Yes...Danial hit his 6th birthday on 25 January 2009. And that means this year will be his last year at the kindergarten and next year he will be in year one. My my...it feels like it was just yesterday he entered kindergarten. Then, he barely speak a word and was unable to focus on anything. I remembered him running around the field during an assembly while everybody else was lining up to sing the national anthem...and his teacher would ran after him in the effort of getting hold of him to make him stand still...huhhhh....how can i ever forget those days...
Well, Danial's social skills has improved quite tremendously since he entered pre-school three and half years ago. But, i am still worried about him blending in with kids his age when he enters primary school next year. I don't know...perhaps it's because of his speech delay. I am so worried if he cannot defend himself or say out what he thinks and will be frustrated if he is not able to express himself in public. However, i know i have to let him learn from his surroundings and i have to let him face the reality of life and face it ON HIS OWN. I cannot let myself be his shadow for the rest of his life...yes yes..i am aware of that. But, no one can argue with a mother's natural habit of being over protective especially when it comes to her children's welfare...and especially if one has an autistic son like me ( ada ke mak yang tak worry if they are in my shoes...mak yang normal akan worry, trust me!)
Danial now is doing mathematics with me and he can do addition and substraction pretty well.
If the question is 9 + 6 = , first he would read aloud...nine plus six and then he would say, PLUS SIX and would take out 6 fingers and pointed out NINE (the fact that 9 has to be placed in his head...) and started counting on his fingers ...10,11,12,13,14,15! and he would say out loud the answer...FIFTEEN! and finally wrote down the number 15. He can also do questions like 8 + ___ = 16 or _____ + 8 = 19.
Danial now starts reading simple sentences...He can read fluently sentences like...
a pan in a van; a rat on a cat;a cap on a tap; sap on a map;a cap on a van;a rag in the bag, a tag on the bag;a fat rat in a net; a pin in a bin; do not jog in the fog....
and yesterday, i have started teaching him read short stories...
MY PET CAT
I have a pet.
My pet is a cat.
My cat is fat.
My cat sits on a mat.
My fat cat can run.
He sleeps in a box.
I plan to coach Danial with his english reading until June this year before i introduce him with Bahasa Melayu. To me, if he is lacking behind with his speech or some of the social skills, at least if he is not too behind in his academic, he will feel less inferior with his peers. But, honestly, i am not too worried about Danial's academic excellence because i could see, by observation while teaching and coaching him, he is quite bright.
Ahhh...the journey is still sooooo long...and all i can do is try and try and try to help Danial and also pray...yes..pray...never forget that.
No comments:
Post a Comment