December Joy Of Living 2011

‎2011 has been an adventurous and rewarding journey for my little STAR. It would be his last year in EIP and all focus were to ready him for the challenges in meeting each moment where it matters most, the psychology and the in take assessment are the 2 important KPIs for him which will determine where he journeys his next lap of learning. The SPED team that were working behind him and supporting him all the way had been great, I did share with them that though we are responsible for the effort that we expended on him to maximize his full learning potential, but ultimately my little STAR is responsible for his results. Whatever outcome it may be, we must respect & accept that it is his goal, we can then have inner peace after doing & giving our best support for him. We were indeed very thankful that he had done the SPED Team proud.

The whole family visited the 2nd outlet of Professor Brawn Cafe to have a small celebration for both the little STAR & his sister for having come this far and progress up their learning journey both in SPED & main stream respectively.

Eating out together with family members continue to be another activities that we look forward at each given opportunity, the little STAR has a new liking on Japan Pepper lunch where he feels empowered to be able to cook and stir fry the lunch with salmon and eat by himself all at 1 go, of course we dare not to let him do the frying by himself, but will hold his hand to model after us and see the smoke and hear the sound in the process.

December has been a great joy of celebration with Love, Thanks & Sharing, managed to take several shots to capture the atmosphere wherever he went.

Not forgetting the Elephants on parade, which embody the great values of hardwork, perseverence and strength. We must cultivate some awareness to conserve, protect & save them.While the school holidays may have started, the little STAR learning continues for another 4 more weeks with the various therapists(speech/literacy/numeric/social group) before he slows down a little to have his break in the last 2 weeks, it is a joy to be able to see him continue to remain engage & generalize progressively on what he learns day to day.It was not all about work only and without play, he also has his down time balance with some visit to shopping mall eating and playing at Time Zone, Book fest, playing at indoor play ground etc... and even met his classmate on few occassions. We had bought him a blue bag for his next lap in the new school. We had also made an exclusive visit with him to Sentosa and had great fun walking with him and going with his flow at times.It was a bliss seeing him smiling and enjoying himself within the few places of interest we visited such as the beach, the bridge, the under water world and snack time at butterfly park.It was a fruitful & memorable half day outing.

The little STAR has also grown closer to his sister lateley, he will imitate what she say and does, and they will enjoy playing together just like normal siblings do. I have to remind my little princess to be mindful of being a good and positive role model for his brother else the little STAR may learn and imitate the wrong behavior/speech.

We had some games of bowling on Christmas with my sister family. For all the children, it was their first time experience in playing the real bowling game and truely they enjoy just as much as my little STAR for this first timer. Very encouraging to see some positive outcome out of this healthy sport activites for the little STAR, it was another moment that counts.

We had log cake for afternoon snack and continue another 2 games before heading back to our home.

The Christmas celebration ended with a family photo to be remember as another great moment we met. The children had grown up while we parents and grandparents age gracefully.

The little STAR is all ready and set for his new school term in academic year 2012, we will be putting him on school bus to elevate his independence and putting all effort to prepare & make him successful with this new routine of going to school with friends by bus. The recent school orientation had been a great success and I am confidence that he & the rest of the children will be in safe hands of their teachers. Brought back with me 2 key guiding principles: Normalization and Dignity. As a parents of a child with special needs, we must always remind ourselves to stay positive & be even more empowered to exercise Preventive measures, Teach the child & always be ready to Manage any challenges from the various manifestation out of their autistic traits to reinforce positive behavior and maximize success for them.

Take this blessing to wish all A Happy New Year 2012, a year filled with cheers, lots of Love, Joy & Peace.

Winners Statement:-

“Don't walk behind me; I may not lead. Don't walk in front of me; I may not follow. Just walk beside me and be my friend.” ~ Albert Camus

Chronicle Of My Little STAR (EIP 2009-2011)

Prior to his diagnosis with ASD back in July 2008, we have very little knowledge about Autism.

Nevertheless, we were quick to enroll him to a special school for EIP and fortunate enough to be accepted & commence EIP in Jan 2009, that is how we all started walking with him in this special learning journey and never look back since day 1 until thus far.

We know that it is not going to be easy but what we never know is that it will be that hard and challenging as the days went by for a young parent of a child in this spectrum but also bring us a lot of joy in our adventure with him. We elevated our knowledge on various aspect of Autism through attending several workshops provided in the special school in the first year and self learn via social media, websites, reading books and connecting to others in the subsequent years that follow to share and learn from others along our journey. As we expend our effort to teach our little STAR, he has also expanded our heart and broaden our perspective in life, making us to be more courageous, more loving, more compassionate and view every little lack with empathy. We soon learn the joy of living by intruding into his world to teach him and then bring him out gradually to our shared world to get connected with us. We achieve our inner peace by doing the best support we can provide him in his academic years, accepting the norm that he learns differently and think differently and make him enjoy learning and socially engaging.

One thing predicatable I learn from my last 3 years of travelling with my little STAR in this path less travel is his unpredictability. And one consistent attribute from his autistic traits is his inconsistency. Underlying the 3 deficits in the way he relates, communicates and thinks, often are the sensory integration, modulation and processing issues which may hinder his performance instead of putting his best effort and very often will manifest into various form of learning issues and behavior challenges. 3 years on, it is still learning in progress for me & my wife as we both try to understand the different manifestation that may arise out of his autistic traits from time to time as he progresses on. Compare now to 3 years ago, we have come to understand more, vocalize & interact better with our little STAR as he develop more towards partner communicator.

Holding our faith in ourselves..And in the belief that everything that is going to be just fine as long as we do everything that we can on our end is crucial to being able to hold it together in this learning journey when things get tough...This journey in life will be full of challenges that ...seem to range from easy to back-breaking..But these challenges are presented to us for a reason...

We are indeed very grateful that despite all the challenges faced in the last 3 years, we were able to face his enemies without fear and still managed to rejoice inch stone progresses for our little STAR, kudos to the Special Education Team that we have been blessed with and crossed path over our past years of endeavours. It was through this good partnership that we have come to cherish each collaborative effort for making every moment counts. The mind mapping below helps to consolidate the 3 years of curriculum that we have accomplished with the special educators in the EIP, truely a remarkable, rewarding and memorable educational experience.

Sharing the positives and reflecting with SPED Team on what we can do better to over come any challenges face has been a great part of this learning process since day one and ending with a winner statement. This blog was born as a result of my sharing, thanks to a teacher's encouragement who see this potential in my sharing which may benefit more parents in this similar yet unique path to each child. One important aspect of true happiness is in being able to share and not expecting a response from others upon sharing, it is like the saying to Giving:- "more bless to give than to receive".

As we conclude one little race, focus already under way to ready my little STAR for his next race of his learning journey, which promises to be more challenging, exciting and adventurous, we have to sit tide and face head on with more positive attitude than before. Memories are so weird. The bad one make you laugh and the good one always make you cry! Still we urge for the good ones and more to come in our new race ahead.

Recall 3 core values useful in our daily practise wit our child before I end this blog post:-

Meaning: - provide opportunity to child to engage daily activities or age appropriate tasks & be successfully and happy about the engagement.

Independence: - Environmental cue which support independence, maintain some and add new to gradual change to avoid confusing the child and promote independence in adaptability. Create opportunity to communicate by teaching the child how to communicate more functionable or despite circumstances. Reduce verbal prompting by exploring visual support to be more successful in elevating independence.

Dignity: - Same opportunity provided for in quality of life, respectful of giving the child something of at least age appropriate, inclusion in society, reduce highly directive but promote more interactive, co-operative & facilitative learning to child. Respect for each child over their confidentiality, make the child feel value and motivated to achieve more success in their learning.

Winners Statement:-

Your passion, patience and perseverance in providing a well-rounded education for children with special needs is a dignified job, your commitment, creativity and nurturing heart to help the children maximize their learning potential have been impressive. Thank You Teachers & Therapists, Kudos To ALL!

End Of Term Outing - Shopping Trip @ Compass Point

How time flies and we had come to another end of Term outing, this Term theme of "My Community" brings us through the teaching of helping our kid learn and generalize skills on how to communicate & interact with people around the community, to have better adaptability, connection and integration to the community experience and society at large. While we had attended one such similar outing in 2010 shopping at Bishan Junction 8 just within the NTUC super market, this outing brought us to Compass point shopping center and the area of coverage was wider and lot more challenging as far as environmental inputs & social factors are concern.

The main highlights of this shopping trip was doing & completing the activity sheet provided, all in all there are about 5 area of shopping experience namely Bakery shop, Supermarket, 7-11 Store, Popular before ending at KFC with a snack break and catch up with friends, parents & teachers.

We were early by an hour but still manage to kill some times by going with his flow of interest and doing activities that he likes together and maintaining interaction where ever opportunity arises. While he may feel at ease wondering on his own but as soon as his friends arrived, he seems shy or little over whelm by the social demand to meet/greet each others in the open area. His eyes may be wondering away from them but I know that he actually likes to seek social except that his mind may be trap forcing to react other wise. Once things got started, he is back to his normal self following the agenda on the activity sheet.

1) Take money at POSB ATM, self regulation average, at times wondering off from the queue but nevertheless able to redirect him back to queue until his turn. Successfully executed.

2) Bakery Shop - look around, bought a bun, queue up to paid for item, successfully managed too.

3) Next stop was the Cold Storage supermarket, he does not seems to have any intention or desire to buy but will wondering about looking at the row number & items sold within, we finally got what he likes to complete his task by buying 2 egg like Kinder Joy which he enjoys eating.

4) Then we come to 7-11 convenient store to get 2 packets of Ribena, activity sheet checked and updated.

5) Next stop is Popular shop at level 3, we took a lift up and scan through the stationary to bought marker and pen, completed and checked

Then it was time for toilet break before we proceed to KFC for our final stop over.

6) In the KFC, I over looked about giving him the opportunity to order food but was promptly alerted by my wife to let him pay and collect the food on tray after I had ordered. After eating, he was ready to leave but I pulled him back to clear the tray. My wife then bring out the sun flower seeds which he like to eat to make him stay at area. Some photos were taken with friends as well as teachers for a strong finish to Term 4. We leave the place tire but happy for another successful outing. We had to rush home and wash up before sending him for his weekly ST.

Winners Statement:-

3 cheers for the teachers, parents and friends for making this outing meaningful and another great scenic view in the journey along this path less travel.

Community - Eating Out

From my last blog post I shared a model construction of an MRT station as perceived by my little STAR, back then I was wondering why all the people had to faced inward away from us, now I know why...

The train was missing, he had constructed the platform literally as if he was there and hence the people waiting for the train arrival has to face inward away from our view in the orientation of the model. Today he constructed another model below which he says to me is Orchard Hotel, he probably got that impression after passing by during his weekly journey to Delphi Orchard.

This morning, I had attended another parent classroom participation and in working with teacher, there was this activities to read sentence, find picture & paste on the page of eating out, for the Term Theme learning of Community. This gave me an idea of sharing many of the memorable moments of eating out over the past 3 years we had with the little STAR.

He is not on diet control but still has his preferred choice of food, ranging from fried stuffs like fries/wedges/fish/chicken wing/fish cake, to noodle, sushi rice, fried carrot cake, chicken rice, satay etc. He takes fried rice but mainly with pure egg ingredient, occasionally pineapple rice and also porridge too, he is also ready to explore other new food subject to his preference.

Waiting toys, white board, smart phone or ipad are some of the items we have evolved over the years to regulate his waiting time and some time even give him little packet of seaweed which he likes to eat, when he gets a little hungry while the food takes longer than usual to prepare.

One challenge we face while eating out will be his interest in number on the table, sometimes he will walk around just to check on the number on each table especially in the coffee shop. I still remember when we first brought him to Sakura buffet, he will go around to those tables that has got the number he is interested and will remove them to indugle in his fixation routine, when we refuse he will be upset, now he is more aware & better regulated, glad it has become thing of the past.

There are other occasions where he will insist that you go and buy when the food has not arrived, even though I have told him clearly that an order has been placed, we have to accept that the way he thinks is different, the way we teach him must also be different unlike neuro typical kids.

Eating out in public can sometimes attracts unwanted attention when our little STAR raises his voice to speak trigger by unforseen circumstances or demand which he either becomes upset or anxious, the whole coffee shop or eating place will become noisy suddenly, other wise it will be very normal and a joy to eat out most of the time for the family.

The one thing predictable I learn through his autistic trait is his unpredictability, once it become predictable, we will then be able to teach him to manage and do better the next time round. It must be continuous work in progress taking small steps & great patience to understand & teach him.

Eating out can also hope to gave him a better exposure to community life and be able to integrate & adapt to the society environment & people around as he grows into adulthood.

Winners Statement:

September Journal

One of the main highlights in September would be the little STAR's Birthday.

A small celebration was planned at home with my sister family over the nearest weekend prior to his actual birthday. Social story was prepared to read with him in promoting this event for his awareness.

Little STAR insist from one visual support he learn that the birthday boy must wear a crown like a king, so we bought him one to manage success, glad things turned out well & all enjoy a memorable time.

Aside from the usual routine of birthday song, cake cutting & eat cake, we played snakes and ladders, balloons, pretend play on camping inside the room(was a beautiful mess) before end the celebration with a dinner nearby our place.

We also helped him prepare some goodie bags & small tokens to be given to his classmate & teachers in EIP.

Being a sibling of a brother with special need has not been easy for my little princess, it takes great effort to share and communicate with her openly & honestly on any lack. She may be feeling unfair for a start why are we spending so much time with her brother, but has transformed lately with positive feelings, more patience than before, greater understanding and is able to co-operate and attune to his brother level of understanding and skill set. Both are equally our family joy of living and I am hopeful that as both grow up, all can have greater opportunities to experience more normal family life and activities.

Objects/topics on transportations are still very much his top interest, lately he has shown much improvement in his imaginative play be it thinking or commenting, his lining up of car now is more meaningful with 2 lanes and on different directions, his works on contructive tasks like building the block design in angry bird game or fixing puzzle pieces have displayed his the other strength.

Above construction came from his perspective thinking like a MRT station, he make use of blocks to construct bench just like what he saw in MRT station and put the people sitting on the bench waiting for the train to arrive, what puzzle us was that why he placed the people all facing inward and not facing him directly, may be he is also trying to tell us his preference mode of engagement socially to be away from public interest because he is different.

Some times have to be set aside for his home programs to elevate his special learning abilities.

It is a joy to see him so engage at time like the above writing, the most I have ever seen him contributing, thanks to mummy great effort.

Eating together in public place has been a great moment we indulge & treasure within the community, the whole family visited Proffesor Brawn Cafe for a lunch over 1 weeekend, a great place to feel the love and peace in the midst of great dinning experience, will return for more in near future.

Another highlight for September would be the in take screening test for the little STAR transition after EIP in the mid month, received the great new this morning(Friday) and finally the letter on the same evening. We are so happy and very grateful for the positive outcome from the screening test and so very thankful for the opportunity given to our little STAR to further his learning journey. We promise him to even work harder with him in the next lap together. Hope is not a dream, but a way of making dreams becoming reality. Perseverence is not a long race, it is many short races one after the other. We will focus on completing his present race for a strong finish to the remaining weeks in EIP and gear up to ready for the next race starting 2012.

Take this blessing to share some messages from SPED Team who is instrumental to his little success:-

Person A; "Believe me...we are just as elated as you that Fabian has come this far and the door has opened for him in this manner..."

Person B: "Congratulations Fabian and family. Very proud of him."

Person C: "Wow! Great. Congratulations. Let's work together and help him further. I am happy for Fabian."

Person D: "Congrats!!! So happy for Fabian & family. Excellent."

Person E: " That's great!! Was gonna ask your wife later."

Person F: "Thats's really happy news! Thanks daddy & mummy for working so hard! Fabian is really doing well in OT! Gave mummy strategies on elevating him to the next level in terms of adaptability."

Winners' Statement:

What is required of us is that we love the difficult and learn to deal with it. In the difficult are the friendly forces, the hands that work on us. Right in the difficult, we must have our joys, our happiness, our dreams: there against the depth of this background, they stand out, there for the first time we see how beautiful they are.