What's YOUR autistic thing?

As I think I might have mentioned on here or on pweshes diaries, my one "thing" that you could call bordering on an autistic trait because it's something that uniquely bothers me and not so much others, is hating to see different play-doh colours being mixed up.

I think that's probably why growing up I didn't play with play doh much if compared to other children because this "thing" of mine must have restricted me from being able to play with the play-doh as extensively as other kids.

I think it has to do with the fact that once they're mixed, that's IT. You can't go back to the original colour and you're left with the mucky colour that is the unfortunate product of your mixing experiment. Just like Raiyan's green farmer he once made.

And also, knowing how much the kids love to play with play doh, we end up just buying new sets of play doh everytime we go to the shop. Which would affect another trait which I can say is probably a typical trait a lot of other parents share- spending more money!!

So thankfully I discovered from the grand internet a way to make your own play doh! Admittedly, they are not as perfect as the store bought one but the kids didn’t seem to notice any difference (even Raiyan!!- or I think his polite conscience has been shining through more lately!) and I could finally sit and happily watch them play the play doh and not worry about all the colours getting mixed up and ALSO about them drying up etc etc because once that happens, we can just make some more! Yay!

the mixed colours don't bother me anymore!

A few funny things about this story that I want to share:

• When I was telling Raiyan that we only had red, yellow, blue, green and pink colouring so those are the only play-doh colours we can make, Raiyan cheekily said “But mama, we can mix the colours to make other colours!” DUH mama;
• I actually bought the wrong kind of salt as the texture would have been better had the salt been finer. I however didn’t expect Raiyan to REPORT it to Jo the next day (who always makes fun of my very frequent “DUH” moments”): “But um sorry Jo, Mama bought the wrong salt!”

Anyway, you can see the process of us making the play doh here. It’s a really good get together activity too you know!

Blowing a Balloon

This is Raiyan achieving another progress milestone, blowing the biggest balloon he's ever blown! With his slight dyspraxia affecting the strength of his jaw muscles, Raiyan found this very difficult to do before but with the tips given by the speech therapist we saw back in March, which included making him drink with a thick straw, his oral movements are getting better.

The one thing I found difficult to explain whilst he was trying to learn to blow the balloon, was to NOT suck back the air that he has already blown. I mean I'm not completely sure if sucking back the air is a bad thing to do but something involving directly breathing in carbon dioxide was something I just couldn't let go off.

I think it was to do with a number of things that Raiyan just couldn't get the concept of what I was telling him

- difficulty with following a negative instruction

- not knowing what "air" is as it wasn't a visual thing he could see

- not understanding what "sucking" is

-not fully understanding "before" and "after" (cause I kept saying, you take the balloon out of your mouth before you let go of the balloon and you can only blow into the balloon after you take a breath etc etc).

In the end I just had to teach him to blow the balloon on a step by step basis (though I think he was a bit upset with him not being able to freely blow as how he wants it!).

First you blow, then shut the balloon, then blow, then shut etc etc..

I'm still not sure whether it's ok to suck back the air? If it is, then I don't have to be so overly concerned! Help! Any comments are welcomed!

This is him "shutting" the balloon

This is him "blowing" the balloon

Ta daaa!!! Raiyan's biggest balloon to date!

New Year,New Buddies

Learning Ladders Society has been running this joint programme with ISB since last year where we have the IB (6th form equivalent) students as part of their community service programme, take care of our kids for about an hour at the adventure playground at the school. The students that were in the programme last year, many of them were STARS of our Learning Ladders Society Launching Video =), are now in upper IB which means they have to start concentrating more time on their studies. Which means that the lower IB students have to take over this year.

So yesterday was the handing out/takeover session from the old to the new. And what a great turnout it was! :D. A bunch of new parents also came over and it is always nice to meet new faces and share new stories. It was also nice to be reunited with all the other usuals after not seeing each other during the summer breaks!

To the new parents, I can anticipate that you may be initially wondering what are the benefits of this programme. And let me assure you, the improvements I see are not just with Raiyan but also with other kids:- their confidence really soars.. Not only their confidence to try new gross motor skills such as climbing, hanging, running, rolling, catching ball but it's their improved social confidence that has amazed us parents. From initially being either terrified or completely oblivious to the existence of these "buddies" (what we call the IB students) and to the other children, after a while, these kids actually start to ask for their buddies by name, are obviously happy when they see the buddies and all the other kids and generally look so excited and thrilled everytime they arrive to the playground.

I also see the increased confidence in the mommies and daddies who bring their kids because from initially being worried about every little step their child takes, they are now chatting away with each other without a care in the world about their child for just that one hour. From all the daily stresses we parents get in taking care of our child, don't you crave for that one assured hour when you don't have to worry about your child AND know that they are enjoying themselves at the same time?

Plus this programme is absolutely FREE so long as you are a member of the Society.

Another great thing about the programme is how much we have spread positive awareness of autism to the buddies themselves. From not knowing what on earth autism is, these teenagers now can actually converse and communicate with our kids AND I'm sure it must be so fulfilling for them to be able to do so considering how hopeless the situation must have been when they first started! And they can spread the positive awareness to others and so on and so on.. Even they are amazed to see the improvements in these kids:D

As you can see, there are many many advantages to this joint programme so we would like to invite more and more parents to come! Just contact Learning Ladders Society for further info ok!

Great Motor Skills Raiyan!

Oh and siblings are welcomed to join along too!

Raiyan's Climbing Skills

Raiyan's gross motor skills has improved a lot that he can now easily and verrryy quickly go up this playhill at the playground! And he's sooooo confident at it too!



He's also really good and fast on this balancing beams.. He keeps saying "I am balancing!" at the same time too!

Catching the Ball!

Because one autistic trait is difficulty in recognising depth perception, this may affect their ability to catch a ball thrown at them, something others may take for granted as something easy to do right...

I am so grateful for the motor skills programme that Raiyan goes for at ISB every Friday as that was where his buddies really played throwing and catching balls with him until Raiyan finally knew how to catch a ball with his own two hands.

The above video is great to demonstrate as you can see how he used to attempt to catch a ball (as seen on the first try) and then you can see him succeed on the second try! Alhamdulillah!