Beautiful Seed- May Moment

May marks the first Anniversary of my blog "Passion With Life"

It has been really blessing to be able to continue in sharing the positves as I adventure on with my little STAR. He is such a joy to work with now though one thing predictable I learn during my special walk with him is his unpredictability and the other consistent attribute about him is his inconsistency. It is about courage and consideration at time whenever we meet a challenge, and a matter of conviction and commitment to plan for action to regain our happiness. Every child's profile in this spectrum is unique and different, but having said that, every child is also teachable and every teachers/parents can teach, all we need is hope and keep our faith with him. Faith is like wings of eagle that enable him to fly higher and higher as he grows.

Our little STAR's receptive and expressive has improved lately, he is able to comment, answer questions and has more awareness to his surrounding and what he desires. We are teaching him to ask WH question to elevate his social skill like "How are you" whenever we pick her mummy back from work, "Who is next" during snake & ladder game turn taking, "Why stop"when I stop at traffic light. "Why people carry umbrella" during raining. or what is this for on object function. It is really a matter of giving him the opportunity to ask whenever new situation arises. Like wise, we do modelling to teach him expressive language and intentional communciation and expand whenever possible eg. "Daddy I like this toy, can I have it?" or "I don't want to watch TV, please turn off" etc.. Importantly is to make him learn to be spontaneous, independent & able to maintain and generalize usage in various context.

Lately he has been very empowered on work by myself, we are broadening his desire by making frequent changes to his task and also ready more work sheets to let him practise. In coming June, we will recreate & let him revise and redo his worksheet from term 2 EIP to improve his skill.

The feedback from teacher for his term 2 progress report has been positive and with potential of improving further, script writing/reading with visual support will be some action install for his June holidays to practise.

We have been able to explore 2 more indoor play ground to let him indulge in his leisure play time: Go Go Bambini & Kidz Amaze.

It is also a good way to drain off his extra energy from SI perspective, so that he can have better attention when engaging with adults in his learning.

He can also try his functional communication with peers at play with our facilitation.

We had also bought him a new DVD titled SID The Science Kid. What is good about this is that it comes with English sub title, it explores science teaching in school, similar to EIP classroom ratio and then generalize concept and problem solving to home.

The interaction also comes in the form of asking Question, think and answer to find solutions

May is also a month very special to the little STAR's parents as they remember their vow in marriage and be thankful for coming this far in our journey together with 2 growing up kids. This year we celebrate our 15th year and pamper ourselves with dinner at Bottle Tree Village

As we move through life, it is hard for us to avoid things that cause regret and disappointment. We may lack the strength to change this, but what we can change is the attitude with which we approach this setbacks. We need to face regret and suffering with a tranquil mind. His acknowledgement of the unsatisfactory parts of life, and ability to make up for these lacks through one’s own efforts, is precisely the attitude to approach the regrets in our lives. The attitude & feeling we adopt towards these regrets is extremely important. A different attitude can result in a completely different quality of life.

Winners Statement:

"We are shaped by our thoughts; we become what we think. When the mind is pure, joy follows like a shadow that never leaves." ~ Buddha

April Moment - Sharing Our Joy Of Living

Rituals are the lenses through which we see our emotional connections to each other, to a culture, to a higher power. They are symbolic expressions of our most sacred values. A way of giving our child a sense of calming & stability and belonging.

Share some photos of rituals that we enjoy as a family on and off the routine whenever the opportunity arises, is to have meal together in the community. That is also when our little STAR exercise his independent skill of taking his own food.

April kicks off the Autism Awareness Month, is also a month feels with gratitude, appreciation and great anticipation in our walk with our little STAR as we ready him for his education placement assessment as a first baby step toward transition out process. Release another montage to capture my little STAR last 1 year of learning journey to celebrate 4th WAAD, play my little part in sharing some movie & video clips of Autism to help raise some awareness via social networking among the friends I know.

Back in Feb during the Chinese New Year reunion, while his sister and cousins were playing snake and ladder, he was just merely observing. In April, he made another break through by playing the same snake and ladder game with sister & the family:- turn taking, asking and answering rules of the questions during game, manipulating movement and counting. Each game last about 20-25minutes. A good practise of join engagement and great ritual to finish the day before his bed time.

We were also glad that he had managed to sit through by himself with the psychologist, motivated and engaged with the assessment process.

We will continue to work hard in giving him every opportunity he needs to elevate his social skill which could bring him to the next level of learning journey.

The Easter holiday was also a great season for him to exercise gratitude & take blessing in giving to show appreciation to teachers.

His EIP school Term outing was another exciting highlights in April which we enjoy going with him. This time the theme WATER has brought the children to East Coast Park beach to enjoy the water play.

The children get to do their worksheets while waiting for teachers to set up the game stations.

The sun give his much blessing while the children took part in relay games of filling the bottle with water, shooting cup with water gun and making sand castle cup, with their parents and care givers cheering them on.

We had lunch at KFC before boarding the bus for our return journey back to ARC.

Our little STAR got to experience playing on the flying fox at one indoor playground on the last day of April. Once he got hold of the way to play, he start to engage on the fox and will try again for several more times as he feels empowered with confidence.

We ended the indoor gym play with an ice cream cup to disengage him.

It was another good month of great memories, life is beautiful when we make all his moment counts.

Winner's Statement:-

When your thoughts are geared in a positive direction, your feeling are peaceful. ~ Richard Carlson

Weaknesses Are Strengths

Winners Statement:-

Patience with others is Faith, Patience with self is Hope, Patience with Autism is Love.

Autism Awareness Month - April 2011

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.

Sharing The 10 Concepts In The Area Of Motivation On Child With Special Needs

1) All human behavior is motivated. Even a child who appears to be unmotivated is actually motivated. Eg A child's refusal to participate in class group activities may be motivated by his fear of limited social skill and vocabulary to communicate.

2) Tangible rewards may create temporary behavioral changes, but rewards are unlikely to increase the child's motivation. Rewards then become the primary source of motivation and not our original intend to motivate.

3) Learning and attention problems have a marked impact on child motivation. Need to invest time, love & hope to support them in overcoming failure & fustration and to increase their confidence, be encourage & willing to invest themselves in academic pursuit despite the great challenges ahead.

4) Competition is an ineffective motivational approach by most children with special needs, most of the time. The only person motivated by competition is the person who feels he has a chance of winning.

5) Motivation is greatly impact by primary physical needs. If a child's physical needs(hunger, thirst, safety, etc...)are unmet, the child will be less motivated to learn, the physiological(mind/body) sensations caused by thiese unmet needs will overshadow and over power her motivation to learn.

6) Students have unique, individual patterns of motivation. Activities and approaches that are highly motivational for one child may be totally ineffective with another.

7) Coaching techniques are often effective in motivating the child who struggle academically. The responsive, individualized, structured techniques used in coaching often provide the child with a balance of supportand challenges that he needs inorder to learn.

8) Punishment like reward, will result in temporary behavioral changes, but will do little to foster motivation. If the child has a geniune learning problems that prevent him from mastering the target material, the use of punishment is unfair, inappropriate and ineffective.

9) The only effective, long-term motivator of human behavior is success. When a child experiences success in academic or social tasks, he/she becomes increasingly motivated to expereince more and greater success. The success serve to inspire the child to reach his/her greater potential, but only when the child feels that his initial success is geniune and earned.

10) In order for the person to be motivated to invest himself/herself in an activity, 3 factors must be present:- a. He/she must feel the goal is attractive b. He/she must feel that the amount of effort required to meet the goal is realistic c. he/she must feel that it is likely that she can accomplish the goal.

All 3 factor must be present to maximize motivation, else the child will be less motivated.

Take this blessing to share my beautiful seed in his past 1 years of learning journey;-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-zEVTEK9-E

Tomorrow, April 2nd is World Autism Awareness Day. Although some of us live with Autism everyday, most people have difficulty understanding what living with Autism really means. Since children with autism often physically look like other kids, it can be like having an invisible disability.

People tend to be afraid of what they don’t understand. Awareness has the power to change people’s attitudes from “Ugh, I can’t believe that kid is behaving so badly” to “is there anything I can do to help?” Hope to play my part as I embrace my little STAR for his little success.

Each person with autism is unique with their own challenges ranging from no speech or communication with extreme behaviors, to highly verbal and difficulty with social language and situations. The one thing that ALL people have in common is that everyone wants to be loved, accepted and included. Don’t be afraid of Autism. Dare to be aware, and embrace a child or family with Autism today.

Winner's Statement:-

3 E: Energy, Enthusiasm, Empathy

3 C: Compassion, Courage, Consideration

3 P: Patience, Persistence, Perseverence

Above all: LOVE

Sharing My Overview On Social Skill For Children With ASD

Social interactions are a problem for all children with ASD, no matter what their cognitive level happen to be. They don't initiate interactions as much as typically developing children do.


Children with ASD have difficulty interpreting tone of voice, gesture, and body posture. They find other children's motive, intentions and emotion difficult to understand. Their communciation may be one sided, repetitive, and lacking in true reciprocity. Some children with ASD may talk too much, while others may be passive and quiet.


At each stage of development, there are new social challenges to meet, just like my little STAR. I have to count on SLT, OT and special educators to direct teach him on some social ideas and rules to him or help him engage in social problem solving. Direct teaching of social rules and strategies, and later on, active problem solving are some effective ways of approach that my little STAR may benefit more consider his attentional learning style and strength in 1-1 learning.


Making use of social stories to explain and illustrate social rules and concepts, so as to help him learn to deal more appropriately with a social situation that is problematic for him. It can be written with supporting pictures as well as words, whatever will make the ideas clear to the child, given his language level.


In classroom where group is concern, it is important to observe and seek opportunity to offer the children interaction challenges such as :-


1) Teach him to stop consistently doing something when asked to do so. Able to wait for peer in a group activities.


2) Encourage the child to pay attention to other peers by saying "look", asking "what" question to arouse his interest in social interaction and share soe of his time together.


3) Create awareness and understanding that he can ask for help when havjng trouble socially.

4) Teach him how to expand his language and use of sentence construction to benefit from a group situation with other children.


I am hopeful that once he understands that to change a social situation, he will need to be willing to make some changes in his own behavior and to continue elevate his social skills and reinforcing his group learning road map. He may take more time than other children to acquire the social skill set but does the educational system able to accomodate him with more time he needs.


Whatever form of intervention takes, they are guided by the child's cognitive strengths and weaknessess, as well as his social skill's deficit. Acknowledging the child's learning style, using his strengths to compensate for or remediate his weaknessness is what make the social skill intervention effective.


Once the child acquires the social skill, we may encourage him to use it often until it become fluent or natural, only way out is through repeated and frequent practise. Once he crosses that milestones, I believe that he will be able to pay attention to other children and their reaction and have confidence to apply them on new situation.


Winners Statement;-


" Down the road of life, you can either see obstacles coming and run the other way, or you can take these obstacles as they come, fight your way through them, and be stronger because of them."

Coping With Parental Stress

I had a great time once again attending to parent communication night for end of Term 1 tonight.


One of the topic shared was that of Parental Stress and ways of coping.

Really useful and informative which I shall take this blessing to recall & share:-

1) Not all stress is bad, there are healthy & unhealthy stress


2) Stress occurs when we have to adapt to change in our environment, in a life event or situation, whether the change is positive or negative


3) Stress is subjective which varies from every individual


4) The most common factors that can increase stress include lack of predictability, lack of control(or choice), or putting too much pressure on oneself over a prolong period

5) Increased stress and inability to cope often result in one of two broad response to fustration: fight(agression or anger) or flight(depression or withdrawal)


6) Continue stress can take its toll on us physically and actually wear down the immune system, resulting in deterioration in health and making us more vulnerable to illness


7) some TIPS to over come STRESS

T: Take stock to understand and recognize the symptoms of stress in yourself as parents and in your child
I: Innoculating against stress by focusing on helpful techniques of preparation, relaxation & rehearsal to alleviate stress symptoms for parents themselves and their child
P: Possess time, stress is inevitable but how you cope with it is more important:- attitude, expectation & beliefs
S: Strengthen relationship to understand and build trust to enhance co-operation and support.


We can take a significant step to reduce stress by increasing our knowledge about the special education process which in turn can help increase the feeling of empowerment. By knowing what to expect(predictability), parents can gain greater control over their child's educational possibilities by being a pro-active member of their child special education team. Understanding their child's disability and how to effectively manage behavior problems can also be instrumental in reducing potentially stress situation.

8) Some of the common resourceful ways of reducing stress include:- reading, sharing, positive self reflection, listen to music, connecting to positive people, religion, "me time" indulging in doing things you desire or feel happy about, doing volunteer or charity work etc...

9) There are inappropriate ways of coping with stress which involve withdrawal, avoidance, denial, acting out and blaming others.


10) Positive ways of coping with stressful experience results from looking at the stressful experience as a learning experiences. Knowing what to expect and preparing for the expected are healthy ways of using stressful experiences to motivate change in a positive way.


Winners Statement:-
Accept that some days you're the pigeon, And some days you're the statue.