KKH

Rayyan is still down with fever :(

On Saturday, his fever was consistently high (above 38C).. We gave him Paracetamol regularly but the fever persisted..

This morning we decided to pay his paediatrician at Tampines a visit but doc was on holiday! We decided to wait a while more and see how it goes. By 5, Mr Fever still refused to budge so we decided to bring him to KKH just to make sure that everything is alright.

When we were at KKH, I told the nurse of Rayyan's condition (as in he's autistic) so that she knew better how to handle him. I was pretty surprised when the nurse nodded her head and she looked like she already knew. Then I realised that they must have the records since he went for his assessment here...

Anyway, after registering, we went to the waiting area and was dismayed when we found it was packed with parents and their sick kids. We were prepared for the long wait, it might even take hours. I was glad I packed a bag of toys and books to keep Rayyan occupied. But we were pleasantly surprised when Rayyan's name was called less than ten minutes later. There were still many ahead of us who had been waiting for quite a while.

Then it occurred to me that maybe, we were called in earlier because of Rayyan's condition. I didn't ask the doctor about this but I think my prediction is correct. Why else would they let us go see the doctor first? Well, maybe they are afraid that Rayyan might go berserk in the waiting area or start throwing tantrums........ But hey, I am not complaining! Never mind what they think will happen. I am just glad we were out of there in a jiffy!!

Sick

AAS has organised an excursion to Jacob Ballas, Singapore Botanical Gardens today and we were pretty excited about the trip. I was looking forward to see Rayyan play with his other classmates .....but poor Rayyan fell sick. He fell sick Thursday night... down with fever and cough.

Thought he would get better and we can still go ahead with the trip but the fever came back this morning. Our dear Rayyan has been awake since 3am... Yesterday he was up at around 3 am also...

So we had to give Jacob Ballas a miss... Another time perhaps. Hope the other kids have fun there.

And to you my boy, please get well soon. Mummy will have panda eyes if you wake up at 3 am again....

Oooos and Aaaaas

These days, I focus on getting Rayyan to say 'aaaaa'... Whenever he wants something, we get him to say 'aaaaa' first before giving it to him. Initially, I wanted him to say 'ma', 'pa' or other bilabial sounds but since it is really difficult for him to do so, I just get him to say 'aaaa' , which is much easier for him to do and he complies most of the time.

Recently, since he can blow, I make him say 'ooooo' and it is so cute everytime he does it! lol.. Anyway, I decided to make these sounds more meaningful by associating the two sounds to animal sounds.

I associate the sound 'aaaa' to the tiger's roar and 'oooo' to the sound of the cow. He will now make these sounds when we ask him to :D

Excellent job, Rayyan!!!!

Moooooo

Today is a good day, which is why I have so many posts...lol

Anyway, Rayyan is on a blowing spree today! We made him blow whistles, horns and harmonicas! He could do it! Gosh, I have never heard such beautiful sounds before!!

And then while he was still on a blowing spree, we asked him to make the sound 'mooo' and boy, did he try! It wasn't a perfect 'mooo' but it was 'mooo' alright!! Well done, Rayyan!! *big round of applause*!!!

Huff and Puff

and blow the candle out!!!

Rayyan can blow out a candle now!! Yippeee!! I'm so going to get him a big cake with four big candles for his birthday!!

Yes, whatever little success that we have with Rayyan just makes me so happy and proud. It makes me learn to appreciate the little things in life. Thank you Rayyan for opening Mummy's eyes. I love you....

Resources

I was just reading my earlier post regarding the horn when I thought it would be great to share this local website that sells stuffs for special needs children. It is not easy to get these teaching aids here in Singapore so I am glad I came across this website. You can check out the website here..

http://myspecialkid.com.sg/index.php

Here are some of the things I bought..

Horns and whistle to help with oral motor skills

Echo Mike which is pretty cool too... but Rayyan doesn't want to use it till now..

Social Story book... Rayyan loves this!

Pencil Grip to help Rayyan with writing.. It is very good but we do not use it much as we are concentrating more on Rayyan's oral skills now..

Hope the website helps! :D

Bloooowwww!!!

This morning Hubby told me that Rayyan can finally blow a horn!! Yup, till now we can't get Rayyan to blow. It is just something that is so difficult for him to do. I have burnt countless candles and demonstrated to him many times but he just couldn't blow!

But Hubby told me that when he was playing with Rayyan yesterday night, Rayyan managed to blow the horn!!! Wooohooo! I was so happy that first thing when he woke up at 6.30am this morning, I passed him the horn and asked him to blow! Hahaha... Our dear boy was feeling groggy and all but he managed to show me his newly acquired skill! Thank you for making Mummy's day darling!

Btw, I just gave Hubby a new task. He must teach Rayyan to blow the candles so that he can finally blow out the candles on his birthday cake next month. Good luck Hubby! ;)

Swinging Good Time!

Rayyan's Occupational Therapist has advised us to let him do more swinging. We were told to bring him to a park and let him sit on the swing but sadly, there are not many swings available these days at the playground. Where have all these swings gone to??

Anyway, I am thinking of fixing a swing in his playroom or the balcony. In the meantime, Daddy will have to do it. The Mummy will have a serious backache for days if she does it! lol

Fun Activities

This week is a super busy week, with piles and piles of marking!!! Nevertheless, I still manage to pry myself away from those piles of scripts and do some activities with Rayyan.

Yesterday morning, I let him do some painting. Rayyan loves painting! He loves to see the different colours dancing on a piece of paper and I can see that he gets so much satisfaction every time he splashes some colours on the paper!

Next Picasso? Well, you never know ;)

Rayyan's beautiful art piece ;)

Then in the afternoon, we brought Rayyan to East Coast to make sandcastles and let him run his fingers through the sand. Rayyan was actually more interested in the tiny watering can that we brought along. Kept filling it up and pouring the water out. And he did that again and again till we hid the watering can!!

Great family bonding activities... Hopefully we'll have better luck with the sandcastles the next round ;)

Emotions

As a parent of an ASD child, I go through a myriad of emotions. Sometimes I feel confident and strong, ready to face anything that comes my way and sometimes I just get so worried and I break down.

This morning was one of those not-so-good instances... I got so worried, paranoid and I was feeling really, really down. I've read that 4 in 10 autistic children don't ever talk and that statistic just got to me. I was so worried at the fact that Rayyan would be one of the 4. I have accepted the fact that he is ASD, I have accepted his different traits but if 6 out of 10 autistic children can talk, I really, really wish that Rayyan would be one of them. It would make life so much easier for him. He is going through so much as it is so I really hope that God would just lighten his burden.

Btw, my VP approached me this morning and asked if everything is alright at home. Maybe I was looking really down which was why she approached me in the first place. I said, yes, everything is fine but inside I was just screaming, Noooo!! Things are not fine!!

I made my way to my workstation and really felt like crying but told myself to be strong, I have invigilation in 15 mins! I told myself that maybe I will have a good cry later at night, on the comfort of my bed, with a big box of tissue next to me... Yes, I would feel so much better then.. So what I am trying to say is that it is alright to feel sad and worried, we are entitled to feel that way. It is more worrying if we try to be strong all the time!

At the end of the day, I know that after a good cry, I would pick up where I left off and continue the journey with my boy....