January 2012 - Rejoice In The Festive Celebration

This year the Lunar New Year comes within the first month towards 2012, it was another great occasion for family to celebrate and learn about the various tradition that comes with it. My little STAR is much more aware now, learning to say greeting in chinese & holding well to the gesture of Cong Xi Fa Cai, his writing is also coming along nicely.

We had our early reunion dinner 1 week before the lunar new year weekend with my sister family, as our family had planned to welcome the Dragon in Malaysia in-laws home town over the festive long weekend instead.

It is always a pleasure to drive up North, we visited his 4th auntie's Final Cut Studio in Puchong to have the hair cut for the kids and mum, then stay over at KL for a night in his auntie's place.

We were back at our in-laws home town just after 12pm the next day, and had BBQ for the reunion night before welcoming the Lunar New Year. We also had family dinner by the bay on the first night of lunar new year and taken photo to capture the moment.

Though the time spent is merely 3 days, but it is a worth while effort for our little STAR to generalize his skill learnt in different environment with different people, he enjoyed a mixture of independence playing in the open with the toy car ride though it may appear slightly smaller now as he has grown up taller, he is also able to watch & sustain attention over Disney channel program on TV, getting to know his cousins and better regulated in awareness with space & time.

We had also make use of some precious time in between to shedule his home work and practise some work sheets on body parts, matching the same/different, doing writing from work books.We had Ba Kut Teh breakfast before heading back to Singapore on 3rd day of Lunar New Year.Taken with other cousins back at home, another great opportunity to seek social and practise functional communication/turn taking.

He closed another wonderful month with a simple blessing of celebrating his mum birthday.

My little STAR's infant tooth has been bordering him ever since the new tooth has grown out more and more, it was slightly loose but still very much intact, this has force the new tooth to grow slightly back ward making him feels uncomfortable, so he requested it to be taken out. My wife brought him to a dentist, we are thankful to the dentist for his excellent job that the process went on smoothly and we are proud of our little STAR's bravery in this first time experience. I am sure we will return for the dentist service when we next needed him. I am thankful to my wife for capturing the entire procedures to share and accentuate the positive:- http://youtu.be/iBz1EcIriBM

Winners Statement:-

First Week Of School - Behind The Scene

Following the success of school orientation conducted for the children & parents, we went on to prepare our little STAR for the new school term openning. 2 social stories:- one about going to the new school(covering the teacher, assembly area, classroom and various area that the lessons/activities will take place) and the other about the mode of transport going to new school(including the social rules of waiting for bus), both were integrated to his bed time story book reading routine to ready him in this new transition.

The day before school starts, we pack his school bag with him.

Our game plan for his first day of school was that I will be the mobile observer for both end of the pick up point while his mum and grandma will take care of him waiting for school bus to arrive. All system goes as I waited just opposite my block from a distance for the school bus to arrive and ensure everything goes smoothly.

Unfortunately, 10 minutes before the schedule time of bus arrival, receive a recall from my wife to help her out as something unexpected happen, he suddenly become upset and refuse to wear the school uniform. He was still happy to go school when about time to change and get ready but the trigger point happened when he thought he was wearing home clothes to school like EIP. We had make him wear and try out the uniform to make sure he feel ok before without any non compliance from him but overlook on details to make this rountine of wearing school uniform predictable for him on top of our social stories. With some effort, after calming him, hugging him and using his school bus will be coming and friends will be waiting as a way to redirect him, we manage to return his behavior to equilibrium.

Then the next unexpected happen, the school bus that suppose to arrive at 11.50am did not reach our place until 12.20pm, we left in my car just 10 minutes before it arrived fearing that he may be late for first day of school . Again he became upset and was asking for school bus in my car during the journey to school. Upon arriving, the school bus was still not in yet, though he was not late, we decided to wait for the school bus to arrive to let him join the children on board to walk in to school together in completing this due process. In fact when the bus finally arrive & we did as intended, he was still upset and crying to get up to the bus, we quickly re-directed him to follow the school staff and friends and ask my wife to withdraw from him. Once the distant grew apart and soon he cross over the school compound away from waiting area, he regains his balance again, we were quite glad and feel a sense of blissfulness & inner peace in catching this scenic view . We were very thankful when he did well with a successful return via the bus after school for day 1. I was more concern about whether he is able to sensory integrated & adapted well to the new school environment but was over joy when his teacher told me that Fabian was fine. Second day was much improved, he converted well for his independence of going to school by school bus. Photo above taken in contrast of the first day & second day. Most of his anxieties are usually related to his rigidity to routine and his perspective thinking to break away from his fixated interest and narrow focus. But if more support, patience and help in understanding can be provided in teaching him, it can be prevented, else we will have to manage with more hard work and worth while energy in order to achieve similar success.

There is a change of routine for his 3rd day of school as he needs to attend his OT schedule every Thursday morning, mummy will have to manage but I was really proud when all things turned out smoothly without major hitch. They took a combination of taxi from home to OT centre then taxi again to MRT to go Bishan - had his favourite pepper lunch before taking a bus to school.

This will also applies on Friday where mummy will pick him up to attend another speech social group in town at 5pm to call it a week. Beside that, he also attends numeric on Wednesday night, literacy on Thursday night with his private special educator. Over weekend, he has an ST session on Saturday and another Sunday group for social group & behavior intervention as part of continuous program to balance his learning and generalization with peers.

We have deliberately left his first 2 days free to start the week slow, so he can recover to manage his learning journey as the days progress again. We shall review his needs vs his competency level & sustainability with his main school commitment, most importantly is still to allow him to find joy to remain engage his learning in maximizing his potential. Ever since he graduated from EIP, his work by myself has been in the form of schedules to complete his work book from writing to doing numeric and at times coloring or tracing/drawing from worksheet provided. we make use of the memo pad by indicating date and pages that he needs to work on. Working with us will be in the form of transfer skill of journal writing from white board to book and some literacy or social behavior teaching.

Lately, we have visited a water front park near our place in the North and glad to find adventure play ground where jungle like tree houses with rope and swinging bridges linking to each other, my little STAR was so engaged with the play that I have to force myself to climb and walk with him, it was tiring but a great work out & joy of living for me.

Winners Statement(Photo taken by my little STAR's mummy while we were persevering the swinging bridge):-

I will persist until I succeed. Always will I take another step. If that is of no avail I will take another, and yet another. In truth, one step at a time is not too difficult... I know that small attempts, repeated, will complete any undertaking. - Og Mandino