kay_liz:

Hi Tiffany, i am going through a similar situation as you.


My child was actually diagnosed with GDD. 1st is her speech & langague and 2ndly is her gross motor skills.

She went through the hearing test, doing ST and OT at NUH, and EIPIC recommendation.
Eventually upon teacher's advise, we gave up all the therapies in the clinic. I feel that the therapies in the clinic are a waste of time. For every appt, I have to take leave from work to bring her. And the appointments are usually once a month, which I don't think can do much. The doc advised us to enrol her in EIPIC, but I visited the centre and feel that the kids are of more severe cases (no offense) and my child won't be able to fit in. Also, I have no help to send and fetch her from EIPIC. We gave up the slot in the end.

She currently goes for a small group specialized tuition for English and Math and we do see progress in her. The centre also provides speech therapy which she also goes for 1 hr a week.

She is weak academically but I don't think she is a \"special-needs\" child. Although she still has some form of help, I am still worried as she is going to P1 next year. She still cannot write well, cannot read, and not to mention she cannot read a word of chinese. How to even do HYPY in pri sch?

I am considering to defer her from P1 but then again, many parents have advised me against it.

Hi KayLiz, to be honest, sometimes I feel that it is the school that is pressurizing parents.Teachers are the ones who compare kids in the same class. Once they see a kid that does not talk or read as confidently as the brighter kids, they will label them as slow in development.

Just to update, I went for the Caregiver's course for my girl's speech development recommended by KKH. Halfway through the course, I find it totally irrelevant to me as this course is mainly for parents whose kids are still not making a word. During break, I spoke to the trainer and she ask about my girl's condition. So after much discussion, she said that she suspected KKH doctor referred me to the wrong course! I should be attending a course for \"Early Talkers\" and not this course.

We have faced such issues ourselves when we were kids. Therefore, I have been telling myself that I do not want to compare my kid to anyone else. After all these episodes with KKH, I too feel it's a waste of our time. All I can say is, trust your gut feel as a mother. To be honest, we must accept the fact that not all kids are Einstein. So don't listen to anyone. If you know your kid has got no medical/genetic issues, just give them some time.

slmkhoo:

Sounds like your daughter is ok. The problem is that some teachers tend to compare with the ideal and don't have a wide range of tolerance. Same with some doctors. N2 is how old? Some kids don't get all the consonant sounds clear till 7 yo. And few kids are that keen on worksheets at N2!


I agree with point 3 that parents are the best teachers for young kids. Speak clearly to her to model good speech, and give her time to respond. As long as she knows what to aim for, her muscle coordination will catch up eventually. Baded on your description she sounds fine.

Thanks for your assurance...N2 is 4 years old. I actually sent my girl to Phonics class by Edufarm, and the teacher told me that my girl was perfectly fine, and that she is able to follow her class and did the worksheets by herself (though not 100% correct, about 80%). So i am really confused by the different point of view....

Previously, her Childcare teachers told me she's not okay and even comment that she's going K1 next year so I should be worried...then turn out that it was actually they themselves not paying attention to my girl's development. I am not expecting them to look after my girl exclusively, but if they really feel my girl has some issues, shouldn't they start to pay more attention to her rather then just pass such comment and then make my girl go through all these test....only to tell me at the end of the day actually they realize she's okay after paying more attention to her.

And KKH doctors are also doing the 'just to play safe\" kind of recommendation. I mean there are really lots of other kids with real issues that need the place at Eipic centres. Anyway I have decided to give up my seat for the Eipic centre so that other kids with real need can get the place earlier (waiting time is 6-9 months!)

I will just let my girl develop at her own pace.....

My girl is now in N2 and teacher has been telling me that my girl is lagging behind her classmates in terms of everything. My girl is all along very timid (scared of shadow and sudden loud noise) and is very gentle natured and seldom throw temper (except when she dun get enuf sleep). So when I asked the teacher for more information, they were telling me that she’s very quiet and seldom answer teacher’s question and cannot do her worksheet by herself. And my girl is still unable to pronounce words starting with "K" and "C". For example, "Cat" she will pronounce as "Dat", and "Kite" she will pronounce as "Tite"


So i decided to send her for development assessment at Polyclinic. The doctor told me that he feels that she is "okay" as she can answer all his simple questions and she is not shy to strangers. However, he does notice that her speech is not clear as well. So he recommended that I go to KKH for further assessment.

The thing is, after the assessment at KKH, the doctor also told me that she feels that my daughter is "okay" as well and asked me what is my concern. So i told her that my main concern is really just her speech, but the teachers comment that she is slower than her peers. So the doctor commented that is it the school’s expectation too high? To be honest I am not sure as I have only 1 daughter and there is no one i can compare to. I do not want to compare her with her classmates or anyone as I feel children develop differently. I just want to know if my daughter is normal at her development rate and not comparing against anyone else.

Anyway, I am a bit doubtful of the diagnosis of the doctor at KKH after the assessment. Even though the doctor thinks that my girl is "okay", she still recommended me that i go through the following:

1) Hearing Test
Doctor said that she think my girl has no hearing problem, but "just to make sure" so better send her. I mean when i whisper to my girl, she can hear me loud and clear, obviously there is no issue with her hearing. It’s not as if the test is free, I think it still cost about $50.

2) Next Step Workshop
Me and my hb went to the workshop, totally clueless what to expect. Turn out that during that so-called "workshop" they are trying to get parents to sign up some "Parenting course". And the course is $500+ for 1 week. Waste of our time.

3) Speech Therapy
I was expecting that the doctor schedule my girl for some speech therapy. In the end they scheduled us Parents / Caregiver to attend some course on how to help your child with speech problem. Their methodology is that "helps starts at home". Besides that, nothing else is schedule for my child. I have yet to attend the course (which cost $16 per pair of parents, no kids allowed).

4) Occupational Therapy
Initially I thought that Occupational Therapy will cover speech therapy. After making a call to KKH to find out more about this OT, I was told that it is mainly gross motor skills improvement. I asked the KKH staff nurse why was my girl schedule for this therapy, she said according to the doctor’s diagnosis report (which they are suppose to give me but did not) my girl has difficulty climbing stairs. Funny thing is, during the assessment at the doctor’s clinic, my girl was not tested on stairs climbing. There are no steps for her to climb in the doctor’s room, so how did the doctor derived such diagnosis i really don’t know. Anyway my girl can climb stairs unaided with no issues (though she’s climbing slowly at her own pace, is this an issue or not I’m not sure though)

5) Recommended her for Eipic centre
This the doctor did not explain why she want to recommend Eipic for my girl.

Anyway a few weeks after the assessment at KKH, I spoke to my girl’s teacher again. This time they told me that due to too many students in the class, they actually adopt "peer tutoring". Which means the teacher put my girl under some other "smarter" kids in her class and did not really monitor her. So when my girl is not doing her worksheet, they thought that she does not know how to do it. But after talking to me, the teacher started to put my girl directly under her care, and she realized that my girl actually knows a lot of things except that she does not speak out if not being called. So teacher thought that she does not know.

Now I really don’t know if there is anything wrong with my girl. At first teacher said she’s not okay…now they said she’s okay. Then doctors feel she’s okay, but still put her through all those non-relevant test. What should I do? Should I still put my girl through all these?