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Today we went to KK Hospital for Mika’s Child Development Assessment. To be entirely honest, it is not something that I had looked forward to. I have been putting this (appointment) off for the longest time. Many times I question myself, “does he need to be here?”, “does he really need to have an assessment done now?”, ” can I just wait and monitor him for a bit longer?”, “shall I just redha to The Almighty and let nature takes its course?”
Questions, questions, and more questions…
It all began during Mika’s PTM (Parent-Teacher Meet) sometime towards the end of last year. His teacher (from his nursery class) gave good, constructive feedback about how he had progressed in school - from the boy who likes to throw tantrums and screams when he doesn’t get his way, to one who now speaks in clear sentences and able to wait for his turn.
His teacher had highlighted his strengths that at 3+ years old he was able to identify alphabets independently, know his numbers from 1-30, recognize shapes and colors well, and conquered a good command of vocab for his age (he knows what an escalator is, uses the term elevator instead of lift, and can differentiate a pickle from cucumber from pictures).
She also highlighted the areas where she felt he had done much better compared to his peers. She described one particular day when his school had a special lady guest – she was blind – come over to speak to the children. During the outdoor session with the special guest, he had, at one time, offered his hand to help the blind lady walk. He even stayed behind to walk together when the rest of his class has dashed off to the nearby playground. His teacher was impressed with his emotional behavior and gave him a commendation. (Well done, Mika!)
Then, there were areas that can be improved.
1) Sentence construction – his speech consists of one-two word sentences (“I waaaant!”, “Noooooo”, “This cannotttttt!”, “Give meeeeee!”), but he has shown improvement since he turned 4 in October 2011 and now able to communicate in full sentences (at times even in British accent (hurhur!), thanks to Thomas the Train engine narrator :p).
2) Not able to hold a pencil in a proper manner, and still struggle to trace lines. His teacher mentioned of a particular occasion when the class was asked to trace some dotted lines (it was a loop-de-loop shape) on a piece of paper, and while others immediately start to trace, he stared at the paper for some time before asking his teacher “…from the left, or from the right?” His teacher was amazed at how he had actually gave much thought by asking such a question. Nevertheless, he still uses 5 fingers to hold the pencil, alternating the use of his left and right hand (I still haven’t fully figured out if he’s left or right-handed), and yet manage to draw nice little drawings….like this one:
3) Lack of social interaction and communication. This one is a key area of concern. His teacher (from his nursery class) had suggested that my husband and I should get him assessed by a professional to see he requires any kind of “special need/attention” in terms of pre-school education and character development. I was a bit hesitant because at home I feel that he is interacting just fine. He plays with his siblings and even with some of our friends’ children when we meet up. A couple of times I feel such assessment is unnecessary. Even his nyai (grandma) says “Alah, dia takde apa-apa lah. Budak kecik semua gitu, nanti dah besar dia okay. Tengok macam Musli (my younger brother) tu, kecik-kecik tak campur orang, dah besar dia okay pon” (translate: “There is nothing wrong with him. All children tend to be like that, and will outgrow it when they are older. Look at Musli (my younger brother), he used to always be on his own, yet now he is doing ok).
So each time when I visited his school, his teacher would asked me if I had arranged for the assessment. And my excuse each time was, “I have been busy” – which is true, ok! And then 2012 commences, and Mika has a new kindergarten teacher in charge. Even *she* has the same concern and feels the same way as what his nursery teacher felt. During this year’s PTM, the discussion with his teacher was such that this concern may have reached to a more serious level.
I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves.
So at the clinic in KK Hospital today, the doctor (Dr Swathi) did an initial assessment on him, and said that she SUSPECTS Mika may be having Autism (see also definition on HPB site: Autism Spectrum Disorder in pre-school children. This line, especially,caught my attention: “Social and motor skills are very poorly developed whilst general knowledge, reading or vocabulary skills are well above what is normal for his or her age”). The doctor cannot confirm it yet until he undergoes further assessment at the Autism Clinic, which is scheduled on 17th April. Let’s see how it goes then.
Back at home, I tried to recollect his early years and taken a look back at my blog entries from 3 years ago, when he started walking and began arranging objects in a straight line.
Then I look back at the time when it was his first day in playgroup, showing signs of wanting to be on his own and not getting involved in class activities.
Now I wonder…..”Am I too late?”, “Have I not seen all these signs earlier when they were right in front of my eyes?”, “Why had I been procrastinating to send him for assessment?”, “Am I in self-denial?”, “What if I *am* too late?”
Questions, questions, and more questions…and yet I do not have the answers.
edited to recommend a link (thanks Sumah!)
http://www.singaporeautism.com/2008/09/table-of-contents.html?m=1
Like this:
Can you make a guess who these babies are?
These photos were taken on Day 1 & 2 by the peeps from Peter Pan photography.
Edited: Poll will be closed end of this week (26th Feb) and results will be announced. 
Re-edited (26th Feb): Poll is now closed. Majority of you guessed it correctly. The correct answer is: A) Aqeil B) Mika’il C) Misha D) Anaqi. Thank you to those who voted.
It has been a while since I last update on Mika’s progress at school. I went through his communication book today, reading through pages from the start of the semester this year to date. Indeed it is gratifying to know of his daily improvements. His teacher claimed that he not only improve on his speech but also his attention span, It is learnt that he has been engaging eye contact with his teachers and peers when communicating. I know this may not be a big deal to some – yeah some toddlers can already speak five-word sentences (or more) at the age of two – but it IS a big deal to me, because he is one of those few who was identified with delayed speech and had a few times been asked to undergo speech therapy (I did consider signing him up for one but later forgo that decision).
Anyway, last week his class was focusing on the colour orange. They read a book about “Chumpkin” – the pumpkin who showed sad and happy emotions. They also had to go through an “obstacle” in search of orange objects in a tray of flour.
During Waterplay, he and his friends explored orange objects from a water trough. They had their activity indoors due to the drizzle. Here are a few photos taken (courtesy of his form teacher).
The children were asked to explore orange items such as cups, balloons and plastic balls.
And here, Mika decided to, erm, BE the orange object himself! – thanks to his mummy who coincidentally packed an orange swimwear for him to put on :p (I was later told that he did not want to come out, haha!)
How fun! Can I go back to being in kindergarten? ^_^
Everybody I know seems to be falling sick for the last couple of weeks. The number of times my family and I had visited the clinic in just one week alone is probably more than the number of times I get to see my parents this whole month! (Okay, slightly exaggerating here.)
Last Thursday (22.04.2010) I left work early because P had called me up in the evening to let me know Misha and Mika were having a (high) temperature. The night before they both, along with Anaqi, have been coughing very badly and their noses were runny. So, we brought them to their pediatrician @ Tampines1 that night. It’s the only Children Clinic nearby that opens after 6.30pm and accepts my company medical card.
Just as we step through the door we saw a familiar face. Liza was there too! And no, she wasn’t there for a check-up by the PD (she was at the RM section waiting for her queue number to be called).
After waiting for a fair bit at the waiting area, Anaqi’s name was called for diagnosis. He alone was prescribed with Salbutamol (wheeze), Zyrtec (runny nose), Prospan (cough) and Paracetamol (fever). Mika was called next and was prescribed the same medication as Anaqi, with Dexchlorpheniramine replacing Zyrtec, and an additional antibiotic for his yellowish mucus. Finally, it was Misha’s turn and she was prescribed the same medication as Mika, plus Vitamin supplements, Kids’ Wash/Cleanser and Moisturizer for her dry skin.
In the end, it looked as though we’d gone on a medicine-shopping frenzy!
Kids’ medicine to bring home.
The next day (23.04.2010) an hour after we had sent Mika to his childcare center in the morning, his teacher called me up to inform that his temperature shot up to 38.5°, and I was asked to fetch him home immediately. P volunteered to fetch him after I conveyed the message over the phone.
That night, all three had their temperature yo-yo-ing throughout. I had to stay awake to sponge and monitor them.
On Saturday, their temperature subsided and there were no fever. I figured I could then bring them out in the evening, either to Parkway or Vivo City or Marina. That I did. We went to catch the fireworks display at the The Helix bridge opening in Marina.
Pretty fireworks on display
Fast forward to Monday night (26.04.2010) all those bad germs must have gotten onto me. I was feeling feverish. It didn’t help that my packed dinner (or supper rather) almost turned bad. The morning after, I felt phlegm accumulating in my throat and made me wheeze pretty bad. On the way to work in my car, I was wheezing so bad that I demanded P to drop me off at RMG clinic at Ogilvy Centre.
There, I had an asthma attack. The moment I stepped in to doctor’s room, before I get a chance to be seated, the doctor knew I was having trouble breathing! Then, I was instructed to go on a nebulizer treatment.
That’s me inhaling Salbutamol gas.
This must have been my Karma for arguing with Mom on Chocolates = Cough equation earlier that morning. Padan muka aku!
After the treatment, I felt lightheaded and was quivering despite being relieved that I was wheezing no more (at least for that morning). I was given a two-day medical leave.
That same night, as if things could not have gotten any worse, Anaqi was seen to have spots all over his body – more prominently around his mouth. Initially we suspected it could be due to medicine allergy so I proposed to bring him to see the PD again that night. To my surprise, the doctor confirmed it was a case of HFMD plus viral rash!
Spots on his foot.
Spots on his mouth.
“This normally takes about 7 to 10 days to fully recover. Please make sure his kakak and abang (brother and sister) don’t get near him”, the PD advised.
So there we go – today, on my second day of sick leave – I’ve to attend to a cranky Anaqi, get grocery to cook for us, cook, attend to Anaqi, send Misha to school, fetch Misha from school, attend to Anaqi, fetch Mika from school, finally eat, and then attend to Anaqi again. Faint, can?
I hope everyone gets better soon, otherwise plans set for this weekend (a BBQ & Baby J’s birthday party) have to be given a miss.
Looks like these kids are being forced to smile here. See how Misha turned from all demure-looking in her class photo last year, to all gangsta-looking in this year’s.
And….can you spot the-one-who-cannot-stand-still? >_<
03.08.2009 – The start of an enriching journey for my second-born, Mika’il Rusydi. It was his first day at childcare and itturned out to be a fun and interesting one. We arrived slightly after breakfast and headed straight to the music room. The music room was in the same ground unit as Toddler (Dewey) class, but in a totally different section from Nursery 2 (Eriksson) class. Therefore even though his sister, Misha, is in the same childcare centre, they are logistically separated.
So what did he do on his first day in an alienated place? Lots of exploring! He didn’t join some of the class activities conducted as he was busily helping himself to the vast number of toys there (especially huge lego blocks). By ‘helping himself’ I mean attempting to *eat* those toys!
The music room was spacious enough for the little tods to play ball and explore battery-operated bicycles (which was the theme lesson of that week). It appeals to me that Mika found great interest in these.
Just before lunch, his form teacher did some class reading, to which he consciously ignored (he’s still engaged with lego blocks). The children then headed back to Toddler (Dewey) class for some bottle-cap and finger painting. Again, I was amazed at his interest at this activity as this was his first attempt at handling paint as an art medium. What I totally wasn’t amazed at was his refusal to wear any bibs over his brand new uniform, that resulted in splashing (acrylic) paint on the fabric that cannot be removed! Bummer.
During lunch, he ate what looked like fried rice with mushroom (the teacher later confirmed that it’s rice with stewed chicken). He wanted to eat by himself and didn’t want anybody else (me included) to feed him. Which is great, of couse, to show his independent self, but ultimately things got a little messy when most of his food ended up on the table and floor instead. Once lunch is over, the children took their shower, and Mika was the last one to bathe. Normally the teacher-in-charge shower two children at a time, but since it was Mika’s first day, he was set to bathe alone (probably to see how easy or difficult it was to handle him, I suppose. Because he *loves* to play with water!).
Half a day gone, and he’s ready to take his 2-hour nap, with a bottle of milk to lull him to sleep. Seeing that he’s adapting well thus far, I left him in the good hands of his teachers.
After much delay, we had Mika’s biometric passport done last week (like finally!). We had been wanting to apply one for him since months ago, but had deferred to get his passport photo done due to our busy schedule.
Can you tell by his distressed look that he doesn’t like to be kept still on a stool having someone take his picture? You can’t believe the number of frames wasted used just to get a (close-to-perfect) photo of this restless boy.
Apart from my recent post about Mika running about all over the place and making us run after him, I realize I haven’t been posting much about him of late. It’s not that I haven’t been attentive towards him, I have. It’s just that the little antics his sister does these days do attract more of my attention and interest. Oops.
Recently, I noticed Mika had picked up an interesting new hobby - i.e. arranging objects in a straight line! His object trail include toys, remote control, handphones, books and pencil cases to name a few.
There was once when a few items were placed on a table, including bits of jigsaw puzzles, our handphones and a few Reader’s Digest magazines, he was smart enough to group the magazines in one section, the handphones in another and the jigsaw puzzles in the next. Within each section, he carefully joined the items in a line until they reached the edge of the table. When we clapped at his effort, he happily joined us in "celebrating" his achievements by clapping along. Hehe.
Mika arranging his toy cars and remote controls
I also noticed that he has been very attentive at watching television shows, be it cartoons, drama or talk shows. At times, when there was laughter in the show, he would laugh along. When there were applause, he would clap along. When there were characters running, he would march on the spot as if running along. Speaking of marching on the spot, he would do just that every time he hear us say "…left, right, left, right, left, right…". It was a cute and funny sight indeed.
Now, at 15 months, he’s beginning to pick up his pace and is starting to run about (aimlessly at that), sometimes engaging in last minute braking causing a few bumps against our dining table or wall. At times he would simply perform last minute cornering just as he’s about to knock himself onto ourselves or even our furniture, such as our floor vase for example. Once, the very same vase fell on him and made him sit, and his hands flung almost in a instant trying to hold it upright, whilst crying for help! In another case, he bruised his cheek from hitting against the tv rack when he lost his balance for running too fast. The poor kid.
Now that I’minto my 22nd week of pregnancy (and putting on a little weight), I find it hard to chase the little one about, or even follow him around trying to be a protective shield between him and the wall or the dining table. Having daily back aches isn’t helping much either.
Yesterday, P had a fair share of being the chaser while we were waiting for our queue number to be called at my gynae clinic. We were there for my 5th month antenatal check-up as well as Mika’s MMR vaccination. Mika was giggling away while running around the waiting area, banging his hands on the glass entrance door, and even on the doctor’s room door, speaking some gibberish baby language no one could understand. Some of the patients there smiled as they looked upon Mika entertaining himself. "Wow, your son is so happy-go-lucky!", one lady patient said.
Tired of running after him, P placed him back on his stroller, getting a lot of resistance from Mika. "Penat lah kejar ni budak!", P claimed. The kid squirmed about and screamed away trying to let himself loose from the safeguard of his stroller belt. Even the wonders of his comfort pillow-case did not help (Normally, it would calm him down). Everyone there stared at us (including the lady patient), and I’ve got to admit it was quite an embarassing situation. He only quietened down after his jab of MMR after which he fell soundly asleep.
5th Oct 08 – Just less than 2 weeks after his elder sister’s birthday, now it’s Mika’s turn to celebrate his.
He turns one on this very day. We did not make any plans on any major celebrations, but instead we had a small cake-cutting affair at my sis-in-law’s place when we visited her in the morning. We had in fact arranged to go for Raya visitation to P’s side of the family on Sunday, and had collected the cake at Vivo City before we came over.
Mika was oblivious of the small celebration we had arranged for him.
Happy 1st Birthday darling!
