Summer's Journey

Recently my niece, TT, is into 'Kaycee & Rachel in Wonderland'. Now, who is this Kaycee and Rachel? (Hint: Check out the Youtube video below) With this new interest, TT wants me to role play 'Kaycee & Rachel' with her; she is the younger sister, Rachel while I am the older sister Kaycee. Even though I know nuts about the two girls, being the coolest Aunt, I had to oblige. So from the moment I said 'yes', TT has been calling me 'Kaycee' . After hearing 'Kaycee', 'Kaycee', 'Kaycee' thousands of times, I started calling TT 'Kaycee' instead of 'Rachel' . And this does not sit well with TT. #coolauntfailed Suddenly I was reminded of the many children I work with... When asking for water... they say 'What do you want?' When asking for cookies... they say 'What must you say?' When asking for more cookies... they say 'You want more?' When asking for a toy car... they say ...

And the story of Henry continues... Now he has achieved the goal of 'intentional exhalation'; he can blow a horn. He was also starting to blow bubbles.  While I was celebrating this achievement, to his parents, Henry is still non-verbal. He is still NOT TALKING. He has more 'random' sounds than a year ago but they are unintentional. And of course, nowhere near speech for communication. So what's next? As much as I believe that Henry will talk one day (based on my past experience of two boys who started having functional speech at 10 years old), self-doubt started creeping in. Henry was already 7 years old. He spent a year learning to blow. How long more will he take to learn the other components needed for speech? Not long after, Mum popped the question... "Will Henry ever talk? What do you think we should do, now that his 'window of opportunity' is closing?" With some self-doubt but abundance blind faith, I told her that "Yes he...

It's unbelievable how fast the first six months of the year just flew past in a flash. I have been wanting to share this amazing story about Henry... Henry has been undergoing therapy with me since May 2015. He was six years old at that time. He has Autism and did not use speech to communicate, i.e. non-verbal. His parents had only one goal: SPEECH. Henry was one of the most silent child I have ever met in my then 7+ year career. He was referred to me by his Occupational Therapist (OT) who had been (and still is) working on his body awareness and motor planning.  After Initial Assessment, Henry was found to have very limited pre-verbal skills, i.e. visual tracking, auditory tracking, turn-taking, choice making, cause-and-effect, joint attention, and imitation skills. His play skill was at the very basic level of exploratory play. How can a child be verbal when he has limited PRE-verbal skills?? Not an easy 'case'! He was as silent as a mouse; I cannot even try...

This is the third year-end post of Summer's Journey! I am just thankful for another chance of thanksgiving. Going Places 2017 has brought me to places... Brunei... Jakarta... Kuala Lumpur... Myanmar... I am thankful for the many opportunities to do overseas training and consultation in these various countries. It allowed me to see the many needs in these countries, as well as forged several friendships. I am thankful to be able to connect with many people during these trips, especially in Myanmar. I have been going to Myanmar for training and consultation work on a quarterly basis. I have met veterans of the special needs field, and hear of their stories, of how they started decades ago when Myanmar had limited resources... and even up till today. My admiration goes to their perseverance, commitment and passion for people with special needs. Inspirational indeed! Group Work during one of the Trainings at New World The Team at New World Therapeutic Center for Spec...

I just returned from Yangon, Myanmar, a couple of weeks ago. That was my third trip this year, to conduct a series of training, for teachers, parents and other professionals (Physiotherapists, Principals, Psychologists, etc). It has been an awesome journey working with professionals who are so eager to learn, in Myanmar, where they have very limited Speech Therapy services. (There is only one practicing Speech Therapist in Yangon, Myanmar at the time of this writing.) Between my previous trip in May and my latest trip in August, I came to know that TalkToolsⓇ and ARK Therapeutic tools are now available in Myanmar. On one hand, I am very happy and excited about the availability. On the other hand, I am worried. There are two main considerations: Using OPT as an Only Approach to Speech Delay When I first started out as a Speech Therapist in 2008, Oral Placement Therapy (OPT; then known as Oral Motor Therapy) was a big thing in Singapore. Many parents bought the therapy tools in b...

Mingalabar! Just completed two runs of "Oral Motor Therapy" workshop with New Life Foundation and New World Therapeutic Center for Special Needs Children, in Yangon, Myanmar. Each workshop was two days and the participants were simply amazing! One of the funniest and most 'complimentary' moment for me was this... To introduce myself, I started the workshop with a few photos to tell the participants a little about myself. Below is one of the photos. It tells three things about me. From this photo, can you guess the three things about me? Quite a few could guess that (1) I work mainly with children and (2) I have nearly ten years of experience as a Speech Therapist. However, none could guess the third thing. I then gave them a clue that it has something to do with the paint on the hands. Some said "You have worked with all kinds of children, because of the many colours." (well, this is not untrue but yet not totally true. My main experience is i...

1 March 2017 marks a milestone for Summer's Therapy Services. We have a new Speech Thera pist joined us. *Yeah! More children can be served!* Let's have a chat with Magdeline to find out more... HT: Hi Mag, w elcome onboard Summer’s Therapy Services! Mag:   Thank you! I am really happy to be part of Summer’s Therapy Services and am looking forward to contribute towards providing quality therapy and support to the children and their families that we will work with. HT: So, tell us a little about yourself. Mag: I have been a Speech Therapist since 2015. Prior to joining Summer’s, I worked as a Speech Therapist at KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital, Department of Child Development, working with children with developmental delays which had impacted their speech and language. I was formally working in the Real Estate industry after graduating from NUS,  but have always had a desire to work with children. Other than my Masters degree in Speech Pathology which I o...