KiasuParents - Parenting in Singapore

How about Townsville Primary (in AMK), which is just beside Pathlight School?

If you go to their website, you will see their uniqueness in cultivating emphathy for special needs kids. There are currently a number of arrangements for the children from Townsville and Pathlight to "cross-over" during recess time and other activities.

To have a better understanding it would be better to contact the school directly to see whether the level of support would be sufficient.

Hi Susan, saw your post on finding out about school with strong autism support. To be very honest with you, (i m a school teacher as well) , mainstream school has very limited resource to cope with children like ours. Every year the new P1s who comes in to school, will have about 3 -5 cases of special needs. The AEDs and the counsellor cannot attend to each of them for long hours like in pre school or EIPIC centre.
However, i still believe that with strong family support, your child will be able to cope.

Just something to share: My son was diagnosed with ASD last year. We had no prior family history(from both sides) with children or any1 with this disorder. Relatives who do not understand looked at him in a ver different way. Could not follow all the instructions in the Childcare Centre that he attend. I was really upset and did not know how to cope at time. He throw tantrums also. Doctor refer him for therapy sessions and he was eventually referred to EIPIC at THK this February. Condition did not improve drastically. Until 3 months back, my SIL's friend recommended me to try out on Essential oil, and after 3 months , we (myself, SIL, BIL, and even my mum who is taking care of him) feels that his communication skills improve a lot. He is able to sit still for a longer period of time. This makes me certain that his condition can further improve if i persist. Any1 who is interested to try, can PM me. I can get my SIL and her friend to share more as they had been using the product for a longer period of time.

Mummies, saw your posts. To be very honest with you, (i m a school teacher as well) , mainstream school has very limited resource to cope with children like ours. Every year the new P1s who comes in to school, will have about 3 -5 cases of special needs and the number is increasing by year. The AEDs and the counsellor cannot attend to each of them for long hours like in pre school or EIPIC centre.
However, i still believe that with strong family support, your child will be able to cope.
Especially that your child is a girl. According to my school counsellor, girls can recover / overcome this condition easier and faster than boys.

Just something to share: My son was diagnosed with ASD last year. We had no prior family history(from both sides) with children or any1 with this disorder. Relatives who do not understand looked at him in a ver different way. Could not follow all the instructions in the Childcare Centre that he attend. I was really upset and did not know how to cope at time. He throw tantrums also. Doctor refer him for therapy sessions and he was eventually referred to EIPIC at THK this February. Condition did not improve drastically. Until 3 months back, my SIL's friend recommended me to try out on Essential oil, and after 3 months , we (myself, SIL, BIL, and even my mum who is taking care of him) feels that his communication skills improve a lot. He is able to sit still for a longer period of time. This makes me certain that his condition can further improve if i persist. Any1 who is interested to try, can PM me. I can get my SIL to share more as she had been using the product for a longer period of time. Just to clarify, I am not earning anything. Its purely sharing. Y not give your child a chance to try. He/She may benefit.

Hi all! On the topic of good support from Allied educators, they do not stay in that particular school forever and frankly speaking, their hands are full and they cannot afford to shadow a child the whole day, maybe just 1 hour a child? The rest of the time depends on the ability of the teachers to handle them. Besides those diagnosed with special needs, they are a few NT pupils who have difficulties settling down too.

I do not think Monfort Primary School has good support for ASD, not that I have heard of.

Actually, it all depends on who the teacher is. Of course, teachers are humans too, so there will be those who are more tolerant and those who are less tolerant. To put them in mainstream, parents have to get used to stares. The whole school will know about these special children. Me, I am putting my son in mainstream P1 next year. I just have to be more thick skinned.

Hi, just to share. I have tutored some students with special needs who are in mainstream schools. Although they may have difficulties catching up with lessons, they do have good friends in school whom they can turn to for help. It's very good for them to be socialised. But I also know of those who have a hard time and are deemed as "discipline cases". It gets difficult if they are viewed as "disruptive" to lessons, and mainstream schools may not be so understanding towards this particular group of students. It's important to ensure that the kids have a calm environment at home, so that they can get used to being focused and quiet during lessons at school.

Another way is to put in Pathlight (long waiting list) and be referred to mainstream if they do well?

For parents who were thinking of declaring or not declaring child has ASD, after being through it, I would rather not to get child diagnosed. Some children may have worse behaviour in class but due to not being diagnosed, there were no actions taken (at least for what I see) on the child. When you declare, there would be more eyes observing child behaviour rather than only a pair in class, that makes things worst. Of course, if the school do not label the child then probably it is better to declare.

My child has ASD and is in mainstream school. Poor child is being labelled as disruptive and having discipline issues in school to the extend of school requesting him to go pathlight. He is "disruptive" when collaborating with others i.e. wanting to hold on to the equipment or be the first to work on it. He would stop doing when teacher reprimand him.

School try to put it across that they are supportive, however, they are not willing to practice the strategies suggested. Teachers see that child is able to control himself but forget that a child is a child and a child having ASD may have sensory issues at any point in time and failed to see it. As adult we have temper, so do the children. Just that without ASD, we can have better control, if you get to speak to the classmates, you will know that sometimes is due to teachers bad temper or due to too many disruptions in class not only by your child. For ASD who are loud and no social skills, you get to be the one out when class is out of control. It seems to me at times that it is a way to silent the rest of the class by getting my child out.

It is not that the school is not good, just may not have the resources to take care of the children. However, it always ponder me what happens to our time, there were such students but the teachers (at least for mine) work on helping them (punish then talk to them) rather than keep calling parents.

My special needs son has gone through his mainstream P1 this year. It has been an emotional upheaval though I'm happy that he passed and was promoted to P2 next year. Sharing my experience...there is no ideal mainstream schools that can cater to special needs. Yes, having a caring and understanding teacher is important as intolerant and uncompassionate teacher will give you hell each day with their haunting calls and negative feedback. My boy is fortunate to have a wonderful teacher who is there to help, not to criticise. With her around, it eases his transition to the big school a lot better and minimises on the bullying though not complete.

The bulk of the effort in pushing your child academically still boils down to parents. My son is not able to concentrate that well in class and some work are either left blank or in a mess. I need to correct and guide him through before the teacher teaches him. For all those bite size tests, I need to check with the teachers beforehand the topics to be tested so that I can prepare him ahead and that I need intense coaching. He needs a lot of repetition. Yes, admittedly, special needs mum has to be thick-skinned cos the teacher will not automatically come to you and tell you all that you need. So frequent communication and good relationship with his FT is significant.

He received a lot of stares from his friends and other parents too. What can I do...practically nothing except to tell myself to continue this journey with him. If I despise him and give him the same 'look' as others, I am not fit to be his mum. He needs tremendous encouragement and support from me to tell him that it is perfectly alright that other people are making comments on him cos they do not understand.

No one will 'take care' of your child in school.....can't really expect much from the teacher as there are still 29 other students under her care. Every request needs to seek for approval and special concessions will not be granted so easily in a bureaucratic school where a lot of red tapes set in. You can only be thankful for every little help and extra effort made by the school in making learning smoother for your child.

Ultimately, whether your child can remain in mainstream or not, still largely depends on his academic performance, where for instances of special needs child, the parents in particular mummies, play a pivotal and major role that no one can replace.

Just my sharing...

my daughter should be considered as one with special needs, since she has language impairment, poor memory and slow in learning. otherwise, her motor skills are good.
she has been identified since lower primary for allied support during curriculum hours. she also had parallel learning lessons (small group teaching) for math and science last year (p4).
children with such needs require patient and understanding teachers...but at the same time, we as parents cannot expect them to dedicate so much time when the rest of the class is also waiting.
as such, parents would need to be more hands-on to coach our kids at home...a lot of repetition, revising what has been taught and making sure they remember.

Secondary schools like CHIJ Convent school -
more & more Secondary school students have special need.

In one of the CHIJ Convent Secondary schools : one whole class of more than 30 to 40 teenagers, have special need : ranging from language impairment to short attention span, easily distracted, unable to sit still at the desk for long, unable to focus & concentrate, short retention of memory, etc.

for Science subject -
due to short re-rention of memory : may need to repeat the same Scientific concept(s) / understanding to the child, a few times repeatedly, over & over again.
This has repurcussion long term : on academic progress.

Thus, if a child in primary school face challenging issue, better to seek consultation early, before go to Secondary school.

for children (P1 to P6 / Sec 1 to Sec 4) -
can go Child Guidance clinic, at Sg Health Promotion board (HPB).
HPB is located right beside Singapore General Hospital (SGH) : at Outram Park Mrt station.

charges at HPB
if go via Polyclinic with a doctor referral letter -
- for Sg citizen : $ 38 (no medication)

- for PR : $ 57

But, if walk in directly (without going through Polyclinic) -
whether Sg citizen or PR : $ 90 to $ 130, per visit.


can call Tel 6389-2200, to book appointment first.

But, for pre-schooler (kindergarten) : go to KK Hospital.
However, once child reach Primary 1 (P1) or higher -
cannot go KK hospital anymore, unless the child's case was opened during pre-school days, before.
But not for a fresh, new case opened (those P1 to P6)