kay_liz:

Why I am doing speech therapy now is because she is also having the therapy at CDU while waiting for enrolment to EIPIC. But the frequency is too short, like once a month! I know it is not addressing the overall condition of my child, but I was hoping to do something while waiting.... I have submitted my application to the government EIPIC centre but waiting to see the final monthly costs. If too high, i am not able to enrol her, then I have no other options, do I?

Hi kay_liz, great that you are doing all you can and looking for alternatives to support your child's learning.

Your solution of going to DAS because it offers therapy is not a bad decision. It is just worthwhile noting that most therapists at DAS focus mostly on children above 7 years of age and primarily provide therapy for Phonemic awareness and development (learning to read/ write). There are other therapists who primarily provide therapy for younger children with GDD/ASD/dyslexia, etc. These therapists would be more aligned and attuned to your child's learning needs in my opinion.

As you have stated, there are not many private centers that cater to children with developmental difficulties. Their waitlist is long, they cost a bomb and they only have limited locations. I understand that your child has GDD. Is he very far behind? Depending on how your child is functioning in his current childcare, it may not be necessary for him to go to an EIPIC center or integrated childcare/ private childcare.

Bringing these two aforementioned points together, some parents have opted to stay at their current childcare and to supplement it with some home based therapy that is more focused on helping the child reach their developmental milestones in a more systematic and targeted manner. This includes home based early intervention services/ OT/ physio/ speech therapy services.

An example would be to have a speech therapist come in about once a week (market rate is ~ $180-$250 for home based services/ Speech bubbles charges $160/hr), and an early intervention teacher (market rate is ~$80 - 100). This way, your child would not have to keep changing schools and teachers, allowing him to have more consistency in his routines and caregivers. But at the same time, he would get 2X targeted practice with a 1 to 1 therapist at home (where learning is better generalised) at about ~240 a week on top of his childcare. The speech therapist can also get in touch with his school teachers or make school visits to teach them about strategies and to implement the goals while your child is at his school to promote continuity of therapy.

I hope this opens up another avenue for you to consider. No doubt it is still very pricy but it would settle logistical headaches and you would be getting a private service with 1-1 therapy/ teaching.

Pls Pm me if you need contacts and if you like to chat more, being in this industry, I can help with helping you get some contacts if needed:)

Cheers.

Snow24:

Hi


I have a 2.5 years he don't seemed to understand verbal instructions well. I showed him the abstract symbol card he don't understand.

Then I shown him real object eg his shoes to tell him wear shoes.

How can I better communicate with him so that he understand or how should I communicate with him.

Snow24:

Hi

May I check if anyone can share how do you teach children what to do if they get lost from parent or how to prevent so that they stay in the group especial for asd child.

Hi, saw your question on how to communicate better with your child and how to keep your child safe/ ask for help from the forum 'all about autism'.

Just wanted to share my 2 cents from my experience with working with children with autism. Your questions are difficult to answer given that I do not at what level your child is functioning at. but here are some tips.

1) Qn on communication. Children with ASD are very self directed and tend to hyperfocus on objects but have difficulties attending to people. However, this does not mean that they do not want to communicate. They just have more innate difficulties that make communication difficult for them. First thing I would advise you to do would be to understand your child's sensory profile. Children with special needs have a lot of regulation needs. Your child may be hyper or hypo sensitive to tactile (touch), sound, proprioceptive (movement), visual stimuli. after knowing this, try to create an environment that is not over stimulating for your child. This could mean to make the room quieter/ play songs or noise in the background, let your child wear slippers/ make sure the floor is clean, choose an activity like sand play (kinetic sand) or water, etc. This would allow your child to regulate better and pay more attention to you. Second thing i would advice is to create opportunity for needs. look for things your child wants. Try to get him to request for items through very simple methods; even if it is just giving you eye contact or through the PECs system (when done correctly). The third thing I would do is to develop a play relationship with your child. There are several approaches for this. The Hanen approach is a common one that kkh also provides talk on. DIR floor time is another approach, in this approach, there are many steps for a successful implementation. But considering your child is only 2 coming to 3, it would be at the stage where the communication partner has to copy everything your child does to help him to notice you, connect with you. There is also a Relationship Development Intervention approach where you have 0 demands placed on your child but to get him to come to you because u have something fun with you. There are many more ways to increase meaningful communication exchanges with your child. if you are keen, do let me know and we can chat over the phone:)

2) Qn on safety. again, it is hard to say because, again, I do not know at which level your child is functioning at. However, this topic is a very common topic that most parents with children with ASD go through. Children with ASD are very self-directed and have difficulties with compliance and are poor at auditory processing. As such, the best way to go about this is for your child to deal with these difficulties through therapy (ABA or speech therapy). Therapy would help to increase your child's ability to listen, to follow the adult's lead, improve on their processing abilities, their language ability and overall behavioir.
It would also help for you to continually increase your child's awareness of dangers around him. This includes traffic rules, guidelines and routines. Structure and routines are the best way for them to understand what is going on around them.

I myself am a speech and language therapist:) so if you have any questions, or are interested to engage my services, let me know!:)

You can view my website and reviews on speechbubbles.com.sg or contact me at 97482908:)

Hope this helps!
Jia you!!:)

kay_liz:

lowyanhuay:

Hi,

After doing all the assessment forms from the EIPIC, it seems like there will be no slots for my son for another 6 to 12 months. I am considering going private training for my son until he gets a slot. Can someone recommend some private therapy center for a reasonable price? The list provided to me by CDU is above or around 1500 a month for 2 consultations a week.

Hi... my 4yo is also referred to EIPIC and I was told she will get the slot in next year March. While waiting for the slot, she goes for her speech therapy at CDU.

What is your son diagnosed with? Mine has global developmental delay but the problem is more on her speech. I have called up DAS and they do have 1 to 1 speech and language therapy. Costs are on per term basis but i think less than 1500 for 10 lessons? Maybe u can check out their website: https://das.org.sg/

DAS mostly provides therapy for children with Dyslexia. it might be worthwhile looking at other therapy centers close to your location or to look for home based-speech therapy services that would be more convenient and would promote better generalisation of skills learnt (speechbubbles.com.sg offers home-based speech therapy services).

For GDD cases, their overall development is slow. This would impact their development of their overall posture and tone. As speech requires the use of many fine muscles, like the tongue, palate, jaw and lips, it is considered to by a type of fine motor skill (like writing). Typical muscular development requires a child to adequately develop their core and trunk muscles before their speech muscles are properly developed. As such, try to focus more on their core and trunk muscles first.

However, seeing a speech therapist is also essential to help develop the necessary skills for your child to communicate. this includes your child's receptive language and to promote verbal behaviour to let your child know that she can use words to express herself. Please do not focus on the accuracy of her articulation yet. This would be counter productive and would discourage her to talk (i.e. \"everything i say is wrong... I might as well don't speak\").