TERRIBLE, HORRIBLE, VEGETABLE

For those with noisy children at home, please be glad that they are perfectly normal. The kids in my house – Sasha and Lok Lok were dubbed as the Terrible Two in their kindergarten. The teachers told Aunty Fong, the van driver who took them to school that these two are “Terrible!!”

Sasha came back home and told us, “Teacher called me Terrible” and she said that with a beam on her cute face, obviously ignorant about what the teacher had just said. We shook our heads. It was only the second day in school and she’s already giving the teachers headache.

And to make the matter worse, my cousin sisters had been teaching them the other word; which carries the same meaning, Horrible. Then, they added another word to rhyme with it. So now, we start calling those two, Terrible, Horrible,Vegetable. I think from today onwards, probably many parents wouldn’t want to send their kids to my house to baby sit.

Just a few days ago, as I was cleaning my study, I asked Sasha where did she place my photo album as I saw her looking at the pics awhile ago. She pointed at album on the table – which was right in front of me – and said, “Here it is. Are you blind?” in smattering Mandarin and Hokkien.

I was shocked and remained speechless for a moment. A 3 ½ year old kid just said something sarcastic. I laughed till my stomach hurts.

As for my godson, Adrian, things didn’t really going his way. He is already four years old and yet, everything that comes out from his mouth is gibberish. At first, we thought it was normal for baby boys to start to speak slower than baby girls.. but it wasn’t.

Thank goodness it is not autism. He might be displaying symptoms of Learning Difficulties (LD). We couldn’t be sure and I guess he should be sent to a speech therapist to be assessed.

Adrian's mother, had gathered some information on where to send children with speech delay and would like to share with the public, so that parents out there, whose children having the same difficulties, would be able to use the information.

A friend of mine also threw in some advice as well, this is her e-mail:-

----- Original Message -----
From: Mei Ee
To: Gina Cheng
Sent: Tuesday, March 14, 2006 5:40 PM
Subject: Re: Speech Delay

Hi there,

Have spoken to this friend of mine & she is sending her son for acupuncture, speech therapy and a special needs kindy. Ummmm it sounds kinda OTT but she's not based in KL so for the few months she's here, she is just doing all she can for her son. So this is what she says :

1. Speech Pathologist - Ms. Cheng is the name and she charges RM90 an hour by appointment only. I figure you friend is not interested coz the charges she quoted to you fell into this range. Real expensive but the main focus would be on speech therapy. Ms. Cheng (speech psychologist) - 0126825257

2. Bethel (03-8075 3078)- Learning facility for special needs children. Funded by Malaysian Care and the fees are very reasonable. If you opt for twice a week sessions @2 hrs per session it only costs RM100/ month. The phone number i gave you is the Puchong branch. Please call them up for the KL branch number if that is closer to your friend's home. This place was recommended by the speech pathologist to my friend.

3. Katsu. Kindy for normal and special needs children. Funded by a church and the teaching staff is headed by a lady pastor. The monthly fees is RM500 (5 day week) or R300 (3 day week) and fees have to be paid 3 months up front + administrative charges. They run a normal kindergarten syllabus but set aside special sessions to teach special needs children compliance i.e. to desensitize and teach special needs children coping abilities so that it improves their hyperactivity disorders. The curriculum is not dedicated to speech therapy but my friend is currently sending her son here & he has shown tremendous improvement over the past 3 months. He can now indicate and tell the mother in his own limited way that he needs to go to the loo. Katsu - 77840109 (Preschool with special needs sessions)

4. TCSM- 80705295 (Preschool with special needs sessions & one on one sessions with special needs children)

5. Diet change - Switch to a
a) gluten free diet (meaning no wheat products, no flour, no white rice, no white sugar vs. a yes to brown rice, brown sugar, tapioca floor etc)
b) casein free diet (no dairy related products i.e. milk, butter, etc)

Stick to a vegetable and meat diet. Apparently this is very effective in improving their attention span and this helps improve the learning process. Please ask your friend to be open to this option as it worked for my friend's son too.

This diet regiment is very trickly apparently coz you've got to make sure that the preparation is really free of a) & b) so you've got to make sure utensils & electrical appliances like toasters and ovens are cleaned thoroughly.

Most importantly, don't delay the early intervention program, do it now before the brain develops fully & then the learning process becomes longer and more tedious. Hope your friend finds the info useful. Good luck.

For further reading, please click the links below:-

Malaysian Association of Speech-Language and Hearing (MASH)
Malaysian Care
Kiwanis Disability Information & Support Centre
Kidzgrow Malaysia
Kiwanis Malaysia
LD Online
Learning Disabilities Association
National Academy for Child Development (NACD)

Fellow Blogger-Mom on this matter:

The Curious Incident

The Private World