I Learn Specially

01/06/2016

Congratulations to Josiah (7 years) and his parents. Josiah is finally accepted into mainstream. Josiah started with us 18 months ago with very little verbal ability and zero reading ability. He used to meltdown at the sight of worksheets. Today, he is able to complete a 7 sentence comprehension with 4 questions and is able to do single digit horizontal addition and vertical addition. His attention focus is raised from 3 minutes to 15 minutes without a break. His mum and dad must be elated to have him accepted into mainstream. Congrats, Mr and Mrs Ng! We are proud of Josiah!

29/05/2016

Meltdowns. Meltdowns could be due to sensory overload or used by the autistic child as a form of "power play" to get is / her way. Whatever the cause, we (parent / caregiver) must not fuel it by reacting to it. A natural reaction, if the meltdown occurs in public, is to feel embarrassed. Be thick skinned; you cannot change the world. Move your child to a more private area or even back to your car so that the child is safe from hurting himself / herself in places where danger lurks eg a moving escalator, glass doors, steep stairs etc. Take heart, meltdowns are common amongst the younger set but as time passes and as they grow older with better understanding and as they acquire better communication skills or are even better regulated (knowing that good behaviour begets approval and bad behaviour may not get them their rewards or reinforcers) ; they will grow out of these meltdown. Remember, regulate and encourage positive behaviour by praising them when they are able to recognise and control a meltdown. Take heart, it will pass in most autistic children in time to come. http://ollibean.com/autistic-meltdown-or-temper-tantrum/

Autistic meltdowns and temper tantrums are not the same thing. Autistic meltdowns typically occur as a response to being overwhelmed.

02/04/2016

It is the 8th Annual World Autism Awareness Day today. The artwork done by various NUS students displayed at Eden School help us understand autism and the world according to an autistic person. The carnival was well attended and especially well received by young persons with autism. The games were easy to follow and autism-friendly. There were free goodies and snacks and this was a very heartwarming touch from the folks at Eden and the various organisations that helped with the carnival; including student volunteers from a secondary school. Well done for your efforts to raise awareness of autism. Accept and understand!

09/03/2016

This child, 9 years of age, started with us since he was 7. When he first came, he was screaming and scratching everytime he was made to sit and work or learn. We regulated him, studied his likes and strengths, used our MindCognition programme on him for Critical Thinking Skills work. Initially, he was averse to literacy and anything that had words. He would melt-down, scream and scratch when made to sit and focus and given literacy input. Today, he can recognise Dolch List words and does copy-typing as a vocational skill training and tackles our critical thinking worksheets level 1.6 with no difficulty. Congrats and we are so proud of him!

28/02/2016

Child started with severe attention deficit, inability to decipher basic information on worksheet and had no inclination to follow simple instructions. He is now completing age appropriate critical thinking tasks and focuses through out the session.

26/12/2015

Read more about the Stepladder Approach: http://raisingchildren.net.au/articles/anxiety_stepladder_approach.html

The stepladder approach is a step-by-step way of helping with anxiety in children. Here’s how to use it to help children manage different kinds of anxiety.

31/10/2015

Read this and understand that when the autistic student wreaks havoc; know that he / she is trying to manage the challenge ahead in his / her special way. The more challenging, the more difficult he/ she finds in adapting to the environment or the challenge. When our client acts up or melts down, our Trainer usually needs a few sessions to find out the following: 1) triggers for meltdowns 2) methods or right buttons to push to regulate client. Many times, a regulating pattern works wonders. Some like a repetitive pattern of action like playing pat a cake with hands; some find the soft, low tone of Trainer repeating a predictable phrase very soothing; some simply enjoy a repetitive activity e.g. colouring the same picture over and over or building a block or typing the same word on the keyboard or even walking slowly back and forth. Do you notice a similar factor? It is the repetitive, predictable act that regulates the behaviour of the autistic. Sometimes meltdowns could be triggered by a challenging question on our worksheet but we do not avoid the challenges. We help and scaffold our client to face each worksheet by guiding them not to focus on their anxiety but to lean on a regulation method to overcome the worksheet. That is how our clients acquire higher and higher levels of critical thinking skills.So take heart, meltdowns are as bad as they seem. The autistic child (client) is trying to embrace the new skill / challenge in his / her own special way.

by Ellen Notbohm from the book Ten Things Every Child with Autism Wishes You Knew, 2nd edition (2012, Future Horizons, Inc.) *Reprinted in its entirety with permission of author. Click here

23/08/2015

Teaching Tip for Autism: Avoid long strings of verbal instructions. Avoid speaking too fast. Go slow. Go with one or two instructions at a time. Remember people with autism have difficulties in sequences and cannot remember sequential instructions well. It takes them a long time to fully make sense of certain instructions or rationale. Give them time. Read point number 2 in this article by Temple Grandin. This is why we at I Learn Specially always emphasize simple instructions, given in as few key words as possible and given slowly or visually. http://www.iidc.indiana.edu/pages/Teaching-Tips-for-Children-and-Adults-with-Autism

Good teachers helped me to achieve success. I was able to overcome autism because I had good teachers.

23/08/2015

At a home session

10/08/2015

That is why we use and fully support the use of "prompts" in our teaching and communication when teaching. Give the special child a fish (without prompt but with full help making the child overly dependent on you) and he/she will not go hungry for a day, teach the special child to fish (with prompts to establish independence by scaffolding, gradually moving from half dependency to full independence) and you will be feeding him / her for a lifetime! Go on, use prompts, give your special one the gift of independent living!

Years of research has demonstrated prompts to be an effective teaching tool for people on the Autism Spectrum. Here is a complete guide to using prompts when

02/08/2015

Once you manage to catch the learning style of the autistic child, make full use of it as it's the door to his / world of development. Adapt to them as you would them adapt to the world around them. It makes a world of difference. Please read. http://www.autism.com/understanding_learning

Advice for Parents - Part 2Munchausen Myth DebunkedFinding a ClinicianSummary of Dietary, Nutritional and Medical Treatments for AutismParental Stress

27/07/2015

Simple skills emerge into varied thinking skills. Big things start small. Start now. Your special child does learn and will develop all levels of concept with simple skills as foundation eg sort, categorize, match, memory games, taking turns and cues etc
http://www.teacch.com/communication-approaches-2/nonverbal-thinking-communication-imitation-and-play-skills-with-some-things-to-remember

Nonverbal Thinking, Communication, Imitation, and Play Skills with some Things To Remember by Kerry Hogan Info All children, with or without autism, progress through a series of developmental levels as they master new skills. This outline is intended to serve two purposes. First, the stages of devel…