Hi everyone


My son is three and we observe he is very good at picking up Chinese characters and also remembers numbers. For example, he has a Mr Men Library and he remembers that "Book 1" is Mr Happy, "Book 9" is Mr Worry, etc.

We realize he is very good at absorbing things and want to expand his English and Chinese vocabulary, general knowledge (countries, musicians, history, etc.) and also his math / science skills.

Anyone has any recommendation for books / charts / courses (e.g. Top 1000 words or facts) that maybe useful for him? I think he will enjoy remembering these things.

Thanks in advance!

Hi everyone


We’ve spoken to our DD’s school teacher and also her English tuition teacher. Both of them mentioned it is possible she has a (very mild) form of autism. She just failed her Math exam for this final semester by a couple of marks (she is in P2)

Her teachers have mentioned her main issue is her inability to focus for long periods of time - she just switches off or her attention drifts. If we cover topics one by one with her, she is ok. But in an exam setting, where a long period of concentration is needed, she cannot handle it.

We also signed up for a talk on BrainFit where they exercise the kid’s brain so they can be better in the auditory, visual, attention, etc. departments. It seems promising.

My wife and I are at this point struggling whether to send our DD to:
1) Professional diagnosis to see if she is indeed autistic (but we suspect it is very mild, she does not have most of the symptoms we see on the Internet when researching on autism)

2) Sign up with he BrainFit program and see how it goes for 10 weeks. If things improve that’ll be great. If not, then we may want to seek a professinoal diagnosis.

We are reluctant to "brand" her autistic because of possible re-percussions, etc. But at the same time we don’t want to delay treatment if she is truly having a problem.

One question we have is, do programs like BrainFit help with my girl’s lack of focus and attention?

Thanks everyone for your help in advance.

Hi all


Thanks so much for the responses. I really appreciate it - think we’re going to send my DD for a proper diagnostic to assess the best ways she can learn, then take it from there.

Anyone’s child attended Thinker’s Box? Is it any good?

Hi everyone


My wife and I have been struggling with our girl for some time.

She is in Primary 2 this year and we can see she is struggling with English, Maths and Chinese.

We have tried:
- Sending her to PSLE maths tuition classes (the teacher there says she is de-motivated because some other children in the class say, "har this type of sum you also cannot do"
- Sending her to Berries to beef up her Chinese once a week
- Giving he a one-on-one tutor in English once a week

This, on top of my wife’s nightly coaching to her to go through homework and school spelling, tests, etc.

This week, before her Primary 2 final exam (which is next week), she came home with a 27/50 score for Maths and a similar low score for other subjects.

She tells us she wants to try to do well like her other friends, but is very demoralized she cannot.

My girl has an older brother, he’s doing ok, average in school. She has a younger brother who is learning quite ok too.

It is not like she is totally ‘off’ in school - she says she wants to learn, interacts ok with friends, but is very ‘borderline or just going to fail’ kind of grade in her schoolwork.

We are at our wits’ end and I sense we are going to break down soon from this pressure.

My questions:

1. Anyone has any suggestions on tutors / programs that can help my girl? I suspect tutoring more and more won’t help as I think her confidence level is very low. Should we send her for some behavioural assessment or learning ability test, etc.?

2. We have heard of "Thinkers Box" which does a cognitive assessment, then has a 10 month program to help improve concentration / comprehension, etc. Does any know if this program is any good and whether it is recommended for someone like my daughter?

3. I am also worried about learning problems, e.g. inability to comprehend, analyze and think through problems. In general, my girl is very baby-ish, playing with Mickey Mouse, watching Barbie programs, playing make believe, e.g. and a little slow to catch on to things like jokes, logic and "real world" topics. Does anyone have similar experience here and can share some advice?

4. Also, to make things worse, my girl just clams up when she encounters a difficult e.g. Maths question and when you ask her "do you understand" after explaining a concept, she just keeps quiet. If she does understand she will say "yes" only after quite a long time. It is very difficult / frustrating for us to get through to her. She is also selective, doesn’t like to listen to strangers, etc.

5. She is also very afraid to try out new things, indicating her confidence is very low. When we ask her, do you want to try this play activity, e.g. she will say "no, I don’t want’, etc.

Thanks in advance for any help anyone can render.

As I mentioned, as parents, we are at our wits’ end and are going to break down soon from this pressure …