Sowing Of Beautiful Seed - Beginning Of A New Learning Journey

I have been sharing quite a bit since year 2009 with teachers in partnership as we walk together in this learning journey with my son who has a special needs, to share updates on progress, seek comfort & advise for the various challenges that we face along the way, to encourage and motivate each others base on mutual trust and learning. In this first blog post, I will like to dedicate to all the people who have crossed path with us & made a difference to Fabian growing up by looking back to his 1 and a half years of progress until now.

It all began in mid 2008, when Fabian, our little Star in the family was diagnosed with ASD, a brain base developmental disorder, though we were prepared to accept this news with grace but unaware of the challenge that is to follow as he looks quite normal except some differences to his learning & behavior characteristic, having heard little about Autism before. As parents of child with Autism, our top priorities was to enroll him for EIP asap.

Fortunately we did not wait long before the good news arrived to commence his EIP in Jan 2009, the sowing of this beautiful seed for Fabian to mark the start of a new learning journey. He began with concrete skill level, usually in his own agenda and non verbal, the structure teaching had benefitted him greatly in understand the meaning of Start-Do-Finish-Keep, he picks up some school routine and work habits along the way. We also learn to use PECs as a way for him to initiate request and generalize with different people. As he is non verbal, we had also encountered several behavior & learning challenges from Fabian who will frequently face mood swing that cause a melt down and heart breaking moment to us. As young parents of a child with ASD, we will always be left with little answer to his special needs. I still remember that the first 2 outings was a difficult one, first to the zoo he melt down refusing to board the school bus, second at Bishan park he melt down again while waiting for his turn to go through the activities routine. The demand is at least 10 times greater as compare to neurotypical kids but thankfully, after attending several workshops and with the advise from special educator, Autism slowly became part of our life, and we know that in order to achieve the best outcome, we need take baby steps, tweak to his level of understanding, intrude into his world to get his join attention to better our engagement, so that he can have fun learning as we journey on. Fabian had great difficulties embracing changes during the initial few months, unpredictability & his limited communication skill only adds on to this adversities and we continue to hypothesize and try try try. Back at home, we will engage him on both outdoor play/quiet time, indoor people’s game & driving him around to enhance his predictability on various routes on the various road of advance so that he feels less anxious. Using his visual strength through the work system at photo level has also help reduced our effort in making him understand and follow our agenda in continuous learning.

It was not until the 3rd Term that he starts to open up verbally and things become easiers but more challenges remain yet to unfold. Fabian starts to say word, strings 2 or more words in his functional communication skill, he had progressed from own agenda to requestor and soon become early communicator with 4-5 spoken words in a sentences. We begin to use choice board to exercise his choice making, daily work schedule to enhance his predictability. On the same year Children Day, we commence his occupational therapist to elevate development to his fine motor skill & various sensory integration needed to better his executive function. We are glad & happy to see his progressed thus far, meeting most of the goals set in various area of focus to his IEP for the first year in EIP. We also committed him to sound therapy in his daily routine as part of collaboration with OT to continuously improve his attention, regulation, social behavior adjustment and motor skill

The year 2(2010) begins on a positive note where Fabian was being placed in a group setting, by now he is familiarize with the work system, the visual friendly learning environment has also cut down his lead time to learn. His self regulation, attention & executive function continue to progress in baby steps, and we will never fail to marvel each time he acquire a new skill. We also let him attend Kindermusik after CNY for 4 months which will end this coming early June to offer him opportunity in learning how to communicate in musical activities and know more words use in the song. Making the most of music also helps the child to have better attention, imitate adult from repetitive words use in the songs and motivate him to interact with other child & practice turn taking.

In early Mar, we manage to successfully enroll him to a pre-school center in our neighbourhood for the full day program for Mon & Tue to offer him greater opportunity to practise his independance skill in a natural environment and we are glad that he has since integrated well to the new pre-school environment so far, teachers are quite empathetic and supportive knowing that Fabian is special and had feedback with positive comments.

In May, we had just engaged 2 professional to work on his speech and literacy skill and hoping to explore in parallel his expressive and receptive language to complement his learning further to his EIP for the best outcome as he progress to partner communicator in the near future. As parent of child with autism, some days hope is what we have, others day hope is what we need. We must continue to empower ourselves to be drafted as teacher & therapist in loving, helping & supporting him in his learning as we journey on & stand by him 24/7 & for as long as we can take. We are very thankful and blessed to have come this far with Fabian, everyday is a new learning journey with Autism. Nevertheless, we must also be conscious of his elder sister who need equal love and attention from us, though we may not spend as much time with her these days so as to focus on his brother, we just have to tweak and attune our mind to draw a fine balance between engaging the 2 siblings.

Lately, we had also acertained 2 break through in unfolding challenges that has been difficult for child with Autism & Fabian without

exception:- barber & brushing teeth, glad that we can finally put this nightmare behind us to focus on others challenges. he is real cool with hair cut now and slowly gaining independence in brushing teeth.

We are looking forward to his coming end of Term Outing to generalize his skill learn to communicate, interact and complete his activities routine in shopping experience under the Theme of My Community, we hope to once again manage success and bring more cheers to people who have taken Fabian in this journey together.

Winner's Statement:-

"Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared."