E Time Sharing- June Moment & Update Of Our Little STAR

It has been more than 2 weeks since I last blog posted on our little STAR school outing for his end of term shopping experience, several new grounds were broken and miracle of achievements made since then, once again I am really excited to take this blessing to share.

Moving on from where I last left, the end of term PCN is another great session in sharing our children's learning journey together with the teachers, get updates from principle on things happening and what is to come in the new term, more imporantly to acquire new knowledge sharing from consultant in managing some learning & behavior challenges in our walk with Autism. The topic on Task Analaysis provides me with better insight as to how we can seek opportunity in our daily life with our kid in breaking down some tasks into small manageable ones and work backward until he gain independence. I am proud that our little STAR, Fabian has managed to achieve 2 tasks through this inspiration namely buckle of seat belt & button of shirt, while before that he use to do only the last step or 2. We will work with him on other independence skills such as putting on clothes or socks, where again he only do the last steps or 2 and has potential to improve using similar task analysis approach.

Fabian also has the previledge to work with more different adults since Term 2, with enrollment to pre-school child care center, engaging ST, Special Need Therapist for Literacy & Numeric Skill Development. We are glad that our little STAR is able to adapt to different teaching styles and approaches whether bottom up or top down and still enjoy & have fun learning any new skills being introduced. The inputs from various service providers certainly have given us better understanding as to how we can work harder in partnership & do better in self empowerment to improve the child's learning & development further. Our challenges is to sync all of these collective effort from various teachers & therapists to meet at the center in optimizing Fabian's learning potential to maximize positive outcome.

Fabian had completed 2 rounds of sound therapy and currently taking his 2 weeks break before resuming with third cycle. In receptive listening, his attention span has increased. For expressive listening, he is singing more and playing with sounds with much more awareness. His executive function has also improved, more eye contact and has better sense of ryhthm.

He had also recently completed his 4 month kindermuzic which has further enhanced his focus, listening skill, language and literacy, hand-eye co-ordination & offer opportunity to elevate his social skill woth other kids.
Effort from OT has also been rewarded with better return in find motor skills such as balancing and body joint co-ordination and movement. Our recent discussion with the therapy has agree in focusing on his sensory & posture control while aligning with ST on the same note in communciation.

Literacy skill development has enhanced and improved his tracking skill from LtoR & TtoB. He is also able to name & recognize more line picture cards & photo cards on object, transport or animals via fresh card. Applying the habits of using What, Where and Why in working with him or during real life situation and modelling for him on the appropriate answer according to the context for better receptive language and sentence contruction is also on going. Pairing of things that go together in relation to our daily life application, cause and effect in relation to child behavior. Look, Listen & execute, pretend play on making ice-cream using play doh etc...are some of the skill introduced. We have also take opportunity to work on Yes/No during our literacy home program via discrete trial to acertain his understanding. Making use of the ice-berg framework to understand what is behind any negative output from the child instead of just conclude by seeing the tip of the ice-berg really help to progress in managing any successful outcome. We are almost certain that he knows & understands the use of yes & no. Else perhaps we can introduce "Not sure" for any uncertain element that arises beyond his knowledge capacity before we teach the child to get familiar.

For numeric skill, he has covered number 1-100, rotational/random sequence, money value, time telling.

For ST, we have learnt to integrate imagery & language, what are the two type imagery namely symbol(parts) & concept(wholes). How to apply it in sensory-language play with the kid through touching and gesturing. we have also learn to use more alternative verb to make request like need, like, see or hear. And also making request using May I... or Can I...He is now able to answer to some common questions when prompted. We are currently working with Fabian to comment about an action in our daily life routine as well as with the help of action picture cards in collaboration with ST.

I have also had a discussion with the child care center teacher in charge and truely grateful for her & the team for showing great empathy and support to Fabian, feedback has been positive so far with improvement over previous 2 months, I had also share some insight in managing Fabian's learning & behavior characteristic. I have also encouraged the teachers to feedback any challenges encounter along the way, so that I can see what we can do to improve at home with more trial and practise.

The June holidays have bee great so far,we had crossed over the causeway for a weekend lunch & shopping on the first week in JB, and attended a chalet resort holidays at Costa Sands in Downtown East on the second weekend. During holiday weekdays, Fabian will attend full day child care center except Thur & Fri(2nd half) as he is engaged with therapists on these 2 days, weekend is a precious time spent for Fabian's home programs and practise, plus some family engagement to strike a fine balance.

We still have some 2 weeks of holidays to go before new term opening, just wish to take this blessing to express my heart felt gratitude to all who have crossed path with us and supported Fabian in our stand with him.

Recently, Autism has been in the news, thanks to 2 NTU students who had taken their time & effort to shed light on the plight of adults with autism as their final year project, I am so touch for their worth while effort to bring more awareness to the society & community at large. To us parents of child with ASD, each individual child in this spectrum is unique, we need more empathy and understanding from the general public. Walking on a journey with Autism is actually our work-life balance:- We work hard to create an impact for their future life, so that the child can grow up to be independent and more manageable adult as their parents age gracefully. Some days, hope is all we need, other days, hope is all we have.

Winners Statement:-

"Limitations live only in our minds. But if we use our imaginations, our possibilities become limitless." ~ Jamie Paolinetti