Hi Simply00123,


You can attend private speech therapy while waiting for the the appointments and assessment etc. You can sit in during the therapy session and from there you can learn how to teach him/interact with him at home.

Dear parents,

My son was born in Oct 2012 and he is currently attending EIP and childcare. He is supposed to be in primary 1 this year. But I deferred for 1 year and he is currently repeating K2. He holds long term visit pass.

But our citizenship application has just been approved . So I am a bit lost what to do next for his schooling. Could you please give me any suggestion, procedure, direction?

I also have the following questions.
1) Shall I bring him to see the doctor at CDU (Jurong) again? He has seen a doctor in CDU (Jurong) from 2014-2016. After that we did not follow up. If yes, we need to go to polyclinic first to get subsidy?
2) For the diagnostic test for SPED school application form, how long does it need to wait to take the test at government hospital and how much? Any recommended private centre to do the test and how much?

Thanks in advance.

Gekko:

Hi all parents

I have been reading this forum and finds it very encouraging and supportive. Also a lot of knowledge is learnt. I would appreciate if anyone could advise me. I have a five years and ten months old son and now in his K2 class at MS preschool since he was in PG. The findings with my son are below:
- need to give 1-1 instructions to get tasks done at school. not following group instructions
- poor social skills ( he wants friends but he keeps quiet at school despite very talkative at home)
- he keeps conversation on-going with parents, FDW, and some relative but not at school.
when I showed a video clip of his conversation with me and my hubby to his teachers, they commented that they are seeing two different person.
- he loves to go out, enjoy at playground but not communicate with other kids unless they initiated.

His K2 teachers advised me to go check up his development at KK. Then KK may advise for speech therapy and/or other necessary therapy for social skill. Else my son will have difficulty in P1 next year. I will surely go to polyclinic and get referral letter for KK appointment. I would like to know if I should start therapy while waiting for KK appointment. Which therapy or early intervention centre will be recommended? The issues my sons have means ASD? I took some online tools to check ASD, Aspergers and PDD-NOS and showing no/a little symptoms. I have no idea how this tools are reliable.
Thank you so much.

Hi Gekko,

How about social skill classes? I have heard about them. But I don't have any personal experience.

[quote="slmkhoo"][quote="tyeogh"]… There is no way a diagnosed aspie can miraculously "catch up". Not unless he is a savant which only 7% of aspies are according to statistics. On the contrary, aspies need their learning processes "broken down" into smaller parts. So they can learn part by part at their own pace. If your child attends EIP, you should understand what I mean. The child is capable of learning. Just at a slower pace than NT children.


Dear Slmkhoo,

Very well noted. I know these come from very experience mum and many thanks.

Hi tyeogh,


Thanks for your view on this. I know my son needs more time. And I also know they can't catch up easily since I have been a parent of SN kid for more than 3 years. I have also seen his K1 and K2 work sheets (he is attending both K1 and K2 classes in MS childcare instead of attending Chinese class) and I know the high standard of Eng and Maths. That's why I want to defer him at least 1-2 year. But the Singapore education system doesn't allow me to do this. So my only choice is to go for private route.
This morning his ST teacher did language assessment and his level is that of 2.5 years old only. So this assessment result and your view and experience made my decision of not registering in phase 3 is more confirmed.
So the next step is to continue his schooling in the same childcare for next year. From there I will decide depending on his condition.

Thanks a lot for helping me in my decision making.

Hi Zac's mum and tyeogh,


Thanks for your reply. I did not expect to receive such a prompt response since this thread is not active nowadays.
Yeah. I will have to make very difficult decision. I asked my close friends who have NT kids and their response is to go ahead and apply for P1 since I only have this chance to enter government school (without passing AEIS exam) saying that my son will catch up later. When I checked with my son's ST and EIP teacher they all said that he is not ready for sure and will have a hard time in school. So I am checking here with the parents of SN kids to have parents' point of view.
I have checked with his current childcare principle about repeating K2 and she has no problem. So his schooling should be Ok in the meantime.
I have heard about AEIS exam; very difficult to pass and long waiting list of Pathlight even for Citizen children.
Tyeogh, you are right that my son's communication level is not even K1 nor 3-4 years old. That's why I am very unwilling to let him try P1. I can't imagine how he will be so lonely in school and how he can survive without understanding and communication. I can also foresee the problems will arise later and the need of shadow teacher.

I think I will have to decide based on my son's current condition.

Hi all mummies and daddies,


May I get some suggestions from here.

My son was born in Oct 2012 and he is due to register for P1 registration for mainstream school in a few days time. He holds long term visit pass and will have to register in phase 3. So the chance of getting admission is about 50%.

Here is brief info about my son:
- He is 5 and half years old.
- Currently attending MS childcare (AM session, everyday) with ABA therapist support (2 days per week, 2 hr per day) and 3 days with my helper helping him in the class and afternoon (3 days per week, 3 hr per day) in EIP program. And weekly speech therapy.
- He still can’t do conversation yet but he can express his needs (e.g., I want eat, I want juice, I want sleeping time, I want to go toilet, I want swimming, I want shower time etc.)
- He understands simple instructions only.
- Academically, he knows alphabets and numbers, knows quite a number of words and can spell. I guess his level is K1 level. He has zero knowledge of Chinese and he doesn’t attend Chinese class in his childcare.

I know my son is not ready for P1 definitely. I have checked with his teachers and they also think so. My plan was to defer him for one year for P1 registration (or more if necessary). But when I inquired MOE about the deferment, their reply is that I can’t defer him since he is a foreigner. I have to register this year or else sit for AEIS exam to enter the local school.

Could you please help me decide in the following options i can think of? or add on more options if you have.

1) Go ahead and register for P1 since this is the only chance he will get to go to local school other than sitting for AEIS exam. (What problems/difficulties can I face if he got the admission? Any experience to share?)
2) Send him to international school with special needs support (only 4-5 schools with annual tuition fees of about 35k.) (if we choose this option, we may not afford to send him for long term since the school fees is so high.)
3) 1-2 years in international school with supports and then transfer to private school with low annual tuition fees which we can afford long term.

Additional info - We both are PR for more than 10 years. We married here and our son was born here. Basically we settle down here already and we haven’t thought about the option of going back to our country. We applied PR for him three times and got rejected. We will continue applying in future.

Thanks a lot!

Hi So50, your son recently joined to Dynamics? May be in the same class as my son. Yes. You can PM me. But I may not know much since I am not the one sending and fetching him.

Hi bs1975,


My son is with Dynamics. The EIP runs 5-days a week with flexible options for 2, 3, or 5-day attendance. Dynamics offers half-day and full-days programs listed below.

9:00am – 12:00pm (Half Day)
1:30pm – 4:30pm (Half Day)
9:00am – 2:00pm (Full Day)

He is attending 3 days (half day) a week. How old is your son? My son is 3 yrs old and no speech yet. They have different classes according to condition and age of the kids. The lessons I listed are from their class’s time table for 5 days. My son misses out some of the lessons since he attends only 3 days. There may be some differences in lessons depending on the class.
Their ST and OT classes are not one to one also. It’s a group therapy. The therapist will be in the class for one section (30 min) with the students and the teachers.
After every class, the teacher briefs you what your LO did in the class. And they will also pass a written report 2 times a month.

It’s a subsidized private one but you have to go through with SG enable, I think.

Hi bs1975, My son is attending EIPIC in private centre. The main difference between EIPIC and main stream preschool is the students to teacher ratio. In my boy’s class, there are about 4-5 students and two teachers. For some schedule (e.g., ST, OT) there will be additional ST and OT therapist. So they can pay attention to individual student. Can work on one to one.


My son’s school time table includes Circle Time, Theme Based Numeracy, Early Language Skills, Fine Motor Play, Theme Based Literacy, Physical Play, Social & Motor Skills, Sensory Play, Numeracy, Theme Based Role Play, Core Language Skills, Literacy, Art and Crafts, Story time and vocabulary development, Music and Movement, Activities for Daily Living, Imaginary Play.

May be your son’s school also have that kind of time table and they follow according to the time table?