Suku kata Cards

Having made so many flashcards, I was relieved that I could buy good quality BM suku kata flashcards. Thanks Yvonne for helping to buy it!

The letters are coloured and in large print. The cards are double sided, so they take up less space. They also have a chart that shows the possible combinations of the suku kata cards that form meaningful BM words, along with matching pictures to guide the kids.

The vowels are on separate cards and have illustrations on the respective cards to indicate the sound (e.g.  card for vowel "a" has api, ayam pictures). That's useful cos I think he's getting the English and BM vowel sounds mixed up. Yesterday I tested him on spelling the word "gun" which is what the teacher taught in school. He spelt it as g-a-n because in BM, the vowel "a" has a similar sound as the short vowel "u" in English.

I've used the cards a few times and he is able to read through them quite fast (fast for him, but probably slow compared to normal kids).

It can be bought online at the following link at RM33.80 for a set of 2 boxes (series 1 and 2):
http://www.pelangibooks.com/module/series/series.aspx?seriesid=SBSGKM03

Diarrhoea, fever, runny nose and chesty cough

His diarrhoea started on Wednesday night but it is now finally under control with stronger medicine (Buscopan for the tummy cramps and Kaolin bind the bacteria). It started with extremely smelly passing of wind, then came the runny stools. We took Thursday and Friday off from school.

His fever started on Thursday but was thankfully mild. I was really worried when from Thursday evening onwards, he passed out slight blood in his runny stools, but the doctor said that it’s common because of the frequent passing of stools.

I do not know where or how he caught the stomach bug, but there are the usual suspects.

Hygiene is not high on the kindergarten’s priority list. Kids do not wash their hands after using the toilet. They only wash with soap before snack time. On top of that, the liquid soap provided is extremely diluted, to the extent I’ve to pump it twice to get a bit of lather. Shoes are not taken off when entering the class, so mud, dirt, germs etc are brought in from the garden (after PE) and from the toilet floors. For their age group, quite a lot of teaching is still done with the kids seated on the floor. Then, there are some kids who touch just about everything, including the food in your lunch box! Sigh. So, I’ll be bringing along a hand sanitiser in his bag and teaching him how to use it.

The other usual suspect is my helper. She comes from a different culture where hygiene is not emphasised. Despite repeated reminders to wash her hands and being clean, she keeps on “surprising” me. After 4 months of reminders to wash, I recently found out that when I’m not looking, she merely rinses with just water rather than with soap!

The other possibility is that reheated food might not have been reheated properly despite instruction to have it reheated for at least 15 mins. I often do not have time to cook twice a day, so excess food from lunch is kept in the fridge and reheated for dinner for my son and I.

He started having a runny nose on Friday but that too has stopped along with the fever.

However, today, he started having a chesty coughing. That’s never a good sign. But at least he’s now less cranky (I’d be too from having 10 or more trips to the toilet in a day!) and able to rest better with the diarrhoea arrested.

Neurosuit Therapy Progress

He started with the new therapist on Monday. He’s getting on well with her too, happily doing all the exercises she requires of him.

He’s continuing to progress well with the Neurosuit therapy. Recently, he’s able to do a squat to stand by coming up. He did that twice in a row in school, in the music hall. In the past, it would have been difficult to even squat in the first place!

Yesterday in school, he easily sat on the floor with his legs spread out wide (like a V) and his workbook in front of him to do the exercises. He seemed pretty comfortable in that position (thanks to his therapist!) until teacher asked him to sit crossed legged (which the therapist tells me is very bad for the spine - sigh).

Just look at the way he can hold himself on the swing, in the photo above. As recent as maybe 4 weeks ago, he would have slipped off the stationary swing in a probably 5 seconds (because he couldn’t engage the right muscles and those muscles weren’t strong enough). Now, he can hold himself steady on the stationary swing. Even better, yesterday he was able to balance himself on the MOVING swing AND move his body to maintain the swinging momentum.

There’s still a lot that needs to be worked on, so he’ll be having physiotherapy 4x a week, with three of it in the Neurosuit. Slowly but surely he'll get there with the help of the therapist and the Neurosuit!

Responsibility

Being disabled does not exempt one from being responsible. On the contrary, I think it’s even more important to teach him to be responsible. I feel that learning to be responsible is part of the journey in learning to be independent.

Responsibility – I think that’s a big word for a 4 or 5 year old child. But I think the younger I start training him to be responsible, the better. I agree with my father in law who told me of a saying, the essence of which is that character building should start young (forgive me, I’m very “banana” so I’m unfamiliar with Chinese sayings).

Picking up his toys

I learnt from his playgroup about 2 years ago, a good habit of only having one toy out at a time. That meant keeping something before taking another out. It took a long time of inculcating this habit (partly because I wasn’t consistent!). But eventually, he accepted that this is the rule, and helps in keeping his toys away when I ask him to. Yes, I still have to ask him to do it, and I do it together with him. If I’m in a hurry, he will do it himself when asked to (place pieces into the box), but I’ll then come back to keep the box in its rightful place.

Tidying up before bedtime

This is another habit that took a long time to inculcate, but I’ve begun to see results. Recently, he started clearing up things. For e.g. he’d ask where he should keep a forgotten piece of toy he discovered; or he’d keep my ruler away and throw bits of scrap paper (from making flashcards together).

Some of these habits will come in very useful soon cos I’m aiming to do away with a live-in helper (when I’m no longer his shadow aide).

Clearing his dining table

I’ve introduced this habit only recently when I noticed that he’s interested in the on-goings of the household (e.g. observing the washing up of plates). His motor skills aren’t good yet, so I only allow him to take his plastic bottle or his feeding hanky to the sink. But he has surprised me by taking a small plate to the kitchen. He’s so into this now that he also wants to take the heat absorbent placemat to the kitchen.

Setting his dining table

This was something I didn’t initiate to teach him. One day he observed there was a fork short and promptly brought one over. After a few more times of bringing over missing cutlery, today, I let him bring over all the cutlery needed. By the way, it’s only myself and him at his tiny table.

Neat and tidy (no littering)

He’s learnt this habit well from a young age. Now, he’ll pick up bits of paper or whatnot off the floor and throw it into the bin. Unfortunately, he’s also picked up some fluff and threw it into the new air filter! LOL. I’ve since explained that mistake to him.

School had recently taught about litter in their moral class so it’s been reinforced even more which is good. Today, at the end of music class, I gave him a piece of tissue to wipe his sticky hands (he had a gummy sweet) and went out to get his shoes. When I came back he had already thrown the tissue into the bin at the other end of the hall, without me telling him to do so. I was surprised cos I didn’t even know that he knew where the bin was. Perhaps another adult told him to?

Laundry bin

During the period of changeover of helper, I set up a separate laundry bin for his dirty clothes. Since then he has been happily putting (most of) his dirty clothes in there. Of course, I praise him each time he does that, to encourage him more.

Financially responsible

I did not set out to teach him this at his young age. He happened to pick it up the simpler aspects of it through observation. I thought the two examples below were amusing:

At Jusco during a sale, the display of kids VCDs, (the Word World VCD) caught my eye. So without thinking much, I casually said “Hey, there’s Word World! Do you have this episode?” while picking it up and showing it to him. Without missing a beat, he responded like an adult “Got offer or not?”

This other example happened today, and is more about taking care of things and not quite about financial responsibility, but I thought it amusing:

He was looking at a new toy police car (thanks Adnan!) in his hand and said “must take care, it’s expensive”. Ah, mama must have said something like that often enough in the past! LOL.

(It’s ever so important to lead by example! He’s already caught me out a few times for not “walking the talk” LOL)

WIP (Work in progress)

There are so many more things to teach him that it's not possible to list them here. There are also so many things for me to learn to teach him - eg. today at music class, I realised that I should teach him that it's his responsibility to learn as a student.

It’s a slow process to teach him about responsibility, requiring a lot of repetition/consistency and leading by example. I’m glad though, that we’ve already started on it.

Distractions in the classroom

Over the past week or so, there’s been an increase in disruptive behaviour in the class.

One boy often takes the erasers from the tables of his friends while they’re doing exercises in their workbook, much to the annoyance of his friends. He also has thumped the hands of some kids thinking it’s a funny game. He’d also turn the page of some kids’ workbooks, or talk to them instead of doing his own work. During circle time, he’d be moving around, blocking the view of the students, messing about with something, or crawling over or in between the students, making the kids lose focus.

Another boy might be playing with the hair of other kids, but mostly, he’ll quietly entertain himself elsewhere in the class (arrange the kids tupperwares, play by himself).

During play time or in between activities, one girl has been provoking others (name calling, snatching) and often results in pushing, shoving or pinching.

The out of the box girl seems to have an increase in the frequency of her tantrums, which then requires teacher to counsel her.

So when teacher is dealing with those kids on a one to one basis (or talking briefly to me or to another teacher who walks in), sometimes, the other normally well behaved kids push the boundaries by playing chasing, or get carried away by talking louder and louder or get overly excited in play.

The teacher has a really tough job having 4 special needs kids (out of which 3 have social/behavioural issues) and that’s before counting my son. It would be ideal if all teachers were trained on managing “today’s kids”.

I’m thankful that my son has settled in fairly well into what’s expected of him in a classroom. He doesn’t run around or scream like he used to. He’s able to sit with the rest during circle time. He pays attention most of the time (not all the time). He’s been helpful in pushing in the chairs, collecting pencils and erasers from the tables or floor and putting them in the basket at the back of the class (he loves doing that). He’s happy to attend kindergarten.

But with the recent increase in noise level and disruptiveness, he’s getting caught up in it too. During circle time, if a friend next to him starts to play with him, he responds by playing with him or her too. Or if the boy is within his viewing range, and does something he’s not supposed to (eg. leave the class/play with the door/play with duster etc), my son will point him out to the teacher (Tattle tale is something he copied from other kids). If during play time the boy gets into my son’s personal space, then my son’s volume goes way up (I’ve been teaching him to use his words to say “Stop! Go away/Dont disturb me, but he’s not using it yet). In between activities, sometimes the boy invites my son to chase him around the class, which my son happily does.

Last Friday, teacher was absent. The old teacher’s aide was substituting, so there was a lot of negativeness in the air (shouting, scolding, threatening). One girl was so scared when she was called to the teacher’s table (just to check the work done) that she vomited.

The Mandarin teacher is also having an increasingly difficult time managing the class. Last Friday, only about 5 kids were paying attention. Every few minutes she’d be reprimanding someone. My son was hardly paying attention. When he went for a toilet break during Mandarin lesson, I asked him why he wasn’t paying attention. He replied that it’s because he doesn’t understand. I believe most of the kids didn’t understand too.

I’m finding it hard to help my son stay calm and grounded amongst all these happenings. In the first place, I myself find it hard to not let these things affect me. It tends to drain me out. I believe it tires my son out too.

That’s one reason I’m considering attending that Brain Gym course. Perhaps I can learn strategies to help my son cope among all the classroom stress...but I think it’s more likely to be strategies to cope with his disabilities rather than with distractions.

Today during music class, teacher taught us about staying focused/concentrating. For me, it was a very timely lesson! I very much agree with him that it’s a very important skill nowadays for kids to learn cos I’m experiencing it first hand – teacher unable to effectively deal with hyperactive/disruptive kids; teacher sometimes unable to capture kids attention; and that disruptive behaviour is getting more common nowadays.

So I will certainly try what he suggested – slowly introducing intentional distractions to the child. Since I’ve the privilege of being with him in class, I’m also going to start intervening when my son gets distracted (e.g. gently reminding him, or asking him to change his sitting place). I’ll also remind him to use his words when other kids do things that he doesn’t really like to him (e.g. squeeze his cheeks, puts their face an inch away from my son’s face). I simply have to teach him strategies to cope while I have the chance. I hope these are enough to empower him.

Fine motor - puzzles

He was (surprisingly) in a mood for puzzles today. He wanted one after another but I stopped him after his third set as it was time for dinner and it’s a school night.

Jigsaw Puzzles

He played with jigsaw puzzles in kindergarten two days ago.

A group of 6-7 kids crowded together on the floor over a difficult puzzle of probably 50 pieces, figuring what goes where. Amazingly, they managed to finish it (it’s a picture of many colourful balloons on a black background) even though they complained that it was too hard initially. I thought it was impressive team work and patience!

My son was initially with them when there were fewer of them on the floor, but when teacher swapped a few kids around, he was moved to the larger pieced jigsaw puzzle on the table for which he’s more suited.

I was surprised to see that he could find two sets of two pieces that go together and join them, with lots of frustration. He must have struggled to join them, cos teacher noted his frustration (I was in the toilet).

Perhaps it was that incident that prompted him to play with puzzles today.

This jigsaw puzzle set was bought in Tesco for about RM20-25. It’s very suitable for him - pieces are large, it’s chunky, it’s a picture he loves (a construction site with cement mixers, cranes etc!). They have it in other themes for kids who aren't as crazy over vehicles.

It’s actually a growth chart but it’s now a little frayed at the edges so it’s unlikely to be used as that. He was much better at this than the one in school. Perhaps that’s because he’s already familiar with the picture, having played it with me several times.

When I went back to his room, I was surprised to see that he managed to join several pieces together by himself! I helped him a little with the bottom right portions in the photo above.

I was amused to see him checking the picture on the box, and figuring things out. But then I lost my patience so I did a few more rounds of leaving him to it, coming back to check on him, and then I had a quick shower.

I took the photo after my shower, and then helped him piece the 3 large portions together. He did the left portion and the top right portions entirely by himself. For him, that’s really good!

Thinking puzzle

The next puzzle he wanted was not a jigsaw puzzle but a brain/IQ puzzle. It still requires fine motor, visual perception skills etc.

I bought it in early Jan at a stall at the Putrajaya Immigration, of all places! I’ve been looking out for it at “stalls” in shopping complexes but not seen it since. Recently I found many types of brain/IQ/thinking puzzles in Jusco MV but are about double the price (but are larger, and likely to be better quality). My "Hide and Seek" game is most likely a “pirated” version as there are no details of the manufacturer on the box!

The strange thing with this puzzle is that when I first showed him how it was played (back in Jan), he seemed to pick it up instantly. I was talking to my aunt while he was with the puzzle. I showed him the challenge and he completed it without my help! I showed him the next challenge and he did it too. Those first few challenges had hints at the bottom but he still has to figure out which way to place them. After successfully completing 2 challenges, I praised him in front of my aunt. Then he couldn’t do the third challenge (which is of the same level of difficulty-beginner)!

We played it one or two more times since then, but he needed my help. He didn’t want to play with it at the other times that I’d brought it out. So do you think it’s a case of beginner’s luck or a case of lost confidence?

A few weeks ago, a friend brought her 6.5 yr old daughter for a visit and she played with that puzzle for some time. It might have been that incident that got my son interested in this puzzle again.

Knobbed wooden puzzle

This was the third puzzle he wanted. The pieces are knobbed so it’s much easier for him to handle, so I left him to it while preparing dinner. This was what I saw when I went back to his room.

The portion on the right is sequentially arranged. He might have been trying to arrange it alphabetically, but backwards from z, and either got stuck or lost focus. I doubt he was relying purely on memory to arrange it z-a cos when I asked him what came before “o”, he told me to “check here la”, pointing to the backing board! (in his arrangement, he missed out letters l, m, n)

Anyway, he was proudly pointing out that he made the word “bang”. When I came in the room, I managed to just catch a glimpse of him placing “n” in between “ba” and “g”. I don’t know if he intended to spell “bang” or it so happened that “ba” and “g” were there and he happened to be holding on to “n” (“n” comes before “o” in his arrangement of z-a).

After that, we played a while with that, changing letters to make new words (informally teaching him spelling & phonics). I've three sets of magnetic alphabets that I use for phonics activities.

Brain Gym for Special Needs

There'll be two Brain Gym seminars in November. The one day course is an introductory workshop while the 4 day course is aimed at therapists, teachers, tutors, and parents of special needs kids.
The only instructor who's qualified and authorised to conduct this course, Cecilia Koester will be coming from US. (There are Brain Gym instructors locally but from what I see on the BrainGym website, they teach the basic Brain Gym course but do not teach the course for special needs kids)

I've the e-brochure but I can't attach a file in blogger, so I'll copy and paste some info for you.

I'm considering going for their 4 day course but it's pricey and I dont have a babysitter, so I'll have to consider it carefully : (

For research into the effectiveness/results of Brain Gym, go to their website (http://www.braingym.org/).

------------------

What is Brain Gym?
Brain Gym is a unique program of physical activities that synchronizes body and mind to enhance learning and achievement for people of all ages and abilities!

The foundational activities and methods of Brain Gym are safe, easy and enjoyable, and they bring about rapid and often dramatic improvements in:

• Concentration • Reading • Writing • Stress Management • Behavior

• Organization • Memory • Vision • Physical Coordination • Communication

Brain Gym® 170 provides excellent applications for a variety of mental and physical challenges including: autism, cerebral palsy, attention deficit disorders (ADD and ADHD), dyslexia, Angelman’s Syndrome, Down Syndrome, speech impairment, brain injuries, blindness, deafness and impairments caused by strokes.

In the 1970s, educational therapist Paul E. Dennison, Ph.D., began building on this knowledge to create a group of movements that, with the collaboration of wife and partner, Gail E. Dennison, would become the Brain Gym movements and the cornerstone of the field of Educational Kinesiology (Edu‐K).

Since then, studies have been published around the globe confirming that Brain Gym movements produce measurable gains in physical and learning skills as well as academic performance. As the field has developed, experience shows that Edu‐K benefits people at all levels of daily life activities – from stress and behavioural management to athletic and musical performance.

For more information about Brain Gym, please visit http://www.braingym.org/
 
Who is Cece?

Cecilia Koester, M.Ed, the founder of Movement Based Learning, is internationally known for her work with children and adults who have special needs. She has worked since 1979 with people of all abilities ‐ from typically functioning to those diagnosed with severe disabilities.

In 1998, she published the provocative book, I Am the Child: Using Brain Gym® with Children Who Have Special Needs, which chronicles her experiences as a teacher in a public school classroom, drawing out the gifts of eleven children with complex developmental needs. Brain Gym® 170 has been developed by Cece for the Educational Kinesiology Foundation, and she is currently the only instructor registered to teach this specialized course. She has studied at length with the founders of

Brain Gym® , Dr. Paul and Gail Dennison, to deepen her understanding of these simple and effective tools for optimal living.

Visit her website at: http://www.movementbasedlearning.com/
 
For all inquiries,
please contact:

Ms Ena at 016-201 7548,
enagoh@yahoo.com or

Mdm Goh Siew Siew, Brain Gym Instructor
H/P: 016-332 3378  malaysiabg@gmail.com

Neurosuit therapy progress

Since he recovered from his bout of illnesses in early June, we’ve been slowly increasing the frequency and intensity of his Neurosuit physiotherapy. We started with just an hour a week, then an hour and a half once a week, then twice a week, thrice a week, and this week it’ll be 5 days a week.


I’m very thankful that we’re seeing good progress. The Neurosuit and the therapist are amazing! Thanks Fezia & Adnan! His muscles are strengthening, his balance is improving, and his stride is lengthening.

Last evening and this evening again, he walked the short balance beam all by himself. He needed to walk it holding my hand for two rounds, by the third round he could walk it without holding my hand. He needed encouragement and reminding to find his balance before taking the next step. He did side walking instead of forward walking, but I think it’s a matter of time before he can walk it like a normal kid. As it is, it’s a great achievement for him!

Yesterday, he also managed to take a few steps on the crash mattress without falling. Again, that’s a first! I'm so happy.

With these improvements, his confidence is also growing. A few days ago, I had changed the little obstacle course at home, and he wants to use it out of his own initiative which means he's gained confidence even though it's more challenging now.

His little course starts with a step up of about 4" high, an 11" gap, a step up of 7", then a straight path to a few more step ups with smaller gaps to a photocopier paper box, then move on to the trampoline (he cant jump properly yet), then the crash mattress, and finally a short balance beam. I've put some mattresses vertically up so he wont hurt himself if he bumps into the wall.

This step up is 7" high. From the floor he can step up onto it without help.

If possible, I’ll try to maintain it at 5 times a week. It’ll mean a reshuffling of my routines again, but that’s nothing compared to all the effort he puts in! It’s really hard work for him to strengthen various muscles and to improve his stamina. I’m so proud of him.

Pegging cards - fine motor, counting & reading skills

I made these cards in Jan/Feb this year. The idea for this activity came to me from another blog (thanks for posting it Yvonne!).

I modified it a little by replacing the numerical symbols with words instead (ie. instead of “3”, I used “three”). The reason I spelt out the number instead of using symbols is that he’s already familiar with the symbols. In my existing sets, the answers are limited to 1-10. I’ve not (and may not) done it for quantities larger than 10.

I also made a BM version. He’s ok with words that have 2 sukukata, but stumbles with 3 sukukata words (e.g. sembilan). I’ve another set of cards to help him learn numbers in BM.

He’ll get to practice/learn various things:

- Count small quantities using his eyes (not his hand)

- Count larger quantities using his hand (he still gets it wrong probably due to his co-ordination problem)

- To subtly teach him to scan e.g. a row of 5 butterflies that are repeated below the first row should mean there are 10 (=5+5). He’s not learnt that yet.

- Learn to read (he learnt this quite fast for the English set)

- Fine motor (strengthen his fingers; use his left hand)

I’ve various types of fancy wooden pegs of different sizes, and therefore requiring different strengths. Most of the pegs are challenging for him except for the standard sized ones.

He also has difficulty co-ordinating/isolating his left and right hands. When he needs to pinch the peg very hard with the fingers of his right hand, his left hand which is holding the card unintentionally squeezes/crushes the card. I see that problem happening too when he does a lacing activity with a pipe cleaner and cut up drinking straws.

I guess I need to do a whole lot more fine motor lacing/pegging activities to strengthen and improve functionality.

If you’d like a soft copy of either or both versions, just drop me an email and I’ll be most happy to share.

Toilet training progress

One afternoon a few weeks ago, he told me he needed to go to toilet. Then he surprised me by asking me not to follow him. That was the very first time he went to toilet to urinate by himself.

Unfortunately, he has only repeated that on only one more occasion. I know that it’s challenging for him to do it by himself if the elastic bands are not loose or if the shirt is too long or if the call of nature is too urgent etc. Still, it shows that he is moving ahead, and it’s just that it’s slow.

A few weeks ago, he started having dry diapers in the morning. He would wake up crying at night wanting to go to toilet to urinate. But when asked, he said he wasn’t ready to go without diapers at night. Then one night when he fell asleep in the car coming home, I decided to try to leave him in his underwear. From then on, he’s been totally diaper-free!

His progress towards being dry by night happened a lot faster than I expected. That’s because it took over a year for him to learn to use the toilet. I’m very happy.

One thing that puzzles me is that about an hour after falling asleep, he’d wake up crying (that’s even though he went to toilet right before going to bed) He’ll want to be taken to toilet to urinate. But he’d still be crying in the toilet and would then be unable to urinate. He’d go back to bed still crying, and want to go back to the toilet again. He’d usually be able to urinate at the second visit. Sometimes this whole little drama repeats itself two or three times at night, every night. I do not understand why he cries. I’ve assured him that it’s ok if he has an accident, that I’m still proud of him, that it’s normal to wake up at night to urinate etc.

Any idea how to help him not cry?

Fine motor progress - his drawings

I believe that engaging the Neurosuit physiotherapist in the last few weeks has brought about much fine motor progress in my son.

My son's fine motor skill  is still far behind his peers but I am so glad to see the recent progress. I found some old photos of his drawings/scribblings so you can compare and see how he's progressed.

The "masterpiece" above was created a year and 4 mths ago (aged 3yrs 3mths). For a long time, he would draw his versions of smiley faces, or as you can see from the photo above, sad faces! (He said they were ghosts). Back then, he would use the marker to stab the whiteboard to "draw" the eyes.

That's the first time he drew anything else apart from circular scribbles and smiley faces. He said it was a forest, so I guess the vertical lines are the trees. Accordingt to drawing developmental milestones, representational drawings come in around 3 yrs of age. The chalk drawing above was made about 11 mths ago (aged 3 yrs 8mths).

A month later, he drew the sun. But from the wild circular scribbles on the page, you can see that he was still lacking control of his writing instrument. That crayon drawing was done about 10mths ago (aged 3 yrs 10mths).

I couldnt find any photos of his drawings between Sept'09 to June'10. It was also a time I was busy with other things (making Montessori materials, year end & CNY prep), adjusting to being a shadow aide, illnesses etc.

He started with the Neurosuit physiotherapist at end of April'10. Unfortunately he was catching one illness after another from end April to early June'10. The drawing of the spiral above was done at the end of June'10 (age 4yrs 6mths). You can also see his hand writing of the numbers 5,0,0,5,0,0,5,0,0 etc (we were doing a activity on patterns). There is better control of the whiteboard marker pen, as seen from the spiral lines.

This was done in early July, a few days ago (age 4 yrs 7mths). He no longer stabs the pencil onto the paper to draw the eyes. Just like his writing of the lower case letter “i”, he dots the eyes. He also is better able to “nicely” position the eyes and smile in the circle, although he isn’t able to do it ALL the time. Note that it is harder for him to write or draw using a pencil compared to marker pens cos he has to exert strength and his finger muscles aren’t as strong as it should be.

The little person with a triangular body at the bottom left corner was drawn by me, not my son. I’ve now forgotten why I drew it. But I do remember that we were at a restaurant at that time waiting for the food, and after I drew the little person, I went to buy a loaf of bread from the shop next door. When I came back, I was surprised to see that he tried to copy my drawing.

It looks like he started off with a head detached from the body, and one leg detached from the body and the other leg attached to the body. Then I think his second attempt shows a head, small body, both legs at the bottom of the body, and two arms attached to the head! That was the first time ever, he tried to copy a drawing, and the first attempt at drawing a person (not just a face).

We used the whiteboard today for an activity on even numbers/pairs. Then I drew the little person with a triangular body because he wanted to know how to draw one.

The drawings on the right were his attempts. First attempt was just a circle. Second attempt was the drawing on the most right, of a head, body and limbs but the head doesn’t sit on the top of the body. The third attempt was so much better: correct positioning of the parts AND, he’s made the eyes to be large circles with dots inside! I love it!

This was his fourth attempt. I think it looks so cute, like a character from Rugrats. Somehow, he didn’t have a circle for the head, just huge eyes and smile.

Note, the circle around the leg. He said “it’s broken”. I think he meant the circle to be a cast. When we did the “-ng” word list a week or two ago, it had the word “sling” to which I had inserted a photo of a man with his cast in a sling. I explained about casts. Teacher too had a few days ago mentioned about broken bones and a cast. So I guess, the circle around the leg is his version of a cast. I don’t quite understand why he chose to draw a cast. Any ideas?

Btw, if you're interested to find out about drawing developmental milestones, here's a link
http://www.learningdesign.com/Portfolio/DrawDev/kiddrawing.html

Addition - Aerotrain carriages

We were at the KLIA viewing area yesterday. He was observing the aeroplanes taxing on the runway, vans and trucks driving along the roads, and the aerotrains coming and going, while I was feeding him his milk.

I noticed that each aerotrain had three carriages. So I pointed it out to him and it caught his interest. “Look, look” he said pointing to an aerotrain going off. “Got three carriages” he continued. Shortly after, another aerotrain came in and he asked “How many carriages?”

“You tell me. How many carriages did it have?” I asked him back.

“Three. Got three also. How many altogether?”

I knew he knew that 3+3=6 cos he’s memorised the song, so I asked him back. He gave the right answer.

Then I thought I practice addition with him, using aerotrain carriages. When the next aerotrain went off, he said that there were 3 carriages. And I asked him what 6+3 was. Now, I was ready to raise 3 fingers and count along with him to work out the answer to 6+3. But he surprised me. After a second or two, he said, “9”. Wow! He could count in his head! (The aerotrain is only visible very briefly before it disappears under a tunnel or under our building. So I think he must have been counting in his head)

Intrigued I thought I continue to see how far he gets. The aerotrain is very frequent, so this exercise could turn out quite interesting.

At the next sum of 9+3, he counted out loud instead “10. 11. 12” He still didn’t need to visually see 3 items to add on.

This went on until 18+3. Here, he was a bit stuck. I suspect he’s not so familiar with the numbers that come after digits that end with 9 (ie. after 19, it’s 20; or after 29, it’s 30). I helped him out by asking him what comes after 19. Then I asked him the sum again. He then got the right answer of 21.

At 21+3, he was ok again. But I sensed that he was losing interest so I stopped.

This is a very subtle way to introduce the concept of multiplication in a very simple manner (learnt from his music teacher! Tq). I’m not intending to teach him multiplication so early on! It’s just an opportunity that arose and I believe in applying maths to daily life in order to make it fun, relevant, interesting and prevent any phobia or mental block towards maths. Hopefully the right foundation is laid and his interest will later on drive him towards learning maths by himself.

I do not know if being able to mentally +3 is a big deal at his age. Is it? There have been times where I underestimate him and this is one of those times. I knew that he could mentally do +1 additions cos I taught him that +1 means “one more” ie. the next number, and in the past, showed him a few times using physical objects.

I didn’t take it further from there to formally teach him more addition cos in the past, he didn’t seem interested. Without realising, the months passed quickly as I was busy with other stuff. I still thought I’d wait till school does addition.

When school surprised me by expecting the kids to do subtraction, I knew I’d have to buck up! It’s a tricky juggling act, getting him up to speed on so many areas!

I’ve since realised that the students aren’t that far ahead with addition. I think I can catch up. But I’m not putting it high on my priority list yet (self-care and physio therapy are more important). I have though, made some addition flashcards on powerpoint, printed and cut them. But I’ve not had the time to paste them on cardboard or test them out on him.

I’ll post a photo of them when they’re ready. I’ll gladly share soft copies of my flashcards with you – just drop me an email.

Little Drummer Boy

He’ll be in the school concert! He'll play a drum...Pah-rhump-pah-pah-phump.

His class teacher came back last Friday which was her first day after the parents teacher meeting. From then onwards, she has been more supportive. She observes my son more, and gives him a bit more one-to-one attention. One of the things that I also appreciate is that she wants my son to participate in the concert!

She first mentioned it to me last Friday, when I asked her why the kids from the other class were in Chinese costumes. It was then when she told me that my son will be in the concert. This year, their age group will perform traditional dances. His class will do the Indian/Punjabi/Tamil dances.

She had planned out an easy role for him. He’ll be the drummer in the Bhangra dance. He doesn’t need to remember dance steps or timings or follow the fast paced Indian song. He just comes in with his group, stand in the middle of the stage and beat his drum.

I expressed my surprise because I thought the school had a “high standard” (ie. want perfect kids for perfect concerts) based on my previous conversation with the principal. So, I asked if the administrator and principal were aware of her plans. She said she’d inform them and that it shouldn’t be a problem as it’d be a supporting role. I thanked her and tears started welling up in my eyes. So emotional, eh? She was compassionate in that she said it’s usual for parents to want to see their kids up on stage.

From Monday onwards, they started practising up on stage, the moves for the concert. The principal and the music teacher were there too. So I presume that all’s ok and he’s allowed to be in the concert.

At the first rehearsal, he was able to stand in place and play the drum without being overly distracted by the goings on around him (loud fast rhythm music, excited kids). At the second rehearsal he was a bit over excited by the other kids. Most of the kids who were waiting their turn on stage were a bit out of control (chasing or dancing crazily) cos the teachers were focused on the group dancing, and because well, the Indian music has a strong and fast rhythm.

Today, the principal suggested that I make a “draft” drum so that he doesn’t appear to randomly flap his arms while rehearsing on stage with the rest. She has a point that it might be hard for him to imagine he’s playing a drum. So I searched for images from the internet and came up with an improvised drum from a milk tin, two old water bottle straps and short rods from a construction set.

Today when Papa asked what he played with at school, he said “drum”. Then he proudly went to get his drum and showed Papa how he plays the drum. LOL

I’m praying that all goes well. It’s a few more months to the actual concert but Papa has already asked me to video tape it!

Neurosuit therapy progress

His therapist has been absolutely great! He has been able to motivate my son to work hard each session and the progress has been good.

My son is able to take wider side steps, his balance has improved, his speech is louder, he’s talking more, he’s able to walk up the step boxes, he’s more confident in jumping (falling actually) off a surface unto a crash mattress/ball pit etc.

Apart from the muscular/physical improvements, his therapist has been great in helping him with his social and other skills.

The therapist is tall, muscular and talks to him in a loud voice, so my son is now less afraid of people with loud commanding voices.

The therapist is creative enough to disguise the exercises as different scenarios – e.g. a commando in training, a footballer in training, sports day games.

The therapist is also a trained CST therapist and so does CST for my son too. During those sessions, he engages in casual conversation that is different from conversations with mama (ie. boy-to-boy talk).

He has given my son the confidence that he can do things without needing me to be by his side helping him, and that is a very important lesson towards independence!

It’s also great that I can leave him in good hands during these sessions, while I’m in the area next to the gym (I can hear what’s going on and do peep in occasionally), updating my blog, or creating new flashcards, or preparing new materials. It’s given me a bit of breathing space and eased my workload (it’s so tiring to exercise with him). Ideally of course, I’d rather be sleeping during that 1.5 hours! : P

Unfortunately, he’ll be leaving in about 10 days time for Australia to pursue his post graduate studies.

Fortunately, there is another Neurosuit therapist in the family – his mother (who’s also my son’s regular CST therapist). I’m looking forward to further progress!

Overwhelmed

I’ve not been able to update my blog the past few days. He’s fine thankfully and we’ve been going to kindergarten. His class teacher was back on Friday and things are well.


I’m not feeling too well though. I’ve not been getting enough proper rest. It’s a case of the usual “too much to do, not enough time to do it”. This time it’s not the errands but of helping my son.

I feel it’s a slippery mountain that I’ve to climb in my efforts to help him. He hasn’t been cycling for some months now and when I brought him to Desa Parkcity two weeks ago, I found out he lost some of his cycling ability. Thankfully, towards the end of the session, he was slowly picking it up again. I brought him there again last Saturday and he was slightly better but still definitely worse off compared to the time he was cycling regularly.

There are so many areas, so many skills that he needs to practice. It’s hard to know how much focus to place on each area. If only there was more time.

Since having a new helper I’m giving him a lot more opportunities to practice self care skills and school readiness skills – toileting, feeding, changing clothes, and lots of other small mundane tasks (turning the pages of his exercise book, putting his exercise book into his folder etc). That’s the silver lining from having this helper.

It’s hard to keep up with the academic side of things. They’ve started teaching addition (not sure what happened to the subtraction) and introduced spelling (!). School seems to be allocating more time on BM lately, and I don’t know how to reallocate my time to help him keep up in BM. As for science, well, it’s only done when the opportunity arises.

Then there are the other life stuff he needs to learn – responsibility, consequences to his actions, discipline...

Right now, by the time we come home from school, and cook a quick simple lunch, feed him, shower him, brush his teeth, help him with his homework, it’s around 2.30pm. Then if we have time, we either do some quick simple activities on fine motor or phonics (homemade blue series word list). If there’s Neurosuit therapy at 4pm, I start getting him ready for it around 3.15pm. If the therapy is at 5pm, he either does a bit more fine motor or reading, or he gets a bit of a rest and a smoothie before getting ready at 4.15. I try to squeeze in a quick shower and my own lunch before heading off to therapy.

His Neurosuit therapy is thrice weekly now, for 1.5 hours, so by the time we get back, it’s either 6 or 7pm. I feed him his dinner, give him a quick shower, and get him ready for bed. I usually have my dinner while I’m feeding him and have my shower either while he’s lying in bed or when he's asleep.

If he doesn’t nap during the day, he must be in bed at 8pm in order to get up early enough for school the next day. So there really isn’t much time for him to do much else.

On days where there's no Neurosuit therapy, we either run an errand at the shops or play at KizSports or fit in some activity or other.

I’ve been on Panadol the last few days because I’m probably fighting a flu (I’m worn out) and because I’m having a tension headache. I wish I could take a day off! I try to reduce the time I’ve been spending on preparing flashcards or preparing his materials so that at least I get to sleep earlier.

I’m so tired but have to keep on keeping on. The progress that I see in him serves as enormous motivation to just carry on (the carrot). The regression that happens when I stop, serves as a reminder not to stop (the stick). I do wish there was respite care locally, the way they do overseas.

Nonetheless, I count my blessings, and there have been many indeed. I thank God for being my strength and for His faithfulness in this journey.

Crafty fun – dump truck

We went to an art and craft shop in 1 Utama last Thursday. He’s been playing with his dump truck creation ever since he brought it home.

He “made” the dump truck in 60 mins there. Looks impressive eh? Bear in mind that he’s 4.5 years old, with mild gross and fine motor disability.

Actually, he painted the blue, yellow, purple and red parts, drew the vertical lines, and circles on the wheels. The staff there assembles the pieces together for him cos hot glue is needed, and some parts are sharp.

I think that’s already so great considering his disability. His fine motor skills are slowly getting better. He only painted out of the line a wee bit (see white windows and headlights).

I was also very happy that he was able to take instructions from a total stranger and be without me for 60 mins! I was seated at the waiting area which is cordoned off (totally separated from him) and slightly obscured from where he sat.

I was peeping very often to see how he was coping, what he was doing etc. He seemed very focused on his painting cos he had a deep furrow above his eyebrows! He wasn’t scared. He didn’t look for me until the very end.

The very kind lady said that after she showed him how to paint horizontally from left to right (cos he was painting in circles initially), he could and did. She showed him how to press the hair dryer (to dry the paint quickly) on the first occasion and he could on subsequent occasions. She also noted that he lacks finger strength but could surprisingly paint fairly well within the lines. She complimented him by saying that he’s a gentle and polite boy. She understood that a “successful” outcome will build his confidence.

The two female staff there were so supportive of him. They let him try to do things by himself first, and then stepped in to show him only when he couldn’t. They helped him get up and down from the chair (adult sized chair), helped him wash his hands etc. They welcomed him even though he had a disability.

Of course, if it were crowded and busy, they wouldn’t be able to be as supportive, and that’s perfectly understandable.

I’m so thankful that this shop exists. Thankful that they understand and allow kids to be kids, to make a bit of a mess while painting, to give them the freedom to choose their colour etc. They are “allowed” to paint outside the line, to have crooked lines, imperfect circles etc. They are free to choose their own craft project. Thankful that (mild) special needs kids are welcomed. Of course, I’m also thankful that I do not need to spend time preparing the material and cleaning up the mess! LOL

I’m thankful that his first session turned out well. I was incredibly nervous about how it would turn out, even before we left the house for the session!

I intend to bring him back for more sessions because it’s good fine motor practice, it’s good for his confidence, and of course because he liked it. He has his eyes on a few more crafts – an ambulance, a steam roller, a car...