Autism is a life long developmental disability that affects how a person communicates with, and relates to, other person, and how they maike sense of the world around them.
The disability may be mild, moderate or severe. Some are verbal, others are not. Some may be intellectually impaired; but others can be high in cognition and possess special talents.
It is estimated that 1 in 167 persone has some form of autism in Singapore or a prevalence rate of about 30,000 people with autism in a population of 5 million for Singapore.
It has been about close to 3 years since my little STAR has been diagnosed under this spectrum. As he began his learning journey, things were difficult and we were also taking on a steep learning curve in this special walk with him. Today we can only be thankful for every little inch stone progress he has made thus far in EIP. Nevertheless, we must always be ready to embrace new challenges as he progresses, with the enemies he faces at each stage of development.
Taking stock of his enemies
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1) Rigidity- which has improved over time with visual rules, task schedule to enhance his predictability, and lately with the help of social story. But other form of rigidity challenges still exist such as the way he do his work routine, any slight changes he may get upset easily. We still need to persevere in this aspect and draw a fine balance between can't do or won't do. If he can & when he refuses, we will try give half of what he asks and take away half of what he desires to exercise some flexibility with caution to progress him surely but slowly.
2) Functional Communication - often have melt down in the beginning of his learning journey but less often nowadays as he picks up words, short phrase. The challenges lie in practising him to generalize request among adults & teachers for help or express himself appropriately & promptly in time of trouble or anxiety. He will always resort to shouting across and other weird behavior to seek attention, we need to persistently remind him and if he does wrong, repeat the right way of doing before moving forward to next task or routine.
3) Sensory perception - balance, sense of position and awareness in space, gross motor, scanning has improved over the last 1 and a half years but still got great potential to improve on managing sensory overload in a noisy and big environment.
4) Social Interaction- While he is strong with attention on 1-1 from working with his various therapists and work with tr as well, he will often saps into negative behavior or get socially disconnected when working with others friend in group of 3. We need to persevere to over come this to make a break through into the next level of progress. We may use social story/rules and lots of patience to strike a fine balance between the other 3 enemies that were mentioned earlier on to maximize a good out come.
2 April is 4th WAAD, we had paid a visit to an exhibition called Art For Autism at my little STAR school to mark the occasion and promote awareness among my sibling family and his cousins.
It was an awesome display of 8 talented students who uncover their strength in drawing and model making. We were impressed by all the exhibits especially one on the "New York City Blocks"
After the exhibit, we visited the mall in which I bought a new book call Beautiful Mind vol 2 for my little princess and another "Kevin's World" A story about Autism plus a pack of greeting cards.
As we were prepared to walk out, my sister happened to see and read the quarterly newsletter pasted along the walk way entrance, and were excited to see few photos of our little STAR from the recent outing in Term 1.
It was a fun filled activities, though the duration was short but the enriching experience was more than worth the cause. We had dinners near by before went home still awe by the art display.
Winner's Statement:
Autism is about having a pure heart and being very sensitive… It is about finding a way to survive in an overwhelming, confusing world… It is about developing differently, in a different pace and with different leaps.
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