Khaleeda says ...

Happy Nuzul Quran!

-dillz blogging out-

My Aspie Boy

Been meaning to write about my boy. But every time I started writing, hatiku mula sebak. Don't know why exactly, just pilu and mellowed. But I need to write this down. Who knows it might be of some use to others out there. This is just our own experience with dealing and recognizing that our kid has Asperger's syndrome. (the 'g' is pronounced as in get)

There's nothing physically wrong with him, he looks just like any ordinary 8 year old. Strikingly handsome, if I may add so myself. A completely able bodied, perfectly healthy 8 year old and for that I am truly grateful. Alhamdulillah.

Khaleeq developed his speech a little later than his siblings. He still couldn't speak at 3 years old. We took him to the peads one day and was referred to an audiologist to test his hearing. Turned out there was nothing wrong with his middle ear and he started speaking just slightly after that. So we chilled and life went on as usual.

My boy, however, speaks with an American accent. Don't know where he gets it from. But the slang is distinct and sometimes he speaks in a high pitch. He would also repeat himself at times, almost echoing. He is filled with emotions - be it good or bad. He's not able to hide how he feels. He could be extremely upset over something and as soon as you explain the situation he'd be OK about it. Just like that. I don't really know how to explain it - almost turning on and off like a switch.

Overall though, he is a happy child. He has a pure heart. Always thinking about the less fortunate - the orphans, etc. Kelantanese would call him budak yang "jughuh".

We noticed that Khaleeq however did not particularly speak much Malay. Even when he started his primary schooling, he didn't pick up the language like Khadra did when she was at that age. Seeing that his year was when the newly introduced KSSR started, this posed as a challenge for him as Math and also Science was taught in Malay. About four to five months into schooling, we decided on a BM tutor for him. He goes to Miss Mahyuni three times a week, for about an hour at a time. With her, he picked up on his bacaan and some understanding of the language. Mahyuni was also the one who asked me to get Khaleeq diagnosed for autism. That came as a big shock to me.

"He looked perfectly fine. How could he be autistic?" Those were the thoughts that ran through my mind. It was pretty hard to swallow. I remember crying (for I don't know what reason) and calling my husband just trying to understand. Looking back, I am thankful for that initial suggestion of diagnosis as it was my turning point to handle Khaleeq's challenges at school.

After his half year exams, we saw that he was quite behind as compared to his other classmates. Challenges in school were aplenty. He had trouble finishing his work at school. Especially copying from the board. Of course he wasn't very good in reading Malay yet and his English reading was OK but not very fluent. So that contributed. And there's the language barrier to boot. Add to that his lack of concentration, short attention span and distractions. Yeah. A little handful.

He works hard though. When he gets home, he'd go through his work with me. I would have to get pictures of the school work from either the board, a friend's book or from the network of mothers in his class and we would be doing school work after school work. He is also good at marking his activity book on the pages that he needs to complete. So that helped.

However, even with all that he is still behind as compared to his peers. Mainly due to the language. So, at the end of 2011, we decided to get him diagnosed. To know what we are dealing with and to be able to help him better.

His diagnosis forom Gleneagles read : highly functioning autism - Asperger's Syndrome.

That's all for now, I'll continue this later lah. There's a lot of details to share. I'll break it down bit by bit.

-dillz blogging out-