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‘We couldn’t wait for help’: Parents who created jobs for their special needs children SINGAPORE - When Mr Henry Teong set up 168 Neopolitan Style Pizza at Taman Jurong Food Centre with his wife Mylene in February, their goal was not to rake in huge profits. Instead, they wanted to create a future job for their 16-year-old son Jonas, who has autism. Today, Jonas helps out with food tasting at the stall. Mr Teong, 55, holds a day job selling chemical raw materials under his own firm. He told The Straits Times: “This stall was opened in the hope that we lead by example to help children with special needs. We hope that Jonas will have a future as he grows up and becomes more capable.” Over the years, a number of parents have set up businesses for their special needs children, even though they have no prior experience in the chosen sector. At the same time, they hope to extend employment opportunities to others in the special needs community. This is because people with disabilities (PWDs), who leave the safe confines of special education schools when they turn 18, have limited options such as sheltered workshops and day activity centres, or are even kept at home. This situation – which can be isolating for them and their caregivers – is described as the “post-18 cliff”. One such caregiver is Madam Faraliza Zainal, who operated a class for special needs students out of a small storeroom in Sultan Mosque in 2011. Never in her wildest dreams did she imagine it would become an education hub with more than 360 students today. The former regional training manager had only wanted to let her son Mohd Ashraf Mohd Ali have an easier time accessing religious lessons, after he was labelled “gila” (“crazy” in Malay) by some of his madrasah, or religious school, classmates. Now 23, he has autism and tuberous sclerosis, which triggers epilepsy attacks. My Inspiring Journey Hub, or “MIJ Hub”, offers an academic curriculum, and vocational and daily living skills training for students with learning differences who are aged two to 30 years. It has three outlets in Singapore, and a new one in Kuala Lumpur. It even branched out into the food and beverage and retail sectors through Ashraf’s Cafe and INSPO – platforms that were created as a training ground for its graduates to enhance their vocational skills through paid employment. It also runs a food stall at Methodist Girls’ School. Madam Faraliza, 52, said: ”My students have moderate-to-high special needs and cannot get any job from open employment after they leave their special education school. Rather than wait for someone to knock on our door, we have to keep coming up with projects and opportunities to engage them.” One project is The Takeout Campaign, where Ashraf, his peers and a team of volunteers prepare and deliver meals every weekend to 36 low-income families with special needs children during Ramadan. As for Mr Khong Yoon Kay and Mrs Jeanne Seah-Khong, both 67, they set up Joan Bowen Cafe more than a decade ago so that their daughter Joan, now 33, could be socially engaged. They do not think that Joan, who has intellectual disabilities, can eventually take over the business. Said Mr Khong: “Food and beverage (F&B) trends and customers’ preferences keep evolving. A special needs person won’t be able to follow and adapt to the changes quickly.” It can also be hard to sustain the business or recruit more PWDs, as they need more supervision, he added. “There is already a shortage of manpower in the F&B sector, not to mention those who would have the heart to guide them.” The cafe is now staffed by the couple, Joan, and a special needs chef. In the early years, they hired more than 20 staff with special needs. Mrs Seah-Khong said: ”The challenge also comes from some parents who dictate what they want their special needs children to do when they work with us, or how much they should earn.” Statistics show that among residents with disabilities aged between 15 and 64, an average of 31.4 per cent were employed in 2021 and 2022. Singapore aims to have 40 per cent of working-age PWDs employed by 2030. Under the Enabling Masterplan 2030, there will be more community support services, as well as training and employment opportunities nearer to where PWDs live. The Enabling Services Hub will be launched in Tampines West Community Club by mid-2023, offering social inclusion activities and continual education for PWDs, as well as drop-in respite care to support caregivers. The first Enabling Business Hub will also be launched in Jurong West later in 2023 to provide job support for PWDs. The Enabling Academy by SG Enable is developing the Enabling Skills Framework to help PWDs chart their lifelong learning journey, and will recommend skills and courses to enhance their opportunities for participation in social and community life, as well as in employment. It will also ensure more accessible training programmes to upskill PWDs. The academy offers the Temasek Trust-CDC Lifelong Learning Enabling Fund, and administers scholarships by Google, Meta and VMware. It also seeks to broaden partnerships with continuing education and training centres and institutes of higher learning, among others. Crunchy Teeth, a bakery founded in 2019 by four mothers of children with autism, also hopes to collaborate with tertiary education institutions to explore methods such as virtual reality solutions to ease autistic individuals into the real working environment. Besides F&B, it hopes to train its interns, who are autistic adults aged 18 years and above, in areas such as horticulture and packing. Co-founder Tan Yen Peng, 46, said: “With extra patience and proper coaching, our autistic community does have the ability to fulfil its job responsibilities and produce quality work. “By having more open channels to speak up for our silent autistic community, we can open up the minds of potential employers, and, in turn, increase the chances of gaining employment opportunities for our autistic workforce.” https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/we-couldn-t-wait-for-help-parents-who-created-jobs-for-their-special-needs-children heartwarming. support

During her internship as an Educational Therapist, my daughter works with and supports ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder) personnel through their education (her client ranged from 4 to 21 years old), and hearing her daily encounters, I personally find heightening of awareness towards autism is very much needed in Singapore. World Autism Awareness Day is an internationally recognized day on April 2 every year, encouraging Member States of the United Nations to take measures to raise awareness about people with Autism Spectrum Disorder throughout the world. It was designated by the United Nations General Assembly resolution (A/RES/62/139), passed in council on 1 November 2007, and adopted on 18 December 2007. It was proposed by Mozah Bint Nasser Al-Missned, the United Nations Representative from Qatar and consort to Emir Hamad Bin Khalifa Al-Thani, and supported by all member states. World Autism Day is one of the seven official health-specific UN Days. The day itself brings individual autism organizations together all around the world to aid in things like research, diagnoses, treatment, and acceptance for those with a developmental path affected by autism. The original resolution had four main components: the establishment of the second day of April as World Autism Awareness Day, beginning in 2008 invitation to Member States and other relevant organizations to the UN or the international societal system, including non-governmental organizations and the private sector, to create initiatives to raise public awareness of autism encourages Member States to raise awareness of autism on all levels in society asks the UN Secretary-General to deliver this message to member states and all other UN organizations The theme for 2022, determined by UN is "Inclusive Quality Education for All" An observance event will be held virtually on 8 April 2022, 10:00 - 11:15 a.m. EST (10:00 - 11:15 p.m. Singapore time), for participating members to share on Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG 4) – Quality Education. SDG 4 focuses on ensuring inclusive and equitable quality education and promoting lifelong learning opportunities for all, as the foundation for improving people’s lives and reducing inequalities. The specific targets for SDG 4 refer to the need to ensure “equal access to all levels of education and vocational training” for persons with disabilities and building and upgrading education facilities that are disability sensitive and that provide “inclusive and effective learning environments for all.” In this respect, the SDGs echo the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Article 24 of the Convention recognizes that persons with disabilities have the right to inclusive, quality education on an equal basis with others and that reasonable accommodation of the individual’s requirements should be provided. Inclusive education is the key to the transformative promise of the Sustainable Development Goals, to LEAVE NO ONE BEHIND.

I suspect I may have a mild form of this, but 50+ liao, just leave it be. https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/cnainsider/she-married-man-autism-spectrum-disorder-asd-asperger-syndrome-14957564 She didn’t know she’d married a man on the autism spectrum. Neither did her hubby What happens when your soulmate does not communicate his feelings, understand social cues or play up the romance — because he has a disability? Finding out about Asperger’s syndrome was the first step in saving this couple’s marriage. SINGAPORE: Ten years into her marriage, Amy* began to wonder: “Did I sign up for the wrong thing?” Jake* (not their real names) was not putting effort into the relationship. He still refused to call her parents “mum” and “dad” (a Chinese tradition) or speak more than two sentences to them. He was adamant about staying out of her social gatherings too. It was as if he did not want to be a part of her life. There was this nagging feeling that Jake was indifferent, even rude. “I just couldn’t put my finger on it,” says Amy. “I felt he was just being so difficult … I felt very lonely.” Jake, however, felt he was anything but indifferent. He was logical. But there never seemed a right explanation for why he was more comfortable waiting in the car than joining Amy with her friends; why it was nonsense to call someone who was not related by blood “mum” or “dad”; why his loyalty to her was enough for the relationship. The couple were heading for divorce. Then Jake read the book, Look Me In The Eye: My Life With Asperger’s. He cried alone in the car while he was at it. At 37 years old, his life finally made sense. But this was difficult to accept when approaching middle age. “I started blaming myself because of my condition. It'd caused a misunderstanding; it'd affected our relationship,” he says. Two years later, he still cries when talking about it. “I realised I’ve struggled so much with my life because of this.” In layman’s terms, Asperger’s syndrome is a milder and less disabling form of autism, characterised by social awkwardness, a poor understanding of social cues and displaying few emotions. People with Asperger’s may have high intelligence and above average verbal skills. Since 2013, it is no longer classified as a diagnosis of its own but a part of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). For Amy, she could look back on her relationship and realise how Asperger’s explained many things, even the little things. She could finally know, and accept, her husband for who he truly was. THE FIRST DATE, AND MIXED SIGNALS Jake was the kind of guy you would have noticed from across the room. Not because he was exceptionally good-looking or charming, but because he always had his head down. “I found this guy very strange, very shy,” recalls Amy, who worked in the same company, but different department, as him. They often crossed paths, but he always averted his gaze, so she seldom thought about him — until a mutual friend set them up. “My colleague got me to approach her,” says Jake, who was not actually shy. On their first date, they bonded over their love of food, travelling and films, and she had a good feeling. But after that date, it was as if he “didn’t know how to carry on to the next one”. They chatted through texts, but nothing seemed to be moving forward. “I thought if he were interested in me, he’d show more interest. He was giving mixed signals. He was keeping a distance,” says Amy. “But I was hooked already.” Unable to “tahan” (bear it) any more, she decided not to wait for him to make up his mind. She showed up at his place, heart in hand. “He was so happy,” she says. I just became the proactive one, like I was the man, and he was the woman. He was the only guy who could make me do this. But the rest was not yet history. One incident has puzzled them until today. As a sweet gesture, Amy bought Jake breakfast, driving at least 20 minutes from her home in the west to him in the east. She bought two sets just in case, since she still had not figured out what he liked to eat. “I threw the breakfast in the dustbin,” he says. He had misunderstood her intentions and thought she was giving him breakfast because she had an extra set, as if he was an afterthought. “I didn’t want to accept this kind of thing,” he says. But because she was less sensitive than him, she says, it turned out fine. “I rarely get angry. I’m a very non-judgemental person,” she adds. “If you don’t want it, it’s okay. You throw lah … What can I do, right? “I found it peculiar. But I saw that he was very upset, so I probed and found out that I have to be very careful and communicate a lot with him to make sure that he knows what I’m trying to convey.” Jake was also a little awkward and kind of random. “There was once we were on the train, on the way to a good meal. Then suddenly, with no small talk at all, he blurted out: ‘I earn less than you,’” Amy recalls. “I looked at him and wondered, ‘Er, why are you telling me this?’” When they were around friends, he took a long time to warm up. Even when he did, “sometimes the conversation would’ve ended already, but suddenly, he’d add something, and nobody would laugh or respond”. But she never wondered if there was anything wrong with him. “Maybe I’m also wired differently,” she quips. After eight months of dating, Jake felt ready and “put on all (his) courage”. One evening when Amy was at a restaurant with friends, a rabbit mascot turned up at the window, ring in hand. “I just thought this was the thing I needed to do … to get her to marry me,” he says. It was completely out of character for him given his social anxiety, she acknowledges. “I think he nearly wanted to faint already. Everybody was looking at him!” But what made him sure she was the one when it had been less than a year? “I did all my evaluation already,” he replies. “Everything about her was just right to be my wife, my partner. “I don’t have to struggle to find something to talk to her about. She’s very interesting, she brightened up my life. “I’m a very boring person, but she’s like sunshine.” Of course, she said yes. LIFE AFTER MARRIAGE One of the telltale signs that one’s relationship difficulties might be due to Asperger’s syndrome, reads an article by Australia-based therapy provider The Hart Centre, is if the “relationship had a passionate start, but the passion dwindled quite quickly when you started to live together”. (It listed 55 signs.) It was so for Amy and Jake, and it began with the little things. Every Chinese New Year was a nightmare for the couple, and not just because they had to fend off nosy relatives. Jake refused to see his in-laws as anything more than an “auntie” and “uncle”, which made the custom of “bai nian”, or exchanging festive greetings, awkward. “It’s just calling them (mum and dad). You won’t die, right?” Amy says. “But he just couldn’t do it. We’d quarrel over it and arrive at my parents’ place in a very bad mood. “I just felt he was so rude.” To this day, he stands by “auntie” and “uncle”. When he goes to their place, he “(sits) there on the sofa quietly and does (his) own thing”. When it came to her friends, she had hoped he would be more involved in things like attending a baby shower or a birthday party where she wanted a supportive plus one. But he would drive her there, “park the car at the car park and refuse to come out”. “He’d say, ‘I’ll wait for you in the car. Can you not force me to go?’” she recalls. “I mean, it was just fun, nothing so serious … Why did he make a mountain out of a molehill?” He had “zero friends”, she adds, which was shocking news when they first started dating. “It’s not that I don’t need friends. I only need one friend,” he says. “My mother was my best friend. But after my parents divorced, I needed a new best friend.” Her role was replaced by one pupil in primary school and then another in secondary school. “After secondary school, all I needed was a girlfriend,” says Jake. After I met Amy, she became my wife, my best friend, my companion, my everything. Romantic as that may sound, she wanted him “to be involved” in her life. “I have friends, I have family. This is part of our lives,” she says. “I felt very sad. Why was I doing all these things alone, yet he was just happy where he was?” Resentment accumulated, the emotional distance between the couple widened, and around the turn of the decade, divorce was on the table. “That was when we started to look into ourselves and realised the root of the issue,” Amy says. They discovered Asperger’s syndrome and felt that it was “almost 100 per cent identical” to what they were facing. She felt ignored, and Jake was unable to perceive her feelings all along. Had he known what she wanted, he would have done “everything” he could, he says. “I’ll do 120 per cent to make her happy.” Since then, he has been practising demonstrating his feelings, with her help. “We take the guesswork out of the relationship,” she says. “He’d also explicitly tell me the things he doesn’t like.” She has realised his world is siloed. For lack of a better comparison, he is “like a dog”, she says. “He’s very loyal, and his world is all about me, whereas as a neurotypical person, my world is a lot more.” She can now shake off the feeling that she must answer to her parents or friends for her husband’s quirks. “I don’t have an explanation for it, right? He thinks if they’re not his parents, there’s no reason to call them that,” she says. “At the end of the day, parents just want to see their daughter or son, not so much their son- or daughter-in-law.” And her parents, after 10 years, “know he’s weird lah”. She adds: “I married him not because of my parents (but) because I like him. I enjoy spending time with him, so I don’t really care what my parents think.” The same applies to her friends. “With or without him, we still can enjoy ourselves,” she says. “I actually don’t need him there, (otherwise) I may be happy, but he’d be struggling on the inside. I’d be making him suffer.” In this vein, she says that “more than support, (people like Jake) need understanding”. WHAT TO DO IF YOUR PARTNER IS ON THE SPECTRUM Psychologist Jocelyn Chua, who helps autistic individuals with mental health issues like depression and anxiety, says individuals with lower support needs — who belong to the higher-functioning end of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) — often find themselves misunderstood. “One of the key deficits they have is social communication. So when you aren’t able to intuitively understand how to relate to others, when everything requires rehearsal and planning, it’s very effortful for you to be in the company of people,” she says. “Because their appearance is like (that of) a neurotypical person, you can’t tell they have such difficulties. So a lot of times we might jump to the conclusion that this person was being rude. “And because of that, it’d lead to misunderstandings and then … fractures in relationships, which eventually would lead to a sense of loneliness.” She also cautions against assuming anyone who appears to be “quirky” or “weird” is autistic. “I refrain, as far as possible, from using these terms,” she says. “My angle is really about understanding what your strengths are. What are the difficulties you’re currently faced with? What are some skills that you lack and perhaps need to develop? Or is it about a perspective that may not be balanced, that’s contributing to certain struggles?” Symptoms of ASD typically appear from childhood, but they could also be related to social anxiety rather than ASD. “So it’s not just one episode. It’s a continuation throughout your life. Some might also have active functioning difficulties, meaning they have difficulties in organising,” she adds. “When we use a label, chances are we have a certain stereotype in mind. We might forget that the individual is first a unique person, and the diagnosis is just something in addition to the person.” For her part, Amy discovered that her husband’s disability did not change the fact that they loved each other. “All this miscommunication wasn’t because he didn’t love me,” she says. “We felt there was still love. We still wanted to work on the relationship.” His brutal honesty makes her feel that she can be a better person. “It’s not very nice to listen to, but that’s how it is. At the least, when you hear the truth it helps to take you on a path of improvement,” she says. And being his whole world need not be a bad thing as she sees it. “He’s very loyal to people he puts his trust in — I think that’s a very, very, very rare thing in the world.” What they enjoy most of all is each other’s company. “We have a lot of deep conversations about movies,” cites Amy. “We cook together, we spend time together.” Jake can be affectionate, too, if she reminds him. In the past, she would get angry and hurt as he did not use to like being touched, especially when he was doing things. “But I get it now — it’s just a pet peeve,” she says. "We know our threshold now, and when we notice we’re hitting it, we won’t go further.” What about physical intimacy, like sex, which hinges on subtle cues for some? “Just last night,” Jake says, apparently unperturbed, to which Amy responds: “Don’t need to be so specific! That’s Asperger’s syndrome, yah? He can never lie.” She adds: “I believe physical intimacy is still very important in a relationship … Sometimes you don’t even need language. (Touch) gives assurance to each other.” EMBRACING ASPERGER’S Learning about Asperger’s syndrome was one thing; accepting it was another, including on Jake’s part. But when he did, it helped him to “face the world” knowing what he can and cannot do. He has become “a much happier person” since then. “You’d know that you’re not doing things because you’re a bad person,” he says. Sensitive to sound, wind and lights, he also used to be affected by the names he had been called: Loner. Weirdo. Alien. But that part “doesn’t matter” to him any more. To other people dealing with relationship difficulties due to Asperger’s syndrome (suspected or confirmed), he says: “You first have to understand yourself, your shortcomings and your own challenges, and then understand your behaviour. “Then start making changes to adapt to this world, especially to your partner or your potential partner. You have to understand your partner’s needs, and then make sure to communicate very well that you have Asperger’s syndrome. “This is a world of neurotypical people, so they don’t have to do anything. The person with Asperger’s syndrome would need to do more because this isn’t a world for them.” Amy feels that neurotypical people, however, can and should step up — and that disability is not the determining factor in a relationship. “There must be love. If there’s no love, everything can fall (apart) for a reason,” she says. “I put myself in his shoes and realised nobody wants to be the odd one out. “After knowing he has this condition, I know he’s not doing things on purpose. I can live with it.” To others like her, she says: “Don’t close up just because somebody is different. “Look at what the person has rather than what he doesn’t have. If that’s something you value, then you can work on this relationship. “(People on the spectrum) might look boring on the surface, but their world is so rich … Don’t (sell) yourself short. Have an open heart. “The rest is just noise.” This is part of a series on adults with autism navigating the neurotypical world of work, marriage and identity. Source: CNA/dp

AutismSTEP says therapist who manhandled boy with special needs in viral video has been sacked source: https://stomp.straitstimes.com/singapore-seen/autismstep-says-therapist-who-manhandled-boy-with-special-needs-in-viral-video-has A video of a boy with autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) being manhandled by his therapist in a home therapy session has caused an uproar among netizens demanding justice for the child. Facebook user Safirah Oshin posted videos of her son, Ali, being manhandled by his home applied behaviour analysis (ABA) therapist in an incident that happened in March, 2019. She said the therapist was given a "verbal warning with no further action" and that the case was reopened in January this year. She appealed for netizens to be her son's voice and to help '"fight for his rights". In the clips taken from a 40-minute-long video, the therapist is seen handling Ali roughly as the boy screams and cries. Clips from Safirah's post have been circulating on Instagram, with one post garnering over 10,000 views. Stomp understands the therapist was employed by special education school AutismSTEP at the time of the incident. In a statement issued on July 1 at 12.03pm, a spokesman from AutismSTEP told Stomp the therapist was suspended immediately after they were alerted to the incident before being dismissed. The company added it has since apologised to the family and given monetary compensation prior to the videos being posted online. However, Ali's family informed Stomp they have yet to receive any monetary compensation from AutismSTEP and that they simply asked for a refund of the course fee from the school. The family said the course fee was about $3,000 for the duration of the course that ran from December 2018 to March 2019. At 7pm, AutismSTEP issued an updated official statement on the matter. The school's clinical director Zhang Liyuan said: "Videos of an Applied Behavioural Analysis (ABA) therapy session in March 2019 have been circulating online. "We are sorry for what has happened to the child and understand the pain his family feels. "The therapist involved has since been dismissed and is no longer employed by AutismSTEP. "On the night of the incident in March 2019, our Clinical Director and the therapist involved visited the family of the child to express our deepest apologies and offer our immediate support. "The therapist involved was immediately suspended. "We commenced an internal investigation the next day and following the findings, we dismissed the therapist a day later. "We understand the family’s desire to seek justice in this incident and have cooperated fully with police investigations. "We are also ready to cooperate with other relevant bodies for further investigations and believe that the authorities will deal with the matter appropriately. "No child and their family should suffer from such distress. "Since the incident in March 2019, we have been in contact with the lawyer representing the family and have been open to discuss claims or recompense matters. "We remain committed towards a mutually agreed resolution. "Most of the therapists at AutismSTEP have a degree in psychology while the rest have relevant certifications such as degree in early childhood and diploma in psychology. "All new therapists at AutismSTEP must undergo a registered behavioural technician course to ensure they meet the expectations of parents and continue to improve their skills. "Following the incident, we have proactively enhanced our therapist training programme and conducted face-to-face parent feedback sessions more frequently to ensure their children are receiving the right support. "We have also started organising parents training course to equip them with some skills to help their children and to understand what they can expect out of the therapy sessions, and to seek regular feedback from parents on our therapy sessions. "We have also reviewed the contracts with our therapists to emphasise the seriousness of using physical restraint. "Any form of physical contact by our therapists on their clients for behavioural management now requires the approval of the company. "AutismSTEP expects that all our staff to conduct themselves in a professional manner when interacting with clients, particularly children, and we will not tolerate any misconduct. "We believe almost all our therapists, or indeed almost all behavioural therapists, are professional, sincere and patient in their conduct towards their clients. It would be unfair to avenge anger to all good therapists due to the misdeed of one "We remain committed to supporting children with autism and will continue to improve our services." Minister for Social and Family Development Desmond Lee addressed the incident in a Facebook post, saying he has asked that this matter be looked into thoroughly.

anybody got kids with autism is there any cure is there any good kid doctor to recommend

Being exposed to high levels of air pollution from traffic may raise the risk of autism, according to a study done by Heather E. Volk, assistant professor of research at the University of Southern California. Autism is a diverse disorder marked by problems in communicating and interacting socially. The study analyzed data from 279 children with autism 245 children without the disease. It also made use of information from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and did traffic modelling to find out the amount of traffic-related air pollution at each location where the children lived. Exposure to particulate matter and nitrogen dioxide was taken into consideration as well. According to Volk, children exposed to higher levels of traffic-related pollutants during pregnancy or during the first year of life were at increased risk of autism compared to children exposed to the lowest level. The link between pollution and autism is not certain. However, some pollutants have been shown to inhibit the activity of an important gene in early brain development. Expression of this gene has been found to be reduced in autistic brains. Air pollution can also cause inflammation, and that may play a role, Volk commented. Some families prefer to stay near the town center where bus terminal is located and car traffic is heavier for convenience sake. Perhaps it may not be such a good choice after all.