PCF/PAP Kindergartens

[sophie80]

stay in bukit panjang


I also know that we cannot purely blame on school.

it is not a new problem.

when my girl was in nursery there, this kid was also there.

I feel the same way. her parents want her to stay with normal kids. but it is a bit selfish.

Actually initially after balloting for K1 morning class, this girl is not in. but after school open we see her again.

[corrochan]

sophie80:

My concern is all these will have negative effect on the rest 19 normal students. I dont want my girl to be affected or harmed by her..

sophie80, in what way do you think that student will have a negative effect of the rest of 19 normal students or your girl harmed?

[corrochan]

sophie80:

(To make it clear, I do not have discrimination on these special children. but from my point of view, they should not stay with normal children. ) how can they allow this happens?

sophie80, I find this statement incomprehensible. can you explain pls?

[corrochan]

sophie80:

her parents want her to stay with normal kids. but it is a bit selfish.

sophie80, why do you think that parent is selfish?

[manjaNurse]

Hi Sophie 80

Your remarks of the special need kid are quite discriminating. I do hope that Singaporeans nowadays are more open-minded and more educated so as to prevent discrimination.
Afterall, we are all Singaporeans and all of us should be one united people, regardless of race, language or religion…or do you think we should add in regardless of IQ level too?
Regards, manja

[sophie80]

corrochan:

sophie80:

(To make it clear, I do not have discrimination on these special children. but from my point of view, they should not stay with normal children. ) how can they allow this happens?

sophie80, I find this statement incomprehensible. can you explain pls?

Wow, all the fingers pointing to me.
I do not have discrimination on these special kids. 自闭症儿童 need special care. The ones irresponsible are her parents. Her teacher and even the principal had both talked to her parents for many times.

自闭症儿童 could do dangerous things which they dont realise. There was one time during last chinese new year, teachers were showing kids about how to make chinese dumpling in the class. Teacher asked other students to stay away from the pot. But that kid just stood up suddenly and walked straight to the bowling pot. If the teacher could not stop her, can u imagine what would happen next?

[sophie80]

She attacks other students in the class. She plays when others are having lessons. We understnad that she did not do these on purpose. But, other kids will possibly follow her. U know how fast kids learn bad behaviours? The teacher needs always keep one eye on her while conducting class. Both teacher and students have been distracted by her.


And the most important part is that her situation will not become any better if she stays in a normal class. She needs special care so that she might be waken up one day.

[sophie80]

manjaNurse:

Hi Sophie 80

Your remarks of the special need kid are quite discriminating. I do hope that Singaporeans nowadays are more open-minded and more educated so as to prevent discrimination.
Afterall, we are all Singaporeans and all of us should be one united people, regardless of race, language or religion...or do you think we should add in regardless of IQ level too?
Regards, manja

I did not mention anything about IQ. Actually, some 自闭症儿童 have talents on certain areas, eg. painting, maths.

To be open-minded, we need to understand what kids need. This girl's problem is that she lives in her own world, i.e. not be able to communicate with anybody. Her potential and talents need to be developed in a special way.

The complaints do not come from me only, its from most of the parents of the students in the class. Teachers are actually not teaching this girl. What they trying to do is just to make sure she is not affecting others and the class.

[corrochan]

Dear sophie80 and parents,


When was the last time you were bullied, physically, verbally or otherwise assaulted by a person with disability? How frequent?

When was the last time you were bullied, or physically, verbally or otherwise assaulted by a neuro-typical (aka normal) person? How frequent?
P.s. consider office back-stabbing, gossips, and bad-mouthing, queue-jumping, inconsiderate driving, etc. as part of above.

Parents, autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a lifelong developmental disability that affects how a person communicates with, and relates to, other people and the world around them. It is a spectrum because there is range of severity of traits from low-functioning to high functioning. This is not the same as general definition of IQ. There are ASD people with high IQ, but with severe sensory issues that prevent them for normal learning.

But this comment that I am posting is not about educating you on ASD. That you can do with WWW. I want to talk about living with differences, about embracing diversity. I want to talk about right-parenting.

ASD people have no negative effect on others

Firstly to allay your fears, parents, ASD is not infectious. ASD people, because of a general lack of self and environmental awareness, do not harm others. ASD people generally lack the “ego” that drives man to harm others, and create wars as results.

Parents, ASD children or adults DO NOT attack others. ASD children cannot express themselves because of their ASD. They have sensory processing issues, because of their ASD. They may not understand “danger”, also because of their ASD. Some times, these result in an overload, and ASD children may cry or hurt themselves uncontrollably – we call this a meltdown. There are methods to contain the meltdown, and it’s easy to learn.

But they seldom hurt others intentionally.

The hidden discriminatory nature in us

Let’s be honest, parents. We all have an inherent nature to differentiate “us” and “them”, we fear “things” we don’t understand. Some times this results in chauvinism, most times it’s discrimination. Singapore, Singaporeans and its government and policies are generally guilty of this. 

Parents, most of the bully cases that you heard, or read from the newspapers – are those bullies ASD children, or are they neuro-typical but un-informed/mis-guided children?

The uninformed child probably has never been guided about living with differences. Maybe the child has been misguided, or has modeled after her equally uninformed, unwise parents and teachers, right from the day she was bornt, to kindergarten to full-fledge schools!

Parents of special needs children are not selfish. They are selfless.

Parents, do you have a special needs child? ASD, ADHD, dyslexic, etc? Do you know of any one, friends or relatives who are such parents? Do they come across as selfish to you?

By no wrong or choice of their own, some parents are bestowed with the most difficult task on earth – to bring up children with special needs.

- They work 100 times harder than other parents.
- Most of them can forget about building retirement nests, since they spend all they can afford on special educations.
- They thicken their skins, and ask for help of anyone who is (remotely) willing to help.
- They bear with all sorts of discriminations (some disguised as concerns) from general public, other parents, teachers, etc.
- They bear with discriminatory or insufficient government policies around people with disabilities (e.g. there is no mandatory special education in Singrapore, the government doesn’t provide sufficient early intervention program, there is no anti-discrimination law in Singapore, etc.)

These parents sacrifice so that their special needs children may, even if it’s an iota of hope, become independent and lead meaningful and productive lives.

Parents, do you still think these parents are selfish?

The main issue with ASD people is an inability to interact socially, and they include avoiding eye contact, lack of speech, lack of social awareness, inability to read social cues, etc.?

If you are a parent of an ASD child, do you isolate the child, or you try (whenever possible) to place the child near normal children, so that the child may learn to model after normal behaviour?

Most parents of special needs children send their kids to special education schools and will also expose the kids to normal environment (through normal schools), where they can.

Now, what will you do if you know there is a child with special needs in your child’s class?

ASD people have positive effect on children, if parents do the right thing.

Children, normal or otherwise, are like sponge that absorbs what adults teach, and what adults model. When children understand that their friends or classmates are lacking in some ways, they are presented with unique learning opportunities to help others and to understand that the world is made up of different people of religion, language, creed, culture, behaviors, etc. They learn compassion. They learn true wisdom, not one-upmanship.

In other words, they learn to embrace diversity without condescending motives. How is that a bad thing?

Parents, what will you do now? What do you think is the right thing to do, if your normal child asks you about it?

Sincerely.

[sophie80]

I have read articles saying that these special kids need special care, and they are also written by experts. Experts have different opinions on the same case all the time.


Learning is bilateral. special kids learn good behavior from normal kids. Normal kids could learn bad behavior from special kids.This article is written from the special kid perspective, it simply ignore the benefit of the normal kids. If there is no negative effect, then what we v experienced were made up?

From my understanding, ur article says that they need exposure with normal kids. but it does not mean they do not need special care. If I m not wrong, in specical care centre, one teacher could teach only one or two kids. They have specialised knowledge on how to deal with these kids and guide them how to live independently. They spend time to understand what they really need, their progress and help them. Isn’t that a better environment for them?