With the encouragement of a friend I met today, whom I've not met for 20 years, I finally kick off my project of creating a blog. It was the suggestion of my son's therapists & music teacher, to start a journal of the various activities that I do with my son. But there was always something else to do & many excuses. There's never a better time than now, right?

I do not know where this project will take me. I mostly just want to document the activities I do with my son & hopefully, give ideas to other parents on things they can do to develop their child's oral motor, gross motor, fine motor, social skills, creativity & self care. In the process, it'll also document my son's progress over time & perhaps give hope to other parents of kids who have special needs.

That friend said, the first step is always the hardest. So Pearly, here's my first step!

What did I do with my son today?

Not much today (that's bcos I went for my high school reunion, which by the way, was unpretentious, comfortable & I went away feeling energised).

1. Water play

1a) Scooping & pouring water from beakers of various sizes

- Purpose: for wrist movement; for getting both left & right hands to work together when pouring from one beaker to another; for squat to stand movement; for stretching his arms to reach toys on the other side; to understand that water gets emptied out when there are holes at the bottom & the larger the hole, the faster it empties

- To work on more: using both hands to work together

- Improvement noted: using wrist movement to scoop up water

1b) Painting with water on the side walk

- How? Those concrete slabs double up as his "canvas" for his painting with water activity. You then just need paint brushes, a container of water & creativity! Cheap & fun. Absolutely mess free!

- Purpose: for hand eye coordination; to practice the matured pencil grasp

- To work on more: the tripod grasp

- Improvement noted: painted a rectangle for the first time (circles/ovals previously)

2. Whiteboard

2a) Freestyle drawing

- Purpose: for hand eye coordination; to practice the matured pencil grasp; to work on his grip by uncapping the marker pen

- To work on more: the tripod grasp

- Improvement noted: he erased all the scribbles but it didn't trigger the gag reflex this time round; erasing was done using the left hand instead of right; better control of left hand

- Unusual: noticed that he uses his right hand to tap at the targetted spot before erasing that area with his left hand, as though pointing the area out to his left hand.

2b) Maze/Road map

- How to play? Draw a simple maze/road map on the whiteboard, with landmarks familiar to him e.g. Tesco, Jusco, Twin Towers, home, Shell. Then showed him how play it by pretending to go by car from home, following the road to Tesco then stopping by Shell to pump petrol etc.

- Purpose: for hand eye coordination (he has to try to stay within the path/road even when the road turns left or right etc); to practice the matured pencil grasp; problem solving (to find the path to his chosen destination)

- To work on more: staying within the path

- Improvement noted: getting better with pretend play - his pretend car clocked in a lot of mileage!

3. "Reading" the newspaper (Weekender section of Star)

- introduced him to different hobbies highlighted in the write ups e.g. fishing, travelling, watching movies, reading comics

- reinforced pre-maths skills of size e.g. small, medium, big using photos of pet dogs & fish caught

- improve his general knowledge by talking about the photos shown (e.g. what's found in a swamp)

4. Gross motor

4a) Walking up & down the stairs

- Purpose: to work on bilateral movement, balance, strength

- Target: to walk up one foot on one step rather than needing both feet on a step before moving up to next step, while holding on to wall or banister for support

4b) Pushing his "Little Tikes" car

- To my son, it's his Toyota Vios!! Btw, would you believe someone would throw this away? It was discarded at the local playground & I picked it up... Old, tatty & dirty but still useable & was given a good scrub down. He has so much fun with it.

- Purpose: coordination of arms & leg muscles in turning corners & manouvering a large object through tight spaces

- To work on more: he hasn't learnt to lift up the car, when the car tyre gets stuck in a gap

- Improvement noted: good control in turning corners; good control in trying to avoid knocking into dad's car when zooming around it (still need to follow closely & save him from scratching dad's car)

4c) Balance beam

- Photo above is the little obstacle course I created for him. The balance beam is the dark brown structure at the top far left. It's on loan from his therapist, as are a few other items...many thanks to his CST therapist!

- Purpose: balance, coordination, to reduce the broadness of his stride

- To work on more: still unable to walk on the beam unaided

5. Sticker fun

- How to play? Create own activity page by downloading suitable photos from internet which has circles/spots/polka dots (e.g. ladybird, cheetah), into a powerpoint document then drawing dotted line circles on those spots for him to paste circle shaped stickers. Plain neon coloured circle shaped stickers are easily & cheaply bought. I got mine in a pack of 10 sheets from Tesco.

- Purpose: hand eye coordination in pasting it within the desired circle; using both hands in peeling off the sticker; pincer grip

- To work on more: peeling off the sticker - hard for him to bend the backing paper in a manner to expose an edge of the cut out sticker

- Improvement noted: a bit better in placing the sticker within the desired spot

6. Bubbles

- How to play? You'll need a different type of bubble solution. It's the type that doesn't burst when it touches a surface. Available at Toys R Us. Best played outdoors as it's very sticky. Not a good idea to play on a windy day. It's the little pink tube in the top middle of the photo above. (Will have a separate post on the other bubble wands/bubble play objects)

- Purpose: to exercise his oral motor by blowing bubbles; for hand eye coordination by using his finger to pop the bubble; to develop his catching skills by using both hands to pop the bubble in a clapping action.

- To work on more: using both hands to pop

- Improvement noted: able to catch a bubble on the tip of his pointer finger without bursting it

7. Butterflies on a paper stand

- How to play? Download suitable photos or illustrations of butterflies/insects (or whatever object that interests him). Cut them out & paste on a cardboard/empty cereal box. Make a tiny stand out of cardboard & stick it on the back of butterfly. Place several of it on floor. Get child to lie on tummy & see if he blow the butterfly down. As he progresses, you can increase the distance between child & butterfly and/or challenge him to blow as many as he can within a time limit.

- Purpose: to strengthen his oral motor; to increase the strength & length of his breath stream

- To work on more: increase the distance (it was about 2 inches distance today)

- Improvement noted: - (first time doing this activity)

8. Feeding

- Vomitted when fed bimbim bab, perhaps veg was a bit too long/stringy

- Loved nasi lemak rice with fried chicken. Wanted to try sambal despite warning it's hot.