment for his future as well. We're having a monthly parent training session where they train me on what to do at home & how they do it for all the skills that my son's already mastered, so that the family can apply it at home as well.

It's still a very long journey ahead of me, but I really hope that it will be well worth it!

Hi Couragemom,


I read this sentences somewhere in facebook page & it really gives me a lot of encouragement to see parent with special need child(ren) in different light:

\"Before he was born, so much of my life was about moving forward. I was always looking toward the next house, the next car, the next job. Having a child with special needs really made me slow down and examine my definition of success. It also opened my eyes to how many people around me were willing to help.\"

I was exactly like that before my son was born :oops:

Hi Couragemom,


I think your idea sounds good. As long as you are not discontinuing the private therapies, he should be okay and you see how he's progressing with less therapies :snuggles:

Sometimes I wonder too how long I can bear with the finances since we just started private ABA therapies 7 months ago and his daily 5-hour a day ABA costs us S$8xxx.xx monthly and going to hit S$9xxx.xx starting in January 2015 I just keep telling myself that this won't be forever (maybe just for 2-3 years? :xedfingers:), so we're holding on right now and because early intervention is very critical for ASD kids.

I'm sure the higher man up there will somehow provide for us. We cut back on everything, no dining out, no shopping, no branded stuff, no holiday :?: coz right now top priority is for my son to get better, so just do the best to my ability :rahrah:

thanks ImMeeMee,


yes, he's been a having a good week this past 2 weeks. The other time I was so frustrated that he kept throwing tantrum before bed, it made me so so sad and i ended up fell asleep in tears

bad days aside, i'm so grateful that he's able to wave bye bye consistently now. Also the cutest thing that he do is that when i said \"kiss, mama\" he will pucker up his lip (like an octopus mouth) and pull me close for me to kiss him :snuggles: i always end up laughing so hard, he looked so cute when his lip is all puckered up waiting for me to kiss him back :love: hope as the time goes by, he will keep improving :xedfingers:

I just want to share that my son (age 2,5yrs) reached another milestones last week.. he's able to complete 25 pcs jigsaw puzzles without help or assistance..it's a good sign, right? :snuggles:


today the therapist gave him another new set of 25 pcs jigsaw puzzles & although it took him quite some time to complete, he managed to finish it without any frustrations..he really loves playing puzzles

he's learning his verbs too (e.g. hugging, eating, swimming, sleeping), he picked all the right picture for each verbs when he was asked to, which his behaviour consultant think it's fantastic! :celebrate: