A while back, my ex-colleague wrote about her thoughts on finding out that her little girl might be autistic.  When she wrote that piece, she was still my colleague. She has since left her job so that she could focus more attention on her only child. And just yesterday, I read about how the Lien Foundation and KK Women's and Children's Hospital (Department of Child Development) had just launched an early detection and intervention programme targeting children with developmental needs. Preschoolers who have learning difficulties and who are attending PAP Community Foundation (PCF) kindergartens located in the Punggol-Pasir Ris GRC would now have access to an individual education plan, therapy lessons and in-class support sessions. And most importantly, these would be held during school hours.

Though I feel glad for my ex-colleague, and am heartened to read about this initiative by the Lien Foundation and KKH, I feel a tinge of wistfulness, even regret. I am perhaps one of the few (and foolish, some would say) parents who still feel that toddlers and preschoolers should be left to play and craft their own spontaneous learning experiences as much as possible. That they be spared typical childhood routines of tuition, enrichment class etc. until they reach primary school, and even then, only if it is deemed absolutely necessary (though the context of ‘necessary’ keeps shifting).  And since each child learns at a different pace, a Harry-Potter reading six-year-old shouldn’t be compared to one still stumbling over Dr Seuss (though giggling all the way).

Hence, when my older boy struggled with ABCs while his kinder peers were already reading sentences, I didn’t think too much of it. He will catch up, we all thought. Come four years and many therapy sessions later, we know that he has dyslexia and a host of other learning issues. However, the ball only started rolling when he was identified in Primary 1, and then began a long and often-painful journey to work out what he needs to help him cope. Today, many ‘what ifs’ hound me each day when I see him poring over his homework.  Should I have been more ‘kiasu’ ? What if we had detected his problems sooner? If we had addressed his needs earlier, would he be struggling so hard now in mainstream school?

I would not want other parents to walk in my shoes and to be saddled with these ‘what ifs’. Worse still, for them to not even know that their children might have a problem, or to not even care that they do. Since the pilot of the Lien Foundation-KKH programme was launched in July last year, more than 900 children in PCF schools have been screened and about 90 have been identified for therapy. For me, a time when every preschooler – whether in PCF or any other kindergarten – is screened for learning difficulties could not come too soon.

On a final note,  I have an issue with the headline of the ST online article,  ‘Early help for problem kids’. Why say ‘problem kids’ when you can say ‘kids with problems’ or better still, learning challenges? One alienates, the other invites empathy. And these kids – speaking for my own and the others out there – need all the help and support they can get.

What do you think of this article? Do you have a child with learning difficulties? Do share your thoughts with us.

 Just the other day, I was lamenting to a friend about my situation with my daughter Gabby. It is difficult to get her to focus on any one activity, except for playing computer games and watching the television. That she can do for hours without stopping for a toilet break. My friend’s answer to my problem is to try Sport Stacking. He was kind enough to lend me his stack of cups to try, which he happened to have at that moment. Unfortunately, he didn’t have time to explain how the game worked.

When I took home the stack of 12 plastic cups, Gabby took one look at them and decided to build a castle. So far she’s built towers to protect her collection of bunnies, a shelter for a group of hair accessories having a picnic, and her castle. That is when I turned to Youtube and Google for answers. I learnt that this ‘sport’ originates from America and that supporters of this new sport claims that it can train a person to have a faster reaction time, eye-hand coordination and ambidexterity. Well, I showed Gabby a few videos and now she’s hooked! I am already impressed with how long she can sit and concentrate on this activity.

This weekend, we’ll be at United Square, participating in an event: United Square Cup Stacking Championship. It is going to be fun for Gabby to witness other children being just an enthusiastic about the sport. It has given her more motivation to practice. Now all that’s left is to teach her about sportsmanship.

- Grace

Note: The United Square Cup Stacking Championship is taking place from 28 May - 30 May 2010 at United Square B1 Atrium. For more details, see www.reddotexplorer.com/uscsc.html

Does your child enjoy Cup Stacking too? We would love to hear from you.

It seems that every time I think I’ve finally gotten the hang of being a parent, life throws me another bend. We recently completed a round of assessments at the National University Hospital (NUH)’s Child Development Unit (CDU) on my daughter Gabby. The reasons for these tests start 2 years ago, with a passing remark from a paediatrician. Gabby’s lack of eye contact and attention span, during a visit to the children’s emergency at NUH late one night, sent alarm bells going off for the doctor attending to her. He felt we might want to test Gabby for autism.

 When I bring this story up to people, the word ‘Autism’ sends most of them into a panic. Well, back then, we freaked out too. Now, I know autism to be a spectrum disorder. What that means is that it affects people to varying degrees. There are those who are very mildly autistic. They get by like normal people but may seem quirky to others. Then there are those severely autistic, like the character in the movie ‘Rain Man’. We couldn’t get confirmation about the autism 2 years ago because Gabby was too young to be tested. But I know Gabby’s no rain man so I thought she might be sitting on the border, and I soon forgot about this. Until this year, with Gabby now in Kindergarten 1, there’s an increase in work like writing and reading. The husband and I noticed her short attention spans creating a problem for her in school. So we went back to the CDU.

We’re only getting the detailed report later in June but what we do know is that Gabby’s IQ score puts her at the border of mildly gifted and gifted. I think a number of parents would rejoice at being told their child is gifted. But I’m taking it with a pinch of salt. Since I’m the ex-teacher in my family and also the one with the Masters in Early Childhood education, the husband turned to me and asked what’s our next step to address her giftedness? I told him let’s look at history. Both my husband and I qualified for the local Gifted Education Program. Difference is that I entered the program but he remained in mainstream. Learning from history, it is up to us to work with Gabby’s teachers to challenge her academically. It is when she has a chance to idle that she gets up to some mischief.

As for the specifics of what we have planned, I can only say “akan datang”…

- Grace