Ian – Good dinner with me

Posted on December 2, 2012 by vivien-lim

Nov 2012.

I think it is interesting to tell you something about the evening I went out with Ian for dinner. Therapy “beyond the centre” as it were.

This is the fist time I went out with Ian, his sister, mother and the domestic helper. It is also the first time Ian sits inside my car. I had him sit in the front next to me. It took us about 20min to reach the restaurant. In there, I invited Ian to sit besides me.

iPhone Generation

iPhone Generation (Photo credit: xcode)

Now lets see how long can he endure to sit quietly for the dinner without any Iphone or Ipad  to entertain him. Well after about 40min, Ian became restless and he begins to ask for Iphone from his mother.. I have also told his mother to give me the Iphone, so she could not give in to his requests. Surprisingly Ian did not throw his usual tantrum for not getting the Iphone. He then approached me for the Iphone, I say “no”.He did not get angry. So he went off looking for other things to entertain himself. He went to see the Ice Cream chiller.

Feedback from his mother: Generally Ian will get upset and throw a tantrum if he fails to have the Iphone. But to her surprise Ian is able to control himself in public when going out with strangers. Ian endured almost 50min for the dinner without an Iphone to entertain him.

We took another 15min drive from the dinner venue to the centre. Again Ian sits besides me without make noise.

Wow this is super! What could have become an adventurous outing with Ian for dinner, turned out to go very smoothly..

Enhanced by Zemanta
Posted in Case Studies, Life of Minda Aktif, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Ruth – Music lesson

Posted on September 25, 2012 by vivien-lim

August/September 2012.

In August I managed to invite a music centre to come in to conduct modern music and movement to the children in my centre. It was so amazing  to see how they could follow instructions and act to the music tempo.

Ruth has also participated in this music lesson. For the first lesson she enjoyed the music title “cha, cha”, She was able to play the tempo with a tambourine  but the next lesson she become  quite agitated. After careful observation I begin to realise that during the month of August, Ruth has attended less Rebound Therapy lessons due to school holidays  and some festival public holiday.

Now it is September and Ruth begins her regular Rebound Therapy again, together with other therapy lessons designed for her. I notice she is to able to accept the music “cha, cha”. She begins to enjoy it as she did before.

Her parents took her on a week vacation to India. When school started again I welcome her. I ask her where she has been? Ruth replies “I went to India”. Then I ask her who went with her and she replies “appa(father), amma (mother), pathi (grandma), akka (sister).” Her ability to understand how to use “who” shows she improves her understanding in using English words. This is not parrot talking.

Reading is not a big issue for Ruth. Daily she spends some time reading, writing and maths counting, all activities to prepare her for preschool readiness. Her ability to control her temper has also improved and shows she is aware what she is doing. Certainly, she still gets angry from time to time but she will say “I angry” and then she walks away to read books. She has insight in her own feelings and is beginning to master them.

It is a life long process, all part of the journey of life.

 

Enhanced by Zemanta
Posted in Life of Minda Aktif, Preschool Programme, Programmes | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Abel 1.1- wonder

Posted on September 25, 2012 by vivien-lim

August 2012.

Time really passes by so fast, and I apologize for the slownes of updating my blog. I have been spending much time in observing child development after the therapy lessons. Abel’s poor vestibular system has him to bang his head when he can’t tolerate certain movements. Abel also feels discomfort near plosive sounds. Rebound Therapy and other therapy methods I designed for Abel have improved him much. His head banging has reduced.  His ability to tolerate plosive sounds has improved. This has really calmed him down in many ways.

Learning by Doing

Learning by Doing (Photo credit: BrianCSmith)

This has also increased Abel’s interest in acquiring new knowledge. As usual his passion is to learn to name the name when I show him the picture of a vehicle. He is very curious to learn new things. He will take a book to show us and wants to learn the name of the pictures. I have cultivated an interest in him to like books. Daily he will take books with words to flip and look.

The integrative therapy programme designed for Abel has also helped him to express more of himself. Eg. when Abel want to eat, he will say “I want to eat”, when we are playing with a ball I will start by saying “catch the ball”. When I throw ball to Abel , he will say “catch the ball”. Then I will say”roll the ball”. As I roll the ball to him. he will say “roll the ball”.

The integrative therapy programme has  triggered in Abel a very spontaneous development in learning and communication.

Enhanced by Zemanta
Posted in Life of Minda Aktif, Preschool Programme, Programmes, Rebound Therapy | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Ian – New development.

Posted on September 25, 2012 by vivien-lim

August 2012.

Time really passed by very fast. As the day goes by I wonder how Ian’s brain neuron plasticity will develop when growing up.

Feed back from Ian’s mother: she said “Ian is able to say ‘wet wet'”. One night, around midmight, Ian walks to his mother’s bed and told her “wet wet”. She thought his pants are wet, but upon checking that was not the case. And Ian repeated “wet , wet”. Then she realised Ian was wearing a diaper for sleeping at night. True enough the diaper was wet and the wetness made Ian uncomfortable and unable to fall asleep. It is a big step for Ian to be able to express his feelings and make the link between an uncomfortable situation, the solution and use language to bridge that gap. Ian’s mother saw that he took another new step in his development which she did not encounter before.

Ian has also begun to learn to accept instruction. eg, at noon when Ian’s mother comes to fetch him, generally Ian will take his sweet time to walk to his mother to go home. There are times he walks but sometimes he goes to the garden to play about. He did not have the urgency to respond to his mother’s instruction to go home.

On one occassion, I told his mother to drive off the car when Ian does not respond to her instructions. Wow, Ian’s mother really drove off and when Ian saw it, he cried. I took this opportunity to explain to him: “Next time, you must listen to what mama says. When mama says ‘go home’, you must get ready to go home”.

The next day, Ian was as transformed. When his mother said “Ian let us go home”. Ian was very alert to say, “Where is shoe, shoe”. He got his shoes, put them on and walked to hold his mother’s hand. There he walks with his mother to the car.

There is no short cut to improve a learning disorder child, it is a slow process. I have seen Ian has developed much compared when he first joined the class. He has transformed from a boy who was unable to say a word, but he can now say short phrase like “what is this”, “where are shoes”, “mama comes”, “This is “.

Enhanced by Zemanta
Posted in Case Studies, Life of Minda Aktif, Preschool Programme, Programmes | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Ruth – moving on in writing.

Posted on September 9, 2012 by vivien-lim

July, 2012.

Wonderful, it is so wonderful to see how Ruth keeps moving on in her development.

Ruth is now able to express herself better.

Leaves and flowers of Harachis hypogaea, Peanu...

Leaves and flowers of Harachis hypogaea, Peanut

She can make requests and ask what she needs, eg. “Teacher I want to eat peanut”. I then ask her how many she wants. She replies “two”, so we count two peanuts out for her. The following day she increases the quantity she wants, eg “I want 5 peanuts”, I gave her the whole bottle. She will say “Teacher can you help to open”? I allow her to take the peanuts from the bottle herself. Ruth will have to count the peanuts according to the quantity she wants.

As for writing, she continues to improve her skills. First she was tracing the words, now she is able to copy basic words like. bat, fat. My initial plan to allow word tracing is to let Ruth learn the basic strokes and the concept of writing. Reading in both  Bahasa  Malaysia and English is not an issue for Ruth. I have seen that many children are able to write but cannot read and express themselves. As for Ruth I have designed lessons to improve communication skills  and reading prior to writing. As Ruth grows up her fine and gross motor skill also develop. Readiness of fine and gross motor skill prior to writing will help Ruth to integrate the concept of writing and effectively put words down on paper. However in reality many parents and kindergarten schools will rush a young child into writing before the child has developed the fine and gross motor skills and cognitive understanding of the concept of writing.

As for social skills, Ruth can sit and play with other children, she is able to integrate and engage others to play with her. She has learned to take turns to play the game. She can even join group learning together compared to the months past. She still needs one to one coaching, but we do that now in a “one adult for two children at one table” learning environment.

Ruth has added a lot of flavor into the days in the centre with her unique interactive ways of communication.

 

Enhanced by Zemanta
Posted in Life of Minda Aktif, Preschool Programme, Programmes | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Jordan – new boy

Posted on September 3, 2012 by Vivien Lim

March  – July, 2012

  • Name : Jordan
  • Age : 6 years old.
  • He walks on tip toes.  He has not developed speech ability and is therefore poor in communication, He lacks self help skills. He drools and will doze off when not attended too.
  • but he is good at basketball and football, amazingly good even.

I told his mother I did not see much chances to assist. However from feedback by his parents, I learned that Jordan did improve. “What improvement have you see in Jordan?”, I asked.

According to his mother :

  • Before therapy.: Jordan was unable to recognize his father’s car when parked at the car park, even if they took him to the same row of where his father parked the car. 
  • after therapy : Jordan is able to recognize his father’s car in the car park.
  • Before therapy : In public for meal time, Jordan was unable to accept certain sounds. When he heard such sound he will push the table away.
  • After therapy : He is able to cope better with such sounds in public.
  • Before therapy : Jordan was unable to play with team mates.
  • After therapy : Jordan is able to play with his team mates.
These improvements are not unimportant: Jordan has now better spatial orientation and memory; he has better control of himself and his social skills have improved.
There are really no short cuts to improve and activate a child to become more responsive and be aware of itself. After months of therapy, Jordan is now at least able to call his father as “papa” (compared to before therapy he can only say “pa….”).  He is also able to say “ball”, “Blue”, “Bye”.

He also improved in following instructions, Jordan is able to follow instructions despite the fact that his home environment is mandarin speaking.

Enhanced by Zemanta
Posted in Case Studies, Life of Minda Aktif, Programmes, Rebound Therapy | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Abel – Speech development

Posted on July 31, 2012 by vivien-lim

July 2012,

This is the first time, i write about Abel. He has been in the centre for the past three months.He came 3 time a week lesson with us.  When i first meet Abel. I don’t see he talks. According to his parents when Abel wants something he will just point, if he can,t get it he will roll on the floor. He will knock his head on his mother.

My therapy lesson is design in according to the need of Abel . He will go thru Rebound Therapy, Neuron Sensory Procecssing, Speech lesson.To be able to talk is what the parent hope Abel is able to acquire.

In the centre, I also notice Abel has the symptom of roll on the floor when he can,t get the thing he wants. I also observe what Abel  is interested. I have taken what he like to convert it become a lesson to Abel. Abel love transport vehicles. Hence I have make a set of   the vehicles with picture and word in a ring. Each time after therapy I will engage Abel to communicate with me. Off course prior to speech I have also do oral organ stimulation with Abel. Abel now is able to name the vehicle name, he has also shows interesting in acquired skills. He will take the ring to show teacher and ask. Teacher will name the vehicle and there are time they ask Abel to name the vehicles name.

I notice Abel has now less roll on the floor. He is more aware of what he does and the environment around him. Daily Abel will have to go on for Rebound Therapy. He enjoy the boucing. Rebound Therapy has trained Abel to be able to handle his emotional anger. Even he is not happy, he will have tears but not as he was before. He can cry and scream for a period but he less in screaming.He is more interactive with people. He learn to share his toys with friends. Not an easy journey but a proper design early intervention programme according to the Abel’s  need will definately help him to growth

Posted in Case Studies, Life of Minda Aktif, Rebound Therapy, Success Stories, Uncategorized | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Ian – Moving on speech

Posted on July 30, 2012 by vivien-lim

July, 2012.

July is an adventurous month for working with  Ian, He takes now more and more  initiative to communicate compared to last month. Daily Ian enjoys Rebound Therapy before I work on other therapies with him. Each time after therapy I will give Ian some follow up activities to do.

English: Colored pencils

Color pencils (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

His speech  has improved so much. For instance, I will purposely put some coloring page with an animal picture on the table. Ian will want to color it but he cannot reach the color pencils which I put up on a high shelf. I will purposely approach him and ask him: “Ian what do you want”? He will answer “I want color a pencil”. Though not in perfect grammar but at least he attempts to make his wishes clear and then I show him a box with a variety of color pencils. Again I ask him “what color do you want”? Ian will reply “blue”. I then give  him  a blue color pencil. Ian is happy, he  then walks away to show the color pençil to another teacher. He says ‘blue’ and teacher will emphasis, “yes, this is blue”.

Then Ian will walk back to the paper with the animal picture to color. As Ian progresses in coloring I will come in and ask some questions, like “What animal is this?”or “Can you tell what others animals are there”? Words like “this is a big elephant” or “a small giraffe” were introduced to Ian.

His mother told me, at home Ian saw a flashcard with a big ball printed on it. Ian said “this is a big ball.”. Amazing! Ian was a boy who could not talk or respond when he first joined the centre about 5 months ago. But now he is able to talk and is more receptive to instructions.

Occassionly I will say “Ian come here and sit on the chair.” He is able to come over to me and sit on the chair. There we will start training his communication skills. The lessons have been designed to be fun for Ian to develop and learn. The involvement of his parents in developing Ian has helped him to improve and integrate better. There is no magic involved in improving a child. All it takes is listening to your heart and walking and working together with them.

 

Enhanced by Zemanta
Posted in Case Studies, Life of Minda Aktif, Preschool Programme, Programmes, Rebound Therapy | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Jeft – success

Posted on July 29, 2012 by vivien-lim

June , 2012

When Jeft came to the centre he was without reading and writing skills. I am happy to report that Jeft now has been accepted to homeschool, his father told me. Jeft will leave us in September. I am so happy to hear this news. My early intervention to Jeft has improved him overall and made him ready for school. Many time we as an adult rush a child to a formal “grade 1” or “year 1” education just because his age is 7. But do we check whether the child is ready? When a child is not ready for the grade 1 academic, the child will struggle and loose interest to learn. Jeft’s parents have send him for evaluation at the home schooling centre where he will attend class.

His parents decided to send Jeft to homeschool, he has a sister who is in private school. Jeft is a very happy child, he enjoys reading very much but he didn’t like Mathematic. It is good for him to be able to express himself about his likes and dislikes.  Amazingly now Jeft  has gotten  into the habit of doing maths daily though it is not a lot of questions he attempt to solve, but at least 6 question he does: sometimes all are correct, sometime one mistake due to carelessness. I read a lot to Jeft, He now  enjoys reading himself, he reads all kinds of books. He enjoys reading science material the most.

His obsession with ultra man, power ranger, transformer has totally healed. Last week, when his father came to fetch him, he opened the behind seats and found 4 cds of ultra-man, which he immediately  handed over to me. His father really walked along the way with Jeft, his father also encouraged him to remove all this from home.  Jeft has also handed over many ultra-man, power rangers, transformer toys, cds and clothes  to me.

Healing this obsession would not have been possible without his parents’ support. We should never forget that without the whole family joining in the efforts started in the centre, success will not be possible. It is a journey we all have to walk together and in the case of Jeft we arrived together to our destination. Jeft is now well prepared to move along.

Enhanced by Zemanta
Posted in Case Studies, Life of Minda Aktif, Preschool Programme, Programmes | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Ian – Initiative

Posted on July 28, 2012 by vivien-lim

May 2012

Time really passed by so fast. Mid May 2012 and Ian has gone to see his development pediatric doctor for a follow up check-up. It was pleasing to hear personally that Ian has improved compared to the last time he was there at the end of 2011 .

Ian now takes more initiative to communicate, e.g. when his mother comes to fetch him, he will initiate to talk with two words “Please open”, “Open door”. He is even able to tell his mother to go home. “Mama go home”, Ian was a boy who gave no response when he first joined in for therapy in March. His ability to understand instructions also improved. If I say “Please put your bag on the shelf”, he is able to process the instruction given to him. Many times after he sees a book, he will just put the book on the desk. Again before he takes another book I will tell him “Ian please put the book on the bookshelf”. He is able to follow those instructions.

Ian also has auditory processing difficulties. One day in early March we had water jet fun and we found out he can’t stand the sound of the water jet. Therapy of auditory process in a very natural way has helped Ian. This natural way needs involvement of the parents. I am glad his parents did take the initiative to take him out to the real life even with different pitches of sound and voices in different settings. Two Fridays ago, we were on the water jet again. Ian no longer screamed, he is able to take it though he did not stand near the water jet. He did not cry. He will just go up to trampoline for  rebound therapy. He jumps and counts the number of jumps he makes.

Hard work in therapy, coupled with his parents’ involvement has really improved  Ian to another level of learning. Currently we are working on his posture. I noticed how he has a lazy posture: even when scribbling on paper, Ian will use one hand to support his head  instead of sitting in a proper manner. I will have to work on that. Body and mind are really one: a lazy and sloppy posture will lead to a lazy and sloppy mind.

Enhanced by Zemanta
Posted in Case Studies, Life of Minda Aktif, Preschool Programme, Programmes, Rebound Therapy | Tagged , | Leave a comment