His progress update

I've not written about his progress for quite a long time now. So, this post will cover quite a few areas, with just a short description on each area.

While reading what I've written below, please bear in mind that I'm not a kiasu mum. The academic side that I'm working on with him is to gear him towards independence, as is everything that I do with him. I want him to be strong and quick in maths so that he doesnt get cheated in his daily life later. He has to be able to read. He still has to be able to write legibly even though things are more electronic based nowadays. The importance of self care and social skills development are obvious. Learning to swim is part of being safe.

Reading
I no longer have time to read with him or have him read aloud, on a daily basis. I know that goes against the advice of reading experts and teachers. But for the past few months, self care skills have taken a higher priority. Thankfully he brings home a book to be read every Friday which forces it to be done at least on a weekly basis.

I'm extremely thankful that he's still quite strong in this area. He's at Stage 6 of the Oxford Reading Tree Reader Series, where there are about 4 lines or 4 sentences per page and about 20 pages in a book. He can read the entire book in one sitting with minimal help from me. Last Friday, he brought home a Poem book about clocks and I think he enjoyed it.

A friend had recently presented him with the Disney Pixar Cars Storybook Collection. It's a very thick book, over 200 pages. It's A4 sized with more than half the page filled with words. He was excited about the gift that he easily read the first page (about 12 lines) aloud, with minimal help from me. He loves Cars, the movie, so that was a big motivating factor.

Handwriting
His writing has definitely improved comparing it in March 2011, and now. His handwriting practice comes in the form of practising his spelling and ejaan (homework) for about 5 days a week. He's motivated to write nicely because he gets rewarded with stickers. Thank goodness stickers still work on him!

But when I check his school BM workbook, his handwriting is horrible! I'm not sure whether it's because he was tired or he's in a hurry to complete it or the height of the school chair and table are unsuitable.

I just bought his Year 1 school books today. I've more work coming up. I've to start teaching him joined writing (cursive). Sigh.

Maths
He scored well on the previous test and continued on to the next module at the maths place. I make simple handwritten worksheets for him to practice on. Sometimes I wish the class would stop for a week or so, so that I can have a break. It's not hard for him, but I've to keep going on and on and on.

They've started to introduce the concept of multiplication, through skip counting by 2s. Next week will be skip counting by 5s and 10s. I would like to build a strong foundation for multiplication so I'll build on this slowly over the next few months.

The next few lessons are easy for him so I plan to teach him other concepts that weren't covered or that was presented in a different way in his Year 1 workbooks or that I know he's not strong in. I find it strange that he's not strong with the "before" concept. He can tell me what month comes after say, June, or what day comes after Tuesday. But he cant tell me what comes before.

Taking a shower and towelling dry
I've to keep reminding him to be quick and not play with the water, to be quick in towelling so that he doesnt catch a cold, but he's generally progressing well here. He cant yet reach his back to soap up or to dry off properly.

This area took on a high priority because he will have swimming lessons as part of his PE curriculum in school. It includes reminding him to keep his clothes that he has changed out of (or it might get lost/mixed up amongst all the other kids' clothes and bags). I've not found a suitable container for his shower gel to be used in school, which is leak proof and yet easy enough for him to open. Details, details! It's tiring doing so much thinking.

Putting on his T-shirt, shorts and underwear
After months of teaching him one way to put on his T-shirt, I recently had to teach him another way as he wasn't progressing in the previous way. Some T-shirts are easier for him to remove than others. He's fine with putting on and taking off his shorts and underwear. It gets put back on crooked sometimes, but hey, it's on! He can't tuck in his shirt, so I hope teachers dont give him too much grief about it.

Putting on his socks and shoes
Thankfully, I finally found suitable black leather boys shoes that are of  a design for "office wear", that have velcro, that he can easily get in and out of by himself, and fairly quickly. It took 4 afternoons of going shop to shop in different malls. I'm not even going to get started on finding suitable slippers for wearing to the pool.

He struggles with putting on socks. His fingers arent strong enough to stretch the socks. He struggles with balancing and co-ordinating his body, arms, legs, foot to get the socks on. He yanks them off easily though.

Buttoning
Ah, a major source of stress for both of us. I started this activity with him months ago, using a purpose made vest (thanks Fe!) and big buttons. He was doing fine. But time snuck up on us and I had to quicken his progress. He finally got so frustrated with it last week that he cried (not just whine, but tears rolled out). I had to let this one go...for now. I've thought of alternatives but we'll just have to see how receptive the teachers are when he starts school.

Feeding himself
He's progressed well enough to not starve in school. He has yet to learn to use the fork to avoid making a huge mess. He has to learn to cut up his food (fingers not strong yet). He has to learn to take a break from chewing for the 15 minutes that he's gobbling up the food, and then to continue feeding himself after the break. Otherwise, he doesnt get enough.

Colouring
He has very recently taken an interest to colouring, which is great. But he uses his bigger arm muscles to colour instead of his finer hand and finger muscles, so it's still very immature. I'm not stressed by it at all as it's low in my priority. I'm just happy he wants to do colour.

So on Sunday, I bought a Disney Pixar Car magic colouring book. Using the special magic colour pens that comes with it, you colour on the fabric book, and when done, you can just wash the entire book and recolour again. To some kids, that might seem a total waste of effort but I sold him the idea that it's special and cool!

Drawing
He loves to draw lots and lots of trucks. Dump trucks, trucks carrying soil, cement mixers, container trucks... He started off with just plain trucks and over the months evolved to a variety of trucks.

Again, this is not high priority but I do want him to be better at drawing cos it'll be needed in science and other subjects.

Lacing
Bought a new lacing set in the theme of cute animals. I hadnt done lacing with him for quite a long time, so I was very happy that he has progressed (through other activities), and that he now likes doing it. He still needs help in remembering which way to thread it through, to pull it tight etc, but it's progress nonetheless.

Lego building
I bought some sets from the Lego City series which involve vehicles. I "release" parts of it from the box over a few months. So far we've built a fuel tanker, a repair truck (bucket truck), fire truck with long ladder, and a police buggy. He's doing well in following the assembly booklet but needs help with the fiddly flat pieces or single knob pieces. About 2 weeks ago, he surprised me by being able to fit the legs and body of a policeman by himself, and then his head. I helped with the cap.

Cycling
We resumed cycling shortly after my surgery but stopped again about 2 weekends ago. He can cycle at a faster speed, and for a longer duration. He can cycle mostly by himself twice round the Desa Parkcity lake. He needs help with getting up the steep bridge, and some slopes. Today, he surprised me by being able to squeeze on the brakes tight enough to control his descent.

Gait training

Fezia, his therapist is doing a great job on this. The aim is to correct his gait (longer strides, heel toe motion, arms down and swinging). Also aiming to strengthen his muscles, and stamina (slight gradient, slightly faster speed etc)
Social skills
He has made a new friend recently (I shall call the boy, Milo boy, for his love of iced Milo!). We shall be meeting up with Milo and his mum, on a more regular basis, at the park or other activities.

Oral motor
I've managed to slot in a few minutes a day, on a regular basis, for him to blow bubbles, and to suck from crazy straws to strengthen the muscles around the lips. After just a week, I've seen improvements - he can drink from a soft straw without biting on it.

Swimming
It's going to be a long journey, this one. He has difficulty doing both blowing and kicking at the same time. It's also difficult kicking while keeping his knee straight, and keeping his mouth closed underwater. But I'm definitely happy with his progress after 4 lessons in the first two weeks of Aug. He didnt attend last week and wont be this week either due to his cold.

He can now stick his head underwater and blow bubbles. He can "swim" a very very short distance from the instructor to me (teacher pushes him towards me while his whole body is submerged). It's not swimming in the true sense of course, but that's how the teacher boosts his confidence. He's brave in the face of being challenged more ever so slightly each lesson.

He loves being in the company of other kids during the lesson. Group learning has helped him in that he tried to copy what the others are doing. The other kids are competent swimmers. He absolutely loves racing with them, with my help of course.

I'm sure there are other areas of improvement that I've not covered but I'm really tired and it's late. Feeling happy to have got it all written down. My mind feels a bit lighter.