Adventure On With Courage & Consideration

Back in 2010 Mar, we took the chance to enrolled our little STAR to a child care center in our neighbourhood, "what if" it really can help him generalize his skill learn in EIP to practise his one part instruction, elevate his independence and also to offer opportunity for more integration with his peers in learning.

Teachers at child care center were extremely helpful and supportive with their compassion and empathy to whom my family & I are grateful. But as my little STAR grows and becomes more aware, there are learning challenges to be addressed such as his behavior (non compliance or due to his self directed autistic traits) plus the needs to elevate his social functions which has become more demanding than before in order to ready for his coming intake assessment. We decided to review his need and re-prioritize his learning engagement.

My little STAR completed his last day with the child care center in July last week and brought back with him great memories from his class photos taken recently, his 16 months stay with the center has been fruitful & also brought many joys and learning experience to people working with him. Though he may not appear socially engage with most of his classmates due to his limited social skill, but he likes to make friends as you can tell from the video link when he recalls their names and the teachers who have been teaching and guiding him.

http://youtu.be/18ibNkNzlRg

I was awe with mix feeling when I saw his graduation photos for the first time, who will have tell the difference between him and the rest of his peers. Yet he is different for those who have taken him and have work/are working with him will understand. His classmates may find him a bit wierd and not even aware of his world of comfort where he gets socially disconnected to. I was feeling with joy for all the moment he had brough home from his learning journey at child care center, the photos will remain as one of the precious lots that he had taken so far in his past 5 years of growing up. I also feel sad for a moment as I reflect the little imperfection that he is so near and yet so far to reach as we continue to understand and improve him to his full potential. Overall, I am still very thankful that he has continue to teach us to accept him perfectly for who he is as we walk with him in this very special learning path together.

Some changes from actions planned recently had been materialize as follow:-

1) Our little STAR had managed to enroll into a speech social group every Friday with Speech Inc Therapy, speech therapist has been very helpful, supportive & kind enough to accept my little STAR who has been very motivated to work with her in the group 6, he is really blessed! This will last a cycle of 2 months.

2) His therapist for special need in numeric skill has also managed to generalize him with new teacher and new room. I am glad that my little STAR is adapting well to all these changes. Randomly, one of us will also be working as peer with him as and when therapist deploy.

3) Due to speech group engagement, his literacy & behavior intervention had been rescheduled from Friday to Tuesday 3-5pm instead, and will be accompany by his grandma since nearby. When mummy work night shift, mummy may help faciliate.

4) OT has commenced on pairing with another girl to improve his skill on listening/turn taking/looking/join engagement

5) It is work in progress at home to train his listening/looking/hand-eye co-ordination

Transfer skill from white board at writing video link:- http://youtu.be/CVeHQLD39P8

During his engagement with us, we will reward him with sticker to be paste on his Happiness Certficate when he does it right, we will present him with the certificate to praise him & made him feel proud and confident of himself. This is another important baby step to cultivate his Self Esteem which may be inter-related to his social function development.

Also taking this blessing to share some other video links as follow:-

Numeric Skill video link:- http://youtu.be/GbL2VlBzW3E

Task @ Work By Myself video link:- http://youtu.be/K_eQzhXxXCo

Read by myself video link:- http://youtu.be/jrIM8Xu0B8Q

Reading social story video link:- http://youtu.be/scgOEkdsJts

Task @ Work By Myself video link:- http://youtu.be/y_UmZQ2NmuE

Working with task at out door setting:- http://youtu.be/O5kgvsaxOu0

My little STAR had also attended a Birthday Celebration to his former classmate, Benedict at EIP, and it was another occasion for parents to meet up and catch up with one another. For parents of child with ASD, we understand and clearly acknowledge the great challenges ahead for our children, each child is unique in their profile, each parent is not alone in this path less travel, we will have to encourage and motivate one another for the Hope that we each seek for our little STAR. Every child can learn, every parents can teach, every child is a blessing.

July was a fruitful month, feel with challenges but also managed to see some great outcome from his EIP towards the end to finish and make every moment counts.

Every action is planned with "What If" we never try, we may have miss this opportunity to capitalize on its success.

Every outcome has to welcome with "So What If" attitude when it never turn out the way it should be.

When we have done that, the process should be enjoy with a sense of Inner Peace, knowing that everyone has done their duties well in their best worth while effort. Each effort which will in turn contribute as fertilizers to our Beautiful Seed of Faith. Faith is our little STAR, our little STAR is our Faith.

Winners Statement:-

"Seeds of faith are always within us; sometimes it takes a crisis to nourish and encourage their growth."

Moving Forward - Focus & Build On What "I can" Rather Than what "I can't do"

Autism is a neurological disorder that severely affects a child's development. Its primary symptoms arise in the social realm, particular with language and social interaction. Many children have distinct problem interfacing with others, communicating and maintaining socially appropriate behavior.

People with Autism are not able to read emotions or facial markers as well as their peers and may tend to focus on an individual feature of the face(such as the mouth) in isolation, rather than seeing the global facial expression, with the many feature forming an expressive entity. The inability to correctly interpret facial expressions can contribute to communication and social interaction difficulties.

Social Interaction also the current challenges who my little STAR is facing in this critical juncture of his learning journey, many families and educators unwittingly and unhappily tumble into the swamp of unmet expectations and this could be deterimental to the child's learning potential if we as adults are not successful in detaching our personal aspirations from those appropriate for the child. For the past 3 weeks since the new Term starts, I had been working closely with the teachers at EIP to observe & identify some key behavior challenges, understanding why it may have trigger with trials and hypothesis, also to deploy some key actions and modify some changes to his routine in and out of the EIP to focus on what he can do to leverage his progress. It has been a great learning & enjoyable experience for all of us who have been working with the child trying to put 2 perspective thinking into one where both side of the world are able to reconcile and move forward.

When come to group learning in a big environment, my little STAR is constantly challenge to manage the overwhelming demand to balance task & social demand, on top of his communication needs. While doing work by himself, he now seems to be anxious of teacher giving split attention to other children and will saps into some inappropriate behavior to gain attention.

Several trials were taken at different places with differen environmental challenges and he seems to be able to do the task by himself without any similar behavior challenges observe in EIP classroom.

I had made several Social Communication Rules/Chains in the form of fresh card to help him understand what he can do where applicable, we may also reduce our verbal prompt to made him generalize and think for himself during independent work instead of always seeking for adult attention for comfort and feeling self secure. Other ways to explore possibilities could be to try re-arrange his table and chair at work by myself(instead of back facing teacher, now let him sit facing outward so he can feel comfort and secure in having a clear view of teacher to reduce his anxiety of unpredictability and wierd behavior of seeking attention from teacher.

I had informed the child care center our decision to withdraw our little STAR from child care with effect from 1 Aug so as to review & re-prioritize his needs for extra speech group social skill intervention. When he is free at home, I will try to create a structure environment with visual chart for him to choose his independent tasks/plays for the day and use it to recall with him as journal what he does that day at night before he rest.

We are hopeful that the OT will work out something for him to address some SI issues and that he got a second chance to make it to the social group to learn the skill of listen, look, do, wait and check in a small group format.

The new IEP for H2 2011 had just been finalized and we will be using his strength in visual to provide structure and clear instruction to interact with tasks at play by himself or with his peers, simple game such as snake and ladder could be a powerful tool to promote social learnings to take turn, ask question, commenting, check and sustain attention. I am always hopeful the special educators can capitalize on this opportunity/trial to profit from experience in their personal strive for sustainable excellence.

Back at home, we had taken steps to ready necessary logistic to simulate group learning.

July is also another AVSW, my little STAR apsires to be a Superman and I am hopefull that his dream can be materialized with the right support & consitent engagement in this path less travelled, he is already one super boy thus far since beginning his own very special walk. We are blessed to have been able to support him and working with a team of professionals in EIP & various Therapist Service Providers.

Taking this blessing to give thanks to a Team of Super Heroes & Heroines.

As a parent of child with ASD, I have learnt to remind myself to adjust to new challenges by doing following self dialogues:-

- You have some time, lots of time

- You have today, if not then tomorrow, else next week

- You have next month & next year and many years after that

With right attitude and spirit, every passing time brings new information and understanding for you to reduce effort and foster better connection with the child, which I am experiencing now in my own joy of living with my little STAR.

Just have to stay the course: therapies, strategies & all others that improvement matter. Results will come.

Winners Statement:-

Many of us start to do something because of passion. As time goes, due to many reasons, we forget in the 1st place why we start doing it. Think back and find that feeling back. If that's really your passion, stay focus and enjoy the process. You will find the joys again. Reality may be cruel but all things started because of a dream and the passion to pursue it.

Troubleshooting Social Behavior - Reflecting On This Special Walk With My Little STAR Perspective

Social interactions are problem for all children with ASD, no matter what their cognitive level happens to be, children with autism don't initiate interaction as much as typically developing children and may have difficulty interpreting tone of voice, gesture and body posture. They also tend to find other children's motives, intentions and emotions difficult to understand. Depsite their social deficit, nearly all children with ASD like to be around other children and want real friends, it is important to give them opportunity to develop realtionship skills, since these will eventually shape up how they will cope as teenagers and in adulthood.

One good way to think about a social behavior which can be helpful is the hierachy of interaction Vs partners. For interaction, the lowest and highest in the hierachy is awareness, follow by response, then initiation and finally sustained interaction. As for the hierachy of partners, from easiest to hardest varies from child to child but will often parents, working with adults(special educators, therapists), sibling, peers. Hence the easiest interaction will therefore be the awareness of mother/daddy and the hardest will be sustained interaction with peers.

The present challenge for my little STAR and his main enemy is social interaction, which may undermine his learning potential in a group teaching though he is progressing and relatively strong in 1-1 due to the various working with external therapist professionals from OT to speech to special need covering academic subjects. His use of non-convention/social inappropriate behavior through shouting, crying and screaming can be a major obstacle that need to be seriously address by the SpEd Team and us. School are primary social venue for children, hence I was thankful to have put him in the child care center thinking that it may help him integrate to normal environment and offer him more opportunity to elevate & generalizing his learning socially, but as he grows and become more aware, the challenge for social become more adverse as the centers often lack expertise or special train officer to provide direct social skill intervention where necessary and he wins his agenda and may grow with habits he perceives to be right . Even in his current EIP, I am also observing some difficultities from the teachers who are often committed to help and dedicated to teach but the help they provide will often depend a lot on the assistance available to them,the presence of a one-on-one aide for the child, time built into the schedule to teach individually & practise with peers, available of psychologist, or SLP & therapist professionals to drive and carry out intervention needs.

Time is certainly ticking away, nevertheless I am still hopeful that my little STAR can still turn around with the right support and collaborative effort from the SpEd Team & parents in the the next few months.

At home, we will take opportunity with non-compliance behavior to set our limits and consequences then reinforce with praise and the choice of his like as gift of the goose to exercise our spontaneous recognition after he follow through with our agenda. Shared one example:- I want him to read social story with me just before he drinks his milk for the night, but he choose not to and became upset when I insisted, he started shouting and screaming and crying. I set limits and ask him to use his words and if he still shout/scream/cry, I will put him to naughty corner which is the master bedroom toilet just nearby. I make use of his strength in choice making whether he want to calm down, use his words and follow my agenda or face the consequence. He is able to tell me "No" to naughty corner. I have to apply few rounds of this remedy cycle using slow, stress in a calm emotionless gesture before he finally is able to calm down & follow my agenda. Because he eventually know that I am persistent and if he continued his agenda he will not get to drink his milk. After he drank his milk, he slept well too, coz he had drained off all his energy wit me already by then. This only apply when necessary and must be careful such that he understand that I still love him for who he is and hug him to shower my love for him with praise after he managed it right. Sometimes I will also apply treatment like neuro typical kid, to ask him to put his hand out and give him a hard hit to share my anger for his non-compliance behavior such as spashing water up into the ceiling during shower despite my repeated appeal, he knows and understands that this is not allow when I challenge him, but I also give him benefit of doubts that it could have been another autistic traits that he enjoys playing, though sometimes he is able to keep it dry after shower. It is really a fine balance and everything we do may sometimes end up good for that moment & then may become another challenging autistic trait again as he progresses due to his rigidity. We can only try to remind him as and when we see or predict it but sometimes we must enjoy and endeavour for who he is in his special own way, only with this then we have inner peace and our ultimate joy of living.

Lately, he has learnt and improved skill in pretend play from video modelling of Sid The Science Kid at doll house & tree house, treating a toy model as mummy walking to the house & entering the door returning from work, putting her to sleep on bed, pulley system by making one for himself using ribbon through the wardrobe door holder pulling and lowering down the plastic container of items/furniture to the tree house.

I am using the main character SID to inspire my little STAR to explore, discover his own social engagement levers, each of the characters are like his friends & teachers in his own special school, so that he can feel confident and empower to be friend with when model after them. I make some book marks out of them and will make him give to friend to kick start awareness & practise response in reciprocate. I also make a "Looking For My Friend" card to let him find friend and put tick or cross in their attendance upon arrival at school.

My little STAR also seems to show sign of emotion on anger, when he is upset and goes into escalation, he will ask anyone to tell mummy or grandma "angry", either he is trying to express his anger via his 2 closest interactors or he is aware & conscious that mummy & grandma may be angry with him because he starts to behavior inappropriately. I will use sabotage to take away his favourite item and teach him to express anger and then ask for it back with his words, he is able to comprehen.

When we eat fruits such as apple or dragon fruit which have been cut into smaller pieces, I will practise request game with him. He will have to try request for fruit until I satisfy to feed him, so he will normally go into "daddy I want apple", "daddy , "Can I have apple" and "daddy, can you share apple with me" I will only feed him when he says the last phrase. By practising, sometimes he is able to say the last phrase spontaneously but sometimes he will use shorter phrase to test me if I will give to him, of coz I will exercise my flexibility to varies my expectation to make this more fun.

His OT is also helping to arrange if feasible, his session with another kid to elevate social skill, his therapist for special needs has also started to get another adult from either parents or his sibling to be in session with him acting as learning peers. It may be a difficult routine for the little STAR to accept or adapt for a start with an extra people with him in session, but I am confident that he will get use to it and start interacting positively and gain confident to engage with more peers as he opens up his mind.

We are exploring another professional for speech group therapy to see if this can help to compensate his lack in social interaction skill, he needs to prepare show and tell for his trial.

If successful, I will make another decision to withdraw him from his child care center where I am sadden by the fact that the center can keep him but can't reach him, nevertheless really appreciate the team of teachers accomodating and helping him along where ever they can in the past 15 months or so.

I am also reading more often social stories with him to make him understand the expectation for the right way of social behavior. Visual rules & communication chain I am sure will be part and parcel of autism focus intervention approach use by teachers, I am confident that the teachers too, are reflecting & thinking of what better constructive effort can be applied to help him over come his present social behavior challenge and his learning with peers during EIP.

Maybe, we can check on his speed processing:- Is he doing too fast? Can we structure his wait time to do something else and keep him pre-occupy or make him do more work to leverage the timing to complete or wait, so he does not rush off to next area and start behaving negatively.

Or maybe we can break up more smaller steps during work in open area to include social rules with assistant teacher as reinforcer, so he can be taught to look at peers for awareness, listen and answer question for response from peers, wait for peers in turn taking.

Or will it helps if I can know what his teaching plan and material use prior to EIP, so I can be empower to teach or practise him at home to maximize success in collaboration.

This evening after dinner we just bought him a multi-storey car park, after he is so engaged with us to buy for him. We are also happy for him that he has worked harder these days to deserve it.

Will share more update in his development in the next post.

Winners Statement:-

Be it new teacher, or senior teacher... if she can create an impact to the child she takes towards positive learning, she is a good teacher. A great teacher will then depend on the good teacher's hunger to inspire success in her excellence to all challenges she face during her teaching.

Taking Stock, Re-focus, Modify & Moving Forward

Autism is an extremely complex developmental disorder which is not as simple to manage as one may perceive, but when having the right understanding & given the right support is a joy of living when one chooses life over suffering in this path less travelled. Autism itself is not awful. Not understanding it, not having people around you who understand it, not getting the help that is surely out there for your child - that can be very awful. I am thankful that situation now compare to beginning has improved since I first begin this very special walk with my little STAR 2.5 years ago.

I shall now attempt to take stock of his various aspect of development into 4 fundamental focusd areas:-

1) Sensory processing
- single attention, impacted if the environment inputs get little overwhelm as he may not focus on where he suppose to be
- his sensory seeking behavior has reduced and only happen when he needs to self regulate to calm himself via visual stimulation
- gross motor, visual co-ordination & scanning has improved
- balancing and stability(vestibular) had improved as can be observed in his independence at various out door/ in door playgrounds
- body joint co-ordination(propriocetives) has progressed well like jumping, hoppping, catching and throwing/kicking balls
- fine motor on going, writing had improved lately
- organise task and problem solving emerging, independent on those he is familiar like re-arranging work by myself
- impulse control on going development & work in progress b y OT, this is one area most difficult and need patience and time to stablize

External Consultant with OT by Ozworks Therapy in collaboration, re-direction and repeat corrective reinforcement of child understanding until he gets it right are one of the few practises use to maximize his potential in persevering & managing success, my little STAR has since developed the never give up attitude in task involving visual-motor co-ordination & organization.

2) Speech & Language (Aidan Rush Therapy Practise)
- He is more verbal as compare to Jan 2009 when he first started EIP, able to speak short phrases between 5-8 words at home.
- Able to comment as he watches educational DVD or TV programs which he is interested like sport channel or Disney channel.
- Able to read alphabets, currently working on his phonomic awareness to improve his reading skill
- Reading short picture story book is one of a routine we develop and cultivate him to elevate this focus area in parallel
- Able to recognize more items/objects from fresh cards/picture books
- Other aspect of syntax/grammar have been touched on in his literacy skill development such as possessive, singular/plural
- Able to ask WHERE is a person/object, WHO is the person at the door/WHO's turn in board game/bathing etc... Emerging WHY questions like WHY is baby crying? WHY take unmbrella? WHY daddy stop at traffic light? Other question common is "Can I have..." "Can you turn on/off TV/radio/car wiper etc..." HOW question commonly involves teaching him to ask HOW are you to another person like mummy. WHAT question usually is WHAT is person doing from video he watches or "Ah Ma, what you doing?" when grandma is preparing cooking in kitchen.
- Despite the fact that he has improved in this focus area but still his limited language and vocabulary may at times render his communication ineffective and he may resort to getting his agenda through in the form of inappropriate behavior challenges. Visual support, social stories/rules may help to leverage or manage success.

3) Social Interaction
- His weakest link when come to interpersonal relationships relating to others in social situation like responding, expressing or recognizing emotions of others, communication and friendships.
- His only familiar emotion expression to date is sad/crying, happy/feeling great, angry & painful(once in a while when he gets hurt). Emerging and less understood one are excited, scared.
- In play and leisure time with friends, his sharing, co-operating, playing games and social cue recognition has still got to work on harder to close the gap in the next IEP for H2 2011, even though he is able to achieve this at home with family members but helping him generalize with friends and peers need further break through.
- This must be prioritized as waiting will result in the child establishing a negative reputation because of his socially inappropriate behaviors. The help the EIP teacher provide will depend a lot on assistance available to the teacher herself, the presence of 1-1 aides for my little STAR.
- If necessary, we may have to pull the available resources from internal, if not all his external professonals (OT/SLP/Therapist for special needs in literacy/behavior) to support & carry out the social skill intervention.

4) Behavior Challenges
- had first touched on this in last Oct 2010 and early this year in Jan, hence will not elaborate too much
- Less melt downs these day if we understand the child weaknesses and build on his strength to broaden his horizon of learning . If any, at time where he gets anxious due to autistic traits of rigidity, a little cry of protest not more than seconds if person is able to apply suitable remedy to calm him down or re-direction with visual support.
- When we refuse his agenda/request, we may apply non-verbal to persist, the little STAR will repeat his request though and cry a little but if we persist non-verbal, he will then self dialogue to follow our agenda & translate his little cry of protest to request for visual support instead (like drawing the thing/object he want on a white board & put a cross over) to confirm his understanding in self regulation before he calm down and follow our agenda again
- To re-emphasize, all behavior springs from a reason and all behavior is communication, it is important to try an identify what triggers a behavior problem
- We must believe that he would interact appropriately if only he could, but has neither the social cognition, the sensory integrative abilities nor langauge to achieve it.
- One good way of teaching appropriate behaviors is by addressing the emotional modulation issues that underlie or worsen many challenging behavior
- We can teach him a script for stopping and getting himself back in control such as:-
A. take a deep breath
B. count to 10
C. say "I can stop _____"
D. then say "I can ______"

The child can then use this script to say in a specific situation to help him control his own behavior.
- It is also importance to differentiate & address rigid behavior & non-compliance, setting limits on inappropriate behavior and reinforcing appropriate behavior is extremely important in reducing problem behavior in children with ASD. If my little STAR is demonstrating an inappropriate behavior in work by myself like shouting/messy work or gym play making noise, the teacher may try set the limts and redirect him & persist that he do it right by stating the consequences(sit at naughty corner) of his non compliance with the rule. At home, we have tried to make him repeat the task/action until it is right to focus more attention on details where applicable. Such as writing neatly, walking instead of running, no wetting the floor else clean up etc..

There is a deep pain in my heart when I see negative out come from a child with ASD not redirected or reinforce rightly in time, coz we know very well he/she will grow up with habit as he may think literally that he can still do it his way but may not necessary be right in others perspective.

I am hopeful that situation will improved if teachers can profit from experience through their proactiveness or be supported by available therapy driven programs/consultant team.

Winners Statement:-

‎"Faith doesn't mean the absence of fear. It means having the energy to go ahead, right alongside the fear." - Sharon Salzberg