An inspirational talk

I have started working part time for "Reading Plus", marketing reading programs. So, today I attended a seminar for teachers of varied schools in singapore. The speaker was Dilip mukerjea. A very inspirational public speaker. He is the MD for "Braindancing International", he was talking about how to make your brain works to the maximum and without border. He said learning is for life and it will only stop when you are reduced to ashes, which i am very much agreed with. We will never stop learning if we are willing to learn. And he also mentioned that "There is no learning difficulties, only teaching difficulties". At first, I was puzzled by what he meant, but he explained again, about his experiences working with people with brain damages, He said they have brain damages, but when you are teaching them, they are very eager to learn, but they have their limit and difficulties, so what the teachers need to do is just to work within their limit and "Stimulating" their brain, so it will be better, because brain cells will die, if there is no stimulus goes to it. And the neurons will refuse to connect & create electricity.

So, I am thinking, maybe in Darren case, he will need a lot of stuffs to stimulate his brain. I started playing games with him when i reached home: imitating his actions, imitating his blabbers, even run or crawl with him on the floor, which I know Sanjay always ask me to do, he called it Floortime activities. This works out well! He was laughing happily, making eye contact, and actually came to me and ask for more plays :-), eventough no speech yet, but communication is there. We will still work on this every single day.

The new Darren

It has been a while since I last penned down my thoughts in here. Darren contracted HFMD a while ago, and he recovered within a week. We were afraid Derrick will also got it, but fortunately he was okay. Maybe his immune system is better than Darren.

The following entry might sound silly. But I believe in tarots reading, so I always ask for advice from the lady. She told me, Darren will be able to communicate verbally by end of December with "formal setting" kind of therapy where the father has to be involved, because he feels stress from the therapist, and he trusts his father more than anyone else. So, I told my hubby, we have to try this eventough this may sound silly. So, every morning, he will play with Darren before he goes off to work, talks to him, pats his back, and laughs with him. To our disbelieve, he doesn't babble in his hoarse voice like what he used to do, anymore. Now he is babbling clearly. ma ma, pa pa, la la la, and some other new babbler that we never heard before. Down inside, we hope that he will be able to communicate like any other children, so that he will be able to tell us his needs and wants, not by temper tantrum.

I have stopped the GFCF diet on him, as I feel that he is so pitiful, can't eat all the things that small kids supposed to enjoy. I want him to try all the snacks, sweets, chocolates, etc. We are giving him everything now, except not too much candies and chocolates, as we understand that even normal kids can't take too much of that, will caused hyperactivity.

He seems to be able to take it now, as I don't see any behavioral changes in him. He still sleeps at 9 PM and wakes up at 6.30 AM. He doesn't cry for no reasons also. We are happy to see this happening. At least now he can eat what other kids eat. And he puts on some more weight again. We called him "little piggy" or "Ah fat" now, hahaha.