@3SERIES said in All About Autism:
@tyeogh
Hi!
Good to hear from you again, Tyeogh!
I am new to this forum BUT had been reading all the AMAZING pages here since couple months back.
As of now, I am anxiously waiting for Pathlight offer for DS3 P1 next year.
Screening done and all…so ya crossing fingers and toes for the good news to come🥶
I believed Pathlight has helped groomed your child in many ways.
If u can recall, do u mind sharing the ups and downs during transition to Pathlight P1?
Appreciate other Parents contributions as well!
TKIA
Hi @3SERIES
Welcome to this thread!
Yes, Pathlight was pivotal in my son’s transformation.
I think I applied for entry into Pathlight somewhere around this time of the calendar too. I had concurrently applied to a normal primary school for admission, as required by MOE.
Pathlight took a while to get back to us. Around December. Then, we parents had to bring our child to their school. auditorium. The teachers arranged the children into small groups of 10. Then marched them off to the classrooms. We parents had to wait in the auditorium while the teachers assessed the children. I believe this is the internal test where Pathlight teachers had to assess whether the child is suitable for accessing learning in Pathlight.
After about 1 hour, the children returned. We returned home. A week later, we received a letter from Pathlight. My son was offered the Foundation year. A Foundation year is like a pre Primary 1.
It was a mixed bag. Some kids were offered P1. My son was offered Foundation year. So he had to “repeat” so to speak. I interpreted it as the teachers felt he was not ready for P1. We tried to take it positively.
This Foundation year proved decisive. You see, when our kids are autistic, it is no more about keeping up with the Joneses. It is about pitching learning to a level our autistic child can accept. It is no point putting the child in P1 when he cannot access learning. He will just sit in class and learn nothing. Everything goes by him.
In the Foundation year, my son was taught basic things like taking the school bus. Complying with instructions. What to do after alighting from the school bus. How to sit in a class. How to follow what the teachers are saying. How to buy a meal in the canteen. How to behave in class. How to go home after school. These may seem simple to a NT child or parent, but for an autie, it takes weeks to master each step. The Foundation year broke it down nicely. There were sequences documented in the report book.
The classroom size was 13 students. There were 2 teachers at all time. One to teach. One at the back of the class, cueing students that could not focus, to stay focused. Parents are taught to look at our Communication book daily where teachers will update us on things to do. We parents had to attend a quarterly meeting at the school hall. I remember my first quarterly meeting where the principal “threatened” us nicely if we parents dont look at the Communications book daily, they will kick our kid out - it is fair, she explained we parents need to get involved, not just throw everything to the teachers. This way, the child can improve. So me and my wife kwai kwai eyeballed his communication book daily!
By the end of the Foundation year, my son had learned the routine of going to school and how to learn. He was assessed again. They promoted him to P1. He was ready for formal education. The pace at P1 was expectedly fast. But by then, my son was ready to learn. He could pay attention in class. He could do homework. We parents took instructions from the Communication book daily and did our task to monitor him.
Pathlight has a personal improvement plan for each child. This is separate from academia. We parents were summoned at the beginning of the year to discuss our child with the form teacher. Targets are set. By the end of the term, we had to check off whether these targets were achieved. For example, can he indicate to the teacher he wants to go to the toilet and can he go to the toilet himself. Most objectives were hit. So this is a documented approach to improve on their behavior. New term, new targets, check off list again at end of term.
This was how my son improved behavioural wise. There is also an assessment for formal education. A report book like all other NT schools. My son faired average for most academic subjects. He took PSLE and got into the Normal Academic stream for secondary school. 5 year to complete secondary school. I am happy for him because I understand it is more important to slow down the learning so that he can learn, than compete with the Joneses and everything whizzes by him; he learns nothing. He is exempted Chinese, a default for all Pathlighters. I understand he will be exempted from NS too, so it doesnt matter if he is going to the Normal stream. Give and take.
After P1, he kept getting new behaviourial targets for each new year. So my son is always closing the gap with NT kids.
